Nijmegen Press photography has been face-lifted. A simple straightforward picture no longer works in drawing the attention of the reader who gets saturated with numerous images. Press photographers are more and more sent searching for shooting that special shot. Expressing atmosphere, emotions and vision outweighs the need to picture current events. Photos both vague, abstract, in some cases barely informative, and yet simultaneously very beautiful are penetrating the news pages of the dailies.
News is represented in a way typical of art photography.
This tendency, sometimes dubbed the aestheticisation of the press photo, is often debated. The photojournalist aspiring to be an artist is stretching his journalistic aims, journalist Monique Koudijs argued some years ago. Press photos provide information on social and political events and enhance people's involvement with global affairs. This is generally considered the journalistic function of press photos. We have never seen large parts of the world with our own eyes that we do know from television and newspaper photography.