On Nov 30, 2008, at 3:57 PM, Adam Maas wrote:
On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Stan Halpin
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Agree - interesting story Mike. I wonder a bit at the emphasis on the
photographer though. The editor certainly bears some
responsibility in
making his/her choice of what image to use. The point of the story
seems to
question a photographer's freedom to provide some artistic
interpretation of
reality, opting instead for a narrower straight forward
representation of
the portrait subject. As though there were only one reality.
Whereas there
are in fact many realities, ranging from the subjects' many self-
images to
the public's understanding of the subjects to the editors or
photographers
understanding of who the person is. Why should the photographer be
the fall
guy? It should be the bill payer (subject or editor) who
determines which
reality should be portrayed. IMHO.
stan
I'd tend to agree. A portrait photographer is NOT a reporter or
journalist and operates under a different set of ethics. And in
general the portrait photographers mentioned do so very clearly.
Jill Greenberg is an exception in that on the McCain incident. What
she did was clearly contrary to what the Editor requested. Of course
if the Editor had done some proper homework they would have known that
she's a known publicity hound with no regards for her subjects at the
best of times.
--
M. Adam Maas
http://www.mawz.ca
Explorations of the City Around Us
But first, Greenburg got the shot the editors wanted- the first image
in the slide show.
Since she posted the "Evil McCain" picture on her own web sight, she
must not have
sold exclusive use of the image to the magazine. In her position, I
wouldn't even offer
the image to the magazine.
Then, at the end of the piece, she said that editors have sent her
out with instructions
to bring back unflattering pictures. So from her prospective, I can
understand why she
didn't consider it to be such a big deal.
I guess it depends on how tightly her contract was written.
BTW- I remember the Washington Post's photos of President Ronald
Reagan were often less
than flattering, so I guess that "editorializing by photo" isn't a
particularly new concept.
Cheers
Mike
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