Oh I wouldn’t want to be a photojournalist
If you hadn’t heard about Allan Detrich, and his editing of a photo to do with the Bluffton Baseball tragedy, then you obviously haven’t been reading your photography news for the last few days.
This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has been found, and it certainly won’t be the last, photo shopping becoming something of a second nature to many of us. Not being a photo journalist, I can clone and heal to my hearts content, the final image’s look being the only concern. The life of the photo journalist isn’t so easy however; unlike their literary counterparts (who seem to be able to get away with a hell of a lot of massaging of the truth), the photo journalist is still held to a very high ideal. It makes sense in a way, people usually realise that what they read should be taken with a grain of salt; however the general perception is still that a “photo doesn’t lie”.
The fact that these photo journalists that are caught get fired, may seem to be a bit harsh. The edits have almost always been minor cosmetic changes, and it would be easy to say that there was no harm in them. Still, if you allowed some editing of photos, the huge grey area that would result would rapidly push photo journalism into an arena about as factually true as the opinions column on the last page of a cheap tabloid.
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April 17th, 2007 at 9:24 am
While your article makes sense your, I disagree with your title.
Why would you not want to be a photojournalist??????? So you can “clone and heal until your hearts content”. Bullshit.
(Honest) Photojournalists provide an invaluable service to all of us. As opposed to the subject of your May 2006 post:
“My new Canon 50mm f1.8 lens broke the other night. Well maybe it didn’t, but it definitely scared me.
One of our cats was acting particularly cute and Christa was begging me to bring out the camera to get a shot.”
No one gives a fuck about your cats, but i guarantee you the people of Bluffton, Ohio cared about that photo on the front page of their paper.
Allan Detrich violated the rules of the game on several occasions. He deserves to be fired and run out of the photo-j business. “The fact that these photo journalists that are caught get fired” is not harsh. It is the way it should be. If you lie and deceive by altering your photos. The honesty of photo journalism has to be maintained or it loses its power.
April 17th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I’m sorry Eddie, but did you even read my post, or were you too busy trolling through the history finding old posts to insult me about?
I very clearly state that if we allow some editing to get by, the honesty of photo journalism would be destroyed. I did not say it WAS harsh, I said it might SEEM harsh; and to many people out there is does, so it was a valid comment.
And saying I wouldn’t want to be a photojournalist is a perfect title, since I wouldn’t want to be one. When I take photos, I enjoy editing them, and as stated in the post, often do so without even thinking about it. If I started submitting things to a newspaper, I’d probably manage to run afoul of the editors quite quickly. Also, unlike many people, just because I realise that I wouldn’t want to do something, doesn’t mean I don’t think others shouldn’t either.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Oh I wouldn’t want to be a photojournalist…
Photojournalists and editing of their images….