The power of photojournalism

The power of photojournalism

In this short film, shot at this year’s World Press Photo Festival of Visual Journalism in Amsterdam, we uncover how photography can still change the world.

“We live in a time when photography is the only real international language,” says Nature category first prize winner Brent Stirton, echoing the key message from this year’s World Press Photo Awards: that the ever increasing reach of visual stories brings with it new responsibilities.

The circulation of photographs is now so prolific that it might seem impossible for them to make and shape issues in the ways they once did. “It’s fascinating to me to see how many photographs are being uploaded to the web every hour and people are not fatigued by this,” continue Brent. But images do continue to spark and change global debates with sometimes miraculous potency, and this places fresh demands upon creators. “We are living in a time when opinion is triumphing over fact,” says Brent. “We as agencies and photojournalists have to do a better job at marketing the value of our kind of photography.”

And that ethos was one of the cornerstones of this year’s World Press Photo Festival of Visual Journalism. “In this industry, we can sometimes get caught up with recognition or validation,” said World Press Photo Contest Contemporary Issues first prize winner Amber Bracken. “I think that you have to just make what you want to make, and trust that eventually it will connect where it needs to.”

Check out the above film to go even deeper into the power of photography to change our view of the world.

Further information about World Press Photo is available at https://www.worldpressphoto.org/