HISTORY OF MILITARY PHOTOJOURNALISM

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Describe the history of military photojournalism.

The history and growth of military photojournalism has been brief, but significant. It started when Matthew Brady and his assistants were commissioned to document the Civil War pictorially. Their photographs were made on wet plates that had to be processed immediately, thus limiting mobility. The film they used was of low sensitivity; therefore, action photography was out of the question. Further, there was no means to get the photographs to the publisher quickly, so interest was limited. No processes for reproducing a photograph in a newspaper were known at that time, except by having an artist copy them into line drawings. These problems did not destroy the desire for photographs or the value of photojournalism as it existed then, but rather posed challenges to cause people to search for a better way to use the photographs taken.

By the time of the Spanish-American War (and the equally important Hearst-Pulitzer circulation war), camera equipment had evolved into a smaller, portable form. Film on an unbreakable cellulose base had been invented that could be exposed in one place and processed many miles away and many hours later. Film sensitivity had improved so that action could be photographed. Quicker transportation meant more timely delivery of news photographs to the publisher, while their news value was still high. Methods of though still crude, allowed newspapers to print several halftones along with etchings and linecuts.

Military photographers took many photographs during World War I, but the importance of these photographs as an adjunct to the written history of the war was not realized for many years.

The period between the World Wars was very important to photojournalism. "Plaything" photography yielded to more exacting photography as a science. Cameras designed for presswork became available in a price range within the budget of the average newspaper. The sound motion picture, the miniature camera, the fast lens, the flash lamp, flash synchronization, and hundreds of film, emulsion and laboratory innovations were put to use. Most important, the public desired news photographs and editors accepted photography as a tool of journalism.

World War II saw news photography in the military services rise considerably. Early in the war, the services drafted professional photographers and formed teams to document the history of United States international involvement. They went one step further by using their talents to show the horrors of war. They took photographs with stopping power, photographs that had impact and photographs that forced the viewer to look and read the copy.

By the time of the Korean War, photography rose above an improved and exacting science and became a finer skill. Photographers began to document moods and feelings, to look for photographs that expressed what was not readily apparent on the surface and to concentrate on photographs for news releases. It was during this period that the military photojournalist became a professional.

During the Vietnam War years, photography continued its advances in equipment and processes. Along with these advances, photojournalism reached new heights, providing just short of a "you were there" atmosphere of the war. Today, the military photojournalist is a mainstay of the military establishment - a vital contributor to the internal and external public affairs efforts of a command.