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Photography and Truth
A great article over on The Online Photographer blog addresses the idea of truth in photography, particularly poignant given the recent Reuters scandal in which one of their photographers was fired for doctoring an image.
“Our problem as photographers today is even worse. There are no demarcation lines anywhere. Some pictures are true, and some merely pretty, and many of each look more or less the same as the other: it’s up to the viewer to sort out which is which, and the task is seldom easy. A picture with all the cues of truth might be merely propaganda, and a picture which looks standard-pretty might in fact be true. And of course there is no way to know which is which…”
Website: The Online Photographer - Truth is Elusive
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#1 nick in japan
which brings to point the old saying, "Don't believe anything you hear, and half of what you see". In the digital age, it now becomes "Don't believe ANYTHING you hear or see", especially with the polarized political situations in the world now-a-days.
Doctored images could send the world into a sadder state of affairs!
9:14 am - Thursday, August 10, 2006
#2 My Name
Have you seen that Trajan's column?
Some of those images have been chiselled
beyond belief. Nobody minds a little
light sand blasting, but to move entire
armies ten feet to the right is simply a
distortion of history. I was there. I
KNOW they trod on Caeser's dog. AND laughed
all the way to the Coliseum. I'm never going
to trust anything on that column again. As
for that Herodotus' captions - distortion
isn't the word. I'm sorry, I'll read that
again: as for that Herodotus' captions -
distortion is definitely the word.
Where's it all going to end? Who is this
Georgemanus Eastmanus of whom you speak?
5:35 pm - Thursday, August 10, 2006
#3 frank
Lines of demarcation, indeed. What's edited, anyway? Cropping? Subject placement? Using the perspective of a wide angle or telephoto to change the look to "enhance the shot"? How about a bit of underexposure to get better saturated colors, or hide detail in the shadows? The photographer cannot edit, but the senior editor can? Anytime any one attempts to "tell the story" with a camera, a certain inherent bias is in the shot. Just by being in Lebanon rather than Israel, or visa versa biases the bigger truth. Does the smoke being darker, or the fact that the crop is tighter really change the facts, or the story to be told? Maybe everyone needs to shoot only with "normal" lenses and shoot slide film. I truly pity the pro photojournalist trying to sell a photo these days - it's bad enough just competing with every idiot with a camera phone, and a luck shot. Tell me with a straight face that the likes of Eisenstadt and other Look/Life/Newsweek/etc. photogs didn't crop, dodge, and burn.
7:48 pm - Thursday, August 10, 2006