{"id":6962,"date":"2022-02-28T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T14:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6962"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:19:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:19:41","slug":"photojournalists-offer-a-glimpse-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/02\/28\/photojournalists-offer-a-glimpse-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Photojournalists Offer a Glimpse of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs\u201d is a film about some of the most iconic Pulitzer Prize winning photographs throughout history. The photojournalists who took these breathtaking shots weave stories throughout the film of how they captured some of the most recognizable images, sometimes in some of the most harrowing circumstances. The images range from awe-inspiring to traumatic to heartbreaking. But the central theme that runs through them is that these photos are all masterful works of art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, 1945<\/span><\/p>\n

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Raising the flag at Iwo Jima.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Six battle-weary Marines work in tandem on a hill of debris and shrapnel to hoist a flag in victory. It is clear from the surrounding rubble that they balance on that the battle is fresh, that the danger may still be imminent. But they look determined. The angle of the flag makes it look as if it is heavy or perhaps it\u2019s difficult because of the wreckage that they are standing on.\u00a0 But they are working together and they are going to raise this flag, as it gloriously blows in the wind. You can feel the pride in country coming through the picture, the triumph to make it up the hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a front seat to history.\u201d –John White, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist. Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima is exactly that, an image from history that has become iconic. In this photo, you can almost feel the weight of the flag being placed on top of the horrors of war. If we didn\u2019t have these photos to document the sacrifices made by these men, we might not appreciate the toll that war–and this war, in particular–takes on those who live and die through it.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Saigon Execution, Eddie Adams, 1969<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSaigon Execution”.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the middle of a dusty street, a man in a plaid shirt with his hands tied behind his back is grimacing at what has just happened. To his right, a man in a military uniform calmly holds a gun to his head after having just pulled the trigger. The photographer caught the split second between life and death. To the right of the military man is a stunned officer, caught off guard, looking on, maybe not quite registering what he\u2019s seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be a journalist. If I care about something, I can make half a million people care.\u201d –Stan Grossfeld, multiple Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist. This photo epitomizes this thought. It was said that after this photo was published, people began to think differently about the war. From this picture, you would gather that this is a Viet Cong prisoner and that his captors decided to execute him rather than imprison and try him.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know specifically what he\u2019s done.\u00a0 But this photo makes you feel for his humanity. It\u2019s traumatic and it\u2019s uncomfortable and that\u2019s exactly what this photo is supposed to be. Good photojournalism can make you uncomfortable and question your beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Napalmed Girl, Nick Ut, 1973<\/span><\/p>\n

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Napalmed Girl.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Terrified children are running down a road toward the camera. Behind them are three soldiers scurrying away as well from the massive gray cloud of smoke in the background, the result of a bomb. Your eye is completely drawn to the center of the picture. A naked girl is running, crying in pain. You can see the flesh burned from her left arm. She may have ripped her clothes off because they were burning as well. There are no parents with these children, so it\u2019s easy to envision that beyond the smoke behind them, the scene must be even worse than what is captured in the photo. You will be terrified for her. She must be in horrible pain. It all looks so senseless. These innocent children are caught in the middle of a war that has nothing to do with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cEveryone has a story.\u00a0 And we sing their song.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t do it\u2014if the journalist doesn\u2019t do it\u2014who\u2019s going to do it?\u201d\u00a0 –John White. This photo epitomizes photojournalists\u2019 job of telling someone else\u2019s story, often at their own peril.\u00a0 When you see this photo, you wonder how the photographer wasn\u2019t also affected by the napalm and how he was calm enough, after he\u2019d just captured bombs being dropped, to pull out his camera and capture the story.\u00a0 This photo has become one of the most iconic photos of all time. It contributed to the anti-war movement and the eventual end of the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Colombia Mudslide, Carol Guzy\/Michel duCille, 1986<\/span><\/p>\n

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Frank Fournier’s photograph, Columbia Mudslide.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In this photo series of the Colombian mudslide of 1985, in which over 20,000 people died, one photo clearly stands out. In murky green water, the head and arm of a young girl, Omayra Sanchez, stick out. She\u2019s looking at the camera with bloodshot, helpless eyes. You see arms reaching out to help her: one has her wrist in his hand, the other has a rope. You see that they are trying to rescue her, but her face looks like this has been going on for a while. She looks almost resigned to her fate and you can feel it. It\u2019s a heart-wrenching photo because it appears as if they could just pull her up. You want to will them to pull her up. But when this photo was taken, she had been trapped for three days and eventually died, because they didn\u2019t have the equipment to free her. This photo is the most haunting of the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(When witnessing a disaster) \u201cYou rage inside at the helplessness. To try to deal with it, you seek out elements of humanity and courage.\u201d –Carol Guzy. This photo evokes all of the helplessness that you imagine everyone in this situation felt. It comes through in the photograph. You empathize, and you feel helpless, but you marvel at the courage of this child as her life slowly ticks away, trapped and on display.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Barcelona Olympics, William Snyder\/Ken Geiger, 1993<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is a photo series from the historic 1992 Olympic games. Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley are embracing, laughing, celebrating their gold medal win as part of the Dream Team. They are wearing their gold medals and Magic is clutching a flag in one hand. They are overjoyed, having beaten the entire world with unarguably the best basketball team ever assembled, the Dream Team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIf it makes you laugh.\u00a0 If it makes you cry.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good photo.\u00a0 You look at a film and you see it and it\u2019s over and it goes on the shelf.\u00a0 But a still picture is in front of you all the time\u2026.\u00a0 The most powerful weapon that we have in the world is a still photograph.\u201d –Eddie Adams. This photo embodies these words. There\u2019s joy in looking at this picture. It\u2019s nostalgic. This picture has a sense of taking you back to a happy time in our history, of witnessing an event that will likely never be repeated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each of these pictures is a work of art, and photojournalism is just that: art on film. It feels odd saying that, because some of these images embody true terror and horror.\u00a0 But they capture milliseconds of life that elicit so much emotion, good and bad. Photojournalism is more than a profession. It\u2019s artistry with a camera. Only true artists can do that, can make you feel what they see.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs\u201d is a film about some of the most iconic Pulitzer Prize winning photographs throughout history. The photojournalists who took these breathtaking shots weave stories throughout the film of how they captured some of the most recognizable images, sometimes in some of the most harrowing circumstances. The images range […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8207,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions\/8207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}