Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The older paradigm for photojournalists was to simply record events, with the hope-and frequently the expectation-that people and their governments would be moved to respond to the injustices pictured; as witnessed by the impact of certain images during the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. Given evolving media and political climates, however, including the billions of images now available online from all kinds of sources, the purpose and effectiveness of media, in particular of visual journalism, has been called into question. Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and Citzenship, by author and critic Fred Ritchin, addresses the new and emerging potentials for visual media to impact society. Ritchin examines the historical and contemporary uses of photography and related media to inspire social change. From the unintended consequences of "citizen journalism" and leaked images such as those from Abu Ghraib, to the new strategies by visual journalists and the targeted human rights projects by documentary photographers, the intention of this book is to provide a much-needed critical approach to the issues involved in such efforts. Also encompassing online efforts, uses of video, and a diverse range of books and exhibitions, Bending the Frame aims for as wide-ranging and farreaching a discussion as possible, asking the critical question: how can images promote new thinking and make a difference in the world?

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. 6)
• Chapter 1 The Useful Photogapher (p. 8)
• Chapter 2 A'Dialectical Journalism (p. 28)
• Chapter 3 Making Pictures Matter (p. 47)
• Plates (p. 80)
• Chapter 4 Other Alliances (p. 97)
• Chapter 5 Of Healing and Peace (p. 122)
• Chapter 6 The Front Page and Beyond (p. 142)
• Afterword (p. 160)
• Index (p. 162)
• Acknowledgments (p. 174)
• Reproduction Credits (p. 175)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This volume takes readers through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole into the surrealistic world of photojournalism and its history, uses, effects, and possibly its future. Rather than being the definitive record of the world as it is, photojournalism is subject to all the biases, preferences, artistic visions, and political and economic forces of other aspects of culture. With hundreds of examples by photographers, editors, publishers, and subjects, Ritchin (NYU) presents the conflicting and sometimes redeeming aspects of the published photograph. His examples, from before the digital age through present-day social networks, tell an intriguing, though sometimes unsettling, story of using photographs to inform, influence, and manipulate those who use or view them. War, disaster, and political photography receive special analysis as the author asks whether peace can really be documented. Increasingly, citizen journalists, rather than professional observers, are recording the human condition, and the number of published photographs increases exponentially. As photojournalism changes, citizens often are the subjects as well as the photographers/videographers in an ever-changing, unpredictable environment. Ritchin remains optimistic that whatever photojournalism becomes, it will remain a force for good. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. L. L. Scarth independent scholar