Zoran Bozicevic, an associate photo editor at the National Post with combat photography experience, has a fascinating piece in today’s National Post about staged pictures and falling photojournalism standards:
"With the rise of digital photography, barriers to entry fell in the profession: Anyone could call himself a photojournalist, pick up a camera, and e-mail photos to editors around the world. The cost-cutting media increasingly relies on these cheap, sometimes unscrupulous, local stringers. In some cases, they flout professional objectivity, and take sides in the conflict they cover. In other cases, they stage pictures to keep employers happy. Or worse, they manipulate digital pictures after the fact, turning a photo into a work of fiction."
As an example, Bozicevic applies his professional eye to this AFP/Getty image from June 1:
Bozicevic points out the following problems:
"(1) the woman is casually leaning against a doorframe amidst what purports to be a gunfight; (2) the fighter holds the rifle unnaturally high, so as to conveniently hide his face from the camera; (3) the rifle’s butt-end, designed to brace snugly in the shoulder joint, is held at an odd angle. Had he fired the weapon from that position, the gun’s recoil would have bruised him, and the rifle might even have kicked him in the face."
Makes you wonder about the hundreds of other images that find their way into Canadian news each day.
