Photojournalism | Telling Stories With Photographs
© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak on The Excavator During Ground Breaking Ceremony in Kerdau Feb 27th 2011
Fist of all I would like to let you know that this is not the “right” angle to shoot a ground breaking ceremony, I should be on the other side together with my photographers friends over there, shooting from the same angle. Actually I did take a picture from that position first and after I get the shot that I want, then I quickly ran to the other side so that I can get this photograph, my intention here is to tell a story with this photograph, I want to show the viewer how we a photojournalist do our work.
Whenever I was on duty taking picture or event like this, I will always try to take a picture of my friends at work also, I like to see how they work to get the shot because it will reflect how I work also. You will never find this photograph in the newspaper, the reason is, all the newspaper photographers are on the other side, I was the only one running here at this position to get this shot. Personally I like this picture, it tells a story about the event better than a clean shot where we can only see the Prime Minister, the excavator and the soil.
From this photograph also we can see that not all of them use DSLR to get the shot, some of them which is not from the PRESS were seen taking picture with just a small compact camera and some of them just use a handphone camera to record this historical event in front of their very own eyes in Jengka 25 in Kerdau during by-elections. You can see also a bodyguard there in white and yellow uniform wearing a black spectacles watching me from a distance standing next to the cameraman there with blue and yellow stripes shirt.
Sometimes it is up to the photographers intention regarding with his chosen angles, there is no right or wrong angle because it is up to the photographer how he want his picture to be seen, what does the photographer really wanted to tell. I choose to tell my story differently from the rest of my friends who shoot from a different angle there. They have their point of view and I have a different pint of view. Actually my chosen angle shows more about the photojournalist at work than about the ground breaking ceremony itself, but then again, it’s my story.
