Photojournalism is a term that we use loosely today to describe photographs of events. Here on DeviantART it describes a huge gallery of photographic works ranging from captures of protests to journalistic type shots taken at Weddings. It includes natural events, human interest stories, disasters both man-made and not so man-made and much more. Photo-journalism is the practise of communicating news via photographs most commonly printed in newspapers and magazines. But where did it all begin?

The 1920s

Photo-journalism was born in the 1920s at which point printing technology had just about got to a stage where it could support mass production of images in reading materials. This was made even more possible by the development of camera technology the entrance of Leica into the market which changed the ways in which photographers viewed their work. Leica had capabilities which allowed Magnum to soar into the photographic market.
 

The 1930s

Pictures in magazines were thriving by the 1930s. Germany had taken over the printed materials market with more illustrated publications than any other country in the world. Things like the Berlin Illustrated Newspaper were popular - would we even need to put the word 'illustrated' or 'image' into a newspaper or publication title today? Of course not. It's a given! By the late 1930s though, magazines such as this were the most important persuasive visual medium before television hit the screens. Just like today, the papers were very firmly able to mould public opinion.

Magnum

It's debatable but few will choose to do so - Magnum is known as one of the most famous photographic agencies in the world. It was founded in 1947 by Bresson, Seymour and Capa. The agency capitalised on the 35mm Leica camera producing images that largely succeeded on the capabilities of the model. Even today Magnum is a club of much to be envied photographers and only has a membership for thirty six people.

The 1950s

By the 1950s however, the boom was starting to decilne. Photo-journalism had flourished with picture magazines but slowly started to close down. Popular publications like Picture Post and Illustrated were gone by 1958 and Television had started its take over.

Good photojournalism will never cease to exist though and today the power of a single image has the ability to begin riots, create peace or do the other things in between. Today the world is full of pictures, images, photographs, incidents, accidents, emergencies, disasters... Today more risks need to be taken to get those images full of impact and awe. Occasionally we stumble across the lucky ones.. but without a doubt photojournalism and the lengths we need to go to has changed dramatically.