HOW LOCKDOWN CHANGED PHOTOJOURNALISM

(This was written to be assessed as part of my Journalism course. This was in Semester 2 of Level 4 and was for my Introduction to Digital Publishing module, where we were tasked with writing three blog posts and designing a website. This was one of the posts I wrote, and each had to detail distinct aspects of the Journalism Industry.

The target audience was: Journalists- an informed audience, aimed at Millenials (26-41)/ Get Z (Get Z are aged 10-25, but I was aiming it at the 20+ section of this), based on the language used in the blog posts)

Photojournalism captures the events that people will talk about for years to come and an event we have spent the past two years experiencing is definitely one that will be talked about for years. Head of Photography at the Guardian, Fiona Shields, talked about her careful considerations on how to keep her photographers safe. The first photojournalist to be sent to the frontline in hospitals was Jonny Weeks, and Shields described it as "a key story for the Guardian".

One of the biggest changes in photojournalism came with the changes in manner when photographing a subject- the use of windows, reflections and distance became mandatory, producing a range of images different to the ones we usually see.

Not only this, but subjects switched from crowded venues to empty streets, and smiling faces to anonymity-producing masks, which seemed to create seemingly darker photos. Even innocent snapshots of day-to-day life were now clouded by a lack of identity, making photography itself feel more heavy.

Another change which was particularly difficult for photographers is the idea of "working from home". As a photographer, it isn't easy to work from home, as your subject is the changing world around you. However, there was a particularly interesting spark of creativity across the country when The Duchess of Cambridge announced her 'Hold Still' photography competition with the National Portrait Gallery. This saw over 31,000 submissions from across the country, with entrants aged from 4 to 75 years old.

This image is of an 88-year-old woman and her one-year-old great-grandson, as her granddaughter dropped off groceries. A very simple image but one that is both beautiful and heartbreaking, with almost all of us having experienced missing out on seeing relatives.

However, this has led to some interesting changes in photography as a whole, with notable focuses being on architectural and portrait photography. The changes that were necessary to keep photographers and their subjects safe (mirrors, glass, windows etc) have now become a big trend within the photography community. People have started using reflections and barriers to create stunning artistic images. This is reflective of the necessary change in photojournalism in the present impacting the way we photograph in the future.