Photojournalism War Photography

Robert Capa/Tony Viccaro
Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2;


Tony Viccaro:

He was a soldier and a photographer for the army. His images were used to document what has happened in the army. Tony was expected to take photos with an army Issued camera which was the speed graphic.

However this would take to long to be able to take pictures in the time of the war. So he brought himself an Argus-C3 as he was not rich enough to afford a Leica, Unlike Robert Capa.

As Tony Viccaro was a soldier he was able to get closer to the action than Robert Capa ever could.

Without the luxury of a magazine company waiting for him back home to processes the photographs. He produced his own. He found the ruins of a camera store and began searching for the chemicals which would enable him to produce the film himself In solders hats. However most of the images he photographed were destroyed by the army's censor. As they believed that the country wasn't ready for some of the images he took. They didn't want to be showing pictures of dead Americans but of dead Germans.

Robert Capa:

The only photojournalist that went with the first wave of solders on to Omaha beach on D-day.. He was a photographer for Life Magazine. Capa took 106 pictures. however he was under pressure to get the films developed and so he asked the developer to hurry. The developer did something wrong and lost all but 11 photos taken on Omaha Beach. He took his pictures with the Leica.




Find some work of theirs work:

Tony Viccaro:



Robert Capa:



Eddie Adams:

Describe the difference between the video footage and the photograph of the "Execution":

When you look at the video from American TV you see the "Execution" happen in a matter of seconds, You know what's just happened but your brain only has a few seconds to process that image and produce emotion towards it. However when we see the photograph "Execution" taken by Eddie Adams we see a picture which captures that decisive moment (The picture has been taken when the bullet is in the Vietnamese persons head) and lasts a life time. We can process the image more easier as its a image which has "stopped" time, Rather then giving a few seconds to see that one of the generals has just shot down a prisoner. The image captures facial expressions.
I think that the image displays more emotion than the moving image as its captured a moment in time and not just displayed a few seconds of a life.

To make a photo more reliable footage is also needed to back it up, Sometimes a signature and date. In this case the american TV filmed the execution of the Vietnamese man. Eddie Adams saw this photo as if nothing much had happened, He had seen the general do this allot, and therefore felt minimal emotion for the man.