Life Magazine Cover, 1936 (year of its inception)
By the late 1930s, photojournalism had established itself as a viable form of photography. Most photojournalism is assignment driven, meaning photographers are sent out by clients (editors at magazines and newspapers) to capture specific events or places. The documentary project, on the other hand, is usually artist driven, concieved, directed, and executed solely by an artist and his/her team.
Big picture magazines, such as Life and Look, helped to define mid-twentieth century photojournalism. Life Magazine was originally started by a man named Henry Luc, who had previously founded Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1924. Life Magazine quickly gained popularity. The magazine combined entrainment, news, and special interest stories; it also promoted American middle class life and patriotism. In deed, Life Magazine developed the very concept of the "photo essay." It endorsed such photographers as Robert Capa and W. Eugene Smith.
W Eugene Smith, Nurse Midwife, 1951 (photo essay on midwife Maude Callen in South Carolina.)
This slide represent a typical lay-out for a Life Magazine "photo essay," a magazine story told primarily through photographs, not text.
Vu, September 23, 1936, page spread containing Robert Capa’s Spanish Civil War coverage with the Falling Soldier photograph
Magnum Photography
Magnum was founded in 1947 by a group of photo-journalists, including Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. It was "the first self-governing, cooperative photographic agency, whose members also owned the copy-write of their work"(Oxford Companion to the Photograph). In other words, it was a group in support of the photojournalist, that gave image rights to the photographer, rather than the magazine. Magnum photographers spread across the world and covered all major events. Since its inception, Magnum holds high photographic standards and supports only top notch, well recognized photographers.
Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Henri Cartier-Bresson 1932
Henri Cartier-Bresson, a parisian photographer credited with transforming photojournalism in to a true art-form, has influenced many young photographers who came after him. He originally coined the phrase the "decisive moment," the moment when surprise, chance, form, and content converge into a single image (as exhibited in the picture above).
Madrid, Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1933
Click the web links below to access more information:
American Photojournalism
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Magnum Photography
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