PHOTOJOURNALISM BY PHOTOJOURNALIST MARK HANCOCK

What is a photojournalist?

A journalist tells factual stories. A photographer takes pictures people, places and things.A photojournalist do the best of both and seals it into a medium available-- a single image.Photojournalists capture "verbs." This sounds simple, but a room of professional photographers was dumbfounded by this realization.

At many newspapers, photographers provide names and nothing else. They do not write the cutline because they sometimes cannot write a lead (lede) graph for a story. They also may not be able to photograph a sentence (sports being the exclusion, and there are plenty of supporting images to prove my point in this genre as well).But, to be a photojournalist, you must understand the relationship between the image and these basic elements of language (all languages--worldwide).

A great journalist cares about people and an ideal world. A great journalist can approach a topic as vast as the universe and make it simple and interesting to both Einstein and the new immigrant, who is trying desperately to learn the language.The written word has power. With skill, reporters can expose the evil of the world and bring it into the light. However, journalism is limited to non-apathetic, monolinguistic people with some time to kill and a few neurons still firing.Enter photojournalism. It destroys almost all barriers. Justice can draw its sword in the time it takes an eye to scan an image. An image has no age, language or intelligence limits.

A photojournalist is a visual reporter of facts. The public places trust in its reporters to tell the truth. The same trust is extended to photojournalists as visual reporters.This responsibility is paramount to a photojournalist. At all times, he has many thousands of people seeing through his eyes and expecting to see the truth. This truth, unlike written words, has no language, age or intellectual boundaries. Most people immediately understand an image.In today's world of grocery store tabloids and digital manipulation of images, the photojournalist must still tell the truth. The photojournalist constantly hunts for the images (or verbs), which tell of the day-to-day struggles and accomplishments of his community. These occurrences happen naturally. There is no need to "set up" reality. There is no need to lie to a community that has bestowed its trust. In a nutshell: If a photojournalist is not going to fake a fire or a street stabbing scene, why would he set up "person A" giving "person B" an object (award, check, trophy etc. ...).The photojournalist simply wants to hang around, be forgotten and wait for the right moment. Then, the hunt begins anew.

What makes a photojournalist different from a photographer?Photographers take pictures of nouns (people, places and things). Photojournalists shoot action verbs ("kicks," "explodes," "cries," etc. ...). Photojournalists do shoot some nouns. These nouns can be standard photos of people (portraits), places (proposed zoning areas or construction sites) and things (name it). However, the nouns we seek still must tell a story.

PACMANIA

Thousands of filipino fans shouted Pacquiao's name. As the people's champ, the PACMAN will always be a hero for filipinos thus making our country strong. A huge screen was set up at the San Andres Sports Complex and civic center. The mayor mentioned "Pacquiao's latest victory is sweet because it is a fruit of a long, ardous undertaking-one that required the highest discipline, self sacrifice and the will to prevail.

LIGHT AND SHADOW

A predawn fire ripped through the Spanish-era building of the Commission on Elections Sunday, causing damage that was unlikely to affect the conduct of the coming May 14 balloting. The mid-term election is just around the corner, so the timing is quite suspicious. We should really be on our guard and be very vigilant because there may really be a plan of cheating. The COMELEC should be more transparent to dispel the doubts of the public.

THE CANON ADVANTAGE

From Photojournalism to Studio to Travel, the Canon EOS SLR System proves Superior in a Wide Range of Settings.

Probably the biggest advantage of the digital camera is the ability to review your work while still on location. When trying to tell a story through photos, the ability to see what one has "in the can", what images are strong or weak, what needs to be re-shot and in general what's "working" is incredible.

A RICH MAN IS NOTHNG BUT A POOR MAN WITH MONEY

A mother feeds her son with a biscuit soak in water. Poverty is like punishment for a crime you dont commit. We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.

SNAPSHOTS OF A PHOTOJOURNALIST

As I look out on this day, I can still see myself in college. Excited on my first beat as a press photographer of San Beda's school paper "The Bedan". Since then I pursued my passion which is photography and there is no turning back.

Photo by: Ayvie/Philippine Star

Several years later, November 6, 2006, I was hired as a photojournalist. One thing I learned early on in this passion is that I might be the only member of the news media that someone might meet in person in their whole life. How I treated that person would shape the way they perceived not only me, but also the whole journalistic profession. I always tell my friends it was no big deal that I was taking their picture. Just be yourself and do what you normally do.