going too far?
As photographers try to find new ways to be innovative, creative, different– other than using new mediums such as video to incorporate into still photo slideshows– I wonder how each individual is self-policing on the editing side of things. Especially for freelance photographers, who are for the most part, their own editors, the ethical lines in photojournalism are really starting to become a lot more blurry. Somehow it’s as though this wealth of technology has caused a few more problems than it’s really willing to solve.
So what exactly is the boundary when it comes to over-editing, over-Photoshopping work? At what point does it destroy the integrity of ones work, misrepresent the true reality, and make for none other than just a pretty picture? The most compelling photographs are usually those that are plain, simple, speak truth and give no reason for doubt at all when a viewer looks at the image. I try to learn as little as possible about Photoshop or Lightroom (or whatever editing tool one uses) because I just don’t see the need for doing a few million retouches to make a photograph perfect– no one ever said it should be perfect, not least whatever has been captured. At most I’ll add in contrast, color corrections, change to black and white, and some serious dirt cleaning (I should really just clean my camera lenses, mirrors, sensors and all). More and more though, I see a lot of very, and I mean very, colorful pictures, digitally manipulated, to look surreal beyond belief.
So it was, with an article that was published on March 30 about a photographer having been disqualified from a Danish photo competition for having over edited his work. Klavs Bo Christensen was asked to send in his RAW files to be compared with those he submitted to the jury as they started to review the competitors’ work. The difference was pretty astonishing, as I’m sure it would be to any photographer/photojournalist intent on respecting his own work and the subject itself. The submitted photos were vibrant, alive, and crawling with color– but his RAW image files were quite the opposite. It’s as though the images were given a whole different life– the drab, unsightly scene from a Haitian slum became the aesthetically ugly. The article can be found here for further reading.
Another example was this year’s World Press Photo Awards– a coveted annual prize in photojournalism that recognizes the best of the best. In the sports category, however, second place was a real disappointment to me personally. A Russian photographer by the name of Alexander Taran nabbed this prestigious prize, and though I congratulate him for having won second place, I have to wonder what the judges were thinking and when the rulebook got tossed out the window. Although the rules do allow for dodging and burning, the end result of the photos he submitted seems to have gone a little overboard. What Taran did was essentially vignette all of his photographs, and not even in a very classy or pretty way– I was shocked to see that it made it so far. Such editing produces more of an effect than anything else, and it’s a little saddening to see that photos, and photography styles are becoming gimmicks and losing originality– that is, content, composition, and a moment for what it is. Click the thumbnail below for a closer look.
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Tags: Editing, ethics, Photography, Photoshop, World Press Photo
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