By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 21:16:41 +0000

This is much ado about nothing. News photographs have been faked since the very beginning of use of images in newspapers. In fact, the first images where created by carving wood blocks by hand. That certainly allowed for a lot of artistic license.
The first “real” photos used by newspapers in the early 20th century were often maipulated and called composmographs. They were often made-up scenes of events they knew about but had no photos for.
Cliff Edom, at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, created the first photojournalism program (Cliff was in the room when one of the school’s deans coined the word photojournalism) to improve the dismal quality of newspaper photograpy. He wanted to turn photographers into journalists. And that dream has had a big impact on the industry.
The fact that people are still shocked by such manipulations as recently revealed show that there is still an expectation of honesty in photojournalism.
But it’s not avoiding using tools in Photoshop, or some arbitrary set of rules for what you can or can’t do, that will bolster up news photography’s credibility. It’s the trust that a publication, photographers and editors create with their readers.
As the old saying goes: “The camera never lies.” It’s true, a camera faithfully records what it sees. But the other side of that is: “But photographers do.” The bottom line is that our credibilty as news photographers is based soely on our honesty and how we conduct ourselves professionally. Not how we follow some arbitrary set of rules.
Of course, rules are good for guidelines. But at the end of the day, it’s how photographers practice their profession honestly, or not, that counts.

Comments on: Can you trust what you see?

By: Eric