The Role of Standards in Photography

The Role of Standards in Photography   Tian Xing (Bill) He Steve McCurry is a world-famous photographer who rose to prominence after his Afghan Girl photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic back in 1985. The photo has been called one of the iconic images of the 20th century (Cole, 971) and arguably the most famous ever taken by a news photographer (Letzter). His previous photojournalistic efforts won him a Robert Capa Gold Medal in 1980 for documenting the Soviet-Afghan War. In fact, hes one of the most-awarded photojournalists ever, and is also a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos international photographic cooperative. Given his superstar status, when reports in the media revealed some of his photographs had been digitally manipulated, a firestorm of outrage spread quickly throughout the photojournalistic community. The controversy started a fascinating debate about the role of objectivity, truth, integrity and ethics in photography. Should any of these concepts be applied to photography? If so, when and why? Some argue that trying to apply words like objectivity and truth to photography is futile because the very act of taking a photograph is inherently subjective. Photographers make all kinds of decisions when they go about capturing a moment using their cameras: Style, lens choice, position, what to show and what to exclude in the framing, editing equipment choice, toning, sequence are all manipulative and subjective (Agtmael). And yet when photography is intended for journalistic reporting, there is an expectation that it will objectively represent the moment captured. In light of the recent focus on fake news and alternative facts, ethical standards for photojournalism are perhaps more important than ever. Excerpts from the Associated Press Code of Ethics for Photojournalists is relevant: The content of a photograph must not be altered in Photoshop or by any other means. No element should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph. The faces or identities of individuals must not be obscured by Photoshop or any other editing tool. Only retouching or the use of the cloning tool to eliminate dust on camera sensors and scratches on scanned negatives or scanned prints are acceptable. Minor adjustments in Photoshop are acceptable. These include cropping, dodging and burning, conversion into grayscale, and normal toning and color adjustments that should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction (analogous to the burning and dodging previously used in darkroom processing of images) and that restore the authentic nature of the photograph. Changes in density, contrast, color and saturation levels that substantially alter the original scene are not acceptable. Backgrounds should not be digitally blurred or eliminated by burning down or by aggressive toning. The removal of red eye from photographs is not permissible (qtd. in Cooke). There is still a question, however, whether or not McCurry should rightfully be held to these kinds of standards. None of the photos identified as manipulated were produced for photojournalistic purposes. Does the mere fact that he built his reputation in photojournalism mean he must forever be held to such standards? Is he not allowed to engage in a more artistic photography? McCurrys own response to the controversy was to say, Today I would define my work as visual storytelling, because the pictures have been shot in many places, for many reasons, and in many situations (qtd. in Letzter). But he also went on to say the manipulations occurred in his studio without his approval and were mistakes. McCurry himself seems to be on the fence about his position; excusing himself from photojournalistic standards while still offering a mea culpa. While it seems reasonable to relieve McCurry from being held hostage by photojournalistic codes of ethics for non-photojournalistic photography, his own positioning of his work as visual storytelling deserves further consideration, for even this aspect of his work has been roundly criticized as lacking integrity. In A Too-Perfect Picture, Teju Cole compares the Indian culture photography of McCurry with that of Raghubir Singh and finds McCurrys work deficient. McCurrys series of Indian photographs from 1978 to 2012 aimed to evoke an earlier time in Indian history, as well as old ideas of what photographs of Indians should look like (Cole, 972). Based on this statement, one might be led to believe that McCurry is genuinely interested in documenting Indian culture and presenting it authentically in photographs, but Cole makes a case to the contrary. He considers McCurrys style as one that so compromises photography as to render his work astonishingly boring (Cole, 971). Cole insists that what makes a nation unique is a combination of its traditions, customs, history, and how these elements mesh together with the present. Therefore, McCurry provides the spectator with a completely mythologized history of culture, as if it has been violently broken off from the present. McCurrys consideration of a place largely from the perspective of a permanent anthological pastà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [is] fantasy (Cole, 972). McCurrys methods are therefore dull bec ause they repackage old ideas as if they are exotic and distant, which aside from dull, is wholly inaccurate. Cole even compares McCurrys vision of peacocks, holy men, painted children, and incense to Coldplays Hymn for the Weekend music video; he describes it as a colorful backdrop to the fantasies of Western visitors (Cole, 974). Cole then argues that McCurry and other Western photographers seem to paint the picture they want to see, not what is actually there, and uses fantasy as a way to make exotic something that is still very real and present in these respective societies. When Cole evaluates Singhs work, he holds it up as an exemplar of what photographers shoulddo. As he writes, [Singhs] work shares formal content with McCurrys: the subcontinental terrain, the eye-popping color, the human presenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Singh gives [his audience] photographs charged with life: not only beautiful experiences or painful scenes but also those in-between moments of drift that make up most of our days (Cole, 972). Because of this style, Cole argues that Singh has a democratic eye and goes above and beyond to take pictures of the entirety of the social space from cities, towns, villages, shops, rivers, worshippers, workers, construction sites, motorbikes, statues, modern furniture, dresses, and the like (Cole, 972). Singh takes approaches from highly sophisticated influences such as Edgar Degas and Helen Levitt, and it shows. Singh is able to tell a story with his photographs in ways McCurry fails to do because McCurry does not capture the wider social space. Rather than using compositional clichà ©s, Singh is able to produce a story that is truly dedicated to providing a more objective account that attempts to break away from preconceived notions. Coles contrast of these two photographers is stark. While Single is always emotionally generous when it comes to acknowledging his subjects for what they are, McCurrys work lacks depth and is a quick message [of] sweetness, pathos, humor that fails to deliver beyond its self-imposed limitations (Cole, 974). McCurrys fantastical portrayals of ancient cultures lack integrity in the eyes of Cole, although this problem is by no means unique to his work. It is a common Western narrative structure. In How to Write About Africa, Binyavanga Wainainaspeaks of the stereotypical images Westerners superimpose onto Africa in their descriptions. Africa is satirized by Wainaia as nothing more than depraved conditions. He writes of an AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts as if these subjects are utterly helpless people who are starving to death and rotting (Wainaina, 543 544). He goes into satiric detail about how Africans apparently eat things no other humans eatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and how they wait for the benevolence of the West (Wainaina, 544). While these are all exaggerations, they do make a point: The West is preoccupied with preserving stereotypical Africa. They are obsessed with conservationism and its nature, but they care little beyond this because it is all they see. For Wainaina, however, the real conservationists are the peoples in Africa who truly know the land. Cole and Wainaina both discuss stereotypes as they relate to cultures in India and Africa, which are fueled by Western fantasies. It seems Westerners enjoy telling stories and painting pictures of a lost cultural past, but this is only to maintain their own preconceived notions. They have little to do with the actual lived experiences of these peoples. Masked by these stereotypes, Western spectators see India and Africa as consisting entirely of these brazen caricatures. For Cole, this is just outright bad photography since peoples stories must be told through the photo. If not, then the photo is a mere manipulation of real life. Because any photograph cannot capture the entire social scope of any particular culture, what is chosen for portrayal can paint a distorted, oftentimes dramatized look at marginalized peoples as if they lack agency. This kind of photography most certainly supports a world view with a decidedly Western bent. Like any art, photography embodies subjectivity and bias. What shapes the story of the image goes beyond the subject it captures it also includes the setting, the camera chosen, lighting, and innumerable other elements that go into composing and taking a photograph. If a photographers work falls squarely under the umbrella of photojournalism, there is a responsibility to adhere to a code of ethics to mitigate the subjective aspects. Outside the realm of photojournalism, while Coles criticisms of McCurry related to integrity are well-founded given Western photographys penchant for stereotypes and fantasy in the depiction of other cultures, demanding that photographers always capture the fullness of a peoples culture and story in each photograph goes too far. Besides being unrealistic, photography that is more artistic than journalistic should be judged by standards of aesthetics rather than standards revolving around such concepts as objectivity and truth. Finally, aesthetic standard s are themselves subjective and will differ from person to person, which helps explain why much of McCurrys work can be loved by so many but can also invoke criticisms such as those offered by Cole. Works Cited Agtmael, Peter van. Why Facts Arent Always Truths in Photography. Time, Time, 12 May 2016, time.com/4326791/fact-truth-photography-steve-mccurry/. Cole, Teju. A Too-Perfect Picture. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose, Edited by Laura Buzzard et al., Third, Broadview Press, Peterborough, 2016, pp. 971-974. Cooke, Alex. The Case of Steve McCurry: What Is Truth in Photography? Fstoppers, Fstoppers, 12 May 2016, fstoppers.com/editorial/case-steve-mccurry-what-truth-photography-129505. Letzter, Rafi. The Afghan Girl Photographer Faked Some of His Photos. Does It Matter? Business Insider, Business Insider, 21 May 2016, www.businessinsider.com/steve-mccurry-photo-editing-scandal-2016-5. Wainaina, Binyavanga. How To Write About Africa. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose, Edited by Laura Buzzard et al., Third, Broadview Press, Peterborough, 2016, pp. 543-546.

The Death of Christen :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Death of Christen It snowed for three straight days after my grandmother died. I wouldn't think the two facts were related but for the fact that the roads were all closed on the second day of the blizzard, and we were stuck at the wake all night long, like someone or something was trying to keep us there. It was weird, spending the night with dead people. I wasn't alone, of course. There was my family, and then there were the Szerniaks and their dead father, and the corpse of some creepy guy named William Manfred III who had apparently been abandoned at his own wake because his family couldn't make it through the snow. I went in to visit him once, but it was just too creepy in there by myself. My own dead relatives were bad enough, thanks. I finished off another piece of cold, greasy fried chicken from the fast food place next door and looked up. My uncle was still snoring in the corner, my cousin was still trying to look up my skirt (the perv) and my dad was still just sitting there in front of the coffin, candlelight tracing shapes around his eyes, swallowing the few tears he had left to cry. My mother wasn't there...she was stranded like us, although she had it slightly better. While we were here with a bunch of corpses, she was at least stuck in an office with hot coffee and her computer and stuff. She was probably having a blast. I wasn't. After a few more minutes of boredom, I decided to get up, stretch my legs and look for some sort of entertainment. There was a television in a small lounge near the bathroom, but it was currently being used as a smoking room by some nervous Szerniaks. I wasn't in the mood for watery eyes and a hacking cough, so I avoided the low-tar menthol-flavored fog bank and went and traced my name on the ice that had formed on the inside of the outside glass door, watching the world swirl around outside as I tried to avoid getting slush on my shoes. That's how I met Christen. "Can I sit here?" she asked, sliding down the wall and landing with a thump on the floor across from me, knees drawn up tight because I was taking up most of the hallway.

Evidence On Global Warming Essay

Svante Arrhenius was really an erudite as he was the pioneer in discovering the concept as early as 1886 in the absence of many modern technical instruments and super computers. During December 1995, United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] , an international network of more than 2,550 scientists have confirmed that there existed many evidence of global warming and such phenomenon could not be denied ,though it is difficult to quantify. With the help of precise satellites measuring equipments and with the assistance of super computers, scientists have irrevocably proved that there are firm ground for the existence of global warming on the basis of process of large quantity of weather data’s. The other evidences of global warming are as follows: ? Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro legendary snows have melted down about 81% since 1912 and it would completely disappear by the year 2020. ? Bermuda’s coastal mangrove forest is annihilated by rising sea levels. ? Over the past forty years, world ocean temperature has increased by a net 0. 12 degrees Fahrenheit. ? Glaziers at Himalayas in India are withdrawing at a record speed and it is predicted by scientists that all eastern and central Himalayan glaziers will vanish by 2025. ? Pakistan witnessed the longest drought from 1999 to 2001 which had affected about 2. 3 million people and about 16. 1 million livestock. ? As compared to 20 to 40 years before , the ice volume in Arctic ocean has decreased by 40% ? In Washington D. C, Cherry trees have advanced their blooming season. ? Europe has witnessed an extreme heat wave in 2003 and more than 25,100 people were died. ? During May 2002, southeastern parts of India witnessed heat wave which exceeded more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit and more than 1210 people died.

Film About A Foster Child Essay - 2124 Words

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