Photography in mass media

The use of photography in mass image media (magazines, daily newspapers) was the next qualitative step in the history of photography. Photographic reproduction methods and print technology (gravure, rotary printing) had already developed to a point were the use of photographs was, in principle, possible. But it was only after World War I that photographs attained the exclusive significance in the media which they still hold today (in 1904 the Daily Mirror illustrated its pages exclusively with photographs, and the New Yorker Illustrated News followed in 1919).

Acquired usage habits were slowly broken in connection with the development of the small picture camera (Leica), which permitted snapshots without the use of a flash. Politicians, sovereigns, crimes, and wars found a place in the minds of the viewers.

”Photography heralded the age of visual mass media as the individual portray was displaced by the collective portray. At the same time, photography became a powerful instrument for propaganda and manipulation. The world of pictures was shaped to meet the interests of those who owned the press: industry, financial capital, and the government” (Freund, Gisele)

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