Photojournalism 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 (i.e., documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or 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.

• 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.

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 (i.e., physical danger, weather, crowds).

History[link]

Foundations[link]

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.^[1]

In 1847, an unknown photographer took daguerreotypes of the U.S. troops in Satilo, Mexico, during the Mexican-American War.^[2][1][3] 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^{[citation needed]}. 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)^[4] published the first halftone (rather than engraved) reproduction of a news photograph. Further innovations followed. 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.^[5] By 1897, it became possible to reproduce halftone photographs on printing presses running at full speed.^[6]

Despite these innovations, limitations remained, and many of the sensational newspaper and magazine stories in the period from 1897 to 1927, (see Yellow Journalism) were illustrated with engravings. In 1921, the wirephoto made it possible to transmit pictures almost as quickly as news itself could travel. However, it was not until development of the commercial 35mm 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.

Farm Security Administration[link]

From 1935 to 1942, the Farm Security Administration and its predecessor the Resettlement Administration were part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and were designed to address agricultural problems and rural poverty associated with the Great Depression. A special photographic section, headed by Roy Stryker, was intended merely to provide public relations for its programs, but instead produced what some consider one of the greatest collections^[7] of documentary photographs ever created in the U.S. Whether this effort can be called "photojournalism" is debatable, since the FSA photographers had more time and resources to create their work than most photojournalists usually have.

Golden age[link]

Into the Jaws of Death: Assault landing One of the first waves at Omaha Beach as photographed by Robert F. Sargent.

In Migrant Mother Dorothea Lange produced the seminal image of the Great Depression. The FSA also employed several other photojournalists to document the depression.

In the "golden age" of photojournalism (1930s–1950s), some magazines (Picture Post (London), Paris Match (Paris), Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (Berlin), Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung (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, most large 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. The Wall 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.

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.

"Life" and the other photographic magazines celebrated the human spirit during the Second World War and when the war ended there was an optimistic period in the USA and Europe of unbridled consumerism and a general belief that things could only get better. The magazines celebrated humanism and the sense that anything was possible. Even if they showed poverty and hunger it was with an underlying message that by exposing it to public scrutiny things would improve.

Decline of the photo magazines[link]

During the sixties there was a growing realization that the view that photography would cause living conditions to improve was naive. The menace of the Cold War had shown that in the Korean War (1950-1953) fighting could end in a stalemate but there was still a chance that good would overcome. The sense that America could change the world in a positive way was tarnished but still there. In the sixties and early seventies the Vietnam War (1961-1975) shook that ideal and the civil rights issues threw the nation into upheaval — the sense that there was going to be a better world was thrown into question and the picture magazines found it difficult to exist as the world grew more cynical. Obtaining advertising revenue for the magazines became increasingly difficult as the trend moved to the more positive lifestyle magazines — here pictures of famous people and domestic abundance could attract ad revenue. "Picture Post" in the United Kingdom published its last issue on 1 June 1957 using the same cover image of two leaping ladies that it had when it started on 1 October 1938. "Life" in the USA hung on through the 1960‘s and published its final issue on 29 December 1972.

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz: Tobacco Harvesting, Viñales Valley, Cuba 2002

The rise of the photo agencies[link]

In 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.

Acceptance by the art world[link]

Since the late 1970s, photojournalism and documentary photography have increasingly been accorded a place in art galleries alongside fine art photography. Luc Delahaye, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz and the members of VII Photo Agency are among many who regularly exhibit in galleries and museums.^[8]

Professional organizations[link]

Military Photographer of the Year 1st Runner-Up: MC1 Shane T. McCoy

The Danish Union of Press Photographers (Pressefotografforbundet) was the first national organization for newspaper photographers in the world. It was founded in 1912 in Copenhagen, Denmark by six press photographers.^[9] Today it has over 800 members.

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) was founded in 1946 in the U.S., and has about 10,000 members. Others around the world include the British Press Photographers Association^[10] (BPPA) founded in 1984, then relaunched in 2003, and now has around 450 members. Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (1989), Northern Ireland Press Photographers Association (2000), Pressfotografernas Klubb (Sweden, 1930), and PK — Pressefotografenes Klubb (Norway).^[11]

News organisations and journalism schools run many different awards for photojournalists. Since 1968, Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded for the following categories of photojournalism: 'Feature Photography', 'Spot News Photography'. Other awards are World Press Photo, Best of Photojournalism, and Pictures of the Year as well as the UK based The Press Photographer's Year.^[12]

Ethical and legal considerations[link]

Photojournalism works within the same ethical approaches to objectivity that are applied by other journalists. What to shoot, how to frame and how to edit are constant considerations. Photographing news for an assignment is one of the most ethical problems photographers face. Photojournalists have a moral responsibility to decide what pictures to take, what picture to stage, and what pictures to show the public. For example, photographs of violence and tragedy are prevalent in American journalism because as an understated rule of thumb, that “if it bleeds, it reads”. The public is attracted to gruesome photographs and dramatic stories. A lot of controversy arises when deciding which photographs are too violent to show the public.

Photographs of the dead or injured arise controversy because more often than not, the name of person depicted in the photograph is not given in the caption. The family of the person is often not informed of the photograph until they see it published. The photograph of the street execution of a suspected Viet Cong soldier during the Vietnam War provoked a lot of interest because it captured the exact moment of death. The family of the victim was also not informed that the picture would run publicly.

Other issues involving photojournalism include the right to privacy and the compensation of the news subject. Especially regarding pictures of violence, photojournalists face the ethical dilemma of whether or not to publish images of the victims. The victim’s right to privacy is sometimes not addressed or the picture is printed without their knowledge or consent. The compensation of the subject is another issue. Subjects often want to be paid in order for the picture to be published, especially if the picture is of a controversial subject.

Another major issue of photojournalism is photo manipulation – what degree is acceptable?  Some pictures are manipulated for color enhancement and others manipulated to the extend where people are photo shopped in or out of the picture. War photography has always been a genre of photojournalism that is frequently staged– see war photography: history for early examples). Due to the bulkiness and types of cameras present during past wars in history, it was rare when a photograph could capture a spontaneous news event. Subjects were carefully composed and staged in order to capture better images. Another ethical issue is false or misleading captioning. The 2006 Lebanon War photographs controversies is a notable example of some of these issue, and see photo manipulation: use in journalism for other examples.

The emergence of digital photography offers whole new realms of opportunity for the manipulation, reproduction, and transmission of images. It has inevitably complicated many of the ethical issues involved.

Often, ethical conflicts can be mitigated or enhanced by the actions of a sub-editor or picture editor, who takes control of the images once they have been delivered to the news organization. The photojournalist often has no control as to how images are ultimately used.

The United States National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) is a professional society that acknowledges concern for the public’s right to freedom in searching for truth in a photograph and the public’s right to be informed about the events that occur in the world. Since the same ethical approaches are applied to photojournalism as to other journalism forms, photographs should illustrate news in an object manner to keep the public accurately informed. The following are the Code of Ethics that the members of NPPA follow: 1. The practice of photojournalism, both as a science and art, is worthy of the very best thought and effort of those who enter into it as a profession. 2. Photojournalism affords an opportunity to serve the public that is equaled by few other vocations and all members of the profession should strive by example and influence to maintain high standards of ethical conduct free of mercenary considerations of any kind. 3. It is the individual responsibility of every photojournalist at all times to strive for pictures that report truthfully, honestly and objectively. 4. Business promotion in its many forms is essential, but untrue statements of any nature are not worthy of a professional photojournalist and we severely condemn any such practice. 5. It is our duty to encourage and assist all members of our profession, individually and collectively, so that the quality of photojournalism may constantly be raised to higher standards. 6. It is the duty of every photojournalist to work to preserve all freedom-of-the-press rights recognized by law and to work to protect and expand freedom-of-access to all sources of news and visual information. 7. Our standards of business dealings, ambitions and relations shall have in them a note of sympathy for our common humanity and shall always require us to take into consideration our highest duties as members of society. In every situation in our business life, in every responsibility that comes before us, our chief thought shall be to fulfill that responsibility and discharge that duty so that when each of us is finished we shall have endeavored to lift the level of human ideals and achievement higher than we found it. 8. No Code of Ethics can prejudge every situation, thus common sense and good judgment are required in applying ethical principles. .^[13]

Laws regarding photography can vary significantly from nation to nation. The legal situation is further complicated when one considers that photojournalism made in one country will often be published in many other countries.

The impact of new technologies[link]

Smaller, lighter cameras greatly enhanced the role of the photojournalist. Since the 1960s, motor drives, electronic flash, auto-focus, better lenses and other camera enhancements have made picture taking easier. New digital cameras free photojournalists from the limitation of film roll length, as thousands of images can be stored on a single memory card.

Content remains the most important element of photojournalism, but the ability to extend deadlines with rapid gathering and editing of images has brought significant changes. As recently as 15 years ago, nearly 30 minutes were needed to scan and transmit a single color photograph from a remote location to a news office for printing. Now, equipped with a digital camera, a mobile phone and a laptop computer, a photojournalist can send a high-quality image in minutes, even seconds after an event occurs. Camera phones and portable satellite links increasingly allow for the mobile transmission of images from almost any point on the earth.

There is some concern by news photographers that the profession of photojournalism as it is known today could change to such a degree that it is unrecognizable as image-capturing technology naturally progresses.^[14] Citizen journalism and the increase in user contribution and submission of amateur photos to news sites is becoming more widespread. As early as the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, photographers were using the novel technology of the box camera to record images of British soldiers in the field. However, the widespread use of cameras as a way of reporting news did not come until the advent of smaller, more portable cameras that used the enlargeable film negative to record images. The introduction of the 35 mm Leica camera in the 1930s made it possible for photographers to move with the action, taking shots of events as they were unfolding.

The age of the citizen journalist and the attainment of news photos from amateur bystanders have contributed to the art of photojournalism. Paul Levinson attributes this shift to the Kodak camera, one of the first cheap and accessible photo technologies that “put a piece of visual reality into every person's potential grasp.”^[15] The empowered news audience with the advent of the Internet sparked the creation of blogs, podcasts and online news, independent of the traditional outlets, and “for the first time in our history, the news increasingly is produced by companies outside journalism”.^[16][17]

See also[link]

Journalism portal

• VII Photo Agency
• Associated Press
• List of photojournalists
• Magnum Photos
• Photo caption
• ZUMA Press

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Kenneth Kobre, Photojournalism : The Professional's Approach 6th edition Focal Press, 2008.
• Don McCullin. Hearts of Darkness (1980 - much reprinted).
• Zavoina, Susan C., and John H. Davidson, Digital Photojournalism (Allyn & Bacon, 2002). ISBN 0-205-33240-4
• The Photograph, Graham Clarke, ISBN 0-19-284200-5

External links[link]

• "A Brief History of Photography and Photojournalism, by Ross Collins, North Dakota State University, Fargo
• La Bruja, Cuba - an example of photojournalism
• An example of ethics guidelines for photo-journalism by DigitalCustom
• "Photojournalism". Photography. Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/past_exhns/photojournalism/. Retrieved 2007-06-16. 
• The British Press Photographers' Association
• Gaia - Photojournalism from around the world
• How To Become a Photojournalist, CubReporters.org
• Pressphotos freelance photographers accociations around the world

Tyler Hicks is an American journalist who works as a staff photographer for The New York Times. Based in Kenya, he typically covers foreign affairs, with an emphasis in recent years on conflict and war, but also works at times on assignments across the United States.

He has won several awards. He was named the newspaper photographer of the year by the Missouri School of Journalism's Pictures of the Year International contest in 2007.^[1] He shared the 2009 Pultizer Prize for International Reporting with a team from The New York Times recognized for coverage of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he works frequently in the field, focusing on the ground-level experience. In 2010, his photographs from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with the war correspondence of his colleagues Dexter Filkins and C.J. Chivers, with whom he often works, were selected by New York University as one of the Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade.^{[citation needed]}

Before working at the Times Hicks was a freelance photographer based in Africa and the Balkans, and worked for newspapers in North Carolina and Ohio.^[2]

Hicks has worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Russia, Bosnia, Lebanon, Israel, and many countries in Africa including during the 2011 South Sudan referendum. He graduated from Boston University's School of Communication in 1992 with a degree in Journalism.^[3]

Hicks was reported missing on March 16, 2011, while covering the revolution in Libya for The New York Times.^[4] The New York Times reported on 18 March 2011 that Libya had agreed to free him and three colleagues: Anthony Shadid, Lynsey Addario and Stephen Farrell.^[5] Hicks and his three colleagues were released on March 21, 2011, six days after being captured in Ajdabiya by forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi. ^[6]

On Feb 16, 2012, Hicks's colleague Anthony Shadid suffered a deadly asthma attack while covering civil unrest in Syria. Hicks reportedly carried the body of his dead colleague across the border into Turkey. ^[7]

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Lens posts published by Tyler Hicks, (The New York Times) Tyler Hicks' essays on the Times' Lens blog.

Ed Kashi (born November 16, 1957) is an American photojournalist and member of VII Photo based in the Greater New York area. Kashi's award-winning work spans from high-end print photojournalism to experimental film. He is most noted for documenting contemporary sociopolitical issues.^[1]

Ed Kashi, Photojournalist
Born	November 16, 1957
Education	Syracuse University
www.edkashi.com

Ed Kashi's work on the plight of the Kurdish people and the impact of the oil industry upon the impoverished Niger Delta has provided extensive photojournalistic reporting of these global issues. In addition, he is known for his coverage of religious strife both in America and abroad. Most notable would be his work documenting the Protestant community in Northern Ireland, the lives of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and the strife between the Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq.

Kashi and his wife, Julie Winokur, are co-founders of a non-profit multimedia company called Talking Eyes Media.^[2] Talking Eyes Media was created in 2002 to deliver issue-orientated stories to the general public. Some of the stories covered by Talking Eyes Media/Ed Kashi are: Aging in America,^[3] Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured and The Sandwich Generation. Aging in America was further the subject of a book published by powerHouse books^[4] and named by American Photo Magazine as one of the best photo books of 2003.^{[citation needed]} Aging in America also received an award from Pictures of the Year, World Press Photo and two Freddie Awards(2005).^{[citation needed]}

"Curse of the Black Gold, Hope and Betrayal in the Niger Delta”, published in National Geographic Magazine, February 2007, chronicled the negative impact of oil development on the impoverished Niger Delta. This article led to a collaborative photographic and editorial essay book published by powerHouse books in May 2008, Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta.

A leading pioneer of multimedia storytelling^{[citation needed]}, Kashi uses stills along with video and audio, putting him on the cutting edge of new media. His work appears on Mediastorm and msnbc.com. Kashi's innovative approach to photography and filmmaking produced the Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook which premiered on msnbc.com in December 2006.^[5] The Flipbook utilizes thousands of stills in a moving image format, layered with music to create a symphonic documentary.^[5] The Flipbook has been part of many film festivals across the world including Silverdocs (2007) and the Tiburon International Film Festival (2008).[[1]]

Kashi has worked closely with National Geographic Society since 1990 and holds a degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University.^[6] His clients include: The New York Times Magazine, Time, Mediastorm, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GEO, Newsweek and msnbc.com.^{[citation needed]} Photojournalisms, his latest book is a compilation of journal writings to his wife, done over a nearly 20 year period, from various locations around the world. It was published in March 2012, by JGS/Nazraeli Press and was recently highlighted during an interview with Kashi for the New York Times Lens Blog *[2] . Kashi continues to teach and lecture extensively.

Bibliography[link]

• Photojournalisms (JGS/Nazraeli Press, 2012)
• Three (powerHouse books, 2009)
• Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta (powerHouse books, 2008)
• Aging in America (powerHouse books, 2003)
• Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured (Talking Eyes Media, 2003)
• When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds (Pantheon Books, 1994)
• The Protestants: No Surrender (Ed Kashi, 1991)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ed Kashi website
• Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta
• Aging in America at MSNBC.com
• Talking Eyes Media
• Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook
• The Sandwich Generation
• Friends for Life
• [3]

James Nachtwey
Born	(1948-03-14) March 14, 1948 (age 64) Syracuse, New York, USA
Occupation	Photojournalist
Notable credit(s)	See Awards, honors and films
Website
http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

James Nachtwey (born March 14, 1948^[1]) is an American photojournalist and war photographer.

He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science (1966–70).^[2]

He has been awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal five times. In 2003, he was injured by a grenade in an attack on his convoy while serving as a Time contributing correspondent in Baghdad, from which he has made a full recovery.

Photography[link]

Nachtwey started working as a newspaper photographer in 1976 at the Albuquerque Journal. In 1980, he moved to New York and began working as a freelance photographer. In 1981, Nachtwey covered his first overseas assignment in Northern Ireland illustrating civil strife. He has documented a variety of armed conflicts and social issues, spending time in South Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union shooting pictures of war, conflict and famine, and images of socio-political issues (pollution, crime and punishment) in Western Europe and the United States. He currently lives in New York City.

In 1994, Nachtwey was covering the upcoming elections in South Africa, the first non-racial ones in decades. As an associate of the Bang-Bang Club, he was at the scene when Ken Oosterbroek was killed and Greg Marinovich was seriously injured.

Nachtwey had been injured previously in his work, but it was during his extensive coverage of the United States invasion of Iraq that he received his first combat injury. As Nachtwey, along with Time correspondent Michael Weisskopf rode in the back of a Humvee with the United States Army "Tomb Raiders" Survey Platoon, an insurgent threw a grenade into the vehicle. Weisskopf grabbed the grenade to throw it out of the humvee, but it exploded in his hand. Two soldiers were injured in the explosion, along with the Time journalists. Nachtwey managed to take several photographs of medic Billie Grimes treating Weisskopf before passing out. Both journalists were airlifted to Germany and later to hospitals in the United States. Nachtwey recovered sufficiently to return overseas to cover the tsunami in Southeast Asia of December 26, 2004.^[3]

Nachtwey has worked with Time as a contract photographer since 1984. He worked for Black Star from 1980 until 1985 and was a member of Magnum Photos from 1986 until 2001. In 2001, he was a founding member of the VII Photo Agency (he disassociated from VII in August 2011)^[4]

Nachtwey was present during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, and produced a well known related body of work. He also compiled a photo essay on the effects of the Sudan conflict on civilians.

In February 2011, Nachtwey contributed to a controversial piece for Vogue Magazine, which shone a favorable light on Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his family.^[5] The article and the photo series were particularly controversial as a peaceful protest movement in the context of the Arab Spring that was gathering steam at the same time, was brutally put down by the Syrian regime's military and secret police services. By December 2011, death toll estimates of the uprising ranged between 3,500 and 5,000, while an approximate 30,000 civilians were imprisoned and, in many cases, tortured severely. Vogue later decided to remove the article from its pages. Nevertheless, the article can still be accessed on the Syrian presidency's own website.^[5]

Awards, honors and films[link]

Nachtwey photographs have been exhibited throughout Europe and the United States and he has received numerous prizes and awards including the World Press Photo award in 1994. Nachtwey has also been awarded the Overseas Press Club's Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1994 and 1998. In 2001, the documentary War Photographer was released, focusing on Nachtwey and his work. Directed by Christian Frei, the film received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary film.

Nachtwey received the prestigious Dan David Prize in 2002 for his haunting photos aimed to burden viewers with an uncomfortable awareness that will force them to seek justice and change.

In 2006, Nachtwey was awarded the 12th Annual Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities from the Heinz Family Foundation for his body of work,^[6] an honor that includes a monetary prize of US $250,000. Nachtwey is one of three winners of the 2007 TED Prize. Each recipient was granted $100,000 and one "world-changing wish" to be revealed at the 2007 TED conference, in Monterey, California. Many members of the TED Community, and a group of world-class companies, have pledged support to help fulfill the wishes. Nachtwey's wish, revealed March 8, 2007, is this: "There's a vital story that needs to be told, and I wish for TED to help me gain access to it and then to help me come up with innovative and exciting ways to use news photography in the digital era."^[7] Those who wish to help him will sign an NDA and help him "gain access to a place in the world where a critical situation is occurring and fully document it with photography; set a date to unveil the pictures and find a series of innovative ways to create powerful impact with them, using novel display technologies and the power of the Internet as well as media; and use the campaign to generate resources for organizations that are working to address and transform the situation." Early results of this work have been unveiled at XDRTB.org to document extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis throughout the world.

In 2008, Nachtwey exhibited a series of original photographs at Le Laboratoire in Paris, France. The exhibit entitled "Struggle For Life"^[8] documented the human toll of TB and AIDS presented the work of Nachtwey with text by Dr. Anne Goldfeld of work they began together in Cambodia in 2003^[9] as well as photos from Thailand, Africa and Siberia. The work was accompanied by film portraits of Nachtwey and several leading medical scientists participating in the Attention! Symposium by American filmmaker Asa Mader.

References[link]

1. ^ biography.com
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Ratnesar, Ramesh; Weisskopf, Michael (December 2003). "Portrait of a Platoon". Time. http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/personoftheyear/2003/poyplatoon.html. 
4. ^ Nachtwey leaves VII, August 2011, http://pdnpulse.com/2011/08/nachtwey-has-left-vii-photo-agency-prepares-for-expansion.html 
5. ^ ^{a b} Buck, Joan Juliet. "Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert". Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert. Vogue Magazine. http://www.presidentassad.net/ASMA_AL_ASSAD/Asma_Al_Assad_News_2011/Asma_Assad_Vogue_February_2011.htm. Retrieved 20 December 2011. 
6. ^ The Heinz Awards, James Nachtwey profile
7. ^ James Nachtwey's TED Prize acceptance talk, TED, March 2007, http://www.ted.com/talks/james_nachtwey_s_searing_pictures_of_war.html 
8. ^ Un salutaire coup de poing, February 2008, http://www.lalibre.be/culture/arts-visuels/article/403367/un-salutaire-coup-de-poing.html 
9. ^ Picture of the Year 2004, March 2004, http://www.poyi.org/61/mpoy/nachtweythree01.php 

External links[link]

• Official website
• James Nachtwey TEDTalk: Use my photographs to stop the worldwide XDR-TB epidemic
• VII photo agency
• Film Portrait of James Nachtwey by Asa Mader
• Time.com: Shattered 9/11/2001
• War Photographer Documentary
• Close Up: Five Questions With James Nachtwey
• PBS online NewsHour: Conversation with James Nachtwey
• The Independent Oct 2002 - Review of Nachtwey Lecture at the Royal Geographical Society
• Creating awareness of extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB)
• 2003 Dan David Prize laureate
• The Heinz Awards, James Nachtwey profile

The Up Series is a series of documentary films produced by Granada Television that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. The documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49 years (one episode every seven years) and the documentary has been broadcast on both ITV and BBC. In a 2005 Channel 4 programme, the series topped the list of The 50 Greatest Documentaries.

The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each child's social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate. The purpose is also stated at the beginning of "7 Up," as, "Why do we bring these children together? Because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The union leader and the business executive of the year 2000 are now 7 years old."

56 Up consisted of 3 x 1 hour parts, the first of which premiered on 14 May 2012.

Creation[link]

The first film in the series, Seven Up!, was directed by Paul Almond, and commissioned by Granada Television as a programme in the World in Action series broadcast in 1964. From 7 Plus Seven onward the films have been directed by Michael Apted, who had been a researcher on Seven Up! and chose the original children with Gordon McDougall. The premise of the film was taken from the Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man", which is based on a quotation by Ignatius Loyola. The 1998 programme was commissioned by BBC One, although still produced for them by Granada Television.

Participants[link]

We are first introduced to the subjects on a group visit to London Zoo, where the narrator announces "We brought these 20 children together for the very first time." The series, however, only follows fourteen: Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker.

The participants were chosen in an attempt to represent different social classes in Britain in the 1960s. Apted admits in the commentary track of the 42 Up DVD that he was asked to find children at the extremes. Because the show was not originally intended to become a repeating series, no long-term contract was signed with the participants. The interviews since Seven Up! have been voluntary, although the participants have been paid an unknown sum for their appearance in each film, as well as equal parts of any prize the film may win, says Apted. Each subject is filmed in about two days, and the interview itself takes more than six hours. In an interview with the BBC's Will Gompertz shortly before the broadcast of 56 Up, Michael Apted admitted that it had been a poor decision to include only four female participants.^[1]

Andrew[link]

Andrew was one of three boys chosen from the same pre-preparatory school in the wealthy London suburb of Kensington (the other two being Charles and John). The three are introduced in Seven Up! singing "Waltzing Matilda" in Latin. At the age of seven, when asked what newspaper he reads, if any, Andrew stated that he reads The Financial Times (although he later revealed he was in fact just repeating what his father had told him when asked the same question), and all three could say which prep schools, public schools and universities they planned to attend (Oxford/Cambridge in all cases); two named the specific Oxbridge college they intended to join.

Andrew Brackfield's academic career culminated in his studying at Trinity College, Cambridge. Andrew subsequently became a solicitor, married, and raised a family. He is the only one out of the three to have been in all the Up films.

Charles[link]

Charles Furneaux did not make it into Oxford, although at 21 he said he was glad to have avoided the "prep school-Marlborough-Oxbridge conveyor belt" by going to Durham University instead, later attending Oxford as a post-graduate student. Charles has worked in journalism in varying capacities over the years, including as a producer for the BBC, and in the making of documentary films, including Touching the Void. He chose not to appear in the series after 21 Up, other than the contribution of an occasional photograph. During an on-stage interview at London's National Film Theatre in December 2005, Apted revealed that Charles had attempted to sue him when he refused to remove Charles's likeness from the archive sequences in 49 Up. Apted also commented on the irony that as a documentary maker himself, Charles was the only one who refused to continue.^[2]

By the time of 56 Up, all references to Charles had been removed, other than in fleeting glimpses of joint shots with Andrew and John, suggesting that his threat to sue Apted was taken seriously. It is not clear why and when Charles's reluctance to appear turned into active action to be removed.

John[link]

John Brisby, who was vocal on politics by 14, attended Oxford and became a barrister.^[3] He married the daughter of an ambassador to Bulgaria and devotes himself to charities related to Bulgaria, and hopes to reclaim family land there that had been nationalized. He said in 35 Up that he only does the films to give more publicity to his chosen charities. In 56 Up, John criticized Apted's decision to originally portray him as part of the "privileged upper class". He related that his father had died when he was 9, and his mother had to work to put him through private school. He attended Oxford University on scholarship.

Suzy[link]

Suzanne (Suzy) Lusk comes from a wealthy background, and was first filmed at a boarding school. Her parents divorced around the time of 7 Plus Seven. She then dropped out of school at the age of 16, deciding to travel to Paris. By 21, she had formed a strong negative opinion about marriage. Her husband Rupert Dewey is a successful solicitor in Bath and they have three children; two boys and a girl. She became a bereavement counsellor.

Jackie, Lynn and Sue[link]

These three girls were chosen from the same primary school in a working class neighbourhood of London. Jackie Bassett and Susan (Sue) Davis eventually went to a comprehensive school, while Lynn Johnson attended a grammar school. Jackie and Lynn both married at 19, Sue at 24. Lynn became a children's (and later, school) librarian at 21 and has remained in that career since then. Jackie went through several different jobs, got divorced, and raised children as single parents. Sue had two children, divorced, and has now been engaged for 14 years. She works as a university administrator for Queen Mary's university, despite not having gone to university herself.

Tony[link]

Tony Walker was chosen from a primary school in the East End of London who is introduced along with his girlfriend Michelle. He wanted to be a jockey at 7, and was at a stable training as one by 14. By 21 his chance had come and gone, after riding in three races before giving it up, and he was proud to have competed against Lester Piggott. He then "did 'The Knowledge'" and made a comfortable life for himself and his family as a London taxi driver. His later dream of becoming an actor has met with modest success; he has had small parts as an extra (almost always playing a cabbie) in several TV programmes since 1986, including Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, The Bill, and twice in EastEnders, most recently in 2003. In 35 Up Tony admitted that being in a monogamous relationship was becoming a strain, and by 42 Up he had actually committed adultery, though he and his wife have got past it and are still together. By 42 Up, he had moved to Essex and by 49 Up, owned two homes, including a holiday home in Spain.

Paul[link]

Paul Kligerman was at a charity-based boarding school at 7, his parents having divorced and he having been left with his father. Soon after Seven Up! his father and stepmother moved the family to Australia, where he has remained in the Melbourne area ever since. By 21, he had more presence, long hair, and a girlfriend whom he later married and remains with today. After leaving school he was employed as a bricklayer and later set up his own business. In 49 Up he is working for a sign-making company. In both 21 Up and 49 Up, Paul was reunited with Symon, who had attended the same boarding school; portions of their time together are included in both films.

Symon[link]

The only participant with a non-white background is mixed-race. Symon Basterfield was chosen from the same charity home as Paul. He was an illegitimate child, who apparently never got to know his black father, and had left the charity home to live with his white mother by the time of the 7 Plus Seven filming; her depression is alluded to as the cause for him being in the home. As the filming for 35 Up was taking place, he was going through a divorce from his first wife and mother of his five children, and he elected not to take part in that film. Symon returned for 42 Up and 49 Up, remarried with one son and one stepdaughter. In 49 Up, he and his wife had become foster parents.

Nick[link]

William Nicholas (Nick) Hitchon was raised on a small farm in Arncliffe, a tiny village in the Yorkshire Dales. He was educated in a one-room school four miles walk from his home, and later at a boarding school. He went to Oxford University and then moved to the United States to work as a nuclear physicist. He married another British ex-pat, who participated in 28 Up but was displeased with how her comments were received by viewers, many of whom apparently concluded that the marriage was doomed. She declined to appear in 35 Up and 42 Up. By 49 Up the couple had divorced and Nick had remarried, this time to Cryss Brunner, who is ten years his senior and teaches in Minneapolis. Nick is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.^[4]

Peter[link]

Peter Davies went to the same middle-class Liverpool suburban school as Neil, who like Peter wanted to be an astronaut. Peter drifted through university, and by age 28 he was an underpaid and seemingly uninspired school teacher. Peter dropped out of the series after 28 Up, when he lost his job as a teacher following a tabloid press campaign against him after he criticised the government of Margaret Thatcher in his interview. In the director's commentary for 42 Up it is stated that he later divorced, took up study of the law, has become a lawyer, re-married, had children and moved back to Liverpool. He made a surprise return to the series in 56 Up to promote his band, the Liverpool-based country-influenced The Good Intentions.^[5]

Neil[link]

From a 'Liverpool suburb' Neil Hughes turned out to be the most unpredictable of the entire group. At seven he was funny, full of life and hope. By the time of 21 Up he was homeless in London, having dropped out of Aberdeen University after one term, and was living in a squat and finding work as he could on building sites. During the interview he is clearly in an agitated state, and it becomes apparent that he has mental health issues and is struggling to cope with life. At 28 he was still homeless, although now in Scotland; by 35 he was living in a council house on the Shetland Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, writing and appearing in the local pantomime. By the time of 42 Up he had finally found some stability in his life (with some help from Bruce — he was living in Bruce's apartment in London and Bruce had become a source of emotional support) and was involved in local council politics, as a Liberal Democrat in the London Borough of Hackney. By the time of 49 Up, he is a District Councillor in the Eden district of Cumbria, in North West England.^[6] Neil stood in the 2010 general election as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Carlisle where he finished third, receiving 6,567 votes.^[7]

Bruce[link]

Bruce Balden was an idealist who was concerned with poverty and racial discrimination and wanted to become a missionary. He was attending a prestigious boarding school. At the age of seven, he said that his greatest desire was to see his father, who was a soldier in Rhodesia, and he seemed a little abandoned. Bruce studied mathematics at Oxford University and used his education to teach children in the East End of London and Sylhet, Bangladesh. Before 42 Up, he married, and Apted broke the seven-year structure of the films to film Bruce's wedding, which was also attended by Neil. Eventually becoming burned out with teaching in the East End, Bruce currently teaches at St Albans School, Hertfordshire, a prestigious public school. Between 42 Up and 49 Up, he had two sons, and is happily married to a fellow teacher.

Participation record[link]

		7 Up (1964)	14 Up (1970)	21 Up (1977)	28 Up (1984)	35 Up (1991)	42 Up (1998)	49 Up (2005)	56 Up (2012)
1	Andrew	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
2	Charles	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N
3	John	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y	Y
4	Suzy	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
5	Jackie	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
6	Lynn	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
7	Sue	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
8	Tony	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
9	Paul	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
10	Symon	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y
11	Nick	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
12	Peter	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	Y
13	Neil	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
14	Bruce	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y

Influence[link]

The series has received extraordinary praise over the years, the epitome of which may be Roger Ebert's comments that it is "an inspired, even noble, use of the film medium", that the films "penetrate to the central mystery of life",^[8] and that the series is among his top ten films of all time. Attempts have been made to repeat the series with subjects in the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and South Africa. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, 28 Up was placed 26th. The series has also been satirised; The Simpsons' 2007 episode "Springfield Up" is narrated by an Apted-like filmmaker who depicts the past and current lives of a group of Springfield residents he has revisited every eight years.

The original hypothesis of Seven Up! was that class structure is so strong in the UK that a person's life path would be set at birth. The producer of the original programme had at one point thought to line the children up on the street, have three of them step forward and narrate "of these twenty children, only three will be successful" (an idea which was not used). The idea of class immobility held up in most, but not all, cases as the series has progressed. The children from the working classes have by and large remained in those circles, though Tony seems to have become more middle class. Apted has said that one of his regrets is that they did not take feminism in to account, and consequently had fewer girls in their study and did not select them on the basis of any possible careers they might choose.

Although it began as a political documentary, the series has become a film of human nature and existentialism. In the director's commentary for 42 Up, Apted comments that he did not realise the series had changed tone from political to personal until 21 Up, when he showed the film to American friends who encouraged him to submit it (successfully) to American film festivals. Apted also comments that this realisation was a relief to him and allowed the films to breathe a little more.

Criticism[link]

The Up series has been criticised by both ethnographers and the subjects themselves for its editing style. Mitchell Duneier has pointed out that Apted has the ability to create causal relationships between a character's past and present that might not actually exist.^[9] Apted has acknowledged this fact, pointing out that in 21 Up he believed Tony would soon be in prison so he filmed him around dangerous areas for use in later films.^[10]

Influence on participants[link]

Over the course of the project the programme has in varying degrees had a direct effect on the lives of its participants. The series became popular enough that the participants often speak of being recognised in public. Their opinions of being involved in the series are often mentioned, and vary greatly among the participants. John refers to the programme as a poison pill that he is subjected to every seven years, while Paul's wife credits the series for keeping their marriage together. Michael Apted has commented that one of the big surprises between filming 42 Up and 49 Up was the impact of reality television. The subjects really wanted to talk about how they saw their contribution to the series in the light of reality TV.

Paul and Nick were flown back to England at Granada's expense for the filming of 35 Up and 42 Up respectively. Paul was flown back again for 49 Up and visited Symon. Bruce was affected by Neil's plight and offered him temporary shelter in his home shortly before 42 Up, allowing Neil time to get settled in London. Despite Neil's eccentricities during his two-month stay, they clearly remained friends, with Neil later giving a reading at Bruce's wedding.

List of films and premiere dates[link]

Similar documentaries[link]

• A new version was started in 2000, 7Up 2000 (2000, Julian Farino), continuing with 14 Up 2000 in 2007.
• Australia – by Gillian Armstrong
  • Smokes and Lollies (1975)
  • 14's Good, 18's Better (1980)
  • Bingo, Bridesmaids & Braces (1988)
  • Not Fourteen Again (1996)
  • Love, Lust & Lies (2009)
• Belgium
  • Jambers, 1980–1990. Two part documentary by TV journalist Paul Jambers on Flemish public TV channel about secondary school students in Kapellen, near Antwerp.
• Canada
  • Talk 16 (1991) and Talk 19 (1993), directed and written by Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell of Back Alley Film Productions.
• Czech Republic – by Helena Třeštíková.
  • René, a single episode portrait of a man over 20 years, starting in the late 1980s. René at the Internet Movie Database
• France
  • Que deviendront-ils ? from Michel Fresnel (1984 to 1996).
• Germany
  • Die Kinder von Golzow by Winfried Junge, set in former East Germany as well as in unified Germany after 1990 (1961 to 2006).
  • Berlin - Ecke Bundesplatz by Detlef Gumm and Hans-Georg Ullrich. The documentary follows individuals, families or groups of related people in separate episodes each around one hour. Broadcast in four seasons on 3sat.
    • 1999: Der Prominenten-Anwalt, Bäckermeister im Kiez, Wilmersdorfer Witwen, Die nächste Generation, Die Alleinerziehende, Der Aussteiger
    • 2001: Grenzgänger, Solisten
    • 2004: Kinder! Kinder!, Alte Freunde, Vereinigungen, Recht und Ordnung
    • 2009: Mütter und Töchter, Die Aussteiger, Schön ist die Jugend..., Die Köpcke-Bande, Der Yilmaz-Clan
• Denmark
  • Årgang 0 by TV2 (2000) – The show follows the children, born in the year 2000, from birth.
• Japan – follows thirteen children living in different parts of Japan.
  • 7 Up Japan (1992)
  • 14 Up Japan (1999)
  • 21 Up Japan (2006)
• The Netherlands
  • Bijna volwassen (1982) – follows a group of 17–18-year-olds.
  • Bijna 30 (1994)
  • Bijna 40 (2005)
• South Africa – by Angus Gibson
  • 7 Up in South Africa (1992)
  • 14 Up in South Africa (1999)
  • 21 Up South Africa (2007)
• Sweden by Rainer Hartleb. About a group of children from Jordbro, a suburb of Stockholm.^[11]
  • Från en barndomsvärld (1973)
  • Barnen från Jordbro (1982)
  • Tillbaka till Jordbro (1988)
  • Det var en gång... en liten flicka (1992)
  • En pizza i Jordbro (1994)
  • Nya barn i Jordbro (2001)
  • Alla mår bra (2006)
• USSR/Former Soviet republics – by Sergei Miroshnichenko and Jemma Jupp.
  • Age 7 in the USSR (1990)
  • 14 Up Born in the USSR (1998) (this won an International Emmy)
  • Born in the USSR: 21 Up (2005)
  • Born in the USSR: 28 Up (2012)
• United States
  • Age 7 in America (1991) directed by Phil Joanou
  • 14 Up in America (1998)
  • 21 Up in America (2006) directed by Christopher Dillon Quinn
• Married in America (2002) also by Michael Apted

Bibliography[link]

• Stella Bruzzi (2007), Seven Up. London: British Film Institute.

See also[link]

• Boyhood, a film that will follow a boy from the age of six through to eighteen in real time over twelve years.
• Child of Our Time is a BBC/The Open University documentary which follows the lives of 25 children who were born around the turn of the millennium.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Seven Up! at the Internet Movie Database
• 7 Plus Seven at the Internet Movie Database
• 21 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• 28 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• 35 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• 42 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• 49 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• 56 Up at the Internet Movie Database
• Transcript of a British Film Institute appearance and interview with Apted
• P.O.V. 49 Up - PBS's site dedicated to the film