dinsdag, juli 12, 2005
Bystander Photojournalism Steals The Spotlight in London Coverage
The coverage of last Thursday's terrorist attacks in London demonstrated not just how easy it is for bystanders to photograph major news events, but how much easier it is than ever before for news organizations to find those images and distribute them.
World Picture News, the BBC, MSNBC and other outlets posted messages on the internet soliciting pictures, scoured the growing numbers of picture-sharing blogs, and ended up distributing several remarkable amateur pictures that professional photographers never had an opportunity to get.
The image quality was notably bad, which is typical for images shot by bystanders. Cell phone file sizes in particular are too small for good print reproduction, and the esthetic quality of the pictures is, well, amateur.
But in the case of the London bombings, at least some of the bystander photos have more immediacy than the images shot a short while later by professional photographers covering rescue operations from outside tube stations.
AP chief Santiago Lyon notes: Bystander images are the photographic equivalent of eyewitness accounts: ‘This is what I saw.’ But bystanders with cell phone cameras are never going to replace professional photographers. We’re not going to be relying on the public to cover stories for us, but as we saw in the London story, they can provide compelling pictures.
Lees meer bij PDN.
World Picture News, the BBC, MSNBC and other outlets posted messages on the internet soliciting pictures, scoured the growing numbers of picture-sharing blogs, and ended up distributing several remarkable amateur pictures that professional photographers never had an opportunity to get.
The image quality was notably bad, which is typical for images shot by bystanders. Cell phone file sizes in particular are too small for good print reproduction, and the esthetic quality of the pictures is, well, amateur.
But in the case of the London bombings, at least some of the bystander photos have more immediacy than the images shot a short while later by professional photographers covering rescue operations from outside tube stations.
AP chief Santiago Lyon notes: Bystander images are the photographic equivalent of eyewitness accounts: ‘This is what I saw.’ But bystanders with cell phone cameras are never going to replace professional photographers. We’re not going to be relying on the public to cover stories for us, but as we saw in the London story, they can provide compelling pictures.
Lees meer bij PDN.
# posted by Jan-Edward : 10:49
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