In her opening paragraph Karin Becker suggests
that, despite photography being present in the press for over a century, it is
not considered serious by institutions where journalism is discussed or
taught. She contends that photography is
too 'popular' to be considered alongside the serious press. She says that this is most noticeable in the
tabloid press.
In her conclusion Becker is somewhat kinder to
photojournalism in the elite press, maintaining that it now has achieved the
status of popular art. She goes straight
on, though, to pillory the tabloid press and its photography by suggesting that
it continues to work against serious photojournalism that is found in the more
intellectual press and colour supplements by the use of overlarge headlines,
poor quality of photography and overlapping of headlines, text and images. She feels that the quality of photojournalism
is poor, inconsistent and anti-elitist.
In her opening paragraph, Becker more or less gives
a blank statement telling us that tabloid photojournalism is merely popular and
is considered seriously. She expands on this in the
conclusion by suggesting that elite photojournalism is now considered seriously
and continues by explaining why tabloid photojournalism is poor and
anti-elitist.
In the body of her essay, Karin Becker describes the
history of photography within the press and the different types of
photojournalism.
The
Early Picture Press
In this part of the essay we learn that illustration was
first used in the press in the 1840s.
Artists were commissioned to attend events and then wood engravings were
made to illustrate the publication. This
was felt to give immediacy and eye witness credibility. At this early point the use of photography
was not technically possible and on the odd occasions when it was used and
engraving was still made. In this way a tradition
of using illustration in the press became well established. The 1890s saw the introduction of
photography, one of the first examples being the sinking of the US battleship
Maine in the Spanish-American War.
Although picture magazines were to become popular in the 1930s, at the
turn of the century there was no indication that the use of photography in
publications increased their sales.
The
Tabloid = Sensationalism = Photography
Daily newspapers did not have a tradition of illustration
and half-tone reproduction was too slow a process for the daily deadlines. The only exceptions were the US Yellow Press
papers.
The first large sensationalist photos appeared in the
tabloid press in the 1920s. US press
historians suggest that this was a low point for the press and suggest that it
exemplified loose morals and low ethical standards. It was a boom time for the sensationalist
tabloids, however, and they went from strength to strength. The tabloids broke ethical guidelines in
order to attract attention and make sales.
Attracting attention took precedence over journalistic values such as
accuracy, credibility and political significance. There was a cry for self regulation from the
more serious members of the press, however, tabloid photojournalists went to
any lengths to obtain pictures which were often attached to sensationalist
headlines..
The
Daily Press 'Supplements' the news
Until the 1920s, photographs rarely featured in the daily
papers. Illustrations in non-daily
magazines featured articles other than the news and the tabloids' use of
photography made it difficult to take it seriously.
Quality daily newspapers began to publish weekly
supplements which became illustrated with photographs; the deadline became
weekly instead of daily and better quality paper improved the 'look' of the
images. By this means photographs could
be used without the integrity of the paper being compromised.
The
Picture Magazine's Legacy
Mass circulation picture magazines began to appear in the
inter-war years. A new genre of
photoreportage appeared in them: the photo essay. This happened at a time when popular or mass
art appeared, to challenge the more high brow art and documentary photography
became accepted as art and was included in exhibitions in museums and
galleries. Photography in magazines
became a mass medium that was both respected and popular. The status of photojournalism had reached new
heights but the tabloid press continued to be excluded and was regarded as low
culture.
The
Contemporary Domain of the Tabloid
Throughout the world there are many different papers with
a tabloid format and with as many different styles. The overlap of their reporting of news with
the elite press also varies. They
generally rely on news stand sales and a front cover acting as a poster often
with one very large photograph. They
typically feature three types of story: ordinary people in circumstances that
make them newsworthy, celebrities and news events. Often photographs are posed with the subjects
looking directly at the camera.
Plain
Pictures of Ordinary People
Pictures of ordinary people in the tabloid press are much
like family portraits and in their normal surroundings, although, sometimes
holding an out of place object. The
headline and text give us the clues and information we need. The only thing that marks them out is that
something 'newsworthy' has happened to them.
Often they are looking at the camera.
Two other types of photographs of ordinary people appear:
ID type images if the article is of a criminal nature and candid photographs of
an event taking place.
Celebrities
One of the most common types of photograph of celebrities
that we find in the tabloid press is the 'at home' picture. The only difference between this and the
non-famous person is that they are recognisable and appear relaxed rather than
showing extremes of emotion. Alongside
this is often a smaller performance image from the files. We also see candid photographs of
celebrities, although these are usually posed to a certain extent or at least
stage managed. Candid photographs can be
of poor quality both technically and compositionally.
News
Events
Like candid shots of famous personalities, photographs of
news events often suffer from poor composition or technique. Candid news photographs attempt to show how
people react emotionally to the event and are thought to reveal the truth of
human nature. Technically poor images
have become the trademark of the tabloid press.
Crime reporting and natural disasters are typical subjects.
Reframing
the Picture in Words and Layout
In the newspaper photographs have no meaning outside the
text which, in the tabloid press, is far more dramatic than the image on its
own. It is the headline which gives the
tone of sensationalism and the text is large in relation to the size of the page. In some cases the text has the greater
authority and tells us what we are actually looking at. In some cases, even, the photographer becomes
a major personality in the story. What
we see in the tabloid press is often more the work of the editor than the
photographer.
Apart from the use of photographs in the tabloid press
Karin Becker contrasts their use in two other situations: the weekly
supplements to the daily papers which used smooth paper and, therefore, allowed
better quality reproduction and which also had weekly, rather than daily
deadlines; the picture magazine which appeared in the inter-war years and
introduced the respected photo essay.
Becker asserts that these two examples were a higher quality, elite type
of photojournalism than the poor quality tabloid photojournalism with its lack
of moral ethics. The mention of the
picture magazine reminds me of the BBC1 Imagine Documentary on Don McCullin
from 2013 where the once editor Harold Evans is interviewed. Evans was a well-respected editor of stature
and a great supporter of Don McCullin.
He edited the Sunday Times from 1976 - 81 until it was sold to Rupert
Murdoch. During this time he was
responsible for the paper's crusading
investigative style of reporting and he was also a promoter of high quality
photo essays such as those of Don McCullin.
This would support Becker's hypothesis, but, on the other side of the
argument, the work of one of the earliest tabloid photographers, Weegee, is now
well-respected and his work can be found in museums and galleries.
Weegee was born Aurthur Fellig in 1899 and emigrated to
America with his family from Austria in 1910.
He began working as a freelance photojournalist in 1935 and recoded the
sticky underbelly of life in New York. (Yorath, 2000) The name Weegee came from the fact that he was
able to arrive at the scene of a crime, even before the police. (Yorath 2000
and Bieger-Thielemann 2001) It is a
corruption of the word 'Ouija'. (Yorath, 2000)
His work is characterised by the use of flash to provide the maximum drama.
(Yorath, 2000 and Bieger-Thielemann, 2001)
His work was published in the 'Naked City' in 1936. In 1938
he began taking pictures of High Society. In 2006 Weegee's work was part of a' gripping
exhibition at the International Centre of Photography' Unknown Wegee (Cohen, 2006).
Cohen goes on to tell us in the New York Times, that his "classic film-noir style is represented in
black-and-white pictures of blanket-draped corpses on sidewalks, and more
elegantly chilling fare, like the picture of a fashionable young woman covering
her face with black-gloved hands, entitled “Irma Twiss Epstein, Nurse Accused
of Killing Baby.” He also tells
us that Weegee's work helped create American Tabloid Journalism.
So, it is possible to find references that support Karin
Becker and those that turn her essay on it's head. We also must remember that the original essay
was written in 1990 and not only do we live in a tabloid world as regards the
press, but the world of the internet is now upon us "His (Weegee's) tabloid photos have, since
then, been supplanted by cable television and the Internet, which allow
Americans to be part of the 24-hour media circus...." (Cohen, 2006)
I think that Becker,
perhaps, was successful in arguing her case in 1990, but the world has moved on
since then and what was once considered of poor, inferior quality is now in
museums and galleries and we also have the internet. The tabloid press continues to be pilloried,
however, and we have such notorious cases as the phone hacking scandal, subject
of the Leveson Inquiry, which, though not strictly tabloid photojournalism,
does show the standards of the tabloid press.
References
Yorath, D. (2000) Photography:
A Crash Course, New York: Watson-Guptill Publications
Bieger-Thielemann, M (2001) 20th Century Photography,Original ed. Los Angeles: Taschen
Morris,
J&D, McCullin, 2012, BBC1 Imagine 2013
Wikipedia (2014) Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Evans
[Accessed 12.04.14]
Cohen, A (2006) The Tabloid Photographer Who Turned Us Into
a Nation of Gawkers [online] The New York Times Website. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31mon4.html?ref=weegee&_r=0
[Accessed 17 April 2014]
Bibliography
Yorath, D. (2000) Photography:
A Crash Course, New York: Watson-Guptill
Bieger-Thielemann, M. (2001) 20th Century Photography, Los Angeles, Taschen
The
Photography Book (2000) London: Phaidon
Jeffrey, I. (1981) Photography:
A Concise History London: Thames and Hudson
Morris, J&D (2012) McCullin, BBC1 Imagine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Evans, Harold Evans,
12.04.14
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/opinion/31mon4.html?ref=weegee&_r=0,
The Tabloid Photographer Who Turned Us Into a Nation of Gawkers, 17.04.14
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