Photojournalism Ehtics

Ethics in photojournalism should be situational because different situations have different requirements as to what's ethical and what's not. A photo can capture the truth of a moment as long as the photographer knows what's going on and what to look for. As a photographer, I've made changes to color levels, contrast, and edited scratches. It's important for news organizations to clearly define ethical standards so that the people know whether or not what they are looking at is real or faked.


Fashion Ethics

Changes that were done to the model's face include:
enlarging the eyes and lips
pulling down the hairline
enlongating the eyebrows and neck (moving up the head)
decreasing the size of the ears
and moving around the hair

I believe it is OK as long as the model agrees to the manipulation and views the final product. Also, as long as the subject of the photo is still emphasized, it should still be ethical. It's worse if a model does not agree to the changes done to the photo or the main point of the original photo was taken out. I believe changes done to the background or a person's face are OK.

The difference between photojournalism and fashion photography is that in photojournalism, you are looking for the truth behind a story whereas in fashion photography, you are looking to bring out a certain aspect of a photo for advertisement. Both deal with reality in the way that they must have some part of it in the photo. For example in photojournalism, reality and truth is the key and in fashion photography, reality is in the subject of the photo (makeup, clothing, etc.)

Two photos taken at UW-Madison were used to make one photo that was suppose to showcase diversity in the school. In one photo, there were nothing but white students at a football game, the other photo was of a black student at a ethnic minority icebreaker activity. They took the face of the black student and pasted it into the football picture. After finding out about the controversy, Barrows changed the photo and appologized for the screw up.


I believe this photo is unethical because it's two different photos, taken at different times under different circumstances, combined to apply another message than that from either original photo.

I don't believe this photo is unethical because all they did was push the pyramids in the background closer. They're still the same pyramids and it is still the same message, therefore there shouldn't be any problem.

Greg the ram entangles himself in a telephone wire in mid jump during a high-jump competition for rams in New Zealand. Greg has been the champion of these high-jump events for the past 3 years. That is, until he jumped a bit too high.

Futbol player Bernardo Silva yells at referee Ricardo Cruz as he steals Gonzales' extra pair of socks after the championship game in Portugal. Gonzales has been known to take his socks seriously and proved this accusation in 2006 when he kicked a fellow futbol player, demanding him to return his socks.

Officer Tony White sits atop Stan, the new addition to the police force in Chicago, Illinois. Trained in Ethiopia, Stan is considered a police-giraffe wonder as he has made it extremely difficult for anyone to miss him or Tony.

Monday, October 15, 2007
Toil in the Fields
A farmer works at a laver (edible seaweed) farm at Gutong Village in Fujian Province, China.

The rows in the water lead your eyes straight through the photo from the front to the back.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Is This Seat Taken?
A deputy waits before French President Nicolas Sarkozy's speech to members of the ruling party UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) at the Elysée Palace.

The rows and on going pattern of the seats lead your eyes from the right of the frame to the left, where the man is sitting.


Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Hats Off
People's Liberation Army soldiers attend a grand rally to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the PLA at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The pattern of people sitting in chairs and their hats in front of them is continuous throughout the entire photo and gradually get smaller as they get further away, leading your eyes through the photo.

2. A. Melanie Burford used multimedia skills to put together her slideshow in addition to photography skills. While watching the slideshow, you listen to a recording of singing and speaking.
B. The multimedia effects in this slideshow gave more meaning to the pictures and actual story. It gave us a sort of 1st person point of view on the story.
3. The police videos are interesting because they show the violence on the streets that is ironically being taken out on officers.

1. The lighting in the coffee shop was a bit low and so I had to shoot at a certain angle in order to get enough lighting and emotion (considering everyone around me was taller than me and we were on a level surface)
2. I mostly thought about focusing on certain aspects of the scene. I tried not move the focusing nob too much and tried getting as close as possible.
3. I tried using framing by focusing on the coffee itself when Andrea (the girl who was learning how to make a new coffee drink) had her arms on a lever, creating a sort of frame around the coffee itself. Also, I tried simplicity by getting a simple action of Andrea dancing (when her friend taught her how to bellydance) and focusing on her emotion in that photo.