The Power Photography Plays in the Role of History

Among many others, one of the things that draws me into photography is its relationship to history. While I worked for The Daily Iowan at The University of Iowa, I was also working on a history degree. In studying history, I found myself buried under thousands of pages of text and images trying to explain and discuss the events of the past.

A good book is good for the writing and I read many such books while studying history but the one thing that always proved a point more than any other was when a history lesson was accompanied by contemporary images. There is something very powerful about a photograph. There is an intimacy between the viewer and the subject that, I feel, cannot be replicated in any other form of media.

While I worked for a small studio in my hometown, my primary job was in the dark room making reprints of a local photographer whom for the past 60 years has captured every significant event and person that has been associated with the city. As his career–and to an extent his life–faded into the past, he decided to create a book of his work to sell locally. The book was nothing more than his photographs, but together it formed a rich narrative on the past 60 years of the small town.

This is the power of photography. A mentor of mine, who continues to have his work published in the likes of Time, once told me that, as a photographer you do not capture reality. This was a hard thing for me to accept initially but the more I listened to what he was saying the more I understood. In essence, you can capture reality with your camera but it is only the reality as you see it. As a photojournalist you are to be as neutral as possible. It is important to know the power that your photographs may have on history.

Today’s history in photographs

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the infamous Tienanmen Square Massacre.  There was much that lead up to the events of that day that could be discussed for hours. The one thing, though, that comes to mind when anyone utters “Tienanmen Square” is a photograph by Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos.  The image of a man holding arbitrary bags in front of a line of tanks.  The image has become ingrained in the minds of anyone who knows of the months leading up to and following June 4th 1989.  At the time, the man in the image became a hero and spokesman for millions of Chinese people.

There have been other images like this in the past. Franklin’s photo is only 1 of Life’s “100 Photographs That Changed the World“.  Life’s series, and title, hit home the point I’m trying to make.  Photography has been and will continue to be a central part of World History.  In their stillness, photographs bring the viewer back to the fraction of a second that the image was conceived and allow that person to focus soley on the moments leading up to and after the image.

Cecil W. Stoughton was there when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One following the Death of John F. Kennedy.

Eddie Adams of AP captured this image durring Vietnam.  The image captured one man’s final moments on earth while demonstrating the brutality of war (it should be noted that most probably misinterpret the image, as the man being assassinated was likely the cause of many American’s losing their life).

Air force Pilots were their with their camera’s as atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

John Paul Filo captured this now famous image of Kent State

The list goes on but the point remains; wherever there is history happening, there are photographers capturing it.  The power of photography can’t be understated.  The quicker a photographer embraces this power–the quicker they can harness it.

Snap on!

More Reading
100 Photographs That Changed the World

Flowers laid for Tiananmen Square

Tags: Cecil W. Stoughton, Eddie Adams, history, John Paul Filo, photography, pulitzer

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Photography News, Photojournalism, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.