For famous photojournalist Sir Don McCullin, the landscape has changed since the days when dozens of printed pages were devoted to his photo stories, leading him to declare, "Photojournalism is dying." According to Sir Don McCullin, newspapers and magazines are much more interested in the wealthy, the glamorous and celebrities. They don't want suffering people in their newspapers. Photojournalism hasn't lost its way but it's been conveniently pushed aside. Shrinking editorial budgets, increasing competition and mistrust of the Press are just some of the factors impacting photojournalism. But the power of photography endures and technology is allowing photographers more creative freedom than ever before. The world is hungry for visual storytelling, but will photojournalism survive?
We spoke to photojournalists working in this industry about the state of affairs today, and asked their opinions about photojournalism in the digital age.
Ilvy Njiokiktjien
"Assignments have changed, so people don't need to go somewhere for months to work on one project. When Don McCullin's pictures were making it into the newspaper, his images would be the news. Now if I take a picture at Nelson Mandela's funeral, for instance, there are 300 other photographers there. There are so many images that you are never going to really shoot an iconic image. You're not the only one there—there are your colleagues and there are people with cellphones. I don't think a single image will ever lose its power. Single images, to me, are so strong—I can look at a single image and never forget it. But there are new ways of storytelling—with cellphones, with interactive online experiences and virtual reality. Therefore, it's important to see what matches the story."
Jérôme Sessini
"I think now we are freer than before because of technology. Besides, we don't care about the newspapers like people did before. We get free from the newspapers, so we are able to tell stories in the way we want to tell them. In my opinion, pictures can express emotions—I believe more in emotions than in rationality. I don't want to tell people, ‘this is like this', or ‘like that'. I want them to first feel something from the pictures, and then ask some questions. They will have to find the answers by themselves."
Magnus Wennman
"When I started, press photography was a pretty old-school profession, but today it's completely different. It's not about the technique any more. It's about telling stories, and you have endless opportunities to tell stories by means of pictures. If you are engaging in storytelling, I would say your future is very bright.Photojournalism is more democratic.As a matter of fact, nowadays we can see people shooting with their cellphones anywhere. Photojournalism is no longer the privilege of those working at newspapers. The new generation of photojournalists should work in a completely different way. As you see everywhere, visual storytelling is getting more and more important. If you're good at that, you're going to survive."
Daniel Etter
"A lot of people have been declaring that photojournalism is dead and, somehow, it's still around. It's still alive, and it's still kicking—maybe not quite as hard as in Don McCullin's days, but it's still important. It doesn't have the impact it once had, and it will never have that impact again. I always believe photography plays a role, but if there are better ways of telling visual stories, I'm fine with that. The biggest problem we are running into now is how to make others believe us. Look at how really basic facts are in question nowadays. To make our work a reliable source of information is our biggest challenge. I haven't figured out a way to make news more trustworthy—the only thing we can do is do good work. That means doing research and trying to represent events in a fair way."
