[Leica] NPR comments on photography

[len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier)]

I have been reading this thread with some interest in how each of you  
perceive the issue. To me the most significant thing said is in the  
last three lines of Ted's post.

I am not a professional photographer and certainly not a  
photojournalist. But what I am is a person with an interest in  
history and in certain events that effect history. I do expect that  
the recorders of history do so in the most accurate way possible. To  
me when a photo is published in a newspaper it becomes a part of  
history which may be looked at in days, weeks or years from now in  
much greater detail. It certainly must be accurate.  What would have  
happened or not happened if a photo was taken, on a certain day in a  
certain Western city in 1963 of a grassy knoll, where the  
photographer eliminated the toe of a shoe sticking out from behind a  
bush. The purpose of the deletion was to make the photo more pleasing  
to the eye. But what happened to history? What would have happened if  
the untouched photo were to emerge at a later date. Or if the  
original photo was destroyed  and only the touched up version  
remained. This journalist was a recorder of history as it was and not  
how he thought it should be.

Just my .02
Len


On Apr 21, 2007, at 10:17 AM, Ted Grant wrote:

> I realize this topic is beginning to beat on a dead horse, but it's  
> some
> troubling, because I haven't seen the anger I expected about lying and
> cheating by a photographer who was looked up to by many for his photo
> talent.
>
> Those of you who've never "worked as a professional news  
> photographer or
> photojournalist on assignment" where getting the picture was  
> paramount to
> keeping our jobs, may not understand what the meaning of "making  
> contact
> with the subject" is all about. Truth & trust make it work.
>
> The one thing that allows us to connect with the subject is trust,  
> period.
> We the carriers of the equipment create the trust human to human,  
> not camera
> to human. Break the trust and we are dead in the water!
>
> It was tough enough in the good old days to gain the trust of the  
> subject or
> subjects in the simplest of terms. But we did, in many cases it was  
> trust
> that allowed us entrance to their world or life moments of tragedy.
>
> Today when one of the members is caught cheating and lying with  
> their camera
> and ancillary electronic modifying equipment, it illustrates we're  
> no more
> trustworthy than lying cheating politicians. And it doesn't get  
> much lower
> than that!
>
> If people feel we'll take their picture, then build "other stuff"  
> around
> them to enhance a news moment, we'll make it almost impossible to have
> cooperation whether CEO or peasant!
>
> As I said about the basket ball insertion, no body died because of  
> it so it
> seemed "no big deal." But most readers would automatically think,  
> "cool
> picture, great shot that guy is good!" However, when they learn  
> they've been
> hoodwinked? Then what do they think about the great picture  
> photographer?
>
> "Hey he cheated, the ball wasn't even there! What about the rest of  
> those
> news photographers? Do they cheat as well?"
>
> Right at that moment every one of us are blackballed about telling  
> the truth
> with our Leica trustworthy camera's.
>
> This subject maybe of little interest to many of you, but to people  
> like
> some of our crew who make their living from recording life as we  
> see it,
> it's a major item. Certainly how our photography is accepted in  
> being an
> honest representation of life at 1/250th of a second! Or whatever  
> shutter
> speed!
>
> ted
>
>
>
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