Perilous

Abstract

Using oral testimony with 60 present and former Australian newspaper photographers, this article examines their frequent exposure to high-risk situations and the physical and psychological costs. Photographers engage with both vulnerability and aberration, and at the same time negotiate with editors who demand and prize a proximity and emotional closeness to danger. With a particular focus on war, disaster, and everyday assignments, the article reveals a litany of hazardous experiences. It considers the photographers’ reflections, the physical effects, the significant prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trauma-related symptoms, and the support and failings of their news organisations. The article argues that the seismic changes in the photographers’ workplace and their profession have further compounded the psychological and physical stress. This work illuminates new understanding about the historical and contemporary experiences of news photographers and the impact of the fracturing newspaper industry in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• newspaper photographers
• oral history
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• trauma

Notes

1 Using the new development of the half-tone technique, a photograph of a railway accident at Young, New South Wales, was published in 1888 by John Fairfax & Sons’ weekly. This has been widely claimed to be the first photograph to appear in an Australian newspaper. The first daily newspaper to publish a photograph was the Sydney Morning Herald in 1908 (Anderson and Young 2016, 2–3).

2 The tradition of trauma studies and oral history has an enduring trajectory and first became apparent with Holocaust testimony.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council [grant number LP120200458], with support also provided by the National Library of Australia and the Walkley Foundation.