Photo credit: Todd Korol

Photo credit: Todd Korol

Photojournalism: Art? Storytelling? Truth?

presented by exposure and the news photographers association of canada.

Date: February 9, 1 - 4pm
Location: Festival HQ

Great photojournalism powerfully engages its viewers through visual storytelling. It also provokes questions that can be tricky to answer. What is photojournalism's status in relation to other kinds of photographic image making? Can we think of photojournalism as art? Many of its creators do not see themselves as artists, but as truth-tellers who bristle at the notion that they could be creating salable art objects.

Yet what they do falls rather easily within the definition of art. The Oxford Dictionaries say art is the “expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.” Artworks come “typically in a visual form … to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

The critics would object. “Art may be hard to define,” wrote Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times, “but whatever art is, it’s a step removed from reality. A theatrical depiction of suffering may be art; real suffering is not. … The image of a naked, fleeing, napalm-burned Vietnamese girl is truth, not art. Images of the blazing twin towers, however horrifically compelling, are not art.”

This panel discussion considers the status of photojournalism. Art? Storytelling? Truth? Panelists will tackle these questions and provide a platform for audience Q & A.

Featured panelists include Ali Ledgerwood, Candice Ward, Dona Schwartz and Todd Korol.

 
 

117 8th Ave SW
Calgary, AB,
Canada