Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
There are some iconic photos taken through history that turned out to be staged or altered. The example that first comes to mind for me is Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, which was both.
In this video, Vox brings another example of a historic image that was most likely staged. It’s Roger Fenton’s Valley of the Shadow of Death taken in 1855 during the Crimean War. Two versions of the image caused a lot of questions and controversy, and film director Errol Morris was determined to figure it out.
If you want to be a photojournalist, ethical photography is something you need to master just as the artistic and technical parts of the craft. However, not all photographers stick with the rules of ethics. Instead, some of them stage their photos, direct their subjects, or even manipulate images in post. In this video, Michael The Maven shares some famous cases of photojournalists who were caught cheating. It’s an interesting video to watch, but also a useful reminder of what not to do if you want to be a good photojournalist.
In his project titled Sicario, a work like any other, Swiss/Italian photographer Michele Crameri published a series of photos depicting hitmen in Honduras. The project has won many awards, but the photographer is now being accused of staging the photos.
With the recent polemics surrounding a certain image that won a photography competition this week, I feel like we need to talk about travel photography. About people photography, in our case. And to set up boundaries as to what’s acceptable in both cases. Honestly, in my opinion, it’s a matter of common sense – but it seems that’s not enough. We still witness some shocking scenes in the world of travel photography these days.
Let me be clear: My goal isn’t to attack or criticise any specific, or specific group, of photographers. I don’t know these people. I’ve never met them. But the whole circus that events such as these have created is, in my book, very disturbing, which is why I feel it’s important to discuss the topic in general.
Prestigious competition the Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) recently announced its 2019 winners. Among them was Malaysian photographer Edwin Ong Wee Kee, whose photo of a Vietnamese mother carrying two children won the Grand Prize of $120,000. However, a behind-the-scenes shot of this moving image has been going around. And it shows that, apparently, the winning photo of the HIPA contest was staged.
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