[Leica] ethics of staging

[leica@olemiss.edu]

Eric Welch wrote on 13 Jan 1999 09:24:55:

Snip
> Journalism ethics relating to photography is hardly 40 years old.The
> pressures of some employers and the ignorance of many editors and
> photographers to those ethics always makes it difficult to pin down a
> simple description of what I'm talking about. And the unscrupulous people
> who are willing to cheat to improve their careers casts a bad light on the
> rest of us. I know my professional standards, and I know the history of
> what I'm talking about. Why would Gene Smith lie to a group of students
> about how he stages pictures if he didn't feel some embarrassment for
> crossing the line? He has the excuse of having started his career when
> there were no ethical standards for photojournalists to speak of.
> 

Since, according to Eric, the photojournalism ethics is "hardly 40 years
old",  Abe Rosenthal at Iwo Jima  didn't really violate any ethical
standards when he allegedly staged  the famous flag/ banner picture. -:)

Cheers,
Kirk Turk