boston fire stanley forman
In the world of journalism, the story is told with words. With photojournalism, however, the pictures tell the story. The highest award given in journalism is the Pulitzer Prize. Not every person will run into dangerous situations to capture what is truly taking place. Nor can anyone plan to be in the right place at the right time. There is a vast amount of luck and perseverance required to capture one of these perfect, real-life moments. The effects of such photos span far beyond the picture itself. When you have seen a photograph that touches, you can never un-see it. That image stays forever etched in your mind. That photo can move you to that exact moment that shutter snaps closed and that image becomes part of history. The sights, the sounds, the smells, in that image, become a part of you.
In 1949, Babe Ruth stepped out onto the field at Yankee Stadium for the last time. With his hat and bat in hand, his head bowed, the “Sultan of Swat” looks out over the crowd. Every fan in the stadium is standing, his team standing to the side of him, he bids farewell to the game that he has dominated for nearly 22 years, the stark number three, standing like a beacon on the back of his jersey. Another Yankee player would never again wear the number three that would be retired after Ruth’s death. Nathaniel Fein took that photo. “It’s a front seat to history,” John White, a photojournalist, said when discussing the importance of photo-journalism. “The Babe Bows Outs” now hangs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as the Smithsonian Institute. Nearly 70 years later, you can still almost hear the roar of the crowd.
Photojournalist Jerry Gay said, “Everything has a story about it. You just have to be able to see it.” In 1957, William Beall joined the ranks of Pulitzer Prize winners when his photograph, “Faith and Confidence,” hit the air. The photo, taken in Washington, shows a police officer bending down trying to reason with a 2-year-old boy during a parade. The boy, his hands placed together as if praying, head tilted to the side, appears to be reasoning with the officer. The officer is trying to explain why it is unsafe for him to be in the street. The kindness in the smile of the officer coupled with the child’s heartfelt expression and praying hands are symbolic of the balance between the two. Their story is one of teacher and student. Based on the pleading eyes of the child, however, one would assume that he is doing the teaching and the officer is the one learning.
In 1977, Stanley Forman became a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, during a time where desegregation was its peak and controversy sparked all over the country. During a protest after a court order passed for the desegregation of busing, Joseph Rakes, a white teenager, is seen attempting to assault a black man. The photo depicts Rakes holding a flagpole and lunging at Ted Landsmark, a lawyer and civil-rights activist. While chaos erupted around them in the streets, the most shocking aspect of the image is the America flag waving from the flagpole as Rakes runs toward his target. “It’s an honor to be a journalist. If I care about something, I can make half a million people care,” photojournalist Stan Grossfeld said. The photo “Soiling Old Glory” is a sad reminder of the times when people of different races were treated less than human. The photo not only highlighted the mistreatment of the African Americans; it desecrated all that our flag stands for. Forman’s photo made people care.
William Snyder said, “It’s not a photography contest. It’s about telling some of the biggest stories of the year.” However, the lens tells the story. Snyder has won three Pulitzer prizes for his work. In 1991, Snyder won the prize for his photos of Romanian orphans. The photos taken are some of the most haunting images in history.
The Romanian orphanage living conditions were “subhuman” prior to the fall of the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989. The government began making some improvements soon after. They were still far from healthy, however. Imagine the body of a child, his face gaunt with hollow eyes. He is lying on a bed, flies crawling on his face and his emaciated body curled into the fetal position, his pitiful existence painfully clear. This is one of the images Snyder captured.
Carol Guzy said, “Someone once told me that empathy was not imagining how you would feel in a particular situation, but actually feeling what the other person is feeling.” Through the eyes of the Romanian orphans, the viewer can see, feel, hear, smell and taste all the horrible aspects of these children’s lives. The photos tell their story.
Kevin Carter is well known for his work during the Sudanese famine. Carter was a South African photojournalist who committed suicide soon after he received Pulitzer Prize in 1994. In his suicide letter he wrote, “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children.” “The Starving Child and Vulture” is one of his most unsettling photos.
The photo of an emaciated child crawling to a feeding center is a stark reminder of life in a third world country. The child’s arms have no muscle mass. With every rib visible, its frail body paints a gruesome picture. A vulture is lying in wait in the background. The photo depicts the predatory nature of the vulture. Typically, vultures are scavengers who steal their food. This vulture is patiently waiting for his meal, while the child struggles to survive.
While these are only a few of the thousands of photos to win the Pulitzer Prize, they are a clear picture of how a photo can truly tell a story. Photojournalists have the job of taking that one millisecond in time and making it timeless. While it is easy to take a picture of a child healthy, happy and playing in the grass, it takes a special kind of person to capture the human being in its rarest and often weakest form: those beautiful, rare moments where the miracle of life and agony of death collide.
Life is a series of millions of moments, all strung together to create “your” life. The good, the bad, the ugly, all wrapped into the years a person is on this Earth. Photojournalists, through their work, piece those moments together and create a glimpse of real life, managing to capture the beautiful and the ugly. Sometimes, there is beauty in both. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words but in some cases, no words are needed.
