What is truth article

"reprints" of selected articles from Usenet and other forums
gregmeister_admin
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What is truth article

Postby gregmeister_admin » Fri May 13, 2016 6:05 am

I came across this article in another forum and wanted to share for discussion.
Greg

https://fstoppers.com/editorial/case-steve-mccurry-what-truth-photography-129505
Seeing is more than meets the eye.

Greg Groess
Curvemeister Instructor

artmar
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Re: What is truth article

Postby artmar » Sat May 14, 2016 6:48 am

Interesting topic. Thanks.

Perhaps somewhat tangential to the "modifying reality" issue, but I found on another site the entire image from which the extract in the article linked to was taken. Someone had circled the area that's being discussed.
Attachments
discussion_entire_image.jpg

julie
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Re: What is truth article

Postby julie » Sun May 15, 2016 11:36 pm

So the image makes more sense now

I think truth is a very slippery concept

I guess if you are a photojournalist you should aim for truth but...
1 its a photo, it captures an only instant in time - before and after are unknown
2 it only captures what the camera is pointed at
3 depth, colour viewpoint etc are all manipulated by the photographer and limited by the environment, skills and equipment
4 As a viewer I am stuck in culture and time (to name a couple of things) and so I can only understand the symbols in an through that lens

I guess if you are known for photojournalism perhaps you should overtly state other photographic aims

My biggest objection is the sloppiness
Even I can do better than that!

in my opinion all images give an 'opinion' not the truth and we should all accept that and get over it
What is very concerning to me is that some of those 'opinions' are truly manipulative and used to consciously change perceptions of social and political events.
Of course the other side of the coin is that images can alert the broader society to social and political events that are generally hidden.

Its not simple!

anyway that's my view for what it is worth

Julie

Ganna
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Re: What is truth article

Postby Ganna » Mon May 16, 2016 4:49 am

Julie, I fully agree. Mainstream news media, or any news media everywhere will mostly be biased and present the news in such a way that they try to force the readers to see and interpret from their little box. The image above does not alter the story, so what. Even photo journalists may purposefully avoid some, and over include certain views. A joke in South Africa was about a well known bishop, visiting a specific country overseas. He was warned to be careful what you say to the press. On arrival, the first question to him was: "what is your opinion on the fate of the prostitutes in 2nd avenue?" Very diplomatically he answered "are there any prostitutes in 2nd ave" Next morning, front page article "... bishops' first question when he arrived was ..." This was the truth :D

gregmeister_admin
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Re: What is truth article

Postby gregmeister_admin » Mon May 16, 2016 7:50 am

For what it's worth and since it's all my opinion your actual mileage may very but....

I find it interesting that this problem comes up every so often and we collectively either dismiss it as harmless or claim outrage that one would deceive their viewers with blatant editing of the image. For me the heart of the issue is when does the editing become harmful?

Herein lies the problem, since the answer to that is somewhat subjective and related to the stated goals of the image is it the fault of the image maker if their work is either mis-represented or mis-intended? In this article the image maker was "caught" making an adjustment to an image that was not submitted for news but because all of his other work is news based he is being held up to a standard that might not apply to this image simply because of who he is.

To me that is unfair. To certain readers his name invokes "news" and they assume that any image he creates is truth. Again, I find this unfair, it puts the artist in a box and does not allow him any room to change or grow. Why should the image maker need to state his intentions for a non news image? Did we ask Ansel Adams to submit to the collective societal editing and review board? Nope...

In the 201 discussion group we talk a lot about intention for an image and what is it's context. We critique based on the image creators intent and not our false assumptions about the image; we then attempt to judge based on that context and let the image creator know how we feel they did in relation to that context...that helps keep the critiques fair. (I hope)

I personally think that any "news" image should be stated as such by the publication as a part of the byline for that image and any other images are assumed to be non news. In that way we all know what the context is and we all know what the rules should be. This puts the responsibility back on the publisher and not the image creator. If I submit a news photo, I certify it as unaltered and the publisher prints it as such. This removes the whole "Look what I discovered" gotcha process.

Thoughts?
Greg
Seeing is more than meets the eye.

Greg Groess
Curvemeister Instructor


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