Photographs are powerful!

Photography was one of the earliest forms of visual culture to exist in our society. It has allowed us to have our best memories and moments to be captured and kept them with us forever.

In a radio program, Goddard suggested on how photography has the ability to influence people's emotion and opinion, especially war photography. He said that war photography is able to generate more global perspective of the real event that is going on during the war (Funnell 2007). This is because all the photos are captured by those photographers who have the courage to be on the frontline, risking their own lives to capture the real scenes that happened during the war. 

A wounded Government soldier lies on top of his dead companion

moments after an explosion, photographed by Jason P. howe.

(Source: War Photo Limited, 2010)

War photography has the power to capture and reveal the actual situation of what the citizens in those war countries are going through. All these photos never fail to capture our hearts. We are always being touched and moved by them. Through those images, we see fear in the children, pain in the women, and suffer in the elderly. It is so heart wrenching to see and knows what they have been through.  

Photography has its impact in photojournalism too. Even de Certeau also suggested that photojournalism has a unique power of transforming seeing into believing, and releasing those believing into realities (Banks 1994, p. 120). Readers are more engaged to the whole story if there is a picture to act as an aid to the article. Photos are captivating and reader would be able to felt through the pictures. Most importantly, Barthes stated that image and text work hand in hand to deliver message successfully (Kress & Van Leeuwen 2006).

Photojournalism is emerging. So what are its effects on the society?

Addie Card, a 12-year-old girl child labor working in the

North Pownal Cotton Mill, Vermont, photographed by Lewis W. Hine.

(Source: Mornings On Maple Street)

In my opinion, photojournalism serves as an instrument for democracy and justice. For instance, the photo shown above is one of the many photos that convinced America that Cngress should pass child labor laws (The History Place, 2010). Although child labor does not present in America today, we have to be aware that child labor is very common in developing countries. Through reports by photojournalist, child labor has caught general public's attention. They are constantly fighting for child's right and trying to combat this issue.

More examples that shows the power of photographs in photojournalsim:

A Sudanese child trying to crawl to a UN camp over a kilometer away.

A vulture waits for ehr to die so it can eat  , photographed by Kevin Carter.

(Source: Socialist Party.net, 2007)

The above shows a Pulitzer Prize winning photo in 1994. It shocked the whole world. The photo informs the audience of how severe the condition is in Sudan. People there have suffered much during the famine.

A boy who was severely injured.

(Source: National Press Photographers Association, 2005)

The photo above shows a 9-year-old Iraqi boy who was critically wounded by an explosion in Baghdad (NPPA 2005). It is sorrowful to look at the photo and stories were told through the photo. This photo won the Pulitzer Priza in year 2005.

Photojournalism has also brought advantages to the advertising and promotion sector. Take a look at the image below:

An attention-grabbing advertisement of the Lancome product.

(Source: Lancome, 2010)

Were you being attracted by this advertisement at the first glance? If yes, the advertisement has successfully achieved its goal of promoting their newly released product. This is because once audience look at the picture, they will automatically notice the image of mascara applicator situated at the left corner of the advertisement. The photographer managed to take such a great shot of the model, focusing on her attractive eyes, with long and thick curvy eyelashes. Some audience may believe what they see in the advertisement, which is achieving the same result as the model after applying the Lancome mascara. Furthermore, the text found in the advertisement aids in conveying a clearer message. It is said that the combination of text and image, in addition to careful and creative word choice, can draw the audiences' attention to the photograph (InfoRefuge 1997). Eventually, they will understand what is the advertisement is trying to sell and they will buy the product.

This can also be applied to the tourism sector where tourism agencies and government use photography to promote places and attract tourists. Astonishing photos comprise an awe factor that grabs people's attention and stirs their excitement to visit the place.

A breathtaking view of the tiny village of Manarola on the
Cinque Terre coast of Italy,

 photographed by Paul Hogie. It attracts tourists to visit the place.

 (Source: National Geographic, 2010)

Overall, photographs are indeed powerful and influential. Do no underestimate them.

Reference

Banks, A 1994, 'Images Trapped in Two Discourses: Photojournalism Codes and the International News Flow', Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 118-134.

Funnell, A 2007, 'The power of the photograph', The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 10 June 2010,
< http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm >.

InfoRefuge 1997, The Emergence of Photojournalism and Its Effect on Society, viewed 16 June 2010,
< http://www.inforefuge.com/emergence-of-photojournalism >.

Kress, GR & Van Leeuwen 2006, Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2 edn, Routledge, New York.

National Press Photographers Association 2005, 'Deanne Fitzmaurice, Associated Press Photographers, Win 2005 Pulitzer Prizes for News & Feature Photography', viewed 16 June 2010,
< http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/04/pulitzer.html >.

The History Place 2010, Child Labor in America1908-1912, viewed 16 June 2010,
< htttp://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/about.htm >.