{"id":7023,"date":"2022-06-28T09:48:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T13:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7023"},"modified":"2025-08-24T12:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:53:37","slug":"the-journalist-behind-the-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/06\/28\/the-journalist-behind-the-lens\/","title":{"rendered":"The Journalist Behind the Lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The film, \u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,\u201d gives an intimate insight into the journalists behind the lens. Even if we do not know their names, we know their photos. They stick in our minds and stay with us. We may not think about the person taking the photo because we are so entranced by the subject. This truly shows what makes these photographs so exceptional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In this film we get to hear firsthand from the journalists what went into taking the photos. The thought process adds another layer of emotion to the photos. We can see the aftermath of documenting something tragic. What that event does to the person taking these photos. The journalists putting themselves in harm\u2019s way to tell the stories of their subject. Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld sums it up with just a few words. \u201cWelcome to my nightmare.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We also get to see the joy and pride they take in capturing these moments, like John White photographing the inner-city students using their hallways to run track. White knew the importance of capturing the everyday life of Chicago\u2019s residents. \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<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The image of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima is one of the earlier photographs the film shows. The photo depicts the battle-worn soldiers raising the flag in the wreckage of the battle. Joe Rosenthal took this photo in 1945. He took it five days after the Marines landed on Iwo Jima. This image has become iconic in the United States. Multiple statues and memorials have been created in its honor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

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

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby in 1963 as he was being led out of the Dallas police headquarters. Photographer Robert Jackson somehow managed to capture the exact moment when Oswald was shot. Jackson had set up 10-feet from the door that Oswald was going to exit. As Oswald came through the door, someone stepped in front of Jackson. \u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018This guy\u2019s getting in my way.\u2019 Ruby took steps and fired, and I guess I fired about the same time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Black Lives Matter protests popped up in many major cities this past summer. Some of these protests resulted in altercations with less progressive movements. Stanley Forman\u2019s 1976 photograph, \u201cThe Soiling of Old Glory,\u201d made a reappearance. The photo depicts a white teenager assaulting a black man with a flagpole during an anti-bussing protest. The contrast between the two–a white, long-haired teenager, bearing a scowl on his face, and a black man who is a well-dressed lawyer who has been knocked back into the crowd by the attacker–is so visceral. When viewing the photo, you can feel the hate coming from the teenager. The concerned look of the crowd indicates that the assault is horrendous. Forman\u2019s photograph compared to this summer\u2019s clashes between protesters shows that while we have come a long way for equality in this country, we still have a lot of work to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1984, Stan Grossfeld went to Ethiopia to cover the famine. Civil war had left most of the country starved. Grossfeld took a picture of a mother and child waiting in line for food. The mother and child are nothing more than skin and bones. The child succumbed to starvation hours after the photo was taken. Grossfeld struggled documenting this tragedy. \u201cYou try to be a technician and look through the viewfinder; sometimes the viewfinder fills up with tears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1996, a young girl fell into the raging floodwaters of Matanzas Creek. Firefighters struggled to rescue her. Photographer Annie Wells was standing on the shore of the creek. Wells snapped a picture of a firefighter clinging to a branch while attempting to rescue the girl. The creek looks as if it is attempting to consume the girl as she holds onto her rescuer. Thankfully, she was pulled to safety by the brave firefighter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is the responsibility of a photojournalist. To shine a light on the good and the bad. To hold up a mirror to our society so that we can see what is truly going on in this crazy world. These men and women want to make you feel what others around the world are feeling. Carol Guzy knows the importance that empathy plays in taking a photograph. \u201cSomeone once told me that\u00a0empathy\u00a0was not imagining how you would feel in a particular situation, but actually\u00a0feeling\u00a0what the other person is feeling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The film, \u201cA Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,\u201d gives an intimate insight into the journalists behind the lens. Even if we do not know their names, we know their photos. They stick in our minds and stay with us. We may not think about the person taking the photo because we are so entranced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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-7023","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\/7023","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8189,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7023\/revisions\/8189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}