Nick Napalm Girl: The Social Effects Of Photojournalism

Photography, meaning “drawing with lights” in Greek, is an art as well as a science of capturing light and storing it on a medium with unprecedented accuracy. Yet, up until the late 18th century, history was mainly recorded through the techniques of painting and the press. These mediums unarguably contained a certain degree of a truth, though, it was not uncommon for events, such as war to be composed with glorified details, or an unfavorable bias from the artist at hand. Beginning in the 1830’s, cameras provided a revolutionary solution by combining the advancements in optics and chemistry. Consequently, the new medium of photography was established and forever changed how history would be visually captured. Unlike other methods, photography

Photographs have been circling the world for years now . There are many different types of cameras, but only some have changed and revolutionized the world. The history behind them and the history it has captured throughout the years has impacted the world in numerous ways. It is very important to know how certain things like lighting and angle affect the outcome of photographs. To be able to capture a perfect photograph one will have to understand how lighting , angle , third rule affect a photograph. Not only are there different types of ways to take photographs but different types of photography.

Another significant reason that has played a vital role in photojournalism of recent times is the emergence of imaging technologies. Imaging technologies has undoubtedly played a major part in the works of a photojournalist today. Based on earlier accounts on how photography itself is an inherent manipulation, the question is no longer directed on ‘how has imaging technologies manipulate photojournalism' but ‘how much more has imaging

In Nick Ut’s photograph from 1973 ‘The Napalm Girl of Trangbang’ which is about the Vietnam war and these

Question: In what ways did Mathew Brady change people’s perception of the Civil War? This investigation evaluates the ways in which photographer Mathew Brady changed the American perception of the Civil War. The focus of the investigation is on the growth of photography during the Civil War, a small bit of background on Mathew Brady, and his involvement on the battlefield as a “battlefield photographer”. The technological advancements in photography during the Civil War are noted in this investigation. Also, connections between the advancements in early photography and how Mathew Brady used these advancements to change the public perception of the War are explored. Different

While Postman points out the literal meaning of photography is “writing with light”; the two are from completely different universes when it comes to public discourse (p. 71). Unlike typography, photography cannot offer assertions, make propositions and offers no commentary. As long as it is not an altered photograph, it has no choice but to be true (p. 73). Thus, the photograph is only able to capture a moment in time and does not have the ability to comment on that moment. Our author contends, where language presents the world as an idea, the photographs only option is to show the world as an object (p. 72). Whereas in language, the correct context requires consideration of what is said before and after, in photography there is no before and after, only the snapshot of time. Therefore, by its very nature photography is context-free (p. 73). As photography immersed itself in the American culture author, Daniel Boorstin called this “the graphic revolution.” Postman is unequivocal on the point that the traditional forms of information, news, and even reality itself received an impairment by this new focus on images. For examples, he cites billboards, posters and advertisements. He points to magazines Life, Look and several newspapers. The picture was the focal point, and the writing was forced to take a less dominate roll and sometimes done away with altogether (p.

On the 8th of June 1972, photographer ‘Nick Ut’ took an iconic photo of a group of young kids running away helplessly as soldiers escorted them out of the danger zone, (the danger zone was an explosion of napalm that burnt and basically disintegrates everything). Early that day Nick heard that there was fighting happening in North Vietnam near the occupied village of Trang Bang. He stopped on the nearby bridge with other soldiers and journalists. It was around 1pm when a south Vietnamese plane dipped down aligned with the highway and dropped the napalm bomb on the village, which turned out to be an accident. As thick black smoke filled the air, emerging from it was multiple civilians crying and screaming as burnt flesh fell off their fragile

Sense the invention of the camera in 1826 photography has been used to document everything from family portraits, social injustice, sporting events, world news, expressions of joy and sorrow, and hundreds of monumental moments. The camera has given man the power to reveal the truth visually. Throughout history photographs have made enormous impacts on social consciousness and ultimately shaped public opinion on many pressing issues in society. Although photography is often considered a casual pastime, the invention of the camera has contributed to many aspects of history, science, and other important pieces of todays world.

No matter it’s effect, photography was and is very pivotal throughout society. Photography can be a beautiful but yet haunting form of art. It displays an image which is characterizing

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

Many pictures that refer back to the time of the Civil Rights Movement are unpleasant and offensive to people today. There is a photo that shows black men walking while at gunpoint holding signs that say, “I AM a man”. The photo is disheartening because there is no reason for them to be aimed at for saying that they are simply men. No man should feel that they are not worthy of being called a man. Also, the photo looks as though the black men weren’t allowed to look at the white men in the eyes. How could anyone feel satisfied knowing that it was standard for African Americans to be treated this way.

Photojournalist James Karales captured a historical movement in the United States with his piece Selma-To- Montgomery March for Voting Rights in 1965. This image reflects the four day march from Selma to Montgomery of protestors march for seeking their basic rights as United States citizens. What So Proudly We Hail states, Karales was sent to illustrate an article covering the March for a biweekly magazine Look. Karlaes Photo did not receive much exposure or recognition at first and has now become an icon of the civil rights movement and has appeared in the 1987 documentary Eyes on The Prize.

I chose this article for the sole reason that I am a photographer so when I read that we could choose the topic of our paper I wanted to find out how photography and sociology can relate more to each other and what types of articles there are on the library website that I can read to get more of and understanding for how sociology and photography go hand in hand with each other. Therefore, obviously, the main topic is Sociology in Photography and how to build solidarity with subjects and the audience. I also found this to be an interesting topic because just last night I went to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History where I got to hear 6 of 11 women photographers from National Geographic speak about their work and they talked a lot about like understanding their subjects and how to build solidarity with their subjects before they photographed them and how to find a way to show the subject to the audience. It was a really wonderful experience to not only look at their works but to also hear them speak and I think that this journal I choose really relates to that which is another good reason I choose it. The research questions being answered within this article are ‘how to build solidarity with your subject’, ‘how to build solidarity with your audience’, ‘how to connect local and global issues with audience’ and ‘how to build an audience network.’

Before the hand-size cameras people carry around to visually document the interesting events, persons, and objects they approach, photography was not an easy feat. Despite the size and tedious process to capture photos, Mathew Brady, a documentalist from New York, employed a team of photographers to venture into the American Civil War and document its time (Megs and Purvis, 2012). Due to the overwhelming public response after this experiment, photography has proven itself to be a great documentary and communication tool upon the time of the American Civil War.

Nick Ut’s photograph of the Children fleeing Napalm was taken during the Vietnam War on the 8th June 1972 where it appears he captured children fleeing the cloud of smoke that is behind them in photograph creating a more dark and dangerous feeling to the photograph that these children had to experience. All children within the photograph look extremely worried, shown as two are clearly screaming, one of whom is a young girl (Kim Phuc) who is naked. Kim Phuc, centre, is a 9-year-old girl fleeing her Vietnamese village with her clothes torn off due to the fire that had danced upon her body, which led to her being hospitalised for a year due to severe burns. There was a brief editorial debate whether this photograph should be published due to