Photojournalism and Press Photography as a Reassurance of Reality

Özet

Press photographs meet us as individual images or in bigger groups in the context of a report or sequence, in publish or online media, published as print negatives, slides or digital files. The mass of published images follows positive image patterns or photo types that are constantly repeated and handed down a culture of set recognition. So, these images not only submit to other photographs but also often to subjects from other visual media, such as, for example, the painting. Although the drawing of boundaries between art and press photography becomes increasingly porous and the mutual reference of these genres is widely used, it is still worth asking what specifically characterizes a press photo. First of all, press images are photographs originated at a specific location that want to make a statement about this place and a specific action. A certain representationally or likeness is common to them, so that they seem to reflect reality with special truthfulness. In this sense, press images are used in their respective publication contexts as information carriers, which have a particular function of testifying or proving. Similar to the history painting in the 19th century, press images must visualize a complex situation comprehensibly and catchy. In order to guarantee and to support their readability, almost all press images have an accompanying text or a caption.