RE: [Leica] fired for photoshopping

["bdcolen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

It's really, really simple, Frank - a photographer takes photographs - a
single exposure of a moment in time. Photographs are generally believed
to be honest representation of the scene the photographer saw at the
moment he released the shutter. Photographers chose to be photographers,
rather than writers, and they are expected to adhere to the standards of
their craft/profession/art. The standards of photojournalism do not
allow for making composites of images you WISH you had captured, in
order to pass those images off as images you DID capture.

Sure, reporters can file skewed reports. They make decisions about what
to include, and not include, in their stories. But so do photographers.
As I stated before, they decide what to photograph - and what NOT to
photograph; they decide how to photograph it; and they decide what
images to submit for publication.

There is a huge difference between photographing selectively, and
creating images with photoshop in order to pass them off as photographs
of something that actually occurred. 

It's not a question of what is in the LA Times "rule book;" it's a
question of what constitutes photojournalism, and what does not.

B. D.



- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Frank
Filippone
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 10:42 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] fired for photoshopping


But BD, the comment I made was that this is precisely what written word
journalists do.....  why 2 standards?  Is it beacuse you are a
photographer that the standards are different, and more robust for the
photographer?  Why is it not OK that the paper would publish a 1 side
point of view on the War itself?  Omission is OK but commission is a
sin?

I think the comments about the power of the paper to influence, is one
that we all accept.  They do this through selective reporting, and I
believe is
an editorial driven point of view.   I think I accept that the
photojournalist is entitled to the same standards, and thus my opinion
that his work was acceptable as it did not in my opinion and in my
memory, not change the .meaning of the point of time.

BTW, I do believe that for breaking the rules of the LA Times, the guy
should have been reprimanded.  FIred?  Maybe, if it so states in the
rule book.

Frank Filippone
red735i@earthlink.net


What is with you folks? Unacceptable to say 'submit only those photos
that you exposed, and none of those that you composed?'


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