Journalistic Photos

When Dorothea Lange photographed Florence Owens Thompson during The Great Depression in the 1930s, the work Migrant Mother (1936) became one of the most poignant images of the era. In fact several of Lange's works did, as the photojournalist brought the plight of the poor and forgotten to  public attention. She later said of the moment that the mother asked her no questions but seemed to know that the pictures might help her, so she helped Lange. Such journalistic photos or “photojournalism" is the use of the medium of photography to tell a story, capturing a visual representation of what a journalist would otherwise convey through their writings. Through the work of photojournalists like Lange, the world is educated on social injustices, political and historical events and sports celebrations. But what of its role in art? Journalistic photography then takes that element of storytelling and creates art from it. Whether widely reproduced or not, the legacy of the works lies in the chosen moment of capture and allows the viewer to see from the artist's eye. In Artsper's own selection of works, Eric Bouvet and Dominique Leroy do just that, with Leroy capturing icons and events over 40 decades. In a world fuelled by visual culture, journalistic photos are very much here to stay…