Re: Paparazzi &Princess Di

[ted grant <75501.3002@compuserve.com>]

To ALL:

This letter is one I received this morning from a very good friend who is
stationed in Europe and shoots for AP.

He was wounded in Bosnia, stoned in Somalia and grovelled in the shell
holes of Grozny.

For what it's worth here it is:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We photographers are being slandered and assaulted by the world after the
death of Diana. I think this is unfair and I wish to point out a few facts
and things about photographers that you folks out there may not know
because it's IMPORTANT that we establish culpability and responsiblity
before convicting the profession as a whole. And, BTW, although there may
be seeming differences between pap and photographers, at one point in one's
career, one is forced to do pap work, it's the nature of the job. Therefore
there is really no distinction between a pap and a "news" photographer. 

Let's look at the facts:

1) the driver of the car was DRUNK, he had more than 1.8 percent blood
alcohol level. That's more than two bottles of wine on an empty stomach.
There's no way he should have been driving, especially important personages
like Princess Diana. Not only is a drunk driver a threat to the occupants,
he's a threat to people driving down the road. 

2) the driver was going 200 kph in the streets of Paris. this is totally
irresponsible and given the fact that he was drunk, which means a) his
judgment is impaired and b) and reactions are extremely slowed, he was not
fit to be driving and should have told al Fayed that before he got into the
car. 

3) motorscooters don't go 200 kph. 

4) photographers called emergency services upon arriving to the scene. 

5) how does an untrained person help a person badly mangled in an auto
accident? Moving a person badly wounded could kill the injured person
especially if there is a head wound or spinal wound. One photographer took
the pulse of Diana to confirm that she was still alive. The most important
thing the photographers could have done was call the authorities (which
they did) and to redirect traffic around the accident site (I don't know if
that happened). 

6) Police arrested photographers who showed up to the scene 10 minutes
after the accident. Is that photographer in any way responsible for the
accident? 

now, let's look at some other factors:

1) Di had lived with the pap her entire adult life. She could have told the
driver to slow down, 200 kph through the streets of Paris is insane. Of
course we'll never know what she said although we may get a feeling after
the bodyguard's story is revealed. Pap shoot pictures, they don't kill
people. 

2) Di used the press as much as they used her. Only the week before she had
called the press to her boat to address the issue of her and Dodi. It's a
symbiotic relationship. 

3) pap photographers fill a need from editors who sell newspapers. More
newspapers sell when there are exclusive pictures of Di, or Princess X of
somewhere, or of some movie star or even some politician. Face it, people
love to read dirt on celebrities. I think it's sick. I never buy people
magazine, the sun newspaper, or any of that other crap. However, millions
of people do and they are as culpable in this as the photographers are. If
they didn't buy the papers, which in turn raise the circulation of the
paper on a given day, the editors wouldn't push to get exclusive pictures
and the photographers would back off the subjects. That's how it works. In
this case it worked the other way around and it ended up in three senseless
deaths. 

4) photographers everywhere have a job to do. If Nelson Mandela had gotten
shot while I was standing there, would I have helped him? No, because there
are more qualified people around than myself to do that. I would take
pictures, that's what I'm paid and trained to do. If I were alone with
Mandela somewhere and he had a heart attack, I would help him as best I
could until help could come and THEN I would take pictures. I certainly
wouldn't expect to get arrested. 

Frankly, the photographers have been  tried and convicted before the facts
were in. The French cops are totally culpable in this, arresting the
photographers on the spot and a dispatch rider. Why arrest a dispatch
rider? It's sick. It just goes to show you how much people actually
disrespect journalism these days and photographers in particular. People
forget that THEY buy these magazines and they are also responsible. 

Once all the facts are in I'll bet you 100 SF that ALL the photographers
get off because, even if one or two of them did yell at the cops, emotions
were running high and it's not enough to convict a person on. What the pap
do is perhaps not ETHICAL, but it's not criminal. Each profession has its
own set of ethics. Some photographers are more ethical than others. Some
architechts are more ethical than others. We can only live with ourselves.

Let's look at photography for a second. In order for a photographer to get
a picture of, say President Clinton, he or she must show up at the White
House at 6 in the morning, wait until then or 11, be subjected to endless
checks by security guards, be corralled into a small pen, treated like an
animal and have Clinton walk in for 10 seconds to smile and then leave.
This is the reality of the profession.

And what about bringing the public pictures from Rwanda or Bosnia? Huh?
Photographers risk robbery, beating, disease in order to document the
atrocities that human beings visit upon one another. Do you think Jim
Nachtwey or Anthony Suau or I ENJOY watching thousands of people starving
to death, shooting each other up or traipsing through dangerous territory
as refugees? Do you think we ENJOY getting into a trench full of human shit
in order to get a better angle on a picture that will make the front page
of Time magazine or the New York Times? No, we don't enjoy that but we feel
a social responsibility to bring these facts, these barbarous acts to light
so that HOPEFULLY the international community will act. We did it for three
years in Bosnia and NOTHING happened. We did it in Rwanda and NOTHING
happened. We did it in Somalia and NOTHING happened. And now we are blamed
for the death of Diana. 

Look at yourself. Look at the facts. Draw responsible conclusions. Don't
unjustly accuse. 


Love David
=========================================

As sent to me by my friend David Brauchli.

I will say right up front I do not wish to become involved in a word
exchange over David's letter.  It is posted only because I found it most
interesting with perspectives from someone who has had assignments many
have not, which inturn allows for another perspective.

Many will agree and many wont, that's life! However, please do not start
any great exchange of posts.  Thank you.

regards,

ted