prestigious prizes and awards, including their Cul-
tural Award for distinguished contributions to
artistic, scientific, or journalistic photography,
and the ‘‘Dr. Erich Salomon Award’’ for media
and photographers for outstanding photography
in journalism.DGPhwas founded in 1951 at the
instigation of Prof. L. Fritz Gruber, an eminent
photohistorian, with the cooperation of the city of
Cologne and the Association of the German
Photographic Industry. While functioning as an
umbrella organization for various other photo-
graphic associations and services,DGPhalso has
an elected membership. At the end of the century,
its membership of over 900 included fine arts
photographers, photojournalists, teachers, cura-
tors, scientists, inventors, doctors, and other disci-
plines. Their website is http://www.dgph.de.
Genre-specific organizations are by far the most
prolific professional organizations: Altitude is for
aerial photographers only and features interna-
tional aerial photographers on its website. The
International Association of Panoramic Photogra-
phers, founded in the 1980s, is the leading profes-
sional organization for panoramic photographers
located throughout the world. Wedding and Por-
trait Photographers International supports studio
and wedding photographers through a magazine,
website, and other professional services, including
an annual competition with prizes and a scholar-
ship fund. Numerous others can be located through
web searches or local telephone directories.
LynneWarren
Seealso:Adams, Ansel; Center for Creative Photo-
graphy; Photo League; Photo-Secession; Pictorialism;
Royal Photographic Society; White, ClarencePROPAGANDA
Propaganda is ‘‘the technique of influencing human
action by the manipulation of representations’’ (H.
D. Lasswell). Propaganda photography (propagan-
da) therefore refers to photographs consciously
made to manipulate visual reality in order to pro-
voke a certain reaction in the viewer. In most cases,
propaganda is utilized for political purposes, but it
can have other connotations and be used to sway
people socially and aesthetically in advertising or
other commercial applications. Making photographs
to be used as propaganda is strictly forbidden in
any system of journalistic ethics in photography,
although most photographers are inclined not to
believe that their work is or can be part of any sort
of propaganda, even in blatant circumstances (the
career of Leni Riefenstahl is instructive). In the twen-
tieth century, the propagandistic use of photographs
is more commonly found in the distribution of
images than to the act of photographing itself.
And, even under conditions of Fascist or Socialist
governments well-known for their attempts to pro-
duce propaganda, effectiveness of propaganda
photography can be easily over-estimated.
Propagareis a Latin word that meant grafting a
tree but had been used metaphorically for proposing
ideas in writing. A papal congregation in 1622
coined today’s use of the word propaganda by set-
ting up a commission under this title in order to
spread Roman Catholicism more effectively around
the world. Propaganda gained its political meaning
in the French revolution of 1792. In the early years
of the twentieth century, little or no distinction was
made between propaganda and advertising. After
the events of the Soviet and Nazi regimes, however,
propaganda has been most commonly understood as
high-tech, mass-media governmental advertisement
with a strong ideological meaning.
Propaganda imagery existed well before the
invention of photography; it is as ancient as draw-
ing on a wall. In 1525, German peasants and the
Catholic church fought a civil war by spreading
illustrated leaflets with pamphlets, and the same
image could be used for or against its target. Mass
circulation newspapers that emerged in the early
nineteenth century saw articles illustrated with
engraved drawings and later in the century, withPROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS