Posted: April 6th, 2016

Choose four published photos which, you consider to be iconic in terms of demonstrating both what good photojournalism is and the range of photographic possibilities within the genre.

Choose four published photos which, you consider to be iconic in terms of demonstrating both
what good photojournalism is and the range of photographic possibilities within the genre. Your
examples should go beyond the most readily available iconic images. Write a critique of each of
these photos, explaining the reasons for your choices, and summarise what you believe constitutes
good and legitimate photojournalism. Back up your opinions with citations of authoritative sources.
Write your critique in a Word document and include images of your chosen pictures. Low-resolution
images or screen shots embedded in the document are satisfactory.
Your work must include in-text citations from authoritative sources and a short, appended
reference list (at least five references).
In choosing your images, firstly, do enough research of both historic and contemporary
photojournalism to take your examples beyond those that come up in anyone’s first Google search.
Secondly, ensure you choose a variety of news image types – for example, spot news, feature story
images, portraits, competition entries. You are attempting to define the boundaries of the genre.
Your writing should be formal, academic style. There should be a heading, and the individual
critiques of your pictures should be preceded by a short introduction. There should be a conclusion
which follows on from the critiques and sums up your position on what defines good, legitimate
photojournalism (and, perhaps, what does not). Your opinions should be your own, but backed up
with authoritative sources. The sources do not necessarily have to reference your examples but,
rather, the photojournalistic principles you cit