I guess I just can't get very excited about the McCain photo by
Greenberg. It after all wasn't used by the magazine. If she wants to
post it on her web site and boast about how she can take pretty
crappy portraits, let her. She is over inflating her own worth if she
thinks that anyone really thinks that she has suddenly revealed some
Truth through her marvelous bad shot. It reflects far less on McCain
and far more on her abilities. With which I would not be impressed
based on this sample. I find it difficult to believe that McCain or
any other adult would be particularly bothered by this puerile trick.
[For the record, I am not a McCain fan and never have been.] The
whole discussion seems to be off on a tangent from the basic issue of
"journalistic ethics", whether or not that is an oxymoron, and
whether those photographers who indulge in journalism need to have
any sense of ethics. But then I don't really see much connection
between magazine cover portraits and journalism either.
stan
On Nov 30, 2008, at 5:09 PM, Adam Maas wrote:
On Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 5:05 PM, Beaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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
The problem here is that McCain had an agreement with the magazine for
a cover shoot. Greenberg doing here own thing after getting the cover
shot embarrassed the magazine since they'd arranged the subject and
that wasn't part of the deal. Greenberg had tricked McCain into the
additional setup. It would have been different if she'd briefed him
beforehand.
--
M. Adam Maas
http://www.mawz.ca
Explorations of the City Around Us.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above
and follow the directions.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
[email protected]
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
