This document provides an overview of photojournalism including its history, ethical issues, and perspective from Nigeria. It discusses how photojournalism evolved from the 1850s with early photographers documenting wars, to the 1880s when halftone printing allowed photographs to be published in newspapers. It also explores ethical issues like using graphic images, manipulating photos, and invading privacy. The document notes challenges facing photojournalism in Nigeria like financial pressures potentially compromising integrity and risks to journalists' safety.

1. A WRITE UP ON PHOTOJOURNALISM, ITS HISTORY, ETHICAL ISSUES AND THE
NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE
"A picture is worth a thousand words" should be the motto of the photojournalist. It certainly is
what they are all about. Who can ever forget some of the most memorable photos of the 20th
century? It was the photo journalist who brought us the horror of the holocaust, the joy of the
sailor who returned home and the faces of the world. We have been a part of history through the
eyes of a camera lens”.
The practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and
photography innovations that occurred between 1880 and 1897. While newsworthy events were
photographed as early as the 1850s, printing presses could only publish from engravings until the
1880s. Early news photographs required that photos be re-interpreted by an engraver before they
could be published. Train wrecks and city fires were a popular subject in these early days.
According to Okoye (2007) Photo journalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting,
editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order
to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases
the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from
other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography, social documentary
photography, street photographyor celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical
framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in
strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media.
However just like a writer, a photojournalist is a reporter but he or she must often make decisions
instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (e.g.,
physical danger, weather, crowds).
BRIEF HISTORY OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
The practice of illustrating news stories with photographs was made possible by printing and
photography innovations that occurred between 1880 and 1897. While newsworthy events were
photographed as early as the 1850s, printing presses could only publish from engravings until the

2. 1880s. Early news photographs required that photos be re-interpreted by an engraver before they
could be published. Train wrecks and city fires were a popular subject in these early days.
In 1847, an unknown photographer took daguerreotypes of the U.S. troops in Satilo, Mexico,
during the Mexican-American War. The first known photojournalist was Carol
Szathmari (Romanian painter, lithographer, and photographer) who did pictures in the Crimean
War (between Russia and Ottoman Empire, 1853 to 1856). His albums were sent to European
royals houses. Just a few of his photographs survived. William Simpson of the Illustrated
London News and Roger Fenton were published as engravings. Similarly, the American Civil
War photographs of Mathew Brady were engraved before publication in Harper's
Weekly. Because the public craved more realistic representations of news stories, it was common
for newsworthy photographs to be exhibited in galleries or to be copied photographically in
limited numbers.
On March 4, 1880, The Daily Graphic (New York) published the first halftone (rather than
engraved) reproduction of a news photograph. In 1887, flash powder was invented, enabling
journalists such as Jacob Riis to photograph informal subjects indoors, which led to the landmark
work How the Other Half Lives. By 1897, it became possible to reproduce halftone photographs
on printing presses running at full speed.
Photo-journalism is almost as old as the camera itself. The first photo journalist was Carol
Szathmari who did documentary photos of the Crimean War in the 1850's. It was Matthew Brady
who really should have the title of greatest photojournalist of the 19th century. His photos of the
Civil War were made into engravings and published in Harpers Weekly. They are no less
poignant today than they were when he took them over 150 years ago. He brought to life the
main players in the Civil War. If it wasn't for him we would not have seen the care worn face of
Abraham Lincoln or the meeting of the great generals.
It took until the 1880's for photographs to be published in newspapers. The invention of the flash
powder allowed photography to go indoors added a whole new dimension to the ability of the
photojournalist to tell his story with pictures.
It wasn't until the flash bulb was invented along with the 35mm camera that photojournalism
really took off. The period between the 1930's and the 1950's is called the Golden Age of
photojournalism.

3. Henri Cartier Bresson is called by many the Father of modern photojournalism. He isn't the only
one who has been given this title but he certainly deserves. His photos have taken us from Africa
in the 1920's, to the Spanish Civil War, Gandhi just hours before his assassination and the
liberation of Paris.
During the 1920's Germany was at the forefront of photojournalism through its magazines
Munchner Illustrated Presse and Berliner IllustrirtePresse. They began printing candid photos of
politicians and other people of interest to the public. Cameras had become small enough to be
sneaked into places they would never have been able to go before.
In American Look and Life picked up the cue and dished up full page photos to bring the world
to their readers. It took a while for America to catch up with the idea of the candid shot but
eventually it became the norm.
The 1950's saw one of the most famous roving photojournalist of all, Jackie Bouvier. She could
be found roving the streets of Washington DC looking for an interesting photo, story or
handsome senator.
Today the word paparazzo has replaced the photojournalist in the common jargon. It has also
come to be considered an invasive and frightening occupation. These celebrity seekers have
placed a cloud over what has been a long history of exemplary work, often under dangerous and
trying conditions. It is time that magazines and newspapers refuse to buy these photos and that
readers refuse to purchase publications that print them. They cheapen the work of the great
photojournalists who follow the real stories around the world.
In France, agencies such as Rol, Branger and Chusseau-Flaviens (ca. 1880-1910) syndicated
photographs from around the world to meet the need for timely new illustration Despite these
innovations, limitations remained, and many of the sensational newspaper andmagazine stories
in the period from 1897 to 1927, (see Yellow Journalism) were illustrated with engravings. In
1921, the wire photo made it possible to transmit pictures almost as quickly as news itself could
travel. However, it was not until development of the commercial35mm Leica camera in 1925,
and the first flash bulbs between 1927 and 1930 that all the elements were in place for a "golden
age" of photojournalism.

4. In the "golden age" of photojournalism (1930s–1950s), some magazines (Picture
Post (London),Paris Match (Paris), Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (Berlin), Berliner
IllustrirteZeitung (till April 1945) (Berlin), Life (USA), Look (USA), Sports Illustrated (USA))
and newspapers (The Daily Mirror(London), The New York Daily News (New York)) built their
huge readerships and reputations largely on their use of photography, and photographers such
as Robert Capa, Romano Cagnoni,Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and W. Eugene
Smith became well-known names.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is held by some to be the father of modern photojournalism, although this
appellation has been applied to various other photographers, such as Erich Salomon, whose
candid pictures of political figures were novel in the 1930s.
Soldier Tony Vaccaro is also recognized as one of the pre-eminent photographers of World War
II. His images taken with the modest Argus C3 captured horrific moments in war, similar to
Capa's soldier being shot. Capa himself was on Omaha Beach on D-Day and captured pivotal
images of the conflict on that occasion. Vaccaro is also known for having developed his own
images in soldier's helmets, and using chemicals found in the ruins of a camera store in 1944.
Until the 1980s, largest newspapers were printed with turn-of-the-century "letterpress"
technology using easily smudged oil-based ink, off-white, low-quality "newsprint" paper, and
coarse engraving screens. While letterpresses produced legible text, the photoengraving dots that
formed pictures often bled or smeared and became fuzzy and indistinct. In this way, even when
newspapers used photographs well — a good crop, a respectable size — murky reproduction
often left readers re-reading the caption to see what the photo was all about. TheWall Street
Journal adopted stippled hedcuts in 1979 to publish portraits and avoid the limitations of
letterpress printing. Not until the 1980s had a majority of newspapers switched to "offset"
presses that reproduce photos with fidelity on better, whiter paper.
By contrast Life, one of America's most popular weekly magazines from 1936 through the early
1970s, was filled with photographs reproduced beautifully on oversize 11×14-inch pages, using
fine engraving screens, high-quality inks, and glossy paper. Life often published a United Press
International (UPI) or Associated Press (AP) photo that had been first reproduced in newspapers,
but the quality magazine version appeared to be a different photo altogether.

5. In large part because their pictures were clear enough to be appreciated, and because their name
always appeared with their work, magazine photographers achieved near-celebrity status. Life
became a standard by which the public judged photography, and many of today's photo books
celebrate "photojournalism" as if it had been the exclusive province of near-celebrity magazine
photographers.
The Best of Life (1973), for example, opens with a two-page (1960) group shot of 39 justly
famous Life photographers. But 300 pages later, photo credits reveal that scores of the photos
among Life's "best" were taken by anonymous UPI and AP photographers.
Thus even during the golden age, because of printing limitations and the UPI and AP syndication
systems, many newspaper photographers labored in relative obscurity.
However the, the emergence of photo agencies startedIn 1947 a few famous photographers
founded the international photographic cooperative Magnum Photos. In 1989 Corbis
Corporation and in 1993 Getty Images were founded. These powerful image libraries sell the
rights to photographs and other still images.
PHOTO JOURNALISM ISSUES IN NIGERIA
Photo journalism in Nigeria is just developing, though it is healthy, in the sense that there is a
relatively free press, and practically all the newspapers use photographs. There is also a
burgeoning celebrity magazine market with ample use of personality shots. Remuneration
however, leaves much to be desired. A few of Nigerian photographers either prefers to work or
string for international agencies, and one in particular, George Osodi, is a recognized master in
this field. A lot have been analysed about this emerging field in Nigeria, there are barrage of
criticism, issues, surrounding photojournalist and photojournalism in Nigeria. However constant
attacking, harassing/assaulting photo journalist in Nigeria had established high rate of job
insecurity on the part of the journalist. (Akinbode 2003)
Media critics and viewers question the use of gruesome images, dozens of photographers
hounding celebrities, picture manipulations that present misleading views, visual messages that
perpetuate negative stereotypes of individuals from various multicultural groups, and images that
blur the distinction between advertising and journalism.1 What is happening? Nothing that hasn't

6. been a part of photography since its invention in 1839.What is new, however, is the spread of
computer technology that allows practically anyone to produce and disseminate visual messages
in massive numbers for a world-wide audience. So indirectly we can as well assume that the
photo journalism is filed is being compromised for financial reasons. Because images are
designed almost immediately to evoke emotional responses among viewers, pictures have
tremendous impact. With well-chosen words, visual messages combine to educate, entertain and
persuade. But the flip side to such visual power is that images can also offend shock, mislead,
stereotype and confuse.
Nigerian photo-journalist had lived with the orientation that the best picture they could take is
from victim of violence, for example, after a gruesome image of dead or grieving victims of a
tragic event is presented to the public in either the print or screen media, many viewers are often
repulsed and offended by the picture. Nevertheless, violence and tragedy are staples of American
journalism. "If it bleeds, it leads" is a popular, unspoken sentiment in many newsrooms. The
reason for this obvious incongruity is that a majority of viewers are attracted and intrigued by
such stories, apparently they are producing picture that injures. Photojournalists who win Pulitzer
Prizes and other international competitions are almost always witness to excruciatingly painful
human tragedies that nevertheless get published or broadcast. It is as if viewers want to see
violent pictures, but through gaps in the fingers in front of their face.Editors need to be sure that
images of murder or automobile victims are really necessary to tell the story. Journalists often
cite the reason for using such visual messages as a way to warn others of the dangers of modern
living or to urge drivers to watch the speed limit. Another, perhaps more honest reason, is to
avoid being scooped by a rival media organization. Despite well-rehearsed explanations,
sensational images of victims of violence are shown as much for economic as utilitarian reasons.
The media concentration on criminal activity creates an exaggerated perception of crime in the
minds of viewers. Rather than focusing on bloody body bags, journalists need to explain the
underlying social forces that cause such tragic events to occur.Cameras and the images they
produce are naively thought by many to never lie.
But because humans operate the machine, technical, composition and content manipulations are
unavoidable. Computer technology did not start the decline in the credibility of pictures, but it
has hastened it. Photographic darkrooms are quickly being replaced by computer workstation

7. light rooms. But as long as photojournalists do not subtract or add parts of a picture's internal
elements, almost any other manipulation once accomplished in a photographic darkroom is
considered ethical for news-editorial purposes.Two factors may guard against a further erosion
of credibility in visual messages: Reputation of the media organization that publishes or
broadcasts images and the words that accompany the manipulated picture.Credibility is not an
inherent quality of a particular picture, but a concept based on tradition, story choices, design
considerations and reader perception of the company or individual that produces the image.
Photography is undergoing an exciting and challenging time in its history.
Currently, the photographic medium is in a hybrid or transitional period between traditional film
and computer technologies, But no matter how the tools of journalism change, fundamental
ethical concerns still apply. Displaying violent, sensational images for economic reasons,
violating a person's privacy before the judicial process can function, manipulating news-editorial
pictures to alter their content, stereotyping individuals into pre-conceived categories and blurring
the distinction between advertising and editorial messages were journalism concerns in 1895, are
important topics in 1995 and will be carefully considered issues, no doubt, in 2095.
Professionals, academics and students owe it to their readers to be sensitive to unethical practices
that demean the profession and reduce the credibility of journalism.Therefore, it is imperative
that whenever and wherever possible, ethical issues be discussed by all those concerned about
the journalism profession.
Three problems present themselves to anyone who argues that hard-hitting photojournalism is
important in the daily press. The first concerns the compromised nature of photography as a
foundation for authentic eye-witness reports. Photography, even in its most realistic style, is no
absolute guarantee or proof of events. The second problem derives from the poor state of the
newspaper industry as a source of reliable public record. News has become more entertaining
and trivial than concerned or controversial. The third problem, which is the main point of this
essay, relates to how effective hard-hitting documentary record might be, given that readers are
supposed to be quickly bored by images of suffering unknown strangers. The argument stresses
that photographs might be used in evidence; the press does not have to be trivial; shocking
photographs are a measure of the press's contribution to debate in a civilized society.

8. ETHICS IN PHOTOJOURNALISM
Merriam-Webster defines ―ethics‖ as, ―the code of good conduct for an individual or group,‖ and
lists synonyms as, ―morality, morals, principles, [and] standards. In terms of ethics in
photojournalism, the National Press Photographers Association's Code of Ethics reads, in part:
Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire
hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual
understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are
manipulated.
The Code of Ethics goes on to detail what is and is not acceptable in professional
photojournalism. Though the standards may seem fairly crystalized, every day there are
challenging borderline cases. Considering that photography itself is barely 150 years old, one
might wonder how these particular ethical guidelines came to be, and how they may be evolving
over time.As a topic, 'ethics in photojournalism' is difficult to approach, or even to define. In
order to ask questions such as, "What were photojournalistic ethics in the past," "what are
photojournalistic ethics today," and "what will photojournalistic ethics look like in the future,"
one must first carefully define the concepts of both ‗ethics‘ and ‗photojournalism.‘
What exactly qualifies as photojournalism? The answer is somewhat hazy. If photojournalism is
photography plus journalism, what is journalism? Princeton University's WorldNet defines
'journalism' as, "The profession of reporting or photographing or editing news stories for one of
the media." Under that definition, someone who fakes an image of Bigfoot for the Weekly World
News is as much a journalist as the man who took the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of a
firefighter holding a baby after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.That man (Charles H. Porter
IV) was employed as a utility worker and not as a newspaper photographer at the time.
Ethics is an inherently subjective field. In his seminal textbook, Photojournalism, the
Professionals’ Approach, author and photojournalism professor Kenneth Kobré writes,
―Photojournalism has no Bible, no rabbinical college, no Pope to define correct choices.‖8 There

9. is no sole arbiter of what is or isn't ethical, and even if there were, the line isn't always black and
white. Most texts regarding ethics in photojournalism focus on the issue of what might be
termed ―photographic truth‖ - whether a particular image accurately represents the subject or
whether it misleads the viewer. The National Press Photographers Association Code of
Ethics states that the ―primary goal‖ of the photojournalist is the ―...faithful and comprehensive
depiction of the subject at hand.‖ Can a photographer pose a news photo? Can he alter it, in the
darkroom or otherwise? Are the results of these actions ―faithful and comprehensive
depictions?‖ While myriad texts attempt to answer these particular questions, the scope of
photojournalistic ethics extends significantly beyond them.
For example, the distinction between ethics and taste is constantly up for debate, especially in
relation to violent or sexual imagery. While some see sex and violence as issues of taste, others
include them under the heading of ethics. Additionally, photojournalistic ethics might
encompass the choices an individual photographer makes while shooting. For example, should a
war photographer put down his cameras in order to help an injured soldier? If someone asks that
his or her photo not be taken, is it ethical to photograph that person anyway? If ethics in
photojournalism is about being ―faithful and comprehensive,‖ is intentionally underexposing or
poorly focusing unethical? Some of these questions sit on the line between journalistic ethics
and professionalism.
According to Professor Paul Martin Lester In his book Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach,
California State University Fullerton outlines six ethical philosophies intended to help
photographers and editors answer questions like those outlined above:
1. The Categorical Imperative is a distilled version of Kant‘s notion that what is acceptable for
a single person should be acceptable for everyone, almost like a theoretical ―nondiscrimination
clause.‖ For example, suppose a newspaper editor is trying to decide whether to publish an
image of a partially nude young woman fleeing a house fire. That editor should consider
whether he would publish the image under different circumstances - if the subject was male, or
elderly, or obese. The Categorical imperative says that what goes for one should go for
everyone.

10. 2. Utilitarianism as a philosophy attempts to weigh positives and negatives of a situation, and
maximize the good for the greatest number of people. For example, if gruesome photos of a car
crash offend the victims‘ families, but shock the community into driving safely, then by
Utilitarianism the taking and publication of those photos is deemed to be ethical.
3. Hedonism represents the ―do what feels good‖ school of thought, and might be used to justify
printing explicit photos simply because they are titillating. Publishing a provocative front page
photo simply for the sake of selling newspapers would be an example of hedonism.
4. The Golden Mean philosophy concerns compromise. If there is a less intrusive, offensive, or
disagreeable photo that still tells the story, which is the better option. The emphasis is on finding
middle ground rather than an all-or-nothing approach.
5. The Veil of Ignorance asks the photographer or editor to consider how they would feel if they
were the subject. If they would not feel good in the subject‘s place, it would be better to look for
a different image.
6. The Golden Rule is sometimes phrased ―love thy neighbor as thyself.‖ As an ethical
philosophy it requires that a photographer or editor treat his subjects as he would treat
himself. This, of course, leaves decisions subject to the photographer‘s, editors, or institution‘s
ethics. Which also mean respect for others to avoid injuries or ethical imperative.
However Berserk D (2006) divides ethics into two categories - institutional ethics and
photographer-centric ethics. The policies of a particular newspaper or magazine would fall
under institutional ethics. For example, if a newspaper chooses not to publish an image for fear
it is too graphic, that is an issue of institutional ethics or taste (and I will discuss the differences
between the two later in this thesis.) Photographer-centric ethics have to do with photographers‘
choices at the time news photos are captured up until the photos are handed off to an editor.
Whether or not to pose a subject, the question regarding what to do with a wounded soldier in

11. combat, and how a photographer treats an image in the darkroom (or in the computer) are all
matters of photographer-centric ethics. ScottBaradell 2005 opines that Pictures Must
Always Tell the TruthThere‘s an old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes.Whenthreatened
or under fire, people inevitably cling to somethingcertain to guidethem through uncertain times.
In life anddeath situations, this something is often a Bible. Today, the profession of
photojournalism as we know it isthreatened by technological transformation, by the rise of video,
by fragmentation of the media. It‘s under fire from a suspiciouspublic—watchdog bloggers,
cable and radio pundits,and other critics who question the profession‘s credibility andauthority to
bring us an accurate picture of the world.For photojournalists, it would be a great time to have a
Bible—in the form of a uniform, enforceable code of ethics—handy. Unfortunately,
photojournalists have no such thing. There is no established set of rules to see news
photographers throughthis storm.
r u t h ”
While ethical decisions have long played a central role in the business of newsgathering,
journalists have never been governed by formal ethical standards. This is a key reason that
journalism, by definition, is actually not a profession. You can‘t be disbarred or lose your license
as a journalist. However, as with the incremental emergence of the English common law,
journalists have gravitated over time to a handful of general ethical principles that are widely
recognized. In the United States, these principles are designed to enhance journalism‘s authority
by ensuring that reporting is accurate, comprehensive and independent.
Conversely, Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media. They must posses
Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events
they depict in both content and tone.
Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or
reader on a cultural level.

12. INTERVIEW ON NIGERIAN PHOTO JOURNALIST
SEUN IJYKELLY.
Seun is a video journalist, currently working with Channels Television for the past two years. He
believed, that Nigerian photo journalism is just evolving to meet with the international standards,
he opined that ethics in photo journalism is not meticulously monitored, unlike others media
sectors in the country thus it has paved way for those who will use the profession to either crate
pictures that injures through the modern technology or manipulate various photos to evoke
audience emotion or for yellow journalism. In his words ―you know economy is at the base of
every society, anybody can just pick up a camera take a picture manipulate them for yellow
journalism and false statement will be therein, and before you know it is on the news stand‖.
He also appealed the government to strategize a structural body which will be saddled with the
responsibility to certify photo-journalist, which will bar imposters from using the professions
wrongly.
REFRENCES: