Sunday, April 10, 2011

assignment 2

From reading this chapter it is clear that the text is based around the ethics in which a photojournalist must follow. When looking at the ethics in which a photographer must follow, there is no straight answer. Each person will have their own set of ethics, and these will be based upon the person’s life up until that point in time. A person’s code of ethics should not only be applied to what photos they take, but just as importantly to what situations are left uncaptured. Kaplan talks about self censorship and how the person documenting the event may not know the whole truth, and in turn may look someone look worse or better depending on the circumstance. When taking photojournalistic photos it is important to make sure to represent the ‘truth’ as much as possible. This includes capturing a moment, not posing people in order to recreate a scene, or make the scene more pleasing. Kaplan also discusses how important patience is when capturing an event. When pulling out a camera, people tend to act in a way that they wouldn’t normally and therefore misrepresenting a scene or event.

The photo below by Julie Jacobson was taken while Joshua M Bernard was patrolling a village in Dahaneh. To me, this is a great example of a situation when I would not take a photo, but someone with a different code of ethics would. This photo was taken after the soldier’s squad was ambushed in the middle of a routine patrol. It is also clear from this photo, and from others from the same set, that one photo can never tell a whole story. I believe in situations like this, multiple photos should be displayed in order to provide a more accurate account of the situation and therefore cover the most important part of photojournalism. The truth.

source: http://odonnell.lohudblogs.com/files/2009/09/bernard1.png

1 comment:

  1. I would probably argue that a code of ethics is not as relative or slippery as you are suggesting - there can be some definite boundaries as to what might or might not be acceptable or abusive in terms of photography. You do have a great example, and I think you are right about needing more photographs and perhaps text to properly contextualise the story.

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