Photojournalism/Envir. Essay

Halie Cousineau 2/14/11
Photojournalism/Envir. Essay
A Gorilla Story
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, and then there are some who prefer to tell stories or the local news through photos. I may do all of the above however, photojournalism to me is a way to document issues around the world, or document things that may never be seen or needs to be preserved in someway. A very large part of photojournalism is environmental and conservation photography. Not only does this have a large affect on the photographer and the 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 broad topic when dealing with the environment. However, there is one story that interests me, the photo coverage of the killing of seven mountain gorillas in the Virunga National park, that is an example of how the environment can effect a story and the photojournalist; also how the story can effect the environment. The photo story that shows how environmental sustainability issues are related to photojournalism is a story about Mountain Gorillas of Virunga who are the largest of all gorillas, but they are also the most endangered. 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. The main threats for the gorillas, besides the illegal animal trading, are the destruction of their habitat, poaching, humans diseases and civil and guerilla war far in the area (Mountain Gorillas). The Virunga gorillas have been photographed for many years, sometimes for their sheer 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. This event will be my example of how photojournalism interacts with the environment.

Brent Stirton, a photojournalist, was on an assignment to photograph the conflict between two rebel army sanctions in the Virunga National Park. He saw how the conflicts create, what he thought, the most dangerous area for conservation. Yet during his assignment this story changed because of the killing of the gorillas. Many times for photojournalist or journalist the story will change due to events or outside forces in that environment (Stirton). Stirton went from photographing Congo rebel conflicts endangering rangers to the killing and conservation of an endangered species. This shows how quickly a story can change for a photojournalist because of the changing environment.
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 about in Critter News An Animal blog. 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). This story received an extensive amount 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(Advertising Opportunities). National Geographic not only reaches a lot of 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 the story was covered the photos of executed gorillas would have never been taken to show what happened to the 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 but then he could also be 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 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 sustainability of an environment has an effect on photojournalist stories. 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 in the Democratic of Congo, which “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 Direct, in the article Who murdered the Virunga Gorillas? During Stirton’s interview with NPR Stirton also explains the importance of the habitat: 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 and once the wood and land has been burned “it is gone forever.” In the article Who murdered the Virunga Gorillas? The wildlife director was quoted about the charcoal production: “Follow the trail of charcoal,” de Merode said, “Charcoal is the biggest threat to the park”(Jenkins, 7). About 25% of the old growth, hardwood forest in the southern part of the Virunga National Park has been devastated by the charcoal production (Jenkins, 7). Due to this destruction 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). Finding this information was the building blocks of Stirton’s story. 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.


Stirton continued to research into the charcoal production and who was behind the illegal business. In doing so Stirton 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 1-12). Mashagiro has now 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”(Jenkins, 12). This shows that not only the interconnection of charcoal production has a direct effect on the sustainability of the gorillas’ habitat and lives, and the Stirton’s photo story but the story done by Stirton also 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.
Stirton has been working in this area around the Congo since 1984 (Stirton) and he has seen some horrible events: he said during an NPR interview “the value for human life is at an all time low” in the Congo. Even working is this area for over 20 years Stirton was personally affected by the story and research he did on the gorillas. He said seeing how the rangers reacted so somberly to the killing of the gorillas gave him enlightenment; “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). Through the course of the story changing and Stirton learning about the local environment, it made him realize the issues he went to the Congo to photograph “didn’t just involve humans” (Stirton). During an interview I had with Stirton he first starts off with saying the world is smaller than it was before; there are no more traditional boundaries between man and nature and it is getting harder to separate them. He said there is a “war over natural sustainably.” When he thinks of environmental sustainability he said it means, “for things to endure and I include men in that.” He doesn’t see humans as something that should be excluded from the environment but as something in it and working with it. Stirton was clear when he explained his work, that he sees environmental sustainability as a larger issue, involving the entire world and everyone and everything in 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 moving and enlightening to a photographer.
Another direct effect of the story to Stirton was the danger he was put in for the story. Many photojournalists involve themselves in life threatening or deadly situation in order to photograph a story; lucky for Stirton it did not end in death. Stirton was given permission by the rebel leader to see the gorillas but the once crowded road they had to travel on was now deserted. Stirton knew something was wrong (Jenkins , 5) and found out after using the road that it had hidden land minds to prevent people from traveling on it. Once they did reach the forest that day the rebel group that gave them permission to see the gorillas immediately arrested them. Lucky they were not executed on the spot but they were taken into custody where things got cleared up and they were then brought to the gorillas by the rebel army (Stirton). This is just one example of a photojournalist putting their life in danger for a story. In the interview I had with Stirton I asked him about the dangers he faced in the Congo and he simply 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. He also said when he finds a story no one has done, like the footage of the murdered gorillas, it is breaking news and “breaking news is something sensational” (Stirton, personal). 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, photojournalism deals very closely to environmental sustainability issues. This story of the murder of the Virunga mountain gorillas is just one of many stories about an environmental sustainable issue that is covered by a photojournalist. Environmental sustainability issues have a direct effect one photojournalism because it create our stories and morphs them while we photograph them. And as a photojournalist we have major effects the environmental sustainability issues that we cover because the photographs create awareness; showing people the problem, 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.

References

All photos taken by Brent Stirton

"Advertising Opportunities." National Geogrpahic, 2005. Web. .

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. .