The History of Photojournalism: Chapter 11: Conclusion

For the last week of this class my family and I went on vacation to Jamaica. Since we would be out of the country and in a tropical and scenic area of the world, I figured it was a great opportunity to do a little photojournalism myself. As my Creative Experiential Exercise I took as many pictures as I could that described the trip through as least amount of words as possible. The result was my family vacation to Jamaica through images.
I do not believe I have a revised definition of photojournalism, but I do believe I appreciate it completely differently than when the class first started. The history of photojournalism has always been crucial in understanding the field, in my opinion. What photojournalism was in the past shaped what photojournalism is today. There is no way to look around the fact that without the foundations and first technological advances of photography and the efficiency of taking a picture, photojournalism would not even be a thing.
My "Ah-ha!" moment was essentially when we first began blogging. I thought it was so cool, the fact that we could publicly publish out thoughts about this specific topic. It was an awesome class idea and made the course really become hands on. The blogging aspect is a good transition topic into: can photographs change the world? At first, my initial thoughts were no they cannot change the world. But after seeing what photographs and photojournalists can do to people as well as events, topics, and even inspire...I do believe they can change the world, one person at a time.
The connections I made between my own Creative Experiential Exercise and my self reflection is that something as simple as a blog or a family vacation in which you document your experience through pictures can be a photojournalistic experience.
Kayla pointed out through her profile of Giles Duley that anyone, disabled or not, can be active in photojournalism. Troy points out through his profile of Steve McCurry, with such a long career as his, that it is an industry that will never die. Finally, Kevin points out in his profile of Tim Hetherington that not only Tim, but every photojournalist is out on a mission to change the world through photography any way they can.

Here are some images from my Creative Experiential Exercise, my trip to Jamaica: