Re: [Leica] Digital darkroom - when isn't it photography?

[Mike Quinn <mlquinn@san.rr.com>]

Ted Grant wrote:

> But when it comes to "real life-news-photojournalism" that is recording life
> as it is, it shouldn't be touched other than the "normal acceptable element
> of dodging, burning and cropping common to the wet darkroom effects.

Although I really want to agree, some nagging doubts keep whispering that
real-life photo journalism has always been a subjective undertaking.

First, the photographer chooses what image he/she wants to capture. Is the
image that is selected representative? Probably not. It's the the event that
we record, but rather our interpretation of it. Images that don't appear
"interesting" are not captured.

Second, the photo-journalist manipulates the real image by capturing a
two-dimensional, level and frequency modulated, and (often) perspective and
contrast altered representation of it.

Third, in the "old days" that I remember, photo-journalists were often
removed from further manipulation of the images (printmaking) since they
presented their film to the editor and the paper or magazine was responsible
for developing the choosing the images and making prints to illustrate the
story.

Since the opportunity for manipulation is greater, restrictions on
manipulation make sense if they change the image seen and captured by the
photographer to something that never happened or even to something that
happened but was not captured on film as it occurred. Other manipulations
that dodge, burn, or manipulate tones or contrasts in order to produce a
better image seem OK to me as long as they retain the integrity of the
original image. 

Even then, the photographer is not an unbiased observer. He will always be
showing us his interpretation of the event by selecting which images to
capture and what perspective and lighting to use to present those images.

In photo journalism as well as in print journalism we ultimately must depend
on the integrity of the journalist who guarantees that what he presents in
words or images is an accurate representation of what he saw. As Ted
suggests, once that trust is lost, there will be no reason to continue to
support the expense of news-gathering.
 

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