Welcome to the January, 2004 issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism.

Photojournalism takes many forms. Viewers of this magazine over the past five years often talk about the "eclectic content." We have covered the great masters of photography, as we did last month with Arnold Newman, Master of Environmental Portraiture. We have covered the battle fronts of the world, the disaster of 9/11, and a special issue on the 20th anniversary of AIDS and photography, yet we find time to present personal works like the wonderful land and people stories Greg Latza has done in South Dakota. We have covered Seinfeld's last show with photographs by David Hume Kennerly. We have celebrated the world of fashion and glamour by photographers such as Doug Kirkland, Walter Ioos, Jr, and Melvin Sokolsky and looked behind the sets of movies with Murray Close.

Our working definition of the craft is that the photographs that are produced have one primary purpose: to communicate.

This month we feature two stories that could not be more different to each other. Philip Jones Griffiths is one of the most distinguished photojournalists in the world. His epic photo book, Vietnam Inc in the 1960s was a searing indictment of that war, while trying to help people understand what the grunts in the mud were going through. He became a "persona non grata" to the South Vietnamese Government and was banned from most of the war. But in the months before he was forced to leave he learned of alarming birth defects beginning to show up among Vietnamese whose parents had been exposed to Agent Orange. Returning five years after the war, he began a personal commitment that would take the next two decades - to amass the visual record of what dioxin had done to thousands upon thousands of children. Philip spent many thousands of his own dollars to pursue this story, and never thought the chances of selling many pictures were good. He did it because he felt he HAD to. Last year, a brave publisher offered to print the book. It is now in bookstores. It is a difficult body of work to look at, and for that reason we warn parents that some of these photographs may disturb children (as well as adults), but in our opinion it is a story of such importance that we feel compelled to bring it to you. As Philip said, "if we could afford it we would put this book in every school library, and send it to every member of Congress."

Linda Troeller is a photographer who explores issues of sensuality. Three years ago she produced a book The Erotic Lives of Women which represented women's sexual fantasies on a worldwide level. She is also devoted, as is Philip Jones Griffiths, to health issues. She has just published a new book Spa Journeys which visualizes sumptuous gardens of Eden. In both cases, the camera becomes the crucial element in defining images of tragedy and wellness.

This month we expand our popular "Dispatches" section. Under Editor Amy Bowers, these emails from news fronts around the world have presented compelling visual images, along with the unique voices of the photojournalists who took them. Barely a month goes by that we don't see major magazines such as Columbia Journalism Review and American Photo picking up these stories, as well as other web sites such as Poynter.org. It doesn't surprise us. Photographers are great storytellers, and letting them have the freedom to convey what they go through in words as well as pictures allows them to complete their creative and journalistic missions.

Chris Hondros of Getty who contributed one of our top stories of 2003, Cry Monrovia, was in Baghdad when Saddam Hussein was discovered in his "spider hole." He and Polaris' Dana Smillie, a Platypus graduate, who was also on the scene, both contribute their reports and photos.

Zelie Pollon, a writer for Reuters and People magazine, opened her diary to create her dispatch from Iraq. She calls her experience of compassion overload The Unbearable Heaviness of Truthtelling.

Yalda Moayeri, an Iranian photojournalist who arrived at the earthquake's center in Bam while survivors were still screaming for help, sent us a powerful account from the disaster, with pictures.

We are kicking off our Presidential campaign coverage this month with a dispatch from Getty's Shaun Heasley in Is This Heaven? No, It's Iowa.

Expect further reports from photographers with the campaigns for the rest of the year.

Our Bill Pierce wonders whether photojournalism today is a "personal service industry" or is now dealing in "Symbolis Anaylsis" in his Nuts and Bolts column. Jim Colburn muses over what would have happened to history if German inventor Gustave Whitehead had cameras around when he launched his own airplane flight at the same time the Wright brothers did. Terry Heaton continues his fascinating series on TV in the Post Modern world, as he speculates, "TV is dead! Put a Fork in It! It's done!" We all want peace on earth and an end to world hunger. Mark Loundy didn't solve those problems, but he does have a plan to fix the NPPA. Ron Steinman comments on the photos from Iraq that are becoming part of our collective consciousness.

In the January issue, Assignment Sheet starts off the New Year with some journals from the working press that will interest and amuse you.

Tennessee freelancer Susan Adcock, admits to breaking the thirty second shooting time limit rule when shooting celebrity concerts. Tch, tch, tch... it turned out great and with all due respect to Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, and the rules, I might quietly add that I'm not sorry. Susan explains it in her journal, CONCERTS.

TechTV Cameraperson Mark Neuling talks about adhering to his rule of ethics by keeping his promise to a high school principal who asked him not to photograph students during the taping of a story about kids who hacked the school's computer to change their grades. This led to a clash of wills with his editors and became a learning experience for an intern who rode with him for the day. Mark talks about it in his journal, CLASSROOM ON INTERSTATE-880.

HOMETOWN PHOTOJOURNALISM CAN INCLUDE THE WAR ON TERROR, by Sean Cayton, a Freelance Photographer from Colorado, explains how he covered the war in Iraq with a story in his own backyard. And he takes us there with some very compelling photographs.

Retired Newsday staffer Dick Kraus digs into his memories of past assignments from his series, Through a Lens Dimly, as he describes a road trip with a Country/Western superstar. He talks about problems with an official of the stage electricians' local who threatened to shut down the show if he continued shooting photos. Then he goes on to describe an experience which brought home the point that teens in the mid-west aren't the same as teenagers in New York. It's all here in LORETTA.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

Dirck Halstead
Editor and Publisher
dhalstead@dvnetwork.net

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