The First Photograph Ever Used In News
A brief history of the birth of photojournalism
Everyone has heard the old phrase that a photo is worth a thousand words. Photography has become a ubiquitous part of how people view and consume news in the modern world. Cable news has, literal, twenty four seven coverage of world events that are continuously displayed in photo and video format. Newspapers spent countless hours and dollars finding and framing the perfect photos for their front pages. Today, most people can’t fathom consuming news without photography.
But there was a time when news had no images attached to it, only words. In fact, before photography, most news outlets did not even illustrate the news, they relied on eyewitness accounts and reporting alone.
Early news illustration was akin to modern sketches seen from the inside of courtrooms where cameras are not allowed. They were hastily drawn and colored images depicting large events.
The first illustration in a newspaper did not ship until 1806.
The first photograph to appear in a newspaper was not printed until 1848.
The first ever journalistic photograph
The first ever photograph to be printed alongside print news occurred on July 1st, 1848. The…
