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A Statement from The BPPA on the role of press photographers during crisis.




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1 hour ago, Julie Edwards said:

There are plenty of articles that explain this.

I doubt anyone needs an article to explain that, it's self-evident that a camera only photographs a scene from where you are standing.  It seems rather pedantic to suggest that it's not the choice of a telephoto lens that is causing these pictures to mislead. I wouldn't imagine that an editor would be too happy with a crop from a shot taken with a 50mm lens in these circumstances but of course it would have the same composition. The telephoto lens removes the context and the viewer is led to believe that the camera position is closer than it actually is.

 

I understand that press photographers have to come up with the goods and that the editor is responsible for the the final choice of the picture and the context in which it is used but the photographers must surely understand what they're doing.

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2 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

I doubt anyone needs an article to explain that, it's self-evident that a camera only photographs a scene from where you are standing.  It seems rather pedantic to suggest that it's not the choice of a telephoto lens that is causing these pictures to mislead. I wouldn't imagine that an editor would be too happy with a crop from a shot taken with a 50mm lens in these circumstances but of course it would have the same composition. The telephoto lens removes the context and the viewer is led to believe that the camera position is closer than it actually is.

 

I understand that press photographers have to come up with the goods and that the editor is responsible for the the final choice of the picture and the context in which it is used but the photographers must surely understand what they're doing.

 

 

so some editor uses your image 2AC86P4 to illustrate that police people are not social distancing,  are you to blame for not thinking this could be used as such?  

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10 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

so some editor uses your image 2AC86P4 to illustrate that police people are not social distancing,  are you to blame for not thinking this could be used as such?  

It is clearly marked as having been taken in 2019 so it would be misleading to use it as you suggest and nothing to do with the photographer.

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"so some editor uses your image 2AC86P4 to illustrate that police people are not social distancing,  are you to blame for not thinking this could be used as such? "

 

I'm not really following your line of thought here, any of the 200 million pictures on Alamy that were taken before this pandemic could in theory be misused, parks full of people, stadium crowds, packed beaches at Bognor...etc. Can't see what that's got to do with anything.

Edited by Harry Harrison
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4 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

.....and that is all they're entitled to.

 

 

Yes, indeed.

 

And they seem to be displaying that displeasure to the next unwitting photographer who innocently comes along and points a camera towards them. 

 

I have said several times I have sympathy with the plight of the poor photographer, but equally it does help to try to figure out why the general public are displaying such behaviour towards photographers. Just browse through the sort of articles churned out daily in the gutter press and the sort of photos that they use. 

 

It's a two way relationship. Respect is earned not an automatic right. 

Edited by geogphotos
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If a photographer staged a scene with, say an ethnic minority person doing something unpleasant to another person, and captioned it as being fake, I could imagine that photo if discovered by the wrong people would be very incendiary and would quickly do the rounds on social media and potentially print media (seeing as they often don't check stories so well these days). It appears to show something bad even though nothing actually happened as it was staged. I'm not sure the photographer could step back at that point, hold up their hands and deny all knowledge.

 

Similarly, whilst we can argue about the photographer's intention, or hoping the caption stays with the photo as it is shared thousands of times, or semantics over whether a compression effect exists or not - during this pandemic, producing a photo that most people would judge to show people standing much closer together than they actually are is inflammatory.

Edited by Steve F
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12 hours ago, spacecadet said:

Eh? I copied and pasted.

 

 

But copying and pasting the complete sentence was too much for you?

 

 "Respect is earned not an automatic right."

 

Nothing about condoning abuse.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

But copying and pasting the complete sentence was too much for you?

 

 "Respect is earned not an automatic right."

 

Nothing about condoning abuse.

 

 

 

Well, I didn't say you'd done that, but you seem to be looking for an argument and you'll  get no more from me.

Must be the lockdown. Gets to people.

Edited by spacecadet
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32 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Well, I didn't say you'd done that, but you seem to be looking for an argument and you'll  get no more from me.

Must be the lockdown. Gets to people.

 

You quoted me out of context Mark. I did not quote you.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by geogphotos
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  • 1 month later...

Hey everyone,

Just randomly found this video from Tony and Chelsea that seems to have been made for this thread (video titled "misleading photojournalism") !! Note that Tony uses the word "appear" a lot... Feel free not to all start arguing about this again, I'm just providing this for information. Debating is ok. ;)

Steve

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Steve F said:

Hey everyone,

Just randomly found this video from Tony and Chelsea that seems to have been made for this thread (video titled "misleading photojournalism") !! Note that Tony uses the word "appear" a lot... Feel free not to all start arguing about this again, I'm just providing this for information. Debating is ok. ;)

Steve

 

Oh dear, I wouldn't take much notice of what he says lol 🤣

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4 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

i wouldn't even click on his stuff based on past videos i've watch.  Am i missing much?

You're missing nothing.  The only reason he gets the views is because of his wife's looks...

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