News Photos as Art

As we are about to close out the year 2004, we are inundated with newspaper, magazine and Internet articles, as well as web logs stories like "The Year in Review, " or "The Best of," and of course its antithesis, "The Worst of." And that is all well and good although sometimes I don't want to be reminded of the year just concluding. I am too busy thinking about the upcoming year and the promise it holds.

In any case, this morning's New York Times web site featured a link on its front page called, 2004, The Year in Pictures." Because I am a sucker for photographs, I clicked on the link to see what images it held. I also knew that because it was the Times, the quality of the photos would be superb. And I was right. It is one of the finest collections of news photos ever assembled in one place.

As I clicked through the collection, I realized that in many cases, these photos went beyond news...they were art. After all what is art supposed to do? It is supposed to move you emotionally and allow you to see what the artist envisioned...and in the case of photography, without any words.

Simply put, the pictures are supposed to tell the whole story. But, the story can't be really told well without other artistic concepts coming into play, such as composition, depth and color, to name a few. And in most of these pictures, these elements are here.

Take the very first picture. It is of an Iraqi prisoner, sitting in the sand. His hands are tied behind him and a black shirt is pulled over his head. He is bending forward and on the sand next to him is a tiny pool of blood. But, what makes this photo really stunning is the shadow on the wall behind the prisoner of an American soldier holding his weapon. No words need be spoken here. All the emotional and artistic elements of the picture are in play. We see what the artist is trying to tell us and it grabs us emotionally. Now...that is art!

Not all the photos in this collection can be considered art, but there are some good ones (there are many non-art photos that will move you, such as the assisted suicide in Oregon). As an artist, I also like the shadow of the helicopter as it flies over some female sunbathers in Iraq. Or the clubhouse celebration of the Boston Red Sox, or the dog in the daffodils in Central Park, or the trees coming out of the water on a Brazilian lake. There is great art in and among this collection and I invite you to view it for yourself. Go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/photo/20041227_YIP_FEATURE/blocker.html