making the gray, less gray.
I want to thank everyone for responding and reading my previous post. One of the reasons I posted the issue was for us all to have good conservations and discussions. And I'm glad that has happened. I think the more we talk about the big issues facing our profession the more chance we have at making those gray issues disappear.
I really don't expect non-editorial photographers to understand the issues and standards we as photojournalists hold so dear. For our community to believe in us and to have any faith in what we do we need to be honest with our words and our pictures. So, these standards and ethics are of the utmost importance.
It matters little to me what path this photographer has now taken. This picture was shot for a newspaper, and is owned by that newspaper. I see no logical, ethical reason for it to be altered. Not for a contest (either CPOY or PDN). The picture should always keep the integrity in which it was shot.
I am not saying that dodging and burning shouldn't be done. But I think this picture goes beyond "burning the edges down to take away from distracting features" that the photographer claims. Those "distractions" have been completely eliminated and brought to black by the burning---and that's what is in question.
Again, I'm not saying commercial photographers adhere to these guidelines. But this photograph is an editorial photograph. Photojournalists need to be more careful about what they are doing and how it affects the picture, the community, and their colleagues.
I really don't expect non-editorial photographers to understand the issues and standards we as photojournalists hold so dear. For our community to believe in us and to have any faith in what we do we need to be honest with our words and our pictures. So, these standards and ethics are of the utmost importance.
It matters little to me what path this photographer has now taken. This picture was shot for a newspaper, and is owned by that newspaper. I see no logical, ethical reason for it to be altered. Not for a contest (either CPOY or PDN). The picture should always keep the integrity in which it was shot.
I am not saying that dodging and burning shouldn't be done. But I think this picture goes beyond "burning the edges down to take away from distracting features" that the photographer claims. Those "distractions" have been completely eliminated and brought to black by the burning---and that's what is in question.
Again, I'm not saying commercial photographers adhere to these guidelines. But this photograph is an editorial photograph. Photojournalists need to be more careful about what they are doing and how it affects the picture, the community, and their colleagues.
2 Comments:
Thank you again for the discussion. There is a disconnect between photojournalism and artistic photography, and the key is honesty.
If a photo is worth a thousand words, those words must all still be true when the editing is done. If the background's words change from 'dark' to 'black', the photo is no longer honest.
Artistic photos don't have to be honest. The reason that many high-brown art types look down on photography is the same reason why journalists value it. Where some see some a lack of creativity, other see an authentic document.
Thanks for bringing this discussion back to life. I feel that all of the big, professional organizations are trying to make changes but it hasn't seemed to have helped of late.
I feel the only way to truly change the system is through trying to educate as well as the PJ community standing together and not accepting this kind of behavior.
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