Questioning the truth in documentary photography
During the recent terrorist attacks on Brussels, Fox News was reporting from Place de la Borse. Whilst recording the journalist the camera man from Fox News also captured some footage of a photographer in the background staging a photograph of a young girl by directing her to show the young girl paying her respects to those who were killed in the attacks. This sparked a social media outrage and made the public question the ethics of photojournalists and how often these kinds of photographs are staged. This photograph was taken by the photographer called Khaled Al Sabbah and later posted on Instagram.
In serious events such as the ones of recent terrorist attacks the public expects the media to portray the events in a realistic way so that they can get a real understanding of what is going on. Photojournalists are often thought to be photographing events in a natural way to document what is going on rather than manipulating what the public sees and therefore after seeing the photographer stage this photograph, the public lost trust in the media and began to question if most photographs were staged meaning that they are ‘not real’. This also made us question the balance between getting a good headline photograph and the ethics involved in photographing such a vulnerable situation.
After the public outcry the young photographer Khaled Al Sabbah aged 21 made a public apology on Facebook where he said that he was not working for the press, however he was taking the photograph for ascetic reasons and would then post it to his own Instagram and Facebook page. Although he wasn’t working for the press some people still argue that the photograph is still deceiving to the people who will then go on to look at it.
In my opinion, I think it was wrong of the photographer to have staged the photograph although it does represent what was going on at time it decreses the authensity of the photograph, which is morally wrong and also goes against the reasons why documentary photography was created in the first place.
