Documenting History with Photos

Newspapers throughout the country are focusing their efforts on telling the stories of Americans during these difficult times. The Washington Post is adding daily to its series – Hard Times.

Every time I see a project on today’s economic struggles, I am reminded that as photographers we have an opportunity to not only take photos but to be historians.

This summer was the first time I saw myself as a historian more so than a photographer. The way our society deals and treats mental illness will change in the next 30 years just as it has in the last 30 years. We look at photos from 1950 of mental hospitals and cringe and wonder how we could have treated people that way.

I always thought of a historian as someone who photographed a war or a significant event but in reality, as photojournalists we document history.