The Ethics of Photojournalism

The Ethics of Photojournalism

my personal ethics map

I chose an image I found while browsing the websites given to us in the assignment. I found this image and the story behind it so unethical that I wanted to share it with the reader's.

photo by : Brian Walski

http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/tag/media?currentPage=2

       Brian submitted this photo of a British Soldier in Basra to the Los Angeles Times where it appeared on the front cover. The British soldier was a digital composite placed into the photo with the Iraqi civilians.
        This image was posted after the U.S invaded Iraq. According to FourandSix.com "Brian a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times and a 30-year veteran of the news business, was fired after his editors discovered that he had combined two of his photographs to “improve” the composition."

       Personally doing something such as what Brian did for personal gain is morally wrong. It goes against my personal ethics which included integrity, respect, and caring. You are a respected 30 year veteran in your field and you go a head and create a false "story" The soldier wasn't their gesturing to the civilian's he was edited into that picture to make a great story. It did make it on the front cover of the LA Times, but from dishonesty. 
     This goes against my personal ethics of integrity. When someone thinks more about the $ sign and not about the people they could offend their careless. I could never imagine myself doing something like this to make some money. It shows a soldier in the photo's who seems to be caring, he gestures to the citizens maybe to stop and be careful, or to be safe. Who know's, but we now know that, that never happened. He never was caring or being helpful the image was doctored. 

Women Photojournalist

Eman Mohammed

photo by Karen Eng

http://blog.ted.com/eman-mohammed/

Eman is a 25-year-old Palestinian female photojournalist, mother and wife in the Gaza Strip. In the article Katie Wood mentioned, “At the age of 19, Mohammed worked multiple jobs to save enough money to buy her own photography equipment while studying journalism at a local university. But when she landed a job as a staff photographer her colleagues were not exactly welcoming. “I was harassed,threatened and abused by my colleagues, now I’m more independent in my workstyle and don’t mind the staring or the looks. I proved them wrong when I was  nine months pregnant covering the second war on Gaza.”

            According to the website TED “though openly shunned by many of her male colleagues, she is given unprecedented access to areas denied to men.”

 According to the video posted by Nordell "Farzana has been harassed by men and want to take her camera away from her" Similarly to Mohammed.

photo by Eman Mohammed

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/06/11/photographer-collection-eman-mohammed-in-the-gaza-strip/6152/

photo taken :2013

Use of shadows The shadows seen are of the family walking along side the beach in Gaza, with the help of the suns glare.

Quality of Light: The light is from the sun, the subjects can not be made out but their shadows are colored by the rays of the sun.

Use of lines: the photo is taken infant of barbed wire along side the beach, the use of the barbed wire intrigued me, it looks almost like their imprisoned.

Why I chose? The sunlight and the wire intrigued me, and I really like photo's that use the sun to capture the subject's.

Mohammed stated that “My inspiration is my mother, I saw how the community mistreated her because she was divorced and raising her kids alone, an unknown thing. In that culture, if you get divorced, mothers aren’t supposed to raise their kids. You leave the kids with their dad. It’s a punishment. And if you don’t, you can’t remarry, by law. My mom didn’t want to remarry because she didn’t want to give away her kids.”

I found a link to several photo's that she has taken and came across a series of photo's entitled iWar.

Mohammed explained during the interview that "iWar is about the long-term aftermath of war survivors and victims. It’s a series of portraits and a gentle, symbolic way to show that war has happened, and it’s still happening I tell them Show me your sadness, as though I don’t exist. Like I’m not even here.” I get them deep in the details, and then I get the shot. It’s energy consuming and emotionally draining, but it’s very powerful."

photo by Eman Mohammed
year created: 2014
http://blog.ted.com/eman-mohammed/

Subject’s Expression: the subject appears sad, she is sitting on a burnt motorcycle once ridden by her father who she never met, Mohammed asks her subjects to look sad  as if she's not their during the photo

Use of shadows : the photo shows the subject in light and the surrounding area around her is darkened, to me emphasizes the importance of the subject and nothing else

Depth of field : In this image the subject is in focus with the light that is on the subject. the rest of the image is darkened. Though we still can see what the image around the subject is the main subject which is the little girl is in focus

Why I chose: When i was doing the research this image just immediately stuck out to me, and i read the story behind it and it just touched me. This 2 year old girl is sitting on a burnt motorcycle that was once ridden by her father who was killed during an airstrike while riding this motorcycle , she never met him.





Women who faced discrimination in history:

photo by unknown

year taken 1941-45

http://www.tahg.org/module_display.php?mod_id=69&review=yes

KEEP IT SIMPLE   This photo is simple, it shows 3 women dressed as welders in the workforce conversation.

Obvious main subject, about ¼ to 2/3 of image area.  The 3 subjects take up the majority of the photo, showing their importance with a subtle background.

Background compliments or detracts from composition  The background actually helps complete the photo. The machinery pictured helps the viewer realize they are working at a factory.

Why I chose: I chose this image because it just represents our country and how we developed over time from being a male run workforce to a gender equal workforce

During WW2 women were needed in the workforce due to men being at war.

According the History.com staff “Rosie the Riveter,” star of a government campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for the munitions industry, became perhaps the most iconic image of working women during the war."

Their pay was significiantly less then the men, and the men thought they weren't capable of doing a their job as good as they could. According to the staff at History.com "Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent"

Technology Timeline

History of Photojournalism Midterm  Technology Timeline Powerpoint

here is the link for the video-  https://youtu.be/mVOP_bvu41A

History of Photojournalism Technology Timeline from mabartolo74

Working in the Digital Age

The SATELLITE PHONE

The satellite phone was used most recently in Afghanistan by photojournalists that were using digital cameras to take photos, using the phone to transmit the new photo. Some photojournalists used smaller satellite phones that took up to 3 hours to transmit a photo. Cheryl Meyer said “a good satellite phones not only necessary for transmitting photos, but also for research and reporting.”

          Comparing and contrasting this to the black and white photography which I did for my last assignment. This is a step above that. Having now the capabilities to send an image once taken to a location is amazing. If it were black and white film the photographer would have to wait to go back to the lab to process the film and see what was on the roll before sending it.

    Comparing these 2 technologies, they are both older. Sending photos is much easier now with newer technology. Think about it your able to snap a photo in seconds on your iPhone and it can be all over the world with a single touch of a button. Professor Nordell wrote on the content area how "Photojournalists today sometimes use WiFi enabled cameras or cards to send images to either their cell phones or iPads." We went from running around trying to meet deadlines and developing photo's to simply pressing send.

According to Professor Nordell " photographers photographing Clements' trial couldn't use runners or leave the courtroom, One photographer used an early wireless transmitter to transmit the photo's once taken, to the editor for publishing."

In this photo a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Andrew Cutraro transmitting photos via a satellite phone, According to Lawrence Charters "The Marines supplied the transportation, the food, the helmets and flak jackets, the camouflage uniforms, goggles and gloves (not to mention a heavily armed company for protection in a dangerous environment)"

photo by U.S Marine 

http://www.wap.org/journal/backfromsand/

A black and white 35mm example:
Someone like Robert Capa would appreciate the ability to transmit photo's via wifi or satellite phone. Instead of using a photo lab for processing. According to John Morris " A darkroom technician was almost as anxious to see the invasion images as Capa himself. In his haste, the technician dried the film too quickly, The excess heat melted the emulsion on all but 10 of the frames."

photo by Fred Lyon

http://www.vintag.es/2013/12/amazing-black-white-photographs-of-san.html

The Art of Photojournalism

The Art of Photojournalism

Photo by: Alexander Gardner

Image Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2005.100.97

Year Created: 1865

Obvious main subject, about ¼ to 2/3 of image area.  The images shows a man  Lewis Paine, who tried murdering a Secretary of State. Lewis is the main focus of this photo takes up most of the room on the photo

Subject’s Expression- Lewis seems very tense and angry. This photo was taken after being captured for attempted murder

Is the image black & white or color : this image was taken in 1865 color was not yet invented so the photographer did not have a choice, although this image has more of a sepia tone.   

Why did I choose the image?:  Searching for images pre 1900 i came across this one. To me it shows law enforcement operated before the technology of today. It also interested me because of the facial expression that was captured. I also found it interesting how the prisoner is much taller then the  guard standing right next to him in that era.

photo by Gordon Parks

image source : https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiojkj/2439052891/

Year created: 1942

What feelings does the image create?  To me this photograph, shows a hard working African American woman during the time of racism. It shows pride and what it is to be an American

Depth of field : The photograph is focus on the subject and her mop and broom, with an American flag out of focus in the background.

Background compliments or detracts from composition : The  background image of the American Flag adds meaning to the photo. It shows us pride and hard work.

Why did I choose this image? I came across this image and couldn't help but stare. It made me think of what it is like to be an American, and how you must work hard to earn money and get to where you want to be. Its a very powerful image  of racism during the 1940's

   photo by : Laurent Van Der Stockt

image source : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/media/10photo.html?pagewanted=all

year created: 1996

Use of lines: I feel as if the buildings on either side are used as lines to take away focus on the woman and child and drag your attention to the back of image where their is war and smoke.

In or out of focus   although the woman and child are in the middle I don't believe that the focus is on them. They are almost blurred, their faces aren't well defined. The image drags your attention to the back

KEEP IT SIMPLE   This image is very simple you see a woman and a child in a stroller and in the background a war torn chechnya, but the image is not distracting, and keep very simple.

Why I chose this image? I chose this image simply because it caught my eye. The image is so simple yet it has so much meaning and is open to interpretation. Even though the woman is the center focus in the still, she is not the focus of the photo. How the photographer captured that intrigues me.