reactions to all sorts of events and conditions.
Humphrey Spender made evocative images of
industrial towns disguised as a worker.
Photojournalism
Photography and the press have always been intrin-
sically linked. Even before the technology existed to
reproduce photographs in mass-produced publica-
tions—originally, actual photographs were bound
into books—drawings made from photographs
were printed. The halftone process, widely used
after 1900, enabled photographs to be published
along side of text. With the widespread use of min-
iature cameras such as the Ermanox (1924) and the
Leica (1925), photojournalism came into its own.
These new cameras made photographers highly
mobile, and enabled them to inconspicuously
move close to the action. They utilized natural
light, had wide-aperture lenses, and fast exposure
times. The development of the flash in the twentieth
century represented a great advance over the cum-
bersome, explosive, and smoky flash powder pre-
viously utilized. The synchroflash coordinated the
flash with the shutter of the camera. Later, multiple
flashes allowed photographers to arrange a room
with many light sources, creating a more natural
effect, and simply wait for an appropriate moment
to shoot. Flashbulbs and electronic flashes were
other twentieth-century innovations.
A new style of photography evolved which
emphasized informality and spontaneity. Images
now conveyed news. Photographically illustrated
publications became wildly popular in the 1920s
and 1930s. Germany led this phenomenon with
publications such as theMu ̈ncher Illustrierte Presse
(1928), though France’sVu(1928) and, later, Henry
Luce’sLifeandLook(begun in 1936 and 1937,
respectively), in America, were also widely read.
Margaret Bourke-White’s industrial photographs
first appeared inLife, as did those of Alfred Eisen-
staedt. Pictures of politicians, events, and interest-
ing sites held viewers in thrall and became
important in shaping popular opinion. The photo-
essay—sequenced pictures accompanying an infor-
mational text—was a form that was invented to suit
these new picture magazines. Over time, every man-
ner of human-interest story was expressed in this
form. Innovative editors, such as Stefan Lorant,
editor of theMu ̈ncher Illustrierte Presse, oversaw
both image-making and stories. Photographers
were part of a team that included an editor, re-
searcher, and writer. Over time, effective formulae
for photoessays were established. Pictures were
sequenced on the page before the addition of text,
and opening paragraphs established a context for
the imagery that followed. In 1934, Lorant fled the
Nazis. In London he established important picture
magazines such asPicture Post(1938) andWeekly
Illustrated (1934). The spontaneous and natural
look of the photographs he printed, many by e ́migre ́
photographers, impacted photojournalism around
the world. Certain photographers, such as Felix H.
Man and W. Eugene Smith, became well known for
their images that became part of memorable photo-
essays. Picture magazines provided important
experiences for photographers and editors in the
twentieth century. Andreas Feininger, for example,
who had worked forLife, later made several books
of design-conscious imagery. The influential Alexey
Brodovitch, art director ofHarper’s Bazaarfrom
1934–1958, helped shape the style of magazine lay-
outs, and that of important photographers as well.
Photojournalists became adept at capturing sig-
nificant and newsworthy moments. This led to an
appreciation of the aesthetic of spontaneity in its
own right. The Hungarian-born Andre ́ Kerte ́sz
made beautifully composed images notable both
for their composition as well as their perceptiveness.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, working in France, con-
ceived of an entire approach based on capturing,
as he said, the ‘‘decisive moment,’’ the name of an
important book of his images (1952). He described
the process of the patient readiness to snap precon-
ceived shots as a ‘‘fencer making a lunge.’’ He was a
founder of Magnum Photos in 1946 with David
Seymour (‘‘Chim’’) and Robert Capa. This photo-
grapher’s collaborative, which maintained a staff of
roving cameramen taking pictures to sell to press
agencies, was the result of a desire for greater con-
trol over their pictures.
Since photography’s invention, war has provided
the subject for countless pictures. The sites and
soldiers of the Crimean War and the American
Civil War were extensively photographed. Actual
scenes of battle, however, could not be taken
because of cumbersome equipment. But by 1930,
smaller cameras, roll film, and the dictates of the
press made the experience of war inherently photo-
graphic. Governments, too, used photography for
aerial reconnaissance and to monitor troop move-
ments, as well as for propaganda purposes. Combat
photographers faced great technological challenges
and life-risking situations. Robert Capa became a
pioneering combat photographer. His blurry im-
ages of moments from the Spanish Civil War and
from D-Day conveyed the franticness of battle. Joe
Rosenthal’s image of American soldiers raising a
flag on the Iwo Jima battlefield (1945) became an
icon of American patriotism. In Britain duringHISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TWENTIETH-CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS