It's no secret that the photography profession has fallen on hard times of late, especially for those who work as photojournalists in the dying newspaper industry. But is it really worse than mopping floors and washing dishes?

According to a recent poll conducted by job-search website CareerCast.com and published in the Wall Street Journal, the noble profession of photography was...

Stan Stearns, the man best known for his iconic picture of John Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's coffin in 1963, passed away from cancer at the age of 76. Born in 1935, Stearns first began working as a photographer at the Capitol newspaper when he was 16. He later worked as an Air Force photographer and for United Press International before setting up his own photography studio in Annapolis, taking wedding pictures, portraits and...

Two weeks after he won first prize in the 2012 World Press Photo contest, French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik was killed by rocket fire during a Feb. 22 military assault on the town of Homs, Syria. He was 28.

Ochlik's passion for photography began when his grandfather gave him an Olympus OM-1 film camera. After graduating from high school, he went to Paris to study photography at...

While stationed at a media center in Homs, Syria, two award-winning journalists — American war correspondent Marie Colvin, 55, and French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik, 28 — were killed on Feb. 22 in a Syrian army rocket attack during the recent uprising against the country's president, Bashar al-Assad.

Another journalist, British photographer Paul Conroy, was seriously injured in the attack and was smuggled out of Homs a week later by...

The surge of "Occupy" protests at the end of 2011 and the increased availability of handheld recording devices have led to a rise in citizen photojournalism. In the struggle to balance police rights and personal rights, this phenomenon could have some serious repercussions on law enforcement.

For one, police must now be aware that amateur photographers may be keeping watch on them, as an officer in Oakland, Calif., learned this past winter when he...

On the cover: A holy man sits in a doorway during India's Kumbh Mela pilgrimage.

© Steve McCurry

From his iconic street portraits to his final roll of Kodachrome, globetrotting photojournalist McCurry is a master at finding personal connections with his subjects

Street portraits are one of McCurry's specialties. Most photojournalists tend to be somewhat removed from their subjects, but McCurry has perfected the intimate, close-up portrait in documentary photography.

His most famous portrait is the iconic "Afghan Girl," the now-ubiquitous image taken in 1984 during the Soviet occupation, showing an Afghan child with penetrating, pale eyes. In this portrait, we see the girl face to face....

Office: Boulder, Colo..

Websites: jamesbalog.com and extremeicesurvey.org.

Staff: Currently three people (can vary widely).

Family life: Wife, Suzanne, and daughters Simone, 23, and Emily, 9, both of whom, he says, already have "a pretty amazing knack for snapping photos".

Home and studio: New York City

Website: stevemccurry.com

Books: "Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs" (2011), "The Unguarded Moment" (2009), "In the Shadow of Mountains" (2007), "Looking East" (2006), "Steve McCurry: Phaidon 55" (2005), "The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage" (2003), "Sanctuary" (2002), "South Southeast" (2000), "Portraits" (1999), "Monsoon" (1988), "The Imperial Way" (1985)...

Once again, photojournalists skirting the forefront of conflict have been met with violence — this time in the middle of the London riots.

The four-day riot began on Aug. 6 as a peaceful protest in response to the police shooting of Mark Duggan two days earlier. Protests quickly inflamed and led to rioting, muggings, looting and arson...