Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Photojournalistic integrity and masking
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 17:17:36 -0500

At 12:06 PM 9/15/99 -0400, Paul Schiemer wrote:
>We, as photographers, know what we get is usually a 'truthful'
>representation of reality. We can play with that reality a bit, both in
>taking the image and then in the darkroom.

No we can't. To "play" with the reality, as the photograph is capable of 
conveying it - no photo is a direct translation of a scene after all since 
it's going from 3D to 2D - is unethical to any degree at all. We should 
only work on the photo to make it as accurate a description of the scene as 
possible. That goes for journalists and documentary photographers. Not 
artists, hobbyists, commercial/advertising photographers or art photographers.

Good editors respect the vision of the photographer. A good editor won't 
change a photo, or manipulate a photo to fit in a preconceived layout. Good 
design is invisible. It respects the photos and text. Hack editors lay out 
a page before they know what the photos are going to be (not counting 
last-minute photos that are shot on deadline and the photographer is 
consulted about it before shooting).

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

"A lot of people face adversity by asking, "How would
Jesus have dealt with this?" But that doesn't help me
much, because I doubt Jesus ever had bad credit."