draft 1

Halie Cousineau 2/14/11
Photojournalism/Envir. Essay
?Title?
Photojournalism is a visual ways to show a story without words, letting the viewers see something, usually that wouldn’t normally be seen. Instead of telling a person about an issue it is a way of showing them and letting them create their own reaction and opinions without being told. As a photojournalist I have come to realize my profession is not defined by the name but by the photographer. Some photojournalists like to take pictures of people, others photograph sports, then there are some prefer to tell stories or the local news through photos. I may do all of the above however I choice photojournalism as a way for me to document issues around the world, or document things that may never be seen or needs to be preserved in someway. I suppose I could be called a documentary photographer or what the National Press Photographers Association said photojournalism is “A desire to be “out in the world”.
A very large part of photojournalism is environmental and conservation photography, dealing with environmental issues. Not only does this have a large affect on photojournalistic topics; what we do and where we go, but the photos that come out of a story can also affect the environmental issues. Photojournalism is a very board topic when dealing with the environment. However there is one story that interest me, the photo coverage of the killing of seven mountain gorillas in the Virunga National park, that can show how the environment can effect a story and the photojournalist but also how the story can effect the environment.
The Mountain Gorillas of Virunga are the largest of all gorillas but they are also the most endangered; there are only about 720 gorillas left in the wild. These animals can only be found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The main threats of theses animals besides the illegal animal trading are the destruction of their habitat, poaching, humans diseases and civil and guerilla war far in the area. (http://mountaingorillas.gorillacd.org/) These animals have been photographed for many year, sometimes for their shear cuteness or beauty, other times for scientific or educational purposes but lately it has been because of horrible events like the 2007 killing of seven gorillas, which was largely covered by National Geographic in a feature article in the 2008 July magazine. This event is a great example of photojournalism interacting with the environment.
This story however was not planned like many stories aren't. Brent Stirton, a photojournalist, was in on an assignment to photograph the conflict between two rebel army sanctions in the Virunga National park and how it creates, what he thought, the most dangerous conservation job for rangers in the park. Yet during his assignment this story changed because of the killing of the gorillas. Many times for photojournalist or journalist the story will chance due to events or outside forces in that environment. Stirton went from photographing Congo rebel conflict endangering rangers to the killing and conservation of an endangered species.
This story, once published, was then covered in countless medias. It was aired on a CNN news short multimedia clip using Stirton's photos to being blogged on in Critter News An Animal blog. Because sight is by far the most dominant of the sense in humans it makes photo a very powerful source of information. (http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/teachers/pdf/pictures.pdf) This story received a lot of media attention; not only was this covered during the time of the killing but it was also a feature story a year later in the National Geographic magazine in the article Who murdered the Virunga Gorillas? National Geographic has a world wide circulation of 6,685,684 and in the United Stated the circulation is 5,200,055. National Geographic not only reaches a lot o people but if Stirton was not there in the Congo at the time of the murders there is a strong possibility that the story of the gorillas may have never been told. Or if it was told the photos of executed gorillas would have never been taken to show what really happened to the gorillas. The media response to this issue and the large audience it was shown to shows how photojournalism can affect the environment sustainable issues. Weather it is educating people, discovering, voicing, or solving the issue photojournalism has can affects the environment sustainable issues. Photojournalism and media in general have effects on the environment just by telling the story but the environment is what forms the stories, changes it and changes the photographer.
The Virunga National Park in the Democratic of Congo contains "the greatest diversity of habitable of any park in Africa"(eoearth.com). During Stirton's interview with NPR Stirton explains that the forest in this area are old-growth forest making them very important to the sustainability of the area. But these trees are being cut down and burned to make charcoal. "Follow the trail of charcoal," de Merode had said at the WildlifeDirect office. "Charcoal is the biggest threat to the park." (nat geo.). It is said that 25% of the old-growth, hardwood forest in the southern part of the Virunga National Park has been devastated by the charcoal production (natgeo). Stirton tells how these trees are important to the sustainability of the environment and once the wood and land has been burned "it is gone forever". Due to this distraction by the charcoal production not only is it taking way the gorilla’s and other animal’s habitat, Stirton also believes charcoal is the reason why the seven gorillas were killed.
Stirton continued to research into the charcoal production and who was behind the illegal business. In doing so Stirton was lead to former chief park warden, Honoré Mashagiro, has been arrested for the killing of the gorillas: “Within a week of the July killings Brent's pictures of the murdered gorillas were splashed across the globe. Mashagiro was removed as provincial director of North Kivu.”(nat geo.) This shows that not only the interconnection of charcoal production has a direct effect on the sustainability of the gorillas’ habitat and lives but the story done by Stirton had a direct effect on the reactions to the deaths or the gorillas. It created a source of education on the issues in the Virunga National park.
During Stirton’s research on who killed the gorillas he personally changed due to the story affecting him. He said seeing how the rangers reacted so somberly to the killing of the gorillas gave him enlightenment and gave him a “dawning of my own awakening as to the relationship between conservation and conflict and the spaces we are in regards to some of our resources.” ( NPR interview) Through the course of the story changing and Stirton learning about the local environment and how it made him realize the issues he went to the Congo to photograph didn’t just involve humans”. (NPR)
Another direct effect to Stirton was the danger he was put in for the story. Many photojournalists involve themselves in life threatening situation in order to show the story. Stirton was give permission by the Nkunda…