What motivates Photojournalists

David Guttenfelder

David is a famous photojournalist that is known for his journey to North Korea. David Guttenfelder while working for the national geographic, took many real life photographs of people around the world. David gets motivated by wanting to clear up false accusations of things and people around the world, and that is one of the main reasons he took the job to go to North Korea. He wanted to show the world that people in North Korea are just like us. In an interview David describes how the people of North Korea are and how they do the same everyday things like us, he says, "These things that are just the most normal things in the world.. so that's the kind of pictures I've always tried to take." David tried to be apart of them to truly understand them, just like Stacy Pearsall in the Veterans Portrait Project video says, "Working with them, I become part of their story". He's motivated by the truth of the story and telling that truth.

Photo by : National Geographic

Image Source : https://www.nationalgeographic.org/find-explorers/david-guttenfelder

Photo by : David Guttenfelder

Image source : https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/04/glimpses-of-humanity-in-choreographed-north-korea/100280/

Ami Vitale

Ami in a Ted Talk talks about her journey to war zones, her mindset in the field, and what motivates her work. She talks about what the people wanted to see verses what she wanted to show. "I thought that was what they wanted, to bring back the most violent, dramatic images. And the stories that give us joy, that help us relate to with one another are not worth telling." Ami wanted to show not only the bad things that we were going on but also the good. Ami is motivated by showing some of the good in the world. That not everything is always bad, and that the good is worth telling too. Like Xyra Cruz once said, "I want my images to help people, if my images help people, it makes me feel useful to society." I think Ami Vitale has that same mindset as well. She wants to show the good while helping people, helping our world. To show them that not everyone is violent, or evil, but that we have good things in this world as well.

Photo by : National Geographic

Image source : https://www.amivitale.com/about-ami/

Photo by : Ami Vitale

Image source : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2016/08/ami-vitale-photographer-q-a/

Greg Constantine

Greg's main focus is human rights, injustice, and inequality. He is motivated by giving people that voice when no one else will, and he gives it to them by his photographs. Greg talks about different words he hears from these people and puts them into sentences, "I fly through this life with no where to land. These are words of men, women, and children all around the world. What binds them together to make this one voice." His photographs get published and with that their voices, their needs, their worries get published. He learns their stories, takes photographs, and tells their stories through the photographs. You can feel his passion, his anger: you can feel him in his work.

Photo by : Pulitzer Center 

Image source : https://pulitzercenter.org/people/greg-constantine

Photo by : Greg Constantine 

Image source : https://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/person/greg-constantine/

Photo by : Liliya Stepanchuk

With the three photojournalists that I researched, I agree with all three of their motivations. David Guttenfelder takes photographs of the truth, and one of my most important motivations is also the truth. Ami Vitale wants people to see the good in others and our world, and I find that also so important. Greg Constantine wants to make people equal and give them a voice so that they have a different future, and one of the things that motivates me is the future. With all three of these photojournalists, they all portray a challenge. They all go all around the world to take photographs to tell a story, or to say a message. And the places they go aren't all that great and safe, but they go to pursue what they love and they are driven by what motivates them.