Ethics plays an important role in every profession; however, due to their self-centered motives, people in many professions distort the truth and lose their ethics. There are many cases throughout the history of photojournalism, where distortion of images occurred. Images capture the unaltered moment of truth and leaves the interpretation of those images to the public. Everyone has different views and will interpret each image differently in their own view points. The only thing that separates words from images is that people see their own reflection in those images based on their beliefs. My ethics in photojournalism controversy is about the image of a Syrian rebel.
Image by : Narciso Contreras
This image was taken by Narciso Contreras who is a Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist. He worked for the Associate Press News Agency. He has used a simple technique of cloning to remove the camera of his fellow photojournalist. Later, the photojournalist admitted his mistake and assumed the consequences. He said, “You can go through my archives and you can find that this is a single case that happened probably at one very stressed moment, at one very difficult situation”. Since the revelation, AP has examined 494 photos taken by Contreras, but did not find any other alternation.
Though leaving the camera would not have altered the photojournalist’s success in any aspect, he decided to remove that from the respective image. I believe this violates the moral ethics of a photojournalist to convey true and real information. As a photojournalist, it is his duty, as well as responsibility, to provide unedited images to the news agency. The real image simply indicates the presence of other photojournalists in the warzone, but did not change the symbolization of the image overall. If I was in his shoes, I would have never altered the image .I appreciate that the photojournalist faced the consequences of his action and accepted his mistake in front of the world.
I analyzed the above mentioned story according to my ethics map. I believe that the job of a photojournalist is an honor and in no way its integrity be damaged. In the modern world, with photo editing technology, people have to think twice whether the image is real or not. Unlike in the 19th and 20th century, where fewer such cases were found, modern generations have to wonder at every image presented in front of them about its truthfulness and reality. I believe every photojournalist should know the true meaning of an image and present it to the masses unaltered.
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