An Essay for a photojournalist

Halie Cousineau 2/21/11 Essay for starting Photojournalism
What’s like
For those of you planning on becoming a photojournalist if you haven't heard someone tell you to stop and change your profession now, this will not be the last time because everyone says it. They say this because you won’t make any money or even have a steady job, which is most likely true, but I am not here to tell you to stop because I feel being a photojournalist isn't about making money it is about making a difference. Photojournalism is a visual way to show a story without words, letting the viewer see things, 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 reactions and opinions. As a photojournalist I realized that there are different fields inside photojournalism itself: some photojournalists like to take pictures of people, sports, tell stories or the local news. However I will be talking about the type of photography that I like, documentary photojournalism, dealing mainly with environmental and conservation photography. I will explain that although photojournalism is not a well paying job it will pay you in a different way: your photos will make a difference, your story will not only effect you but also what you are photographing. As a photojournalist we all have our favorite story or photographer. One of mine is the example I am going to use to show you how the environment can effect a story and the photojournalist but also how the story can effect the environment.
Brent Stirton, a photojournalist, was on an assignment to photograph the conflicts between two rebel army sanctions in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo to show how the conflict creates, what he thought, the most dangerous area for conservation. Yet during his assignment this story changed because of the killing of seven Virunga mountain gorillas (Stirton). These gorillas are the most endangered gorillas; there are only about 720 gorillas left in the world and they can only be found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of the main threats for the gorillas are illegal animal trading, destruction of habitat, and warfare in the area (Mountain Gorillas). Many times you will see the story you are covering will change due to events or outside forces in that environment. Stirton went from photographing Congo rebel conflicts to the killing and conservation of gorillas. This shows you how quickly a story can change for a photojournalist because of the changing environment.

As you can imagine the media world is extremely interconnected therefore once published Stirton’s story was covered in countless medias, from CNN news, to the Critter News An Animal blog. Once you start to study the techniques of photography you will learn the effectiveness of a good photo. Photography is very effective because sight is the most dominant of the senses in humans; making photos a powerful source of information (Power of Pictures). The story of the gorillas received an extensive amount of media attention, therefore being viewed by many people. It was covered twice, doubling the viewing: once during the time of the killing and a year later in the National Geographic magazine article; Who murdered the Virunga Gorillas? The media response to this issue and the large audience it was shown to shows how photojournalism can affect the environmental sustainable issues. In an interview I had with Stirton he said that he could be negative and positive about the outcome of his story. Although the gorillas are still endangered and there are major corruption issues, he looks at the bright side seeing that his story educated so many people on the topic, it raised significant amount of money and it created a consciousness about the issues in the Congo. Whether it is educating people, discovering, voicing, or solving the issues photojournalism can have affects on environmental sustainable issues. Photojournalism has effects on the environment just by telling the story but the environment is what forms the stories, changes it and changes the photographer.

The sustainability of an environment has a large effect on the story itself. This is shown in the Virunga gorillas’ story because of their fragile habitat, that is being destroyed, is what made the story happen. The Virunga National Park “contains the largest number of mammals, birds, and reptiles and has more endemic species than any other park on the African continent,” said Emmanuel de Merode, director of Wildlife (Jenkins, 2). During Stirton’s interview with NPR he also explains the importance of the habitat but the important old-growth forest trees are being cut down and burned to make charcoal. The wildlife director was also quoted saying, “follow the trail of charcoal,” de Merode said, “Charcoal is the biggest threat to the park”(Jenkins, 7). Stirton continued to research the charcoal production and was lead to find out that the former chief park warden, Honoré Mashagiro, was not only behind the charcoal production but he was also at fault for instructing the assassination of the gorillas (Jenkins, 12). “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”(Jenkins, 12). This shows that not only the interconnection of charcoal production has a direct effect Stirton’s photo story but the story done by Stirton also had a direct effect on the reactions of the deaths of the gorillas. Many photojournalistic stories are not just about the event but it is about the events leading to it or what caused it to happen. Stirton knew the animals were killed but the story that needed to be told was who and why.

As a photojournalist you must expect your stories to have large impact on your life. Not only will you be spending a lot of time with your subject but the subject and out of come of your story could have a mental or physical effect on you. Stirton has been working in areas around the Congo since 1984 (Stirton) and has seen some horrible events but he said seeing the rangers react so somberly to the killing of the gorillas 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” (Stirton). Stirton said the world is smaller than it was before with no more traditional boundaries between man and nature and it is getting harder to separate them. He also thinks environmental sustainability is “for things to endure and I include men in that.” He doesn’t see humans as something that should not be excluded from the environment but as something in it and working with it (Stirton, personal). What happened to Stirton is a great example of what happens many times to photojournalist while covering a story. Even though Stirton has been to over 130 countries covering stories on topics from genocide to children human trafficking (Stirton, Suite101), a story on the murder of gorillas can still be enlightening to a photographer.

Stirton was also put in danger while covering this story, which tends to happen a lot to photojournalist. While trying to see the gorillas Stirton had to use a road that had landmines on it to reach them (Jenkins, 5), he also was arrested by the very man who gave him permission to visit the gorillas (Stirton). Danger as a photojournalist is just something you should expect to happen. In an interview I had with Stirton he said that most of his work has some element of danger, especially because his work is usually in areas that is not governed or is corrupt. Many times an environmental issue is due to a human’s action that sometimes is trying to be covered up causing danger for the photojournalist who is uncovering it.

As shown in the photo story about the Virunga Gorillas, you can see being a photojournalist can deal very closely with environmental sustainability issues. Environmental sustainability issues have a direct effect on photojournalism because it creates our stories and morphs them while we photograph them. As a photojournalist we have major effects the environmental sustainability issues that we cover because the photographs create awareness, which hopefully then results in humans stepping up and helping out. The story itself and the time spend taking the photos can also have a dramatic affect on the photographer. This is what I find so great about the profession that you are beginning, it may have little pay but the outcome of our stories will have rippling effects.

Listen, watch or read about more of the story:

National Geographic article:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text/5

NRP:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91835032

References

Jenkins, Mark. "Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas?." National Geographic July 2008: 1-12. Web. 14 Feb 2011. .

"The Power of Pictures." N.p., n.d. Web. .

Stirton, Brent. Intervew. NPR, 24 June 2008. Radio. 14 Feb 2011. .

Stirton, Brent. Personal Interview by Halie Cousineau. 16 Feb. 2011.

Stirton, brent. Suite101, Dec 22, 2009. Telephone Interview by Nadine Visagie. .

"The World of the Mountain Gorilla." Mountain Gorillas. Gorilla.CD, n.d. Web. .