Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Tragedies & Journalists

By Joe Hight and Frank Smyth

A 40-page guide to help journalists, photojournalists and editors report on violence while protecting both victims and themselves.

PDF / Request Copies

Witness: A Classroom Guide

By Meg Spratt

A guide to help educators use photojournalist Donna DeCesare's Dart Media presentation, "Witnessing and Picturing Violence," to teach ethical reporting.

Photography in the Killing Fields

By Stan Alcorn

Photojournalist Nic Dunlop tracked down a notorious Khmer Rouge prison warden, now on trial for crimes against humanity. Dunlop speaks to the Dart Center about the limits of journalism and justice.

Telling Stories in Images

By Niina Rintala

"A picture has no meaning at all if it can't tell a story." Award-winning Finnish photographer Eetu Sillanpää explains his philosophy of visual journalism.

Watching the Making of a Martyr

By Steve Gorelick, Ph.D.

Does this mean I have to watch it again?

That was my first thought when asked for my reaction to “the Neda video.”

I had watched it early on, before its provenance was clear, and felt I had already grappled with its horror. I remember forcing myself to face the screen, as if watching every second would admit me to some global community of the grieving. More »

Two Deaths, Two Contexts

In Baghdad, Chancellor Keesling, a 25-year-old soldier from Indianapolis, shot and killed himself. In Tehran, Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old student, was shot and killed as she watched a peaceful protest.

Two very different deaths, two very different news stories, but both required context to express or arouse anything but pain and loss. More »

Changing a Culture of Bravado

By Stan Alcorn

This weekend, New Zealand's Sunday Star Times carried a thoughtful article by Tim Hume on trauma as an under-discussed occupational hazard in journalism. The story's protagonist is Jim MacMillan, a Philadelphia photojournalist who found himself "virtually disabled" by what he calls his "psychological Waterloo": the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. More »

Panel: Where Photojournalism and Treatment Intersect

By Stan Alcorn

"Let's hold hands to show we are united." Though the image above was taken by photojournalist Donna DeCesare, the idea behind it came from this spontaneous thought from one of the image's "protagonists" (a term DeCesare prefers to "subject"). Nancy and her six younger siblings were displaced by three days of torture and killings by paramilitaries that left more than 40 villagers dead in El Salado, Colombia in the year 2000. Though it would be dangerous for them to reveal their faces or full names, through DeCesare's unique collaborative approach, they were able to choose, creatively and expressively, how they would be seen. More »

The New Photojournalism

By Stan Alcorn

"Photojournalists in the mould of [Robert] Capa or Philip Jones Griffiths can no longer compete with instantaneous TV...photojournalists must find a new language."

The quote comes from a review of fine art exhibitions in last week's Times of London, but it's a variation on an argument we've heard since the digital camera was invented: now that everyone can take photographs, who needs photographers?

Two events this week seemed to propose two different answers ... More »

Reporting on Youth Violence

Low crime rates mask an epidemic of violence among urban youth, but how can journalists get this story right? A panel discussion convened by the Dart Center and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Reporting on Iraq Veterans

From catastrophic physical injuries to the invisible wounds of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression, the Iraq war has exerted a heavy toll on hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. At a recent Dart Center event at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, four pioneers in reporting the human impact of the Iraq War discussed the challenges of reporting on these veterans.

A Sense of Outrage

By Gavin Hewitt

Running through the coverage of Katrina, like an electric current, was outrage. It is an emotion that stands out in television coverage because it is rare. Most reporters shy away from letting their emotions show.

The Images and Memories of War

A BBC Interview with Don McCullin

By Don McCullin

For 30 years, Don McCullin's CV as a photographer read like a chronology of global conflict from the Vietnam War in the 1960s to Beirut in the 1980s. Now, McCullin is famous also for photographing the beautiful landscapes around his Somerset home in England. In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country, McCullin says that there's a big change from war, destruction and death on a grand scale to the quiet beauty of Somerset.

"So Much Humanity..."

Photographer Responds to Reporter's Thoughts

Jennifer Pitts responds to Kristen Armstrong's letter to Professor Terry Clark.

This Dream I Have Had: A Diary from Zambia

By Joseph L. Rodríguez

I have to write, as I am a long way from my support network of friends and family. I feel that I am cursed to be able to feel so much.

‘I Cried Inside’: Reporting on AIDS in Zambia

By Frank Green and Joseph L. Rodríguez

In August 2003, Dart Fellows Frank Green and Joseph Rodriguez traveled to Zambia to chronicle the AIDS crisis. The trip, funded by the Dart Center, resulted in a remarkable three-part series published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2. Below is an email interview with Rodriguez and Green about the experience.

Study: Photographers and Trauma

A survey of photojournalists showed that the vast majority have been exposed to traumatic events, and that about six percent report symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a recently published study by Dart Center researchers.

Lunchtime Seminar: What They Never Told Me About Photojournalism

At Dart Centre Europe's London office, a roundtable discussion for students and professionals looking at issues faced by photojournalists reporting on trauma.

Witnessing and Picturing Violence

By Donna DeCesare

In a multimedia presentation covering gangs and paramilitaries, earthquakes and HIV, a photographer and educator explores how collaboration is the key to making images that are both powerful and responsible.

Tragedy in Focus

Three acclaimed photojournalists, Peter Howe, Jenny Matthews, and Joseph Rodriguez came together at a special Dart Center and Center for Communication panel discussion on “Photojournalism: Tragedy in Focus” in New York.