The first photograph to accompany a news story in a newspaper appeared in July 1848, in the French weekly periodical L’Illustration.
It depicted barricaded Parisian streets caused by a worker’s strike. The 1848 June Days Uprising occurred from June 22nd to 26th, but the much slower pace of news gathering at that time, coupled with the weekly publication schedule, meant that the article didn’t appear until July 1st. The published image was likely an inked engraving from the original photograph.
The June Days uprising was an uprising staged by French civilians from 22 to 26 June 1848. It was in response to plans to close the National Workshops, created by the Second Republic in order to provide work and a minimal source of income for the unemployed.
The National Guard, led by General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, was called out to quell the rebellion. Over 10,000 people were either killed or injured, while 4,000 insurgents were deported to French Algeria. The uprising marked the end of the hopes of a “Democratic and Social Republic” and the victory of the liberals over the Radical Republicans.
First photograph signaled the beginning of photojournalism
The photograph marked the very beginning of incorporating photographs to document and report on current events. This opened doors for a new way of experiencing the news.
Prior to this, newspapers relied on artists’ illustrations, which could be subjective or delayed. Photographs offered a more objective and potentially faster way to capture real-world scenes.
This early use, even through engraving, paved the way for advancements in printing technology that would allow direct inclusion of photographs in newspapers later on.
L’Illustration is believed to be the first paper to publish a color photograph in 1891 and 1907 respectively when it was reporting of war that gave photojournalism its big boost, especially Roger Fenton’s Crimean War photographs and the American Civil War.
Roger Fenton was a British photographer who was instrumental in founding the Photographic Society (later the Royal Photographic Society). In 1854, he was commissioned to document events occurring in Crimea, where he became one of a small group of photographers to produce images of the final stages of the Crimean War.
Despite the early breakthroughs, photojournalism flourished when faster photographic processes and printing techniques made including actual photographs in newspapers more feasible.
Most importantly it flourished with the invention of smaller, portable cameras that allowed photojournalists to be more mobile and capture events as they unfolded.
Related: Post-War Greece Through the Photographs of Robert McCabe
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