Week 12: Photojournalism

Truth and Manipulation in Photojournalism

As humans we are taught to trust our eyes; we are told that seeing is believing. These are good rules in principle, but, of course not everything we see is true, and not everything our eyes tell us is based in reality. We are subjective beings by nature; we interpret what our senses tell us. We believe what we understand to be real based on all our preconceived knowledge and beliefs about the world around us. However, photography is interpretation. It may be as close to objective as the photographer can manage, but will never be objective. It may be as manipulative as advertising, or a gentle reminder that the world is full of unexplained phenomena.

With that, we can asked 'what is photojournalism?' On the most basic level, photojournalism is a story with photographs. A photojournalist isn’t someone who just goes to an event and snaps a few photos from it, they exist to "give insight and enhance the public good by providing information that people can use to make decisions about public life." (Rustard, 2006, p. 3)

Photojournalism pictures attempt to capture the viewers’ attention and emotion to entice them to continue listening to or reading about the story.

Visual image can give big impact to the public as it gives a thousand meanings . Image is there to speaks for the unheard voices and it is there to seek for social justice. However, to be a photojournalist is not an easy task. They are upholding a level of public trust that cannot be violated. The story they created must follow rules and ethics of photojournalism. Thus, visual journalist must try to tell the story in the most fair, balanced and unbiased way possible:

Visual journalists operate as trustees of the public. Our primary role is to report visually on the significant events and varied viewpoints in our common world. Our primary goal is the faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. As visual journalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its history through images - The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Codes of Ethics in Photojournalism

However, with the advent of photo manipulation through editing software, credibility of photojournalism has now are concern to many. The New York Time's photography critic, Andy Grundberg for example, predicted a weak prospect of photojournalism: "In the future, readers of newspapers and magazines will probably view news pictures more as illustrations than as reportage, since they can no longer distinguish between a genuine image and one that has manipulated" (The New York Times, August 12, 1990, sec. 2, p. 1)

Some examples of photojournalism manipulation

This photograph by Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese photographer, showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid. The Reuters news agency initially published this photograph on their web site and then withdrew it when it became evident that the original had been manipulated to show more and darker smoke. A second photograph by Hajj was also determined to have been doctored.

Egypt's state-run newspaper, Al-Ahram, published this altered photo of Egyptian President Mubarak walking with Israeli, US, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders. The photo showed the world leaders at the Middle East peace talks in September 2010. In the original photo President Mubarak is walking behind the other leaders, while in the altered photo he is shown leading the group.

This cover of The Economist shows a solitary President Obama on the Louisiana beach inspecting the oil spill. The original photo, shot by Reuters photographer Larry Downing shows Coast Guard Admiral Thad W. Allen and Charlotte Randolph, a local parish president, standing alongside the President.

In conclusion, photojournalism is a profession that, as we have seen, adhere journalistic integrity and ethics. Although manipulation can be ethical and rightly used at some extent, the criteria that allows manipulation of image must be regulated and control, especially, with the advent of technology that had led manipulation easier and more pervasive.

References

Grundburg, A. (1990): Ask It No Questions: The Camera Can Lie. The New York Times (Article Archive), 12 August, 1990, Sec. 2, p. 1. Retrieved November 4, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/12/arts/photography-view-ask-it-no-questions-the-camera-can-lie.html?scp=1&sq=Ask%20It%20No%20Questions:%20The%20Camera%20Can%20Lie&st=cse

Karen, R. (2006). Photojournalism and the Internet: Competition, Collaboration and Convergence. Sune Aaagard, European News Media in Transition, 2006, pp. 1-13. Retrieved November 4, 2010, from http://www.nosvel.com/writing/photojournalism.pdf

National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Codes of Ethics in Photojournalism. Retrieved November 4, 2010 from http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html

Week 8: Photography

Photography is the art or process of recording and producing image. The word "photography" is derived from the Greek words photos which means "light" and graphein which means "to draw". Photography as we known today began in the late 1830s in France when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce succesfully created a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. The first recorded image that produced through eight hour exposure in bright sunlight. Since then, photography technology has undergone several changes and renovation to what it is now, just a click second of instant and high quality image.

Photography: Relationship between memory and space.

"...the era of popular photography which began with the introduction of the first Kodak camera in 1888 is that of the anonymous photograph...Both sitter and photographer may be no longer identifiable. Yet...these primative pictures are of great historic significance...Through them we have a detailed picture of everyday life of a kind never previously available." - Brian Coe (The Birth of Photography : The Story of the Formative Years, 1800-1900)

What is the relationship between photography and memory?
Does photography affect our view of the past?

Since the early beginning of photography, the photographic image has been regarded as an aide-mémoire. The very act of capturing image signals the moments as worthy of remembering. None of us, in fact, would be surprise to find out that family portraits are among the most common object found in home. Because for us, family photos are very important as they provide a tangible image link to the past i.e. lineage and family history. They can also fill an empty home with warmth when family members are away, as well as bring comfort and preserve precious memories when family members have been lost. Photograph also provide a sense of connectedness. Connection to our past are important to developing and maintaining a sense of place, a sense of personal identity, and often add to our individual sense of purpose and belonging (Sontag, 1979, as cited in Betchan, 2004).

Arguable, photography does give perceptual experience and memorial functions. Batchen (2004), however posed some important question to this: "Is photography indeed a good way to remember thing?" To him, the best way answer this question is for us to define what is exactly mean by "memory". Photography might perhaps stimulate nostalgia but it does not offer the same exact of sense of feeling and emotions of 'what has been' in the past. He argued:

"...the photograph does not really prompt you to remember people the way they moved, the manner of their speech, the sound of their voice, that lift of the eyebrow when they made a joke, their smell, their rasp of skin on yours, the emotions they stirred." (p.15)

Other theorists also critic the claim that photograph's role in aiding memory. Instead, they assert that it actually serves the process of forgetting rather than remembering. Roland Barthes (1981), for example believed that a photograph can do little more than confirm the existence of an object at some other time, in some other place. In other words, photographic image is the frozen illustration of time and space. It only records the surface appearance of 'what has been' in the past, and not the complex meanings associated with sensory experience. For Barthes, memory is 'not as much as image sensation', a photograph is simpler than most memories, and its range is more limited.

Susan Sontag (1979), however reject the pessimist critics of photographic role. She argue that photograph give meaning of 'what has been'. Though we cannot fully experience the same thing, she believed that photograph “give us unearned sense of understanding things, past and present, having both the potential to move us emotionally, but also possibility of holding us at distance through aestheticing images of events.” (as cited in Huisman, 200, p. 41). Thus for Sontag, photograph exist to witness of 'how something, someone, or somewhere once appeared'.

References

Barthes, R. (1981). Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang.

Betchan, G. (2004). Forget Me Not. Photography and Remembrance. New York, USA: Princeton Architectural Press. Pp 8- 35. Retrieved from UBD Ebrary Website.

Brian Coe Kodak Quote. Retrieved October 31, 2010 from http://www.photoquotes.com/popularquotes.aspx?tagname=kodak

Week 7: Visual Narrative and Media

What is narrative?

According to Infanger (2001), narrative is a general term associated with storymaking and storytelling and therefore is the common basis of human activity. Because most of the humanities involve stories, Huisman (2005) argue that narrative are “ways of structuring and representing lived experienced” (p. 27).

Narrative is also the product of our imagination- we create story either through fantasy or through representation of reality (that we observed and learn). Narrative can also be a product of culture, for example through myths, fairy tales, folktales that aimed to promote the dominant ideology, or common norms and values of a society. However stories also play important aspect of culture. Many works of art and most works of literature tell stories of culture and ancient origin. Narrative, and therefore story, is important component of human communication that used as parables or to illustrate points.

But defining narrative is not end there yet. To most linguists, the term 'narrative' is best understood as an 'art of structuring' or in Jon Franklin phrase, 'chronology with meaning'. It act as a tool or a way of ordering fictional or non-fictional events in sequence using dramatic and choronology as the main organizational elements. Narrative denotes a way of telling a story using series of events, characters (or actors), time and location. Therefore, to linguists, the central meaning of narrative is actually concerned with the overall construction of story.

Why is narrative important when shaping a visual image to the audience?

Narrative is a story but not all story has narrative in it – the same with visual images. Depends on what aim, purpose or central message the producer want to produce, the image must have narrative so that it can act as cues that will allow audience to understand and visually interpret the image story.

What is the story here?

What is the fox doing?

Narrative is the structure that gives shape to the story. Narrative structure is important because it involve "a selection of events from the characters life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of life." (McKee, Story, 1997, pg. 33). Chatman (2004) also argue that narrative involve semiotic structure. Because experiencing narrative requires interpretation and 'filling in the gap'. This is a crucial element in story, that it is possible for the reader or viewer or inject their own interpretations, and supply extra details and imagery to what is being read or view.

When we look at the above painting, we saw a distant stranger couple 'talking' and there we perceive a story in progress. We may not know the story, but we know there is one. A cup on a table isn't just there, there is a story of how it got there. We know the fox image above was an observer's snapshot of a real living animal in mid movement. We could guess that the fox is or was chasing for its prey.

The basic premise of narrative in visual image is that a concept is created in sequential format to “tell a story” to someone else. Therefore, as a visual “story”, it must reveal information in orderly and 'scripted' fashion. A narrative structure is build in the image will enable the non-verbal story of visual image to unfold. According to Aristotle's Dramatic Structure, narrative is divided into three distinct part: (1) Beginning (to invite the viewer in), (2) Middle (to engage the viewer), and end (to provide closure). Through this, the viewer will immediately recognize the starting point , the main body and the ending point of the visual “story”.

The process of narrative in constructing story also involve certain elements, these include genre, subject, focalisation, temporality and duration. Genre refers to the 'type' of narrative which is being presented. Genre governs or directs a number of aspects of a specific narrative, such as its setting, what characters are involved, themes, values and issues and so on that fit into a genre. A particular text may stick to one genre, but may also combine elements from different genres. Genre also has many discourse. Subject, on the other hand, consist of the speaking subject (producer/author of the text or narrator) and the subject of speech (the first persons pronouns in the text i.e. characters in the story). The speaking subject can also be the subject of speech. Focalisation, on the other hand refers to 'point-of-focus' that helps a story to mediated from some perspectives. While temporality and duration, involve treatment of time within the narrative

The elements of narrative presented above are common to all narratives. Narrative is important because it allows audience to see not only the ways in which 'reality' is constructed within a story of visual image or text, but also the implications and effects of them being presented in that particular way.

References

Chatman, S. (2004). Story and Discourse. Retrieved October 29, 2010. From http://www.icosilune.com/2009/01/seymour-chatman-story-and-discourse/

Franklin, J. (1998). The Narrative Tool. Retrieved October 29, 2010. From http://www.asne.org/kiosk/editor/98.octnov/franklin1.htm

Huisman, R. (2005). Narrative concepts. In Fulton, H. Huisman, R. Murphet, J. and Dunn, A. (eds.), Narrative and Media (pp. 11-27). Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.

Infanger, S. (2001). What is Narrative? Retrieved October 29, 2010. From http://www.class.udaho.edu/narrative/theory/what narrative.htm

McKee, R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and The Principles of Screenwriting. New York: Regan Books.