Women Photojournalist

A) 

Portrait Credit: Chris McGrath 

The female photojournalist I chose to discuss on this topic is Nicole Tung. She was born in Hong Kong, in 1986. Tung graduated from New York University. Tung is also known mostly for her work in the Middle East and Asia. What grabbed my attention about Tung is a video in which she talks about the different types of triumphs and issues that females in the photojournalist industry encounter daily. In this video, Tung explains how women are always considered the weaker link, especially in subjects like war and photography. She also speaks about the sexual harassment that women go through and how some have a hard time speaking about it. In this video, Nicole Tung talks about her career and challenges in photojournalism " The photojournalism industry and publications tend to hire people they worked with for many years which tend to be men or think that for dangerous assignments men are better suited." It's frustrating to know that no matter how hard women try to better themselves and try to be treated seriously in their profession as women we will always go through extra triumphs to be taken seriously. Just like Tung explained that women are not treated equally, this Article on U.S News it says " Former and current staff members allege in Friday's complaint that the newspaper underpaid them because they're women." Not only do women have to go through being treated differently because of their gender but they also have to face inequality in pay just because their females. These are issues that should be talked about more and should be engaged in.

Photo By: Juan Diaz 

B) Unfortunately women have and will always encounter different types of issues in any profession. As a female veteran, I can speak on the indifferences that women face in the military. Although the military has tried to implement more equality there are still a lot of issues that women face. Sexual assault is a major issue that women go through in the Army. When I was deployed in 2020 a lot of the women were impacted by the death of "Vanessa Guillen" a female soldier who was sexually assaulted and abused by her own peers. Vanessa Guillen was a new soldier in the Army who was killed by another soldier. Before Guillen was tragically killed she had reported to her command the sexual assault she had encountered. In this Article by Reese Oxner, it says "A U.S. Army investigation found that Spc. Vanessa Guillén reported being sexually harassed two times by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood before she was killed, a finding that contradicts the Army’s previous claims that there was no evidence Guillén experienced harassment." This. case impacted a lot of people in the United States but for me, it was a very important case because as a woman in the Army, we have all gone through some form of sexual assault, and it's sad to see how these things get ignored. Vanessa Guillen tried to bring to light these issues and instead of being helped, she was killed. Unfortunately, she is not the only woman that has gone through this in the army, and as uncommon as it may seem it is a huge issue that has to be worked on. I believe that if a person is risking their lives to protect their country they should also be protected from these types of attacks within their own organization. 

Photo By: Jennifer Babich 

C) It could be said that regardless of the line of work that women decide to do they will always face different battles from men. As hard as it may be women will sometimes be looked at as the weaker gender. In this video, Lynsey Idario states "I have access to the women something that my male colleagues don't have" When looking at things from this point of view we can see that being a woman who has gone through many trials and tribulations can help other women that are going through the same thing whether its photojournalist, military women or any women in our society. Another thing I can say is that even with all the triumphs women had to go through, women have made history in many ways. For example, in this article  "Leroy was 21 years old in 1966 when she took a one-way ticket to Saigon to document American troops in Vietnam. A year later she became the only accredited journalist to participate in a combat parachute jump, joining the 173rd Airborne in Operation Junction City." this highlights the accomplishment as women that we can be proud of because regardless of the triumphs females have accomplished a lot of great and amazing things and I believe that things like this should also be highlighted. 

Link to Nicole Tung : 

https://www.nyu.edu/alumni/news-publications/nyu-connect-newsletter/may-2022/nicole-tung.html

Photo By: Nicole Tung

I chose this picture because to me it shows the empowerment of women in the Military and it also shows some of the images that Nicole Tung has taken.