The importance of artistic approach in news photos as a visual communication and design tool

Photography is one of the important inventions in terms of art, design and communication. With the invention of photography, radical changes have occurred in the field of art and photography has been used as a tool that provides new possibilities in the fields of design and communication. The fact that it can appeal to people's sense of sight, being catchy, believable and have a document quality have assigned important roles to photography. Photography has been used by people sometimes as a work of art that appeals to people's emotions, sometimes as a design element used in a poster, sometimes as a news photograph in the newspaper as a part of communication or as a document used in an official document. This research aims to reveal the place and importance of these concepts in the use of news photographs by considering photography, having different functions, in terms of art, design and communication. In addition, this research aims to show that news photos are not just a document, they are at least as important as the news text when conveying the content of the it, therefore, quality and impressive news photos should be obtained in the transmission of the news, which can only be achieved through artistic approach, aesthetic point of view, creative techniques and techniques. In this context, printed and electronic sources were scanned by document analysis method for analysis and 30 news photos were determined. In the selection of photographs, especially the award-winning photographs and the biographies of local and foreign photojournalists who have an important place in the history of the press, were examined and the photographs taken by these photojournalists were preferred. In the analysis of the photographs, in addition to the semiotic analysis method, the photographs were also analyzed in terms of graphic design principles and composition elements in photography. In this research, it was concluded that the use of artistic approach, aesthetic point of view, creative techniques and design elements in news photographs is important. Keywords: Visual Communication, Design, Photograph, News Photo, Art