Innovation(s) in Photojournalism

Abstract

This paper examines the place of amateur imagery and citizen photojournalism in Time magazine’s photoblog, Lightbox. If user-generated content has been seen as a threat by professional photojournalists in the last decade, Lightbox offers a paradigmatic example to understand if the visual elite still has a dominant status in the decision-making processes of news production. This paper, therefore, explores how citizen imagery is shaping and challenging a photojournalistic culture still influenced by criteria of excellence, legitimacy, and authority. Managed by professional photo editors, Lightbox has included a variety of sections which emphasize new, original work by professional photographers as well as weekly news reviews that sometimes incorporate amateur photography. Through a visual analysis of amateur imagery in Lightbox’s sections and a textual examination of the editors’ discussions on citizen photojournalism, this paper analyzes how the photoblog is adapting to the shift towards a digital age of innovation and hybridity. The results show that photo editors apply strategies to delimit citizen productions by very rarely selecting them and avoiding specific mention of the amateur nature of such images. Moreover, they underline that hybridity is understood not as multimodal content and co-creative processes between professional and amateur incorporations, but rather as professional and creative practices, for example by highlighting innovative photographers who use cell phone imagery and photo-sharing websites. While this paper interrogates the new careers in photography of amateurs turned professionals, it also shows how digital platforms emphasize the photographers’ personal initiatives over usual gatekeeping processes.

Keywords:

• amateur photography
• cell phone imagery
• citizen (photo)journalism
• hybridity
• icon(s)
• photojournalism
• photo-sharing platforms
• visual elite

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As of June 30, 2014, Time had a global circulation of 3,286,467, which puts it in the 11th position of the top 25 US consumer magazines (source: Alliance for Audited Media).

2. The picture was taken by the photographer Benjamin Lowy with his iPhone. See the cover at http://content.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601121112,00.html (last checked January 8, 2015). Some of the reactions appeared in Forbes and The Guardian.

3. Gamma (1966) was bought by Eyedea Press and closed in 2010. Sygma (1973) was bought by Corbis in 1999 and also closed in 2010. Sipa (1973) was sold to the German DAPD News Agency in July 2011, before firing 16 of its 24 photographers in September 2011 and declaring bankruptcy.

4. The survey was used as a basis for the current exhibition in the “Visa pour l’Image” festival in Perpignan. See http://www.visapourlimage.com/exhibition/6197.do (last checked September 1, 2014).

5. See Lightbox’s website at http://lightbox.time.com/about/ (last checked September 1, 2014).

6. The project was started by the photographers Peter DiCampo and Austin Merrill, with spin-offs in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and several countries. The project includes professional photographers, students in photography, and thousands of followers who use their mobile phones and the hashtag to diffuse their own pictures. See the description and followers of the project on its Instagram account (http://instagram.com/everydayafrica) and its Tumblr account (http://everydayafrica.tumblr.com/).

7. A student in pharmacy in the early days of the Egyptian revolution in Cairo, Elshamy started using his camera to take pictures of the protests. Success came when Lightbox picked one of his pictures illustrating the violence in Rabaa Square as one of the 10 best pictures of the year. See Elshamy’s website for background and professional collaborations: http://www.mosaabelshamy.com/ (last checked September 1, 2014).

8. See, for example, Laurent (2012) and Marshall (2013). The Seven Agency launched an exhibition in 2014 called “iSee: The Eyes of VII in the Hands of Hipstamatic,” in which 19 of their photographers show their work with mobile devices.