Consider if photographs can change the world or change people’s perception?

The article by Lewis Bush entitled ‘Photographs  Won’t Change the World’ talks briefly about the influence photography has to affect how people view the world. Bush argues that photographs have the power to influence people and the way they think because they “present the idea that things are happening, or exist, or are possible”, therefore showing the viewer real life events to evoke a reaction. He does not however think that a single photograph has the direct influence to completely change a persons view, “Photographs don’t change people drastically, few people are transformed into ardent campaigners by an encounter with a single image”. Effectively Bush argues that photographs will not change the world directly but have the power to trigger responses in people, who in turn have the power to make big changes

His views are quite similar to mine in that I believe photographs are a powerful means of communication that show and reflect truth and important messages about the world; socially, politically and ethically. Photography is an effective means of doing so because a photograph is something which is very universal and therefore can bring people together in a common cause. The view that Bush raised concerning the effect of how we view photographs can be dangerous was very interesting as he states that “to claim that photographs, and by association the act of photographing, will in themselves change the world is disingenuous, a case of letting ourselves off the hook” and in contrast “to believe that photographs can’t drive us to change the world is to believe in a futile, solitary, and self-fulfilling prophecy”. These idea highlight shows how important photography is because it shows that our view of photography very much reflects who we are as human beings.

This iconic photograph of Martin Luther King helped to bring the civil right campaign of America to worldwide attention

This photograph taken by photojournalist John Filo, is of a young woman reacting to the shooting death of her friend Jeffery Miller during the Kent State Shooting in 1970. The photograph received worldwide recognition and  won a pulitzer prize. It was seen as the photograph which changed U.S. public attitude towards the Vietnam War, thereby impacting greatly the course of 20th Century History and the Cold War.

This photograph of a dead Syrian Migrant boy is a recent example of how photographs can change public perception. The image has affected the way European people view the recent refugee crisis in Europe, prompting greater sympathy, understanding and compassion.

At the World Press Photo contest, there was an uproar when an Italian photographer won the top prize and had misinterpreted the location of the photograph and had also staged them. This made the photographers question the line between photojournalism and art photography and the line between what is and isn’t acceptable. This lead to the judging panel rewriting their code of ethics so that staged photographs would not be permitted in the contest. Mr Leroy  who is founder of Visa Pour l’Image said he defined photojournalism as “witnessing the world.”  The fact that Mr Leroy used the word ‘witnessing’ implies that you shouldn’t influence the photograph but simply record what you see. Photograph’s today are easily manipulated and staged with the use of technology, photojournalists are known for ‘bare witnessing’ real life situations therefore it’s hard to establish how much photo manipulation is acceptable if any.

Can Photographs change the world?

Some people argue that a powerful photograph has the ability to change the world, by influencing peoples perspective and bringing out emotions in them. Photographs inform the viewers visually about world events often with little description, which I think sometimes is more powerful than a detailed report because the photograph allows you to sympathize with what is going on. However other people argue that it cant change the world.  Photographer Lewis Bush believes that photographs can’t change the world, but “Photographs represent the idea that things are happening, or exist, or are possible”. He believes that it’s not so much the photograph that can change the world but the effect it has on people and the action they take. I think that photographs are capable of changing the world if they are powerful enough and transmit a strong message. I do think there is something about photography which brings people together. However, I do agree that a large part of changing the world through a photograph is how people react and take an  action after having seen the photograph itself.

Can photojournalists preserve their integrity and maintain trust?

Photojournalism is known for it’s credibility, however as the use of technology rises photographers are manipulating their photographs more and more which in turn is making viewers more skeptical of weather or not to believe what they see and they begin to loose trust.  Donald Weber said by taking away photojournalism’s credibility  “we’re only killing our own profession.”  In NPPA’S code ethics for journalists in one of their rules they state  “Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.” which justifies why the manipulated photographs were disqualified. However, although there is a code of conduct which photojournalists should obey many of them don’t which makes it harder to preserve photography integrity.

https://nppa.org/code_of_ethics

More recently, a photograph of a 3 year old Syrian boy who had been washed up on the beach after travelling from Turkey to Greece in a rubber raft played an important part of getting peoples attention. This photograph was spread all over social media, the news and magazines which alerted people to the seriousness and the consequences of the refugee crisis. This photograph promoted politicians all over the world to  take action and ‘support’ the people who are part of the refugee crisis. I think this is a good example of how photographs can change the world and do have a big influence on peoples actions, however was it morally right for the photographer to have taken this photograph? The article below shows how the photograph affected the boys family.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/syria-boy-drowning.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Photographer Study- Lynsey Addario 

Lynsey Addario is an American photojournalist who has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, the Congo and Iraq. I am studying four of her photojournalist projects, War and Revolution in the Middle East, Africa- Democratic Republic of Congo, Women at war and Miss India Beauty Pageant 2001. Addario’s work primarily focuses on the position and role of women in traditional societies, however, also explores human right issues and conflicts. Addario began photographing professionally in 1996 and began freelancing with Cuba being her focus point. During 2000 Addario photographed in Afghanistan, she has also visisted Chad at least once a month since August 2004. She has photographed for for The New York Times, National Geographic and Time. Addario has a publication ‘It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.’

Documentary photography follows a single topic or story in-depth over a long period of time. This is different to photojournalism which documents real-time coverage of breaking news and events. Documentary photography hold the main purpose of educating the public about a subject.Documentary photography allows the viewers knowledge of the subject to expand and be more in depth. By deepening our understanding and emotional connection to stories of injustice, documentary photography can capture and sustain public attention, allowing the public to be more educated about issues such as human rights.

Mary Ellen Mark

A example of a documentary photography is Mary Ellen Mark. she was an American photographer that photographed people who were away from the normal main stream of life. For example people who were more troubled. Mark had 18 publishes of work, however her most famous ones were ward 81 and streetwise.

Streetwise

Mary Ellen Mark traveled to the city of Seattle with Cheryl McCall in 1983 to do an article for LIFE Magazine on runaway children. Mark and McCall spent a lot of time with the children who lived around Seattle and photographed them in their every day lives. Here are some of the photos from the Streetwise project.

Mary Ellen Mark was inspired by lots of photographs before starting this project such as, Robert Frank , Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz and plenty more. Mark appreciated these photographers because they took powerful images that sent a message to the viewers. I really like the  ‘streetwise’ collection of work because it gives a true representation of life in Seattle in the 80’s. I also really like that she has put all of the photographs into a black and white filter as it foreshadows that she is photographing the truth and isn’t editing the photographs in anyway to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

Tableau Photography

Tableau photography is a form of a ‘living picture’, it is part of the genre of documentary photography however is staged therefore uses models in order to create the desired image. The picture produced it normally theatrical and has a meaningful message. Tableau photography allows photographers to experiment and develop their own individual style whilst style documenting truth concerning difficult topics. There is a level of freedom which I think can’t be accessed in documentary photography. This genre of photography explores the minds of individuals, artists are able to reflect a society which is honest and real. Photographers are able to be creative and push the boundaries in tableau photography.

David Hilliard

David Hilliard is an American photographer, he mainly produces  work focused on panoramic photographs. Most of his images have been staged, however, uses the environment and personal life as his focus. Therefore, a middle ground between fact and fiction. I think Hilliard’s work is fascinating to research, it is a perfect example of tableau photography as it’s a combination of styles. Hilliard’s are very different from other tableau photographers I have looked at as he uses this distinctive panoramic style where he splits the photograph into three sections. Although his layout out is important to mention, I think Hilliard explores a deeper meaning in his images particularly the image I have chosen to focus on.

Recently the world renowned World Photo Press Contest was placed at the center of great controversy after it awarded then subsequently disqualified the competition winner Giovanni Troilo, It had transpired that he had deliberately staged some of the photographs in his ten photo series, “The Dark Heart of Europe,” , including an especially controversial photograph whereby it was revealed he stage a photograph of his cousin having sex in a car, a photograph that the mayor of the town strongly condemned. This controversy has drawn photojournalism to the center of the art world an raised many questions concerning its ethics and reliability.

Question 1 – Who sets the boundaries of what defines  photojournalism?

Photojournalism is an extremely diverse and open-ended topic. Such a diverse mixture of photography can be considered photojournalism,  ranging from photographing everyday on goings of human life, to covering live wars, famine and death. As the New York Times Article discusses, the separation between art photography and photojournalism is near impossible to distinguish due to the many features that constantly overlap.

The National Press Photographers Association is an organisation considered to be one of the most prominent and respected organisations in the world related to the art of photojournalism. This organisation have a long-standing code of ethics which is seen to represent the large proportion of photojournalists throughout the world, stressing the need for photojournalists to be honest, reliable and fair in their interpretations, resisting any temptation to stage or manipulate images. These ethical boundaries, although largely accepted by the world of photojournalism often as the World Press Photograph competition highlight, are very hard to monitor and control. Photography is all about interpretation so I would argue that although these boundaries are seen as universal, it is still nevertheless impossible to actually set boundaries for what photojournalism really is. The conservative attitude concerning photojournalism is that the photographer must always be totally honest with his or her interpretations, never attempting in any way to manipulate images or stage the environment. Some contemporary photographers would instead argue however that photojournalism is all about telling a story, and therefore staging images is to some degree acceptable.

Question 2 – What technology makes it so easy to manipulate images, how much manipulation is acceptable?

The rise of digital technology in photography has changed the face of photo manipulation dramatically. Photoshop and Lightroom, both programmed by Adobe, are seen as the best and most widely used image manipulation systems throughout the photography world. Other photo manipulation techniques other than digital manipulation include flash guns, slow-shutter speeds to create motion blur and image rendering. The range of possibilities that modern photo editing features and techniques allow, can however be over-used to make the image extremely deceptive and over emphasized.

The question of how much image manipulation is acceptable depends entirely on the intention of the photographer. A photojournalist for example would be excepted refrain from any complicated manipulation techniques and keep their photographs as realistic as possible. On the other hand, some photographers such as the photographer previously mentioned, Giovanni Tripoli, often is considered as a photographers who treads a fine line between photojournalism and art photography, because although he attempts to document the world, he does however rely sometimes on stages images in order to make his initial point more emphasized and effective. I would argue that the most important consideration when photographers manipulate images is to be honest. As long as the viewer is not deceived than truth can be extracted. Personally, staging images is fine as long as it helps to portray a realistic viewpoint. Doing so as a lie I would considered wrong,

Question 3 – With viewers more sophisticated and skeptical than ever before, how can photojournalists preserve their integrity and maintain trust?

It all comes down to a matter of honesty. As long as the photographer is completely honest with the viewer about the context of the photograph, then it is up to the viewer themselves to accept or dismiss the information. Therefore, if a photographer was to manipulate or stage an image, then it is important that they are open about this.

It is critical that photojournalists try their best to report on the truth and take photographs that reflect real life.  Sometimes if a photographer produces a powerful, dramatic image it is perhaps difficult to trust the photographs integrity, because it is very difficult to prove it is genuine. This sense of doubt does unfairly make people eager to totally trust photojournalists to tell the complete truth 100% of the time.

An example of this is a famous photograph by war photographer Robert Capa. Capa was photographing the Spanish Civil War and produced an image which he said was taken capturing of a young Spanish soldier Frederico Borrell Garcia, fighting for the Spanish Republicans, at the exact point of his death after he was fatally shot. Capa, despite being considered as an extremely credible and well respected photographer, faced considerable scrutiny for this image, and was accused many times of staging it. Capa always denied this, but the accusations never went away because he could never prove completely that the image was genuine

In addition, the political beliefs of the particular photographer or magazine/newspaper they are working for may sway the viewer to make further assumptions concerning bias.

A history of documentary photography

Early documentary photography focused primarily on urban settings and industry, photographers often used photography as a tool in order to change society’s norm. For example Walker Evans photographed famers during the time of depression in America in order to demonstrate how the depression had effected the farmer’s lives, furthermore, Lewis Hine’s images aided in passing the child labour law in America. During the 1930s the idea of a message or story being translated through a single or set of images began. The Magnum Photography Agency formed in 1947, Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the main photographers in the group at the time. A great deal of war photography came from Magnum photographers.

The definition of documentary is ‘an actual event e.g. life story, that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements.’ Although this sums up the meaning of documentary the part which translates to the artistic side is concerned with the morality and ethos of the subject. Documentary photography has proven to be a powerful tool used and sometimes manipulated in order to change real life situations for example the most current image which has caused uproar concerning the situation is of the migrant crisis.