Photojournalists have long had a romantic mystique about them, and with good reason. Risking one’s life to capture images that reveal what is happening behind the headlines is extraordinary.
These days, however, as Pieter Hugo, Zanele Muholi, Alec Soth, Mikhael Subotzky and others create artworks in documentary-photography formats and photography is widely accepted as a valid artistic medium, certain photojournalists are also increasingly capturing the attention of the art world.
In fact, the word “photojournalist” is out of vogue, giving way to the wider umbrella term “documentary photographer”, which crosses over into both spheres.