There is a photo journalism article that I found online, and it captures and represents the cultural group that it portrays very well. This cultural group has to do with the Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and it involves how women were once seen as much more inferior back then than they are today. Overall, the photo-journalism picture shown in the article is very eye-opening and moving, because it shows how far society has come. However, I believe that the photo journalism picture is also supposed to represent that we need to never forget where we came from, because if we do, history is bound to repeat itself. In the image shown in the photo journalism, a man and a woman are looking down at their baby who was recently delivered. The woman is hugging the man, but we cannot see the man’s face, as he is wearing a mask. In regards to culture, I feel like this mask is supposed to represent two things: how women have been silenced in the past, and how cultures are blending together and making strides as well. These are the two concepts that I took away from this photo-journalism article, and they are heavy themes not only present in the article picture that is shown, but also in the way that the article is written as well.
While the photo-journalism images does appear to be portraying the blending of cultures, the way the man in the photo is wearing a mask seems to be suggesting that he does not want to forget that women have been silence many times in the past, and it does not need to happen again. Moreover, this also seems to not only deal the concept of women be mistreated poorly in the past, but also the fact that they were once not be allowed to be photographers in the past as well. An example of women being looked down upon in their culture was how some men viewed them as photographers. As Fremson, (2015) says, certain past photographers of the Middle East, Europe, and Africa would state their disgust on women dreaming of becoming photographers one day, saying things such as, “It is very silly to think that a female cannot shoot as well as man,” (“Women in Photo Journalism”). This is only one example, but things have taken a step further when certain women who are interviewed, go into detail about their negative experiences working in photography. For example; as Fremson (2015) says, a female named Kathy Willens, who was once Associated Press sports photographer, now feels completely accepted by her male peers. However, there was a time where being a new photographer was a difficult experience for her. As Katy Willens says about her experience, she said that while first working as a photographer, she was “a curiosity to the five male staffers, treated with kid gloves” (“Women in Photo Journalism”). Fortunately though, times have changed, and both men who made these kinds of remarks towards women have changed their mindsets. Now, as for the other meaning behind the main journalistic photo, I feel that it not only represents how women have once been silence within our culture, but I also feel that it’s celebrating how far we have come as a culture as well.
The article says that photography occurs in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. This is an example of how even when women were seen as those who did not have a right to photography, cultures were coming together regardless. One of the strongest examples that I noticed of this was in the Middle East. As Fremson (2015) says about women in photo journalism as of today, one of the strongest examples seen in the Middle East is how men and women are being equally covered today, and African women are getting fairer treatment when it comes to the concepts of photography as well (“Women in Photo Journalism”).
In closing, the article was a very interesting one to read, and it helped to shed some light on not only how far women have come, but how we must never make the same past mistakes. Cultural blending also played a role in this as well. While the article itself was very eye-opening, I feel like the image used in the photo-journalism demonstrated that sometimes, actions do speak louder than words.
References
Fremson, R. (2015). "Women in Photo Journalism". New York Times. Retrieved from http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/women-in-photojournalism/
