[Leica] documentary photos thread

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Steve Barbour offered:
> a simple word about staged photos...
>
>       We live in a world where words and truth are
> as reliable as smoke.The current "prison photos"
> debacle help illustrate that if all we had were
> mere words...the outrages would be a non scandal...
>
> ....no one would believe the words. Words and
> reports have become as suspect as politicians
> statements.
>
> If photos through manipulation become unreliable
> as truth...I believe they too will entirely lose
> their value... I fear where this would leave us.<<<<<<<

Hi Steve,
People always believe a photograph as it stood was the truth of what it
illustrated. It's easy for politicians to lie and today most intelligent
humans accept that that's part of being a politician. It isn't right, but it
get's them elected. :-(

Writing journalists can bend their stories in many fashions, some to the
extent of lying, however when caught there's hell to pay and the writer
looses their credibility.

But the photograph? "Why that's truthful proof!" ??????????????????

Well Ok it was that way and is 99.9999999999999% of the time unless twisted
for propaganda. But we as photographers have always been accepted for what
we show in our pictures, basically the way it was and how we recorded it. At
least we always had "accepted truth" on our side.

But wrong use of PhotoShop for journalistic purpose is a huge danger of
destroying our creditability as photojournalists and once that's gone what
the heck can people believe what they see in print.

Advertising illustrations? Who cares what it looks like as we know it's
created for selling a product.

But the truth of saying what's happening in a photojournalistic photograph
and then find out it's been contrived and set-up is degrading to all of us
who are photojournalists. Certainly who's pictures are accepted as truthful
recordings of  real-time happenings.

If it's a compelling and meaningful photograph just don't offer it as the
truth of what happened.

In our new book, "Women in Medicine" we have a disclaimer that none of the
pictures have been digitally manipulated.  Sandy & I felt this necessary
given the digi screwing around with pictures these days. Also as credibility
for the medical profession.

It's when a supposed truthful picture is discovered to be not the truth as
described, that our last clean image of telling the truth with our
photographs goes right down the drain. Then we get lumped in with the liars,
spin doctors and politicians. Heaven forbid, I'd quit before that happened!
ted