Thomas Dworzak made a really interesting statement on his part of the ‘Wars’ essay series on Magnum In Motion. He essentially said that, in spite of the current proliferation of photojournalists, probably the most important images of the decade are the abu ghraib prison photos.

Obviously there’s a kind of animosity on the part of the photo practitioner in that, despite the fact that they’ve devoted a piece of their life (or even most of it in some cases) to honing the craft of photography, they are not always the ones creating important images. But, again, the fact that the images are being created and being put out their for people to see so that they know what’s going on in the world (without the abu ghraib prison photos there would probably be little or no outrage over torture tactics).

The flip side is the ubiquity of digital image capture and the resultant watering down of the value of photography as an art form. The citizen-journalist is equally an artifact of this phenomenon. And I think it is very important to capture images that evoke things and tell stories over and above just presenting raw data. This, I think, will be the continuing role of real, talented photojournalists: to capture a photographic history that will have longevity passed the top fold of the Sunday Times.

For example: there were a whole lot of photos of Vietnam, but there are a few iconic ones that have become synonymous with that part of our history.

Sorry for the long winded comment, but I find this a fascinating topic of discussion!

-Justin