Self-Study Unit 3: Photography & Trauma

One of the best ways to assess the power of photographs is to see some examples. Here are links to web sites that feature award-winning and memorable images that have made an impact on people’s lives. As you take time to view them, think about your own reactions to what you are seeing. How do they communicate to you? Please note that some of these photographs may be disturbing.

Agence France Press
The English version of the Agency France Press features news photographs from around the world.

American Photography: A Century of Images
The site features a chapter on “photography and war” that is worth a visit by those interested trauma and photography. The site also is interactive and allows visitors to work with photographs.

Associated Press Managing Editors
Assess a gallery of the photographs showcased by editors of APME. Featured photos include Thomas E. Franklins photograph of firefighters raising an American flag on September 11.

The Associated Press Photos of the Century
This site features photographs from 1899 through the 1990s, including the first picture to win a Pulitzer for photography Milton “Pete” Brooks’ “The Picket Line” published in The Detroit News.

Magnum Photos
The website for this celebrated photo agency features the work of agency photographers including founder Robert Capa, born Andre Friedman, famous for his photographs of the Spanish Civil War; Marilyn Silverstone, celebrated for her shots of India; and Philip Jones Griffiths who photographed the Vietnam War and later turned his work into the book Vietnam, Inc.

Masters of Photography
See examples of crime photography taken by celebrated photographer Arthur Fellig also known as Weegee. The Encyclopedia of Photography (1984) entry on Weegee notes “Although Weegee photographed a wide panorama of urban life, the documentation of violent crimes, disasters, and their survivors and onlookers was Weegee's specialty.”

National Association of Black Journalists
Titled “Diary from the Desert” this page is featured on the NABJ site. The project is described on the site as follows: “Award-winning Miami Herald photographer Carl Juste is returning from nearly four months in Afghanistan and Pakistan, covering the war there. Here are excerpts from a daily diary, documenting his days and nights there.”

Newseum
In this multimedia presentation, Hear photographers discuss their Pulitzer Prize-winning work as the photos materialize on your computer monitor. Highlights include photographer Joe Rosenthal discussing his photo of six U.S. servicemen raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima, Eddie Adams talking about his shot of a Viet Cong execution, and Susan Walsh’s photograph of the President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. The Newseum home page also includes links to the feature “Photojournalist of the Month.”

Poytner Institute series “Behind the Lens”
Subtitled “Photographers Cope with Captured Images, ” this link is to part one of the multi-part series on the challenges of covering the September 11 tragedy as a photojournalist.

Pulitzer Prize Photos
Review the photographs that have won the top prize in journalism.