Photo art vs photo journalism

[fotogmarc]

I'm confused (or aspiring to turn pro) and I hope that you folks can help me with this.

Nature shots interest me the most. I like to take the 200-300 shots and hopefully choose one that is good enough to hang on my wall. Then I have another 10-20 that I consider good, but in my opinion don't belong in a frame.
Reading numerous photo magazines I see many images that I consider good, but not enough to use as a "hanger". Do editors choose images for their artistic value or do they keep a well rounded field to add more geography?

Having read a number of composition books and studied the rule of thirds, the golden triangle, Gestalt theory and when not to use them, some of these photos don't offer me much in the way of composition or pleasing to the eye.

A National Geographic photographer said that he may take 3000-5000 shots for one artcle and only use 5-6 images. Again do they select these pics for impact, beauty, interpretation?

Or is this all me where I need to learn the difference between art and journalism? :confused:

[Rhys]

There's a difference between art and journalism.

To put it simply - journalism shows what's there and what's happening. Picture editing is allowed as long as it only goes as far as burning, dodging, color correction, saturation correction, white balance and focus adjustment. Red-eye correction is also permitted.

Art conveys an interpretation and might involve more digital manipulation than is permitted in journalism. To my mind, as soon as you start cutting and pasting, you've left photography far behind and are now involved in graphic art.

[Turn]

its all about what they want to show

and its a magazine, they can't show 1000 photos, they pick the one that they think is what they want people to see

like if they want to show heartbreak they pick a woman crying over her husband's death or something

journalism can be art but usually art has more...variety

its really hard to define but there are many photos that I've seen of wars and protests that I'd consider very artistic