"The soul never thinks without an image" Aristotle Check out the "Schedule Page" for information on our speaker in two weeks...Jonathan Green Our discussion today centered around aspects of photojournalism related to our upcoming visit with Jonathan Green...just priming the intellectual pump in anticipation. While it's difficult to summarize the many points made by those attending, what is listed below are both reminders of what we discussed and some unanswered questions and issues surrounding the ethics. We started with a reminder that there is a published Code of Ethics for photojournalists..from the National Press Photographers Association you can find on-line. We reviewed a series of pictures published in the last few years that represented ethical dilemmas for publishers, photographer and viewer alike. The best example for those not there was "Falling Man" (2001) There was an exploration / discussion of the following areas surrounding photojournalism:
The absolute number of photojournalistic pictures the public is exposed to daily The role of the "citizen photojournalist" The biases confronting the photojournalist both institutional and personal The difference between ethics and taste in showing some pictures The moral burden of sending photojournalists into complex societal issues The impact of what they see and show on the personal lives of these photographers The impact of digital photography on photojournalism We touched on the impact of photojournalism on confronting the problems in society ...and briefly discussed the impact of institutional editing and censorship I think we all agreed that many current photojournalistic endeavors pander to the lowest common denominator of public awareness and understanding. From an ethical standpoint (besides the obvious codes of ethics) certain perceived reasons that controversial pictures are published... Catagorical imperative....if good for one then good for all Utilitarianism...maximize good for majority Hedonism...what feels good Golden Mean...using the least objectionable option Veil of Ignorance...ask how the viewer might feel Golden Rule...do unto others The discussion was rich in content and I'm sure I've missed (or even added) a point or two. Hopefully our contributors will add their comments to this post. Obviously, the discussion will be carried further when Jonathan Green visits in several weeks. Several have already sent out references to the topic earlier this week. Also this week several websites were noted relating to the discussion: check out either/and.org
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"Everything worked out perfectly because I said yes to my intuition" Ruth Bernhard Next week's meeting: Richard leads the discussion about a current photographer Please click on f8 Schedule Page for changes for the rest of year Critique Day #2 did not happen today as most of the final critiques were from people not present at the meeting. It may be scheduled at an open session later this year. We did talk about the article from "Photograph" by Lyle Rexer talking about embracing the new in photography and learning the new elements of our photographic language in order to both understand and interact with photographers producing the work. The article was sent earlier this week. Bill & Chris talked about their visiting Pier 24 Gallery in SF last week and discussed the current show "Secondhand." The show featured artists that built repositories of found images and re-essembled them into new works of photographic art. The show seemed to explore at some length the new and old role of these images in our society. More importantly it showed the defining new genre of pictures that are driven by process, craft and display. Bill commented on how this related to the Getty Symposium several months ago honoring the 175th birthday of photography. At that time an academic panel member when asked how he would advise new photographers said: "I would tell them to put down their cameras...search the billions of free images on the internet...and re-essemble them into new works of photographic art." That's exactly what the Pier 24 exhibit displayed. The only written statement at the exhibit was one from John Baldessari...paraphrasing from memory... "we don't own images anymore than we can own words." Steve showed some of his vintage pictures when he used a now absent film...Agfa Scala...a fabulous B&W film. |
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