Undoubtedly, the entire photojournalism is under tremendous pressure in technological changes, competition, personal risks, piracy, and gender. In the digital age, it is getting harder and harder to survive by taking pictures. Where is the future of traditional photojournalism?

Photography is a young and one of the most vulnerable mediums. It is influenced easily by the digital revolution. Compared with other photography categories, photojournalism, focusing on information dissemination function, seems to be more vulnerable at the moment.

This year, Lens blog, launched by The New York Times a decade ago, announced its going on “temporary hiatus”. Times photography director Meaghan Looram announced the news to staff in a note sent out on May 18.

“We believe that this is the perfect time to take stock of and celebrate what Lens has achieve and to give serious thought to how to better position Lens for the future,”

Meaghan Looram sent out a note to staff

At first, Lens blog grew into a photography blog that had the might of a “newspaper of record,” pushing documentary photography to a much larger audience than industry-specific blogs could. From 2009 to 2019, they published more than 4000 articles and plucked many cub photojournalists.

Lens blog not has a broad international perspective, paying attention to major global events such as war conflicts, immigrant, human rights and climate change, but often focus on daily chores and scandal of the ordinary people.

Ten years ago, we used to look through news photography on newspapers and television screens. Now, we get them on our mobile phones where the content is deep or fragmented.

“Digital platforms were presenting new challenges to the industry, and Lens provide one of the few dedicated showcases for photography. But since then, the means of consuming photography have changed and expanded.”

Meaghan Looram sent out a note to staff

Lens blog was born in a different era. At that time, social media and various digital platforms were emerging, and traditional photojournalism has begun to have an impact. There were very few such photojournalism blogs in the media at the time.

Over a decade ago, James Estrin, David W. Dunlap – a reporter in the New York Times, and a photographer Josh Haner formed a team, starting one-week trial run on the WordPress.

“Lens, a photojournalism blog that intends to present some of the most interesting visual and multimedia reporting,”

David W. Dunlap said on May 15^th, 2009.

However, the changing landscape of digital publishing has led the New York Times to reconsider the purpose of Lens.

Nowadays, there are also a few high-quality photojournalism blogs like Lens blog. Such a photojournalism blog seldom makes a big splash in the media. On the news site, in all channel categories, the “picture” or “photography” classes are always in the back position. If you want to look through high-quality news photography, you have to click more hyperlinks.

Take the British “The Guardian” as an example. On its website, there is a “more” behind “news”, “opinions”, “sports”, “culture” and “lifestyle”, hiding some less important channels. The “pictures” channer is in “more”. And clicking twice, the Picture Essay would appear. The same goes in In Sight of the Washington Post and Lightbox of Time

These high-quality news photography and photojournalism blog always seem to be arranged in inconspicuous corners. Readers who don’t pay attention to news photography for a long time are hard to find.

“As one of the first photo blogs at the time, Lens set out to showcase work that risked getting lost in the digital blizzard, as well as to highlight themes and issues in the world of photojournalism,”

Meaghan Looram sent out a note to staff

The Stare of News Photography 2018, reported by the Word Press Photo Foundation, is still optimistic about the future of photojournalism in the digital age. They believe that the influence of news photography will increase, and the photojournalism should be a place in where photojournalists could get a sense of security and belong.

As the current Assistant Managing Editor and Director of Photography at The Washington Post, MaryAnne Golon has the same attitude as the Word Press Photo Foundation, she believes that photojournalism will survive well under tremendous pressure.

“Since the beginning of my career, which has spanned more than thirty years, I have been told that photojournalism is dying. And I have news: it’s not dead yet. Yes, there are fewer staff jobs than there used to be for photojournalists at newspapers around the world. But does that mean that less journalism is being made? No. I think there’s a shift in the industry that’s been a long time coming, but I don’t think that photojournalism can completely die. There are too many practitioners who are incredibly successful, and too many people who still seek some semblance of truth in storytelling. There is a hunger for reality.” MaryAnne Golon said for Lens Culture

Fans of photojournalism will be sad to hear that Lens blog comes to an end. We cannot image a newspaper or news website with no news photography, only news text. News photography not only plays the important role in transmitting information, but also has the power to stir readers’ emotions.

“Images evoke emotion, whether that be anger, pity, empathy or even humor. People often slough off funny pictures, but I think any emotion that a photojournalistic image can evoke—even a laugh—is worthy, because it means it moved you. That’s an important part of what we do, and it can’t be lost,”

MaryAnne Golon said for Lens Culture

Photojournalism is in a transitional moment, like the period of the shift from film to digital. Facing the gap divided between the digital generation and the print generation, everyone including readers and photojournalists needs to change.

Nowadays, mobile phones give people more possibilities to photography, but that does not mean everyone can be a great photographer.

“Photojournalism is a field that’s become incredibly expensive. There are certain people who believe that anyone with an iPhone can record imagery. But in the same way that anybody with a pencil can’t be a great writer, anybody with an iPhone is not necessarily going to be a great photographer. Nor will they have an understanding of the skills or ethics behind the photography that they are creating to elevate their work.”

MaryAnne Golon said for Lens Culture

Although it is a “temporary hiatus” for Lens blog, we cannot know when the Lens blog could return in what way. Looram pointed out that the goal of the Lens blog in the future not only becomes the most authoritative source of information for readers who read and think about photography, but also reaches a wider audience.

Perhaps the Lens blog will follow the trend of the Internet with adding more multimedia elements. If this is a short break, it may not be a bad thing for photojournalism. This is also a new exploration for the photojournalism field. No matter how it changes, we have reasons to expect this photojournalism blog to return in a new look.