Documenting our world

Everyone knows that journalists have it hard these days. With less people willing to pay for news, the alternative sources have slowly taken over the industry. These modern methods of transmitting information to the masses have affected not just the written word, but also the images that invoke the urgency and significance behind a story.

Many of the images flashed across an online news site come from the average citizen who was in the right place at the right time and eager to participate in the storytelling. This shift away from professionalism has consequences for the information that is and will continue to be disseminated from nooks around the globe.

Veteran photojournalist Ken Hawkins is determined to keep his profession relevant. A recent Portland transplant, Hawkins started his crusade to save photojournalism in Atlanta by opening a gallery devoted solely to the exhibition of photojournalism and documentary photography. This was the genesis of 52 Selects, an ongoing show both online and on exhibit that will slowly unveil 52 important professional contributions to the world of photojournalism.

Twenty of these handpicked classics are gracing the walls of Ampersand Vintage Gallery this month. Gallery owner Myles Haselhorst became interested in housing the Hawkins exhibit after realizing the increasingly relevant role that photojournalism is playing in galleries across the country.

“Professional photojournalism is becoming less relevant every day,” Haselhorst said. “As a gallery owner, I sift through boxes of photos everyday and am essentially editing the content that I make available in my store. This is the process that professionals go through in selecting work to be displayed, and there is value in that.”

Haselhorst’s argument is for the trained eye versus the untrained, the intrinsic value of molding a story and crafting an image.

The photos are not restricted to images of despair or catastrophe. They cover the gamut of human emotion, cultural diversity and lifestyle. From historical images to the more recent, sports figures to lonesome cowboys, landscapes to dreamscapes and everything in between.

A few of the photojournalists represented include David LaBelle, Scott Strazzante and Marta Ramoneda.

LaBelle is a true veteran of the field with over 40 years as a professional photojournalist. His subjects are diverse but the themes are similarly thought provoking and often ironic. One of the displayed photos captures a truly memorable showdown between a hunter and his prey.

The side-by-side imagery of Strazzante’s work is used to both compare and contrast the differences between rural and suburban landscapes and people. In a series titled “Common Ground,” we see landscapes change from agricultural fields to housing tracts, from the different uses for a bucket and a hose to the change in comfort creatures from a real kitty to a pink teddy bear.

A native of Spain, Ramoneda took her camera and career to Pakistan to document the culture and lifestyle of a place far removed from the western realm. In a way that is both distressing and beautiful, Ramoneda’s images provide a voice for the impoverished and starving through photos of calloused hands reaching for a piece of bread, to a tiny woman balancing the weight of four large bricks on the top of her burka-covered head.

As the media of the 21st century begins to change, the potential for professional photojournalism to exist in its historical form remains uncertain. The contribution of professionals in the field, however, will continue to be ingrained in the fabric of society. This modern approach may instead use the power of the gallery wall to interweave itself rather than be hidden beneath the fold of day-old news.