ABSTRACT
The challenge to understanding the viability of visual truth—and, therefore, photojournalism—is twofold: (a) to examine its role in human life, and (b) to examine its relation—if any—to the real. As with many contemporary human activities, we can easily conceive of possible origins of photojournalism in a complex array of human needs and characteristics that can be traced to survival and expressive behaviors of early humans. Articulating why photographs have evidentiary power in today's multimedia world is more difficult. This chapter highlights issues that confound attempts to comprehend the seemingly unique authority of a photographic image. The discussion draws on surveillance and visual perception theories to locate visual reportage within a larger realm of human visual behavior.
