David Burnett

Image Source:http://news.streetroots.org/2011/08/18/photographer-david-burnett-talks-about-exchanging-views-street-paper-vendors

CAREER PATH
David Burnett is a Washington, DC based photojournalists and one of the more accomplished photojournalists in the history of the profession. He graduated from Colorado College in 1968 with a B.A in Political Science and began work as a freelancer for Time and Life magazines. He started off in D.C then moved to Miami, then spent two years in Vietnam before he came home to do what he is best known for being a co-founder of Contact Press,a New York City based firm and one of the worlds largest firm of Photojournalists. His career has taken him all over the world. Some of his better known works are a series called "The Presidents" in which he photographs presidents throughout time (he has been doing this for four decades) and "Soul Rebel" a series on Bob Marley which became a published book, as well as "44 Days" a history of the 1978-1979 Iranian Revolution.

Photo by: David Burnett
Image Source:http://www.davidburnett.com

I touched on Burnett's motivations a little bit in a earlier post, but ill go a little further into them here. What he describes as his main motivation is that he looks at every new assignment as "a challenge".  He has said that he has doubted himself constantly, but always strives to take on new challenges and uses that motivation to overcome his doubts. That's a strong statement I think, acknowledging your insecurities but at the same time knowing that you have the motivation to overcome them. People were especially skeptical of him, and he of himself as well before he did a series at the 2012 London Olympics with a large formatted camera. The photographs were speed graphic photos, and many thought it was an odd choice for Burnett to document the photos this way, the results spoke for themselves however....

Photo by: David Burnett
Image Source:http://petapixel.com/2013/02/08/david-burnetts-speed-graphic-photos-of-the-london-2012-olympics/


David uses a great amount of technology, a wide array to keep his options open when out in the field trying to capture photos for his stories. He uses a Think Tank Photo "Airport Security" bag for all his equipment in which he carries alot of equipment such as a Holga 120N Camera, a pacemaker speed graphic camera which is best described as "old school", a Kodak Aero-Ektar Lens, and much much more. His weapon of choice however are his 2 Canon EOS 5D cameras... pictured below.

Image source:http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos5d


When it comes to David's ethics, you can best look at them by looking at a project he was involved in titled "Facing Change, Issues Facing America". It is a nonprofit group of photojournalists and writers that gathered to explore America and attempt to map out its future to avoid past mistakes. It really shows he cares about this country and where it is going, he has been very outspoken politically (his blog on his website is great) and is strongly opinionated and influential. He especially focuses on Americas economical issues in his contribution to Facing Change.

Photo by: Unknown
Image Source: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Facing-Change-Documenting-America-FCDA/128622040521670


David's style is simple, yet elegant. He wants to capture the moment the best way he can and handles each situation differently from the next. He has said "Photojournalists must constantly adapt, constantly change." He also has not limited himself to one particular subject field as his website states he takes photos of  "war, sport,  politics, the famous, the infamous, and the Unfamous."

Photo by: David Burnett
Image Source:http://blog.photoshelter.com/2009/02/david-burnetts-photographs-of/


His impact is unparalleled. David is revered in the Photojournalism industry. There was a book that came out that was titled "100 Photos for Freedom of the Press" that was a careers worth of David's photos. He published 2 books on top of all his work as a photojournalist. He has been honored as Photographer of the year by the National Press Photographers Association and has been honored with prizes in the Best of Photojournalism as well as the Eyes of History contest sponsored by the White House News Photographers Association.

Photo by: David Burnett
Image Source: http://www.davidburnett.com


Reading David's blog on his website we seem to have alot of the same viewpoints, as well as interests. He is a big sports and music fan, and is pretty liberal with his political views. All things in common with myself. His love of music is very prevalent in his works with Bob Marley and he has done alot of sports photography especially at the olympics. He is a remarkable man and photojournalist. His work is something I will continue to follow in the future.

Image Source: https://people.creighton.edu/~jcb55584/burnett.html


Sources:   http://www.davidburnett.com
                http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photographer-david-burnett/
              http://facingchange.org/david-burnett/
           http://petapixel.com/2013/02/08/david-burnetts-speed-graphic-photos-of-the-london-2012-olympics/
             http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/07/in-the-bag-with-photographer-david-burnett/
           

What Motivates Photojournalists

I found when researching these photojournalists that the main thing that motivates them all is something to do with their work, which kind of in turn sets them apart in their profession from others. However, in a more broad sense you can compare motivations in all people and find that deep down most things that motivate people are very similar. For example, love was a motivation of mine. This first photojournalist  ill use as an example is David Duchemin a travel photographer. Here is a photo of his.

Photo by: David Duchemin
Image Source:http://www.andrewsgibson.com/blog/2008/10/through-the-eyes-of-an-artist-an-interview-with-travel-photographer-david-duchemin/

Duchemin

David states that his main motivation is the children he meets after every assignment and how different they all are and how innocent they are. So photographing and meeting this children is his specific motivation, however if you think of it in a deeper sense its his love for the children that motivates him to  do what he does. Another photojournalist I found was David Burnett, pictured below.

Image Source: http://www.davidburnett.com/content.html?page=2

David says one of his motivations is that even after all his years as a photojournalist, he still considers every job he takes and every shoot he has as a challenge. That really spoke to me, I didn't originally put it on my motivation map, but looking back I wish I did, because now thinking of it a challenge is something that motivates me the most. Here is a photo of Bob Marley that David took. If you click the image source there's lots of other cool pictures of him that David took!

Photo by: David Burnett
Image Source: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2009/02/david-burnetts-photographs-of/


Finally, looking at Felix Masi.. his motivation is one that I think is one of most photojournalists, he truly wanted to tell people stories. As with most people who love their profession he said "his heart was just truly in it". Sometimes that is the ultimate motivator, following your heart and in turn doing something that you love which is exactly what Felix did and by doing so, hopefully inspiring others.

Image source:https://twitter.com/felixmasius


And here is a great photo he took at a rally for Trayvon Martin, the 17 year old African american boy who was shot and killed due to racial profiling.

Photo by: Felix Masi
Image Source:https://plus.google.com/102819089815983443058/posts


My Motivation Map

Truth and Bias

Photo by: Ed Clark
Image Source: http://www.thegreatleapsideways.com/?p=209 

This photo by Ed Clark is quite interesting. It shows a navy shipman named Graham Jackson following the funeral train of FDR. Graham looks to be quite upset about the loss of FDR, as he plays the accordion. Meanwhile the subjects in the background look very disgusted and/or annoyed with Mr. Jackson. I'm curious as to why, is it a racial thing? Is it the music he is playing? Are they curious as to what an accordion is? The photograph seems to me like if this was a white man these women would not have the same reaction to him, that is just my gut feeling and also is why I feel as if the picture speaks the truth about attitudes during this period of time, and also the emotion some felt over the loss of FDR.

Three photojournalistic principles this photograph uses are first of all the expression of the subject, you can see on his face that he is hurt by the loss of FDR and that is really the essence of the picture. Next, you can see the image is black and white which really gives off the mood and overall vibe of the feelings going on in the photograph and its somber feel. Finally the main subject being about 2/3 of the total image puts him out there and lets the audience know he is the subject of the photograph.

Photo by: Unknown
Image Source: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/4477/panic-rules-in-red-sox-nation

This is a photo that truly speaks truth to me. This photo is taken of Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia during September of 2011. Now to any casual sports fan this photo might just look like frustration after a bad at-bat or a strikeout to end the game. However, right when I saw the photograph I knew it was from September 2011 when the Red Sox had an epic collapse during the last month of the season and ended up missing the playoffs. It was a miserable, frustrating time for the team and their fans myself included. The way I know this is because of the emotion shown, I felt this way emotionally about the team, so I can see it in the photo. Like Professor Nordell said it is all about the perspective you are trying to gain from the photograph which is clearly shown here the perspective is that of frustration with the teams play.

A few photojournalistic things to be seen here are first of obviously the expression of the subject, his anger and frustration are clearly met to be the subject of the photograph and the photographer does a nice job showcasing that. The next is that the photo keeps it simple, just Pedroia and his frustration and thats it, because that is the story being told and its really all that needs to be seen. Finally the background compliments are out of focus which is to put the main focus and light on the subject, Pedroia.

Image Source: http://english.irib.ir/voj/component/k2/item/84598-tens-of-thousands-march-in-washington-anti-abortion-rally

  This photo was one that did not speak the truth to me, after watching the content videos and the points of view on the Prop 8 rally, I immediately thought of an experience I had once. I was walking by in Boston and found a group of protesters being separated by police. There were two groups of picketers one pro life and one pro choice. It became violent and chaotic and it was really an ugly scene too watch but one bystanders walking by could not take their eyes off of. This is why this photo doesn't really speak to me about what truly goes on at events like this and also just like the nurses on strike, it doesn't give justice to truly how large their cause is and the passion behind it.

Some Photojournalistic principes here are the use of lines from the barrier that go down across the picture really widen out your view. Also the image is a little bit out of focus in the back but you can tell that for this photographer the material was too important to sacrifice. Finally, the feelings the image creates, cause of the controversial topic I'm sure the feelings the image creates would differ depending on the person, but it definitely causes some strong emotional feelings.

Ethics

Photo by: Sam Gewitz
Image Source:http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/08/25/nyregion/25empire4-span.html


   I apologize for the graphic nature of this photo, however when tackling this assignment I researched the internet for a photojournalistic controversy where ones ethics would come into play and I could discuss a true opinion on the photograph as well as my ethics on the particular situation. Often I came across articles titled such things as "Years Most Controversial Photos" and titles of similar nature. When looking at the vast majority of these photos, most were tough for me to take a true stance on. In other words, I kind of saw both sides of the spectrum on most of these photos. I understood why someone was upset a photo was taken, but saw the photographers intention behind it. Or I sympathized with a subject of a photo, but then thought there privacy must have been invaded a little to take this picture. I felt torn on these photos and found myself see-sawing my opinion on most. Until I came across this photograph.

   This photograph was taken by Sam Gewitz and published in the New York Times... ON THE FRONT PAGE. The photograph is supplemental to a story about a shooting at the Empire State Building in August of 2012 that left one dead and several more injured, the victim being the subject of the photograph above. The story was a disgruntled laid off employee shot and killed a former co-worker and then was gunned down himself by police, during which several innocent civilians were struck by police gunfire and injured in the situation as well. The motive of the shooting was that the victim did not promote the perpetrators t-shirt line. I know, sounds a bit silly.

   My ethics immediately came into play here. The first thing I thought of,  which is one of my more important values is that of family. Now when I say family I don't just mean I value my family, which I greatly do, but the idea of family as well in itself. This man had a family, he had a girlfriend he lived with whom he was soon planning on proposing to. I didn't know anything about these people until I read the article further on, but they were the first people I thought of when I first saw the photo. Think of the value of respect as well, how could a news outlet be so disrespectful to a family and publish this photograph on a large upscale newspaper, and on the front page at that. I had a tough time debating wether or not I even felt ok putting it on my blog where 10 of my classmates and a college professor were going to be the only ones that saw it. The worst thing about this to me though was that people got upset, so the New York Times took the photo down off their website... only to put it back up after! Are you kidding me!

Trials and Triumphs: Marilyn Nance

Photo by : Racialicious Team

Image Source: http://www.racialicious.com/2012/06/27/meanwhile-at-the-tumblr-meet-marilyn-nance/

  Marilyn Nance is a female, african-american, photojournalist. She is still alive today at 60 years old and she is known as a photographer who has taken photographs of great cultural importance over time, especially in the african-american community. She was born in Brooklyn, NY and still resides there this day. She states that she likes depicting her own community which she herself calls " the working class black-folk."

   Marilyn had to go through a lot to get where she is today. As a woman it was already a steep uphill climb in the professional world of photojournalism, and being an African-American woman did not make it any easier. She attended NYU in 1971-1972 and then the Pratt Institute from 72-76 studying journalism and communications during those times. When equal opportunity laws started to become enacted, and there was a lack of women in her profession, opportunities arose for Marilyn. She started working for the Village Voice as a freelancer in 1975 and that really helped boost her career to what it is today.

   Today she has been published in Life, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Essence, New York Newsday, among many other publications. She also has said that she has shifted to become more of a storyteller and has an interactive web application called SoulSista. She has twice been nominated for the W. Eugene Smith award in humanistic photography, both times for her work in African-American culture. She is one of the most accomplished women in the photojournalistic profession of all time.

Sources: http://www.marilynnance.com/soulsista/cv2.html

              http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/womphotoj/nanceessay.html

              http://www.racialicious.com/2012/06/27/meanwhile-at-the-tumblr-meet-marilyn-nance/

       

Photo by: Marilyn Nance

Image Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/08/01/157741923/meet-marilyn-nance-photographer-psychic

Year Created: 1981

This photo shows several aspects of the art of photojournalism. One it is blurry, but the power of the picture and its content triumph that and made it a worthy photo for publication. Next, you can see that the background compliments the photo and its two subjects without taking away from them. You get to see their surroundings and their environment that help you better understand the photo but at the same time it does not defer from the two main subjects. Lastly, the black and white definitely gives this phoo power as the picture is of two Yemoja priests performing some type of ritualistic ceremony.

Photo by: Marilyn Nance

Image Source: http://arttattler.com/archiveafricanamericanart.html

Year Created: 1986

This photo by Marilyn Nance is of a baptism and is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The background and the setting of this picture is huge because you can see now the baptism is taking place in the ocean between the two men, the rule of two thirds is present as they are in the middle of the photograph, but two thirds of the photo are below them. The main subject does not also crowd the image because if you think about it the ocean is almost just as much as the subject of the picture as the two people taking part of the baptism are. This is a wonderful photograph.

Photo by: Marilyn Nance

Image Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/08/01/157741923/meet-marilyn-nance-photographer-psychic

Year Created: 1989

  This photo was taken in 1989 and is in a Progressive Baptist Church. As you can see she likes to use Black and White quite frequently. This photo definitely creates a sense of togetherness between these people with the obvious religious factor. Also I think the contrast between the light and dark areas in this picture is great with the light coming through that back window really showcasing the women.

The Digital Age

   I wrote back in module 4 about the 35mm SLR camera and how it affected photojournalism and the way photographs are taken today. My main point was about how the viewer let the photographer see the picture they were about to take before they snapped a photo. I also expanded on the longer focuses lenses and advanced ocular lenses to better deal with light in photographs. The photographer could now better capture the photograph they wanted, but also improve on the quality of their photos.

  Now lets look at cell phone camera for example and how it relates to the SLR. Take for example an IPhone camera, these would not be possible if it weren't for the prior advances in photography taken from the 35mm SLR. Many of the same benefits can be had; a longer focus lens, a viewing screen, ocular technology to deal with light. Although many of those were just expanded versions on the IPhone from the SLR. However several additions were added, being able to edit right on your phone, zoom capabilities were much enhanced, and then the obvious addition of apps which let you do an endless number of things to your photograph. The benefit from quick action too is prevalent in the IPhone as it was in the SLR but again an expanded more improved, more beneficial version of it.

   These technologies both pre-digital and digital are now even being mashed together if you can believe it or not. There is actually an SLR mount you can purchase for your IPhone. This mount transforms your Iphone into a digital SLR. It is quite interesting to see how they are doing this, by reading the article more that I posted in expands on the technologies and the benefits from each and how they are being put together. The author of the article Jennifer Bergen expands, "The mount is offered for the Canon EOS lens family and all Nikon lenses. Telephoto, wide angle, macro, and a fixed-fifty lens will all attach to the mounts. The SLR mount also enables the user to manually focus the iPhone's camera. There are two loops on each end of the case, so users can attach a strap and hang their iPhone-turned-D-SLR around their neck just like a real camera. " (Bergen). 

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/291988/9-ways-to-supercharge-your-iphone-s-camera/6


This website called Camera Showdown is a website where you can look at two similar photos and vote on which one is of better quality. For example it will show you a picture taking on a Nikon SLR camera and then a similar picture taken from an IPhone 5, without telling you which one is which. You then vote on which one you think takes the better picture and it gives you the results after, it's a very cool site. Below i've posted a couple comparison pictures!
http://www.camerashowdown.com

Image Source:http://petapixel.com/2013/03/08/camera-showdown-compare-cameras-based-on-real-life-performance/

Photo By: Robino Films

Image Source:http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/iphone-4s-dslr-video/

The Art of Photojournalism

Photo by: D Park Photography
Image Source: http://www.dparkphotography.com/blog/2012/10/muzeo-anaheim-wedding-photographer-kimberly-emanuel/10-photojournalistic-wedding-photography-southern-california/
Year Created:2012

Principle 1: The Subjects Expression
How it is used: The girl knows someone is taking photographs so peeks around the corner out of curiosity. You can see the curiosity on her face, as she is posing, albeit unintentionally for this photo.

Principle 2: Black and White
How it is used: The black and white here really captures the emotions of the wedding in general and the event that is happening

Principle 3: Depth of Field
How it is used: The right area of the picture is in focus, the guests at the front of the church are out of focus, but that is ok because the picture is really all about the little girl and she is in clear focus and is the main subject of the picture.

Photo by: Unknown
Image Source:http://ghostsofdc.org/2013/03/26/president-tafts-snowy-inauguration-in-1909/
Year Created:1909

Principle 1: Texture
How it is used: You can see the photograph looks like it is effected by the weather as in this day in 1909 on president Taft's inauguration it was a very snowy day.

Principle 2: Use of Lines
How it is used: The use of lines are used on the tables the photographers are all at to make you look down the lines are expand your eyes to the rest of the photograph.

Principle 3: Quality of Light
How it is used: The light from the sky helps you see the photographers from above when a lot on this day was really hard to capture and see because of all the snow.

Photo by: Unknown
Image Source:http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/artifact_detail.cfm?aid=a_000227&oid=ob_000010
Year Created: Late 1800's

Principle 1: How did Photograph make you feel?
How it is used: The photograph definitely took to me another time, this is one of the first stage coaches in the 1800's and was used as a bus line in Iowa. It made me think of how times must have been very, very different then the world we live in today.

Principle 2:Keep it Simple
How it is used: The photographer wanted just to take a picture of the new stage coach and its workers so thats exactly what he did and thats the center and subject of the photograph.

Principle 3: Contrast Appropriate
How it is used: The contrast is appropriate here showing the shadows from the stage coach but showing the stage coach itself in good light, showing it is the main viewpoint of the photograph.