I remember looking at photos that my father had taken on an Alaskan cruise on his 17-inch laptop. It was the first time that I really understood the power of digital photography to revolutionize the way I saw the world. These photos that would have been boring landscape shots in a 4×6 developed film format were these incredibly beautiful shots blown up full screen on his laptop. There was so much detail that you could see. I began to realize how much the size of a photo can alter your perception of it. Being stuck in the 4×6 world for so many years I had never noticed, but it made me excited for the future.
Several years later now, I find myself wondering why that lesson seems to be lost on most news organizations. The future is here, but the news is still being presented to us like we are reading it out of a newspaper. I can’t tell you how many times that I have clicked on a small image accompanying a news story only to have nothing happen. And even when something does happen, the larger image is rarely large enough or detailed enough for it to have been worth my time to click it. It’s still just a poor quality photo that does just enough to get the story across. Oddly, there are often better quality photos in newspapers versus what you can find in an online news story despite the capabilities of the online world.
Yes CNN, I am talking about you here because you don’t understand.
Yes, BBC News I am talking about you too.
And NY Times, you’re guilty as well.
In fact, almost every news organization website is guilty. Name almost any website where you get the news and you will almost assuredly find horrible quality photos. It’s clear that most of the news industry just doesn’t understand the power of photography. They just don’t understand the power of a photo to transform the way we see the world. The power of a photograph to capture in detail what people are experiencing.
And I am aware that we are talking about free content here, but there is plenty of free content out there on the internet that is of good quality. We are in an age where we have high speed internet on our mobile phones. You can be watching your favorite TV show with just a few clicks. The notion that the news industry cannot find a way to provide quality photos is one that is baffling to me. It’s seems more that the news industry is just content with the status quo. That and in some instances, they just don’t understand the power of the internet to create truly amazing content.
Still, there is one news organization that does seem to understand the power of photojournalism on the web. I am talking about the Boston Globe with their series “The Big Picture”. It is a leap forward for conveying the news and it makes me love the internet every time I look at it. Large quality photos with detailed captions that provide a better view into each story they are capturing.
When I first discovered the website, it was around the time of the riots in Greece a little over a year ago. I remember feeling like I was getting this glimpse of what it was like to be on the ground there. The chaos of buildings on fire. The beauty of a couple handing a police officer dressed in riot gear a flower. It was amazing.
Since then The Big Picture has covered the migration of Africans to Europe, the war in Afghanistan, the Iranian Elections, a camel festival in India and so much more. Every time I look at it, I am literally blown away. To me, this is a news organization that understands the future. That photojournalism combined with the power of the internet has the ability to change the way we see the world. To me, this is what the news should be.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out at: The Big Picture.
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