The first topic is Photojournalism and ethics. We talked a fair bit about it in History of Photography in relation to the Hurley composites and after the DVD of James Nachtwey. This week I want you to read pages 446-452 of the chapter "Contemporary Issues" and then complete assignment #2
Assignment 2
Read the excerpt from "Contemporary Issues" (only pages 446-452) about "Ethical Photojournalism" and write a one paragraph reflection on what you consider the most important issues raised in this text. Include an example of a photograph (properly labelled, of course) that you think illustrates these issues.
Upon reading the article Contemporary Issues I kept thinking back to year 11 when my much respected art and photography teacher showed me the Pulitzer Prize photography book. These documentary images had such truth and sadness behind them that they have had a lasting impact on me.
The article raises many questions. Such as ethics, exploitation, manipulation and truth. Manipulation in photography is a time long debate. Every choice that is made by the photographer effects the way an image is viewed, from the exposure of an image to complete rendering of a photograph. The simple act of creating a dark image can portray a scene as sad and gloomy where as a bright image is usually displayed as happy and hopeful. It is important for all photographers especially photojournalists to have and maintain their own code of ethics in order to produce images that are not exploitative or misleading. "Such
gains were made by advocacy of honest picture taking and the resulting integrity that it brought." - John Kaplan
Particularly in this digital age we are seeing more and more manipulation of images which in photojournalism is false and misleading. There is a certain beauty behind the truth within images. The below examples are both cases of what the photographer saw, is what the viewer gets. These Pulitzer prize winning photographs are not aesthetically pleasing, nor beautiful. They are not constructed in a way to catch attention; it just does because it is as real as the human life in the photograph. I guess the hard task in photojournalism is to be able to catch those eye catching images that are still truthful.
http://rogerhollander.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/wounded-knee-to-vietnam-to-today/
http://pulitzerprize.org/photography/kevin-carter-1994/
"Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudane famine. the picture depicts a famine stricken child being stalked by a vulture. The child is moving towards a United nations food camp, located a kilometer away.
Three months later, and only weeks after being bestowed with the Pulitzer prize, Kevin Carter committed suicide. " - Extract from: http://pulitzerprize.org/photography/kevin-carter-1994/
No comments:
Post a Comment