My Path to Photojournalism

My interest in photography was very general. Just take a picture. I remember the joy of my first self-made print. After a few simple steps, in some magical way, an image appeared. Photographing family, friends, pretty views, and my dog – everyone has gone through that. Until one day, I happened to come across the World Press Photo`92 catalog, with a photograph that changed my approach to photography.

That photograph was the World Press Photo`92 Picture of the Year, titled "Crying Over the Death of a Friend Killed in the Gulf War" by David C. Turnley. It depicts a desperate soldier who has learned that the body of his friend, killed by allied fire on the last day of the Gulf War, lies in the bag at his feet. It is an image that is impossible to forget. This is where the great expressive power of the photograph lies. It shows that every war always has the same dimension - human life and human suffering - the real faces of war.

To be a photojournalist, one must possess an innate ability to see with images, have something to say, master the technique of photography to the extent that one can forget about it while working (there can never be a situation where a photojournalist does not take a picture), have a bit of luck, and be able to work.


One must come to terms with the fact that only a fraction of the photos taken is good, amidst constant haste, nerves, and stress. It is also necessary to overcome fear, shyness, and inhibitions when it comes to pulling out the camera and taking pictures. Making a good photograph, as Mieczysław Michalak, head of the photojournalists at "Gazeta Wyborcza," claims, involves "getting into the person."

It is not an art to put on a long lens and take a picture from afar. Photographing with short lenses gives the viewer a sense of certainty that the photojournalist was truly at the center of the events, and that the photographed scene was within arm`s reach. A significant advantage of being a photojournalist is that this work cannot be called boring. One must be able to photograph a bee on a flower and an elephant at the zoo, a pretty girl and a hundred-year-old birthday celebrant, a beggar at the station and the prime minister.

Such work presents new challenges every day that one must meet. It is the photojournalist`s duty to document reality. Such photography provides cognitive and documentary benefits and should also provide artistic experiences, both for the photographer and the audience. One`s own personality must be woven into all of this so that from this wonderful joy of photography comes something personal, original, and valuable, and above all, authentic.