Ethics in Photojournalism: Past, Present, and Future
By
Daniel R. Bersak
S.B. Comparative Media Studies & Electrical Engineering/Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
IN
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
AT THE
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SEPTEMBER, 2006
Copyright 2006 Daniel R. Bersak, All Rights Reserved
The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and distribute publicly paper
and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now
known or hereafter created.
Signature of Author:
_____________________________________________________
Department of Comparative Media Studies, August 11, 2006
Certified By:
___________________________________________________________
Edward Barrett
Senior Lecturer, Department of Writing
Thesis Supervisor
Accepted By:
__________________________________________________________
William Uricchio
Professor of Comparative Media Studies
Director
Ethics In Photojournalism: Past, Present, and Future
By
Daniel R. Bersak
Submitted to the Department of Comparative Media Studies,
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
on August 11, 2006, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies
Abstract
Like writers and editors, photojournalists are held to a standard of ethics. Each
publication has a set of rules, sometimes written, sometimes unwritten, that governs
what that publication considers to be a truthful and faithful representation of images to
the public. These rules cover a wide range of topics such as how a photographer
should act while taking pictures, what he or she can and can’t photograph, and whether
and how an image can be altered in the darkroom or on the computer. This ethical
framework evolved over time, influenced by such things as technological capability and
community values; and it is continually developing today.
This thesis details how photojournalism’s ethical system came to be, what the system
looks like today, and where it will go in the future. The first chapter chronicles the
history of ethics in photojournalism. The second chapter describes current ethical
practices through specific case studies. The third and final chapter builds upon the first
two and uses technology and policy to examine the trajectory of photojournalistic
ethics.
Thesis Supervisor: Edward Barrett
Senior Lecturer, Department of Writing
Thesis Supervisor: B.D. Colen
Lecturer, Department of Writing
Biographical Note
Daniel Bersak was born in Ipswich, England in 1980. He later attended Manchester
High School West in Manchester, New Hampshire. Following high school he went to
MIT, where he graduated with a combined degree in Comparative Media Studies and
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. While at MIT, Bersak joined the staff of
MIT’s newspaper The Tech after taking a course in Documentary Photography and
Photojournalism. Eventually, he rose to the position of photo editor, and he began
taking freelance assignments. Bersak has worked for the Associated Press, AI Wire,
Sipa Press, Skybox Sports Scenes, the MIT News Department, and many others. His
images have appeared in newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The
Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, Newsweek, GQ
Magazine, and ESPN Magazine. Bersak is a member of the National Press
Photographers Association, the Boston Press Photographers Association, and is an
active contributor to Sportsshooter.com. Bersak currently resides in Boston with his
fiancée Ashley and his dog Fred.
Acknowledgments
There are many people without whom I never could have completed this thesis. I
would like to thank B.D. Colen and Ed Barrett for mentoring me, for being on my
thesis committee, and ultimately for accepting my defense of this thesis. I also owe a
debt of gratitude to the professors who have helped me along the way. Susan
Slyomovics, Henry Jenkins, William Uriccio, Edward B. Turk, and Ted Selker have all
contributed a great deal. I am fortunate to have an amazing collection of family and
friends. My parents, Robert and Toby, and my sister Carrie provided love, support,
and proofreading. My dog Fred did his part as well, making sure I got plenty of walks,
and recovering anything I happened to throw in frustration. Last but not least, my
sincerest love and thanks go to my fiancée, Ashley. She has read every draft of this
document, and never once failed to improve it. She has taken care of me in every way
possible, and without her I truly never could have finished.
Introduction
News images shape our culture in ways both profound and deep. Those who lived
through the Vietnam era cannot help but remember the searing photographs that have
come to symbolize that conflict -- a Saigon street execution, a naked girl covered in
napalm, a thousand-yard stare, and so on. These photos have woven themselves into
the collective memory of a generation. There are some who would even say that the
mounting weight of photographic evidence was the primary cause for public opinion to
shift against the war in Vietnam, and hence effected an end to the war itself. As such,
to borrow a phrase from pop culture, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
1
Responsible photojournalism means adherence to a standard of ethics.
Merriam-Webster defines “ethics” as, “the code of good conduct for an individual or
group,” and lists synonyms as, “morality, morals, principles, [and] standards.”
2
In
terms of ethics in photojournalism, the National Press Photographers Association's
Code of Ethics reads, in part:
Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and
neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through
the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are
callously intrusive or are manipulated.
3
The Code of Ethics goes on to detail what is and is not acceptable in professional
photojournalism. Though the standards may seem fairly crystalized, every day there
are challenging borderline cases. Considering that photography itself is barely 150
years old, one might wonder how these particular ethical guidelines came to be, and
how they may be evolving over time.
As a topic, 'ethics in photojournalism' is difficult to approach, or even to define. In
order to ask questions such as, "what were photojournalistic ethics in the past," "what
are photojournalistic ethics today," and "what will photojournalistic ethics look like in
the future," one must first carefully define the concepts of both ‘ethics’ and
‘photojournalism.’
What exactly qualifies as photojournalism? The answer is somewhat hazy. If
photojournalism is photography plus journalism, what is journalism? Princeton
University's WordNet defines 'journalism' as, "The profession of reporting or
photographing or editing news stories for one of the media."
4
Under that definition,
someone who fakes an image of Bigfoot for the Weekly World News is as much a
journalist as the man who took the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of a firefighter
holding a baby after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing
5
. That man (Charles H. Porter
IV) was employed as a utility worker and not as a newspaper photographer at the time.
Fig. 1: Left: Image of Bigfoot on the cover of the Weekly World News, 30 October, 2001.
6
Right: Pulitzer Prize Winning photo of a firefighter holding a baby at the scene of the Oklahoma City
Bombing, 19 April, 1995.
7
Ethics is an inherently subjective field. In his seminal textbook, Photojournalism, the
Professionals’ Approach, author and photojournalism professor Kenneth Kobré writes,
“Photojournalism has no Bible, no rabbinical college, no Pope to define correct
choices.”
8
There is no sole arbiter of what is or isn't ethical, and even if there were, the
line isn't always black and white. Most texts regarding ethics in photojournalism focus
on the issue of what might be termed “photographic truth” - whether a particular image
accurately represents the subject or whether it misleads the viewer. The National Press
Photographers Association Code of Ethics states that the “primary goal” of the
photojournalist is the “...faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand.”
9
Can a photographer pose a news photo? Can he alter it, in the darkroom or otherwise?
Are the results of these actions “faithful and comprehensive depictions?” While
myriad texts attempt to answer these particular questions, the scope of photojournalistic
ethics extends significantly beyond them.
For example, the distinction between ethics and taste is constantly up for debate,
especially in relation to violent or sexual imagery.
10
While some see sex and violence
as issues of taste, others include them under the heading of ethics.
Additionally, photojournalistic ethics might encompass the choices an individual
photographer makes while shooting. For example, should a war photographer put
down his cameras in order to help an injured soldier? If someone asks that his or her
photo not be taken, is it ethical to photograph that person anyway? If ethics in
photojournalism is about being “faithful and comprehensive,” is intentionally
underexposing or poorly focusing unethical? Some of these questions sit on the line
between journalistic ethics and professionalism.
In his book Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach, California State University
Fullerton Professor Paul Martin Lester outlines six ethical philosophies intended to help
photographers and editors answer questions like those outlined above:
1. The Categorical Imperative is a distilled version of Kant’s notion that what is
acceptable for a single person should be acceptable for everyone, almost like a
theoretical “nondiscrimination clause.” For example, suppose a newspaper editor is
trying to decide whether to publish an image of a partially nude young woman fleeing a
house fire. That editor should consider whether he would publish the image under
different circumstances - if the subject was male, or elderly, or obese. The Categorical
imperative says that what goes for one should go for everyone.
2. Utilitarianism as a philosophy attempts to weigh positives and negatives of a
situation, and maximize the good for the greatest number of people. For example, if
gruesome photos of a car crash offend the victims’ families, but shock the community
into driving safely, then by Utilitarianism the taking and publication of those photos is
deemed to be ethical.
3. Hedonism represents the “do what feels good” school of thought, and might be used
to justify printing explicit photos simply because they are titillating. Publishing a
provocative front page photo simply for the sake of selling newspapers would be an
example of hedonism.
4. The Golden Mean philosophy concerns compromise. If there is a less intrusive,
offensive, or disagreeable photo that still tells the story, that is the better option. The
emphasis is on finding middle ground rather than an all-or-nothing approach.
5. The Veil of Ignorance asks the photographer or editor to consider how they would
feel if they were the subject. If they would not feel good in the subject’s place, it would
be better to look for a different image.
6. The Golden Rule is sometimes phrased “love thy neighbor as thyself.” As an ethical
philosophy it requires that a photographer or editor treat his subjects as he would treat
himself.
11
This, of course, leaves decisions subject to the photographer’s, editor’s, or
institution’s ethics.
I find all of these philosophies, as well as the questions above them, compelling
because I am a photojournalist. I have worked for small local newspapers and large
international wire services. I have covered professional sports, politics, entertainment,
general and breaking news, and everything in between. In order to illuminate the issues
noted above I have used my experience to narrow the field of photojournalistic ethics to
a manageable breadth. A comprehensive survey of ethics in photojournalism, even if
possible, would require thousands of pages and many years of work. In this thesis I
will examine the trajectory over time of ethics in American photojournalism.
To that end, I have chosen to study photojournalism as published in major newspapers
and magazines. While photojournalism does exist well outside of that classification, it
is beyond the scope of this thesis. The underlying tenets of ethical news imagery are
roughly consistent across international markets, however practices can vary widely
from region to region and from country to country. I am limiting this examination by
focusing only on American photojournalism ethics.
Likewise, I have chosen to divide ethics into two categories - institutional ethics and
photographer-centric ethics. The policies of a particular newspaper or magazine would
fall under institutional ethics. For example, if a newspaper chooses not to publish an
image for fear it is too graphic, that is an issue of institutional ethics or taste (and I will
discuss the differences between the two later in this thesis.) Photographer-centric ethics
have to do with photographers’ choices at the time news photos are captured up until
the photos are handed off to an editor. Whether or not to pose a subject, the question
regarding what to do with a wounded soldier in combat, and how a photographer treats
an image in the darkroom (or in the computer) are all matters of photographer-centric
ethics.
Up to this point I have taken for granted the fact that there is an ethical system at work
in American photojournalism. Since photography itself is only about 150 years old,
this was not always the case. It would be impossible, of course, for “photojournalistic
ethics” to predate photojournalism itself. In the first chapter I will examine visual
imagery in newspapers and magazines dating back to before those publications
included photographs. In order to frame the various ethical developments, I will
discuss The New York Times, by decade. Starting in the 1880’s, I will detail the
emergence and development of ethical practices. I will also trace the history, evolution,
and availability of photographic equipment, and tie this progression to the emerging
ethical system.
In the second chapter, I will discuss ethics in photojournalism as they exist today. I will
discuss the role of the National Press Photographers Association in defining and
enforcing ethics within the American photojournalism community. I will also examine
contemporary case studies that have stretched journalistic ethics both institutionally and
per the individual photographer. These examples include the Abu Ghraib prison
photos and Brian Walski’s doctored image of US Marines in Iraq. I will draw upon my
own experience as a photographer during the 2004 Boston Red Sox American League
Championship Series riots, and analyze the capture and use of my photos. Ultimately, I
will illuminate and detail today’s ethical system in photojournalism.
For the final chapter I will look at where photojournalism is going with respect to
journalistic ethics. I will discuss the pressures of the “new media” newsroom, and
study what happens to ethical decisions when they are made under tight deadlines. I
will also cover the topic of “citizen photojournalism.” As more and more people carry
electronic devices that include cameras (cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants
(PDAs), etc.), editors will have to sort through an increasing number of images from
people who are not professional journalists. When the London subway was bombed
during the summer of 2005, photo departments the world over were bombarded with
images. As mobile devices become widely adopted, sorting through these images in
real time will be both more important and more difficult.
SECTION ONE: Yesterday
While the concept of “ethics” has been around since the dawn of recorded history,
photography has not. As of this writing, photography is still less than two hundred
years old. It is fairly obvious that no ethical system could exist for any sort of
photojournalism before photography was invented. This might appear to suggest an
acceptable date from which to begin studying ethics in American photojournalism -
why not start at the beginning of photography? Even after Nicéphore Niépce fixed the
first permanent photographic images in 1826, it took several decades (and several
inventors) before mankind had the technology to marry photography with text on the
printed page.
12
The method used to reproduce photographs on the printing press was not perfected
until the 1880’s
13
, and it was not widely adopted for several more years. The New
York Times, for example, did not publish photos until 1896.
14
Photographers
throughout the mid 19th century used other avenues to share their images with viewers.
Gallery exhibitions and magic lantern shows were held in France and the United
States, and books of photographs were published. Jacob Riis, for example, published
his groundbreaking How the Other Half Lives in 1890.
Though The New York Times printed its first photographs in a Sunday Magazine in
1896, the newspaper was not without visual imagery before then. Advertisements in
The Times throughout the 1880’s feature drawings and etchings, and those tools were
occasionally used for news purposes. For example, when Civil War hero and former
President Ulysses S. Grant died, the paper ran a front page engraving of an artist’s
rendition of Grant’s Tomb.
Fig. 2: Portion of The New York Times front page
from 1885, depicting Grant’s Tomb.
15
In this specific case, a photograph would have been impossible as the etching depicts
the plan for Grant’s Tomb rather than the tomb itself. Though photography was known
to many people and gaining popularity as an art form at the time, newspapers lacked the
technology (and therefore the ability) to include photographic images as part of their
reportage. This, however, did not stop some newspapers from hiring photographers
and making use of their images. Some period newspapers employed both graphic
artists and news photographers. The Daily Graphic, an evening newspaper serving
New York City and surrounding areas, had a process in which a photographer would
go out and photograph a news event, and an artist would create publishable drawings
based on the photographs.
16
This process was used at many different newspapers from the late 1800’s to the early
1900’s. The hand-drawn images were popular with readers, and publishers were loathe
to switch over to the newer photographic technology. That technology, the halftone
process, employed a fine screen that converted an image to a series of dots.
17
Kobré
writes, “By the late 1890’s, the [halftone] process had yet to achieve daily use, although
The New York Times did print halftones in its illustrated Sunday magazine, begun in
1896. Skeptical newspaper publishers still feared that their readers would lament the
substitution of mechanically produced photographs for the artistry of hand-drawn
pictures; also, artists and engravers were well-established members of the newspaper
staff.”
18
When, at last, newspapers and magazines were able to regularly feature photographic
images, the photos themselves were almost as much of a story as the news itself.
Newspapers throughout the early 20th century are rife with “world’s first photo of ...”
images.
19
Fig. 3: Full page multi-photo layout with headline
“The First Photograph Of The Cyclones In The
Sun.”
20
Around the turn of the century, smaller and less complex photo equipment started to
become available. Celluloid film, first used for photographic purposes in 1888, was
rapidly replacing glass as the substrate for photographic chemicals.
21
This, along with
Kodak’s famous “Box Brownie” camera allowed more people to start taking
photographs of their own. In National Geographic’s The Book of Photography, author
Anne H. Hoy writes:
Among the public, the spread of amateur photography sparked by George Eastman’s
Kodak and other small cameras and the invention of faster lenses, shutters, and film led
to a taste for candid, often close-up images with a sense of immediacy and spontaneity:
the posed group portrait was obsolete in leading media by circa 1900. U.S. President
Theodore roosevelt sported various hats and grinned with countless dignitaries; German
Chancellor Bismarck was snapped on his deathbed by a pair of early paparazzi - the
intrusive chronicler of celebrities’ intimate moments.
22
While less contrived images were often desirable (and marketable), technically they
were difficult to get. Early film was not very light sensitive - often it was the equivalent
of ISO 25 or less. The flash bulb was not invented until 1925, nor the electronic flash
until 1930, so photographers were limited to flash powder or cumbersome high-voltage
sparks for instantaneous light.
23
The public appreciated more free-form images when
possible, but the posed image remained a technical necessity for quite some time.
Fig. 4: Portraits in The New York Times, July 14, 1918
24
Sometimes, technical limitations were not the only things preventing photographers
from capturing the news. When its photographers were barred from taking pictures of a
sensational courtroom drama in 1924, the Evening Graphic decided to piece together a
photographic representation in the darkroom. The trial centered around a woman
whose husband sued her to annul their marriage because he had not known her race
prior to the wedding. The woman’s lawyer asked her to strip to the waist in order to
prove that her race should have been obvious. Using twenty different images, the
Evening Graphic’s art director created a composite picture that depicted what the scene
might have looked like. He called his creation a “composograph,” and the image ran
on the newspaper’s front page. The public reaction was immediate. Though the image
would be considered ethically heinous today, readers loved it and circulation jumped
500% almost overnight.
25
Kobré writes:
Editor and Publisher, a newspaper trade publication, called the trial picture “the most
shocking news-picture ever produced by New York journalism.” The “shocking”
aspect presumably had to do with putting an almost-nude woman on the front page but
not for its cut-and-paste technique…
26
Fig. 5: The Evening Graphics first composograph.
27
In the 1930’s, technology started to work in the photojournalist’s favor. The Leica
camera, invented in 1914 and marketed in 1925, gained popularity first with
photographic luminaries such Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and then slowly
with the rest of the industry.
28
Though newspaper photographers would favor the
larger and heavier Speed Graphic for quite some time, the Leica had several
advantages. It was smaller, lighter, less expensive, and it used 35mm roll film instead
of sheet film. The Speed Graphic only got two shots to a film cartridge, while the
Leica had 36 on a roll. This new type of tool helped to influence the way in which the
public perceived photojournalism. Photographic historian Anne Hoy writes:
Thwarted by military censors from reporting the “what, where, and how” of World
War I, journalists engaged the “who” - the human interest stories that were already a
staple of early 20th century media. These were cheaper and easier to file than hard
news and analysis. they were also encouraged by the new light weight cameras and
faster lenses introduced in the mid-1920’s. Oscar Barnack’s inventions, the small plate-
film Ermanox and then the even more compact, sturdy Leica, which took 35mm roll
film, were both marketed from 1925, while the somewhat larger twin-lens Rolleiflex,
which had a 2 1/4 in. square negative, was sold from 1930. These easily handled
cameras performed in low light and could be used surreptitiously. If they did not give
birth to the paparazzi as well as “street’ photographers - those nimble observers of life’s
odd encounters and human comedies - they helped make spontaneous, sharp-eyed
photojournalism a key language of modern vision. They changed the approach of a
photo reporters: no longer official observers beholden to those in power,
photojournalists could be the eyes of the public -- prying, amused, or watchdog eyes.
29
This ethos continued well into World War II, and to some extent still holds true today.
One difference between the early twentieth century and modernity is that today’s
readers demand more of their news photographs in terms of integrity and ethics. In
1945, at the height of the second world war, and just as the National Press
Photographers Association was being founded stateside, Associated Press photographer
Joe Rosenthal captured one of the most popular images in the history of photography.
Rosenthal won the Pulitzer Prize for his depiction of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.
Fig. 6: Left: New York Times cover featuring Iwo Jima photo. Right: Joe
Rosenthal’s original Iwo Jima Photo.
3031
Almost from the moment of its creation, Rosenthal’s most famous image has been
steeped in (needless) controversy. Rumors circulated that Rosenthal posed the image,
and many were unclear as to the photo’s veracity. In a journal article for Media
Development, Lester wrote:
Associated Press photographer, Joe Rosenthal, made three photographs atop Suribachi,
a Japanese observation post on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. His first
picture became the most reproduced photograph in history and won for him a Pulitzer
Prize. His third photograph became the source of accusations that the first picture had
been set-up. The first picture is the image most remembered. It shows six soldiers
erecting a large, American flag on a long, diagonally slanted flagpole. Rosenthal's third
shot shows 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera under that same flag.
The confusion over the authenticity of the famous photograph resulted from Rosenthal's
casual response to a correspondent back at Guam. The reporter congratulated Rosenthal
on the image and then asked if it was posed. Thinking that the writer meant the third
picture, Rosenthal admitted that it had been set-up. Speaking of the famous picture, he
rightly argues that "Had I posed the shot, I would, of course, have ruined it. I would . . .
have made them turn their heads so that they could be identified for AP members
throughout the country." Writing of the Rosenthal image, picture editor, Harold Evans
in his book Pictures on a Page, notes that "no genius could have posed the picture if he
had spent a year in a studio with lights and a wind machine." Lucky for
photojournalism, Rosenthal did not carry a wind machine to the top of Iwo Jima.
32
In decades previous, there would have been no ethical problem either way - had
Rosenthal posed the picture or had he not, nobody would have protested. Technology,
however, made it possible to capture images like Rosenthal’s without interfering with
the scene.
The 1960’s and 1970’s had two distinct photographic hallmarks - the Civil Rights
movement and the Vietnam war. In terms of Civil Rights photography, nobody who
lived through the era will ever forget images of fire hoses and police dogs turned on
protesters in Alabama, the American flag used as a spear during a busing protest in
Boston, or 200,000 people listening to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King during the 1963
march on Washington. Though examples that illustrate photojournalistic ethics can be
found in this collection of imagery, the images that came out of Vietnam show the
ethical principles more clearly.
Vietnam presented challenges both for photographer-centric and institutional ethics.
Photographers had two things they had never had in any previous war - technology
and access. On the technology side, small, light 35mm cameras were de rigeur, and
wire services had long been able to transmit images overseas almost instantaneously.
Film and lenses were both very fast (sensitive to light), and the equipment was cheap
enough that employers could send their photographers into battle with multiple cameras
and lenses. In terms of access, the military put few restrictions on where photographers
could go or what they could shoot. There was no censorship, no red tape, and no
standard for how to treat the images that were coming out of America’s “living room
war.”
33
Hoy writes:
The undeclared war in Vietnam cast an enduring shadow over America’s self-image,
and also altered the tenor of war photography in the West. The split in U.S. society
over the war in Vietnam and the controversy about it worldwide were reflected in
media coverage, which in turn helped sharpen opposition to the war from around 1968.
Photojournalism itself changed. The issues were too complex for neat photographic
embodiments, and the war itself had few triumphs. … As historian philip Knightley
summarizes it, there was no front line, no easily identifiable foe, no direct threat to the
United States, no need for sacrifice, no need for patriotism. And there were no visible
victories. There were no flags, raised on islands like Iwo Jima or U.S. Generals
wading ashore in triumphant return, as in Carl Mydans’ view of Douglas MacArthur in
the Philippines. In fact in Vietnam, the most famous photographs were shameful: in
addition to Eddie Adams’s photograph of a Vietcong suspect shot in the street, there
was Malcolm Browne’s picture of a Buddhist monk who set himself fatally on fire to
protest the U.S.-supported Diem regime, 1963; Nick Ut’s view of Vietnamese children,
their clothes burned off by U.S. napalm strikes, running from their burning village
towards the camera, 1972, Ron Haeberle’s color photograph of a ditch filled with the
bodies of Vietnamese women and children, the evidence of the My Lai massacre, 1968;
and the final pictures of the conflict, of 1975 showing U.S. officials and their
Vietnamese aides scrambling onto a helicopter evacuating the U.S. embassy as the
Vietcong overran Saigon.
34
Fig. 7:
New York Times cover with “Napalm Girl” photograph, and Nick Ut’s original
“Napalm Girl” photograph.
3536
The Vietnam war presented many tough ethical situations. Nick Ut’s “Napalm Girl”
photograph, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972, is not only a shocking
indictment of America’s war effort, it contains full frontal nudity of a minor. The
ultimate decision to print the photo on the front page of The New York Times must not
have been easy. Editors at The Times chose to sacrifice the girl’s privacy, and perhaps
to offend their readers in order to present an unflinching picture of the conflict and
ultimately to serve the greater good.
Vietnam presented moral dilemmas not only for editors, but also for photographers.
Chief among these was the question of whether to “get involved.” While posing
photos and staging news events had been taboo for some time, there was little
precedent to inform photographers as to how and whether to render aid to their subjects
during active combat. On one hand, helping a wounded soldier might have saved his
life. On the other hand, “helping out” made photographers complicit with their
subjects, and removed some of the distance necessary for journalistic objectivity. The
canonical case study in this regard was Life Magazine photographer Larry Burrows.
When faced with a choice between taking a picture and helping an injured soldier,
more often than not Burrows put down his cameras and pitched in. In a 1969 interview
Burrows said, “Do I have a right to carry on working and leave a man suffering? To
my mind, the answer is ‘No, you’ve got to help him.’ You cannot go through these
elements without obviously feeling something yourself - you cannot be mercenary in
this way because it will make you less of a photographer.”
37
As photographic technology continued to evolve into the 1980’s and 1990’s, so too did
photojournalistic ethics. The early 1990’s saw the dawn of purely digital news
photography. In the 1980’s, magazines and newspapers started to experiment with
incorporating digitized images into their layouts. Though some photojournalists were
carrying laptops to remote places, setting up makeshift darkrooms, and scanning and
transmitting film photos, the digital switchover did not start in earnest until 1992.
Fig. 8: Democratic presidential
nominee Bill Clinton waves
from the podium before giving
his acceptance speech at the
Democratic National
Convention at Madison Square
Garden in New York City, July
16, 1992. (AP Photo/Rusty
Kennedy) The 1992
Democratic National
Convention marked the first
time that the Associated Press
used digital cameras to record
the news.
38
With digital technology came digital photo manipulation. While the tenets of ethical
news photography still held, there were notable breaches. In 1982, National
Geographic altered two cover images in order to improve their look and composition.
39
Lester writes:
National Geographic magazine, long known for its reputation of photojournalism
excellence, used the Scitex computer digitizer on two recent occasions. On a cover
story of Egypt, pyramids were squeezed together to fit the cover's vertical format. A
picture story on Poland contained a cover photograph that combined an expression on a
man's face in one frame with a complete view of his hat in another picture. Both cover
images were altered without a hint of possible detection and without a note to readers
that such manipulation was performed.
Throughout photography's history, an unsuspecting public has been fooled by
manipulated images. What is of concern to modern media watchers is the justifications
used to alter images through computer technology - not the fact that such alterations can
be published without detection.
40
These alterations foreshadow similar ethical breaches in modern times. Los Angeles
Times photographer Brian Walski, discussed below, effected a similar fake in Iraq in
2003.
SECTION TWO: Today
What is the state of ethics in photojournalism today? There is no clear answer.
Photojournalism is a large and diverse field with very little consensus regarding ethics,
even within small sub-genres (community newspaper photojournalism, for example).
While most working press photographers should be aware of the consequences of
ethical breaches, there is no “Photojournalist’s Hippocratic Oath,” no common Ten
Commandments of ethics in photojournalism, nor are there standard “punishments” for
ethical violations. Each publication and news organization sets its own ethical
standards, which may simply come down to what it will tolerate, or what will sell more
papers, in terms of pushing the ethical envelope. For instance, at the Weekly World
News, the ethical bottom line might be a commandment barring photo-manipulation that
could generate a law suit, while at most reputable national newspapers, it might be the
forbiddance of any manipulation of subject, scene, or of the image as captured by the
camera. Sometimes these rules are written down in concrete codes of ethics, and
sometimes they are simply the empirical sum of what is acceptable to the staff or a
particular editor at a particular publication. As mentioned earlier, accepted ethical
practices can vary widely by region and by country. One example of a codified ethical
statement is “Guidelines on Our Integrity” from The New York Times:
Photography and Images. Images in our pages that purport to depict reality must be
genuine in every way. No people or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed,
distorted or removed from a scene (except for the recognized practice of cropping to
omit extraneous outer portions). Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to
those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the
"burning" and "dodging" that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images.
Pictures of news situations must not be posed. In the cases of collages, montages,
portraits, fashion or home design illustrations, fanciful contrived situations and
demonstrations of how a device is used, our intervention should be unmistakable to the
reader, and unmistakably free of intent to deceive. Captions and credits should further
acknowledge our intervention if the slightest doubt is possible. The design director, a
masthead editor or the news desk should be consulted on doubtful cases or proposals
for exceptions.
41
While this ethical statement is clear, concise, and to the point, there will always be
borderline cases. Additionally, this statement only carries weight at The New York
Times. No other newspaper or magazine staff is bound by it, so it is certainly not a
universal creed.
The closest thing that modern American photojournalism has to a unified standard is the
National Press Photographers Association’s (NPPA) Code of Ethics (see Appendices A
and B), as well as its amendment to that code that is specific to digital photography.
42
Should a member photographer violate the code, the NPPA bylaws (see Appendix C)
describe how the member may go before a judiciary committee, and ultimately may
have his or her membership revoked.
43
That, however is the extent of the recourse
available to the organization. While an ethical breach severe enough to merit expulsion
from the NPPA might bring additional consequences from one’s employer, NPPA
membership is not required to work in the industry.
While there is no unifying creed, no standard code of ethics, and no photojournalist’s
equivalent to the physician’s Hippocratic Oath, there are other ways to ascertain the
current state of ethics in photojournalism. One is to examine situations that have
prompted discourse on ethics within the photojournalism community. While being
widely discussed does not guarantee that a particular photographer or photo is or was
unethical, people tend not to question things that are obviously above board. Fringe
situations can help to illuminate the fuzzy boundary between what is and isn’t ethical,
and clear examples of journalistic “right” and “wrong” can lead to further
understanding of ethics in photojournalism as a whole.
Three recent situations that crystalize current ethical practices are Brian Walski’s
incident with the Los Angeles Times, the Abu Ghraib prison photos, and images of the
aftermath of the 2004 Red Sox American League Championship Series celebratory riot.
The first is a classic example for studying “photographer-centric” ethics. The second is
just the opposite. Since the Abu Ghraib images were not taken by professional
photojournalists, this case is a laboratory for analyzing “institutional” ethics. Finally,
the riot images are useful in studying the entire system.
In recent years, one of the biggest photojournalism “scandals” centered around Los
Angeles Times photographer Brian Walski. In March of 2003, Walski was embedded
with a group of British soldiers in Iraq. Walski was shooting digitally, and at the end of
the day he found that he had two images that were almost perfect. In one frame, a
British soldier is gesturing to a group of Iraqi citizens to take cover because they were
taking incoming fire. In another frame, the same soldier is visible but not gesturing, and
an Iraqi man is standing while holding a child. Walski used computer software to
combine the two images so that it appears that the soldier is telling the Iraqi man to “get
down.”
Walski’s doctored image went out over the Newscom wire network, and appeared in
newspapers around the country, including The Hartford Courant and the Chicago
Tribune. The fake would have gone undetected had it not been for an employee at The
Hartford Courant, who noticed that a person in the background appeared twice within
the photograph.
44
Fig. 9: Brian Walski’s original images (left and center), and the composite
(right).
45
When Walski’s editor questioned him about the manipulation, Walski admitted to it.
Though Walski was otherwise an exceptional photojournalist, his actions were
journalistically unforgivable, and he was immediately fired. The newspaper published
a prominent apology and explanation, and Walski was taken out of the field and
brought home as expeditiously as possible. As Walski’s photojournalism career ended,
his tenure as an ethical hot potato was just beginning. His image and his actions
sparked a heated debate within the journalistic community.
First off, there were those who did not see the harm in Walski’s photo manipulation,
especially since the resultant image significantly resembled the two other images from
which it was constructed. Foremost among these voices was noted photographer Pedro
Meyer. On his website zonezero.com, Meyer publicly blasted the Los Angeles Times:
[The LA Times has] fired someone for doing a professional job in trying to come up
with a better picture, the same way that any of their journalists polish a text so that it
reads better and is succinct. (why should a photographer be deprived of doing exactly
the same that other professionals are doing on a daily basis as long as the information is
not distorted?). The only explanation I can find, is that by accusing the photographer
and attempting to portray themselves as publishing "unmanipulated" news, they are
seeking to conceal the factual reality of their biased and one-sided presentation of the
overall news. That seems to be the more important issue at hand.
46
Meyer is suggesting that since news writers are allowed to rephrase their copy, news
photographers should be afforded the same privilege. While some agreed with him,
many others did not. Washington Post photography columnist and former New York
Daily News reporter Frank Van Riper responded to Meyer’s statement by writing:
Any reporter worthy of the name would no sooner fiddle with direct quotes than a
reputable photojournalist would alter his or her picture. Remember: news photographs
are the equivalent of direct quotations and therefore are sacrosanct – the situational
ethics of Walski's apologists notwithstanding. To be sure, just as a writer can, in the
interest of brevity or impact, choose which quotes to use in a story, so can a news
photographer or picture editor crop out dead space in a news photo, or use the
electronic equivalent of dodging or burning in to make a picture reproduce better.
But the key elements of a news photograph, like the key words in a direct quote, simply
are off limits to manipulation. In this, I am reminded of what a Washington Times
shooter once told me. On a computer outside the paper's darkroom, she said, there was
plastered this flat admonition and warning: "If you can't do it in the darkroom, don't do
it here."
47
But you can do it in the darkroom. Walski’s image was far less misleading than any
Evening Graphic composograph. The Evening Graphic used dozens of photos from
all different sources to create their images. Walski used two that could have been
consecutive frames. Had he been shooting film, Walski certainly could have created a
similar picture in a darkroom. What, then, makes one different from the other? First,
the Evening Graphic’s images were not passed off as genuine photos. They were
clearly labeled “composographs.” Additionally, though skillful, the manipulation was
obvious. Walski’s changes were more subtle, and intended to hide the fact that the
image was altered. Also, in the eighty years between the two images, the ethical
standard has clearly shifted. People have come to trust the integrity and accuracy of
their news images. The National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics reads
in part, “Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and
context. Do not manipulate images ... in any way that can mislead viewers or
misrepresent subjects.”
48
Though most any manipulation is clearly contrary to accepted
ethical standards, both of the subjects in Walski’s photos were doctored to appear as if
they were interacting in an exchange that never actually took place. None of the
photographers in my acquaintance would ever consider making such an alteration - the
ethical implications are clear, and the consequences too severe.
I have had to wrestle with ethical dilemmas in my own work as a photojournalist. In
particular, a set of images I made after the Boston Red Sox won the American League
Championship Series in 2004 caused a considerable controversy, in which my ethics
were questioned, as were the ethics of the media outlets that published my images. My
story is a useful one through which to examine the line between ethics and taste, and
also to study “photographer-centric ethics” in a real-world situation.
After the Red Sox clinched the league title by defeating their arch-rivals the New York
Yankees, people poured into the streets to celebrate. Even though the game was played
in New York City, crowds flocked to the area surrounding Boston’s Fenway Park and
Kenmore Square, as they had after previous sports victories (most notably the New
England Patriots’ Super Bowl championships in 2002 and 2004). As the night
progressed, a portion of the crowd became raucous. People lit bonfires, swung from
light poles, and climbed the outside of the stadium (the reverse side of the “Green
Monster,” Fenway Park’s famous left field wall). In an effort to control the revelers,
the Boston Police fired FN303 pellet guns at individuals in the crowd. The pellets were
filled with pepper spray, and were not supposed to be lethal. Nevertheless, a pellet
from one such gun struck Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove in the eye,
knocking her to the ground. Snelgrove died within hours of her injuries.
49
I was covering the celebration for my agency, Sipa Press,
50
and I was a few feet away
when Snelgrove was hit. I began taking photos almost as soon as she was struck. In
my photographs, she appears unconscious on the sidewalk, bleeding from the nose,
mouth, and eye. The images depict bystanders attempting to help, and police officers
standing over her body, with their backs to her. At no time did any of the police
officers attempt to render first aid, and my images (if viewed in sequence) show as
much. As I was taking pictures of the scene, two officers in riot gear ordered me to
step back and stop shooting. Though I protested, they physically moved me far enough
that I could not continue to work.
A few hours later, I edited, captioned, and transmitted my photos. At that time I did not
know the name of the victim or the extent of her injuries. My original caption reads,
“20 October 2004 - Boston, MA - An unidentified woman lays on the sidewalk after
being shot in the face with an unknown riot control device by Boston Police officers
outside Fenway Park after the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, clinching
the American League title. Photo Credit: Daniel Bersak/Sipa Press.”
51
Later that morning, when it was announced that Ms. Snelgrove had died, my agency
began placing the photos with various news organizations and publications. The
Boston Herald was one of the media outlets that used my imagery. They bought two
photos - one for the front page, which ran in color, and one for inside, which ran in
black and white.
Fig. 10: Photograph of the Boston
Herald front page, October 22,
2004.
52
As soon as the Herald hit the news stand, people started talking about my images. All
of the Boston news channels ran segments about the photos, the morning drive-time
talk radio shows were abuzz, and regional internet forums, such those on Craigslist.org
and the Herald’s website, were inundated with messages. That morning I received
both email and telephone death threats, and I continued to receive angry calls and
messages for several days. The two examples included below were some of the tamer
messages. On the day that the issue came out, I received the following email from
someone who had done enough research on me to discover that I am a licensed
skydiver:
Mr. Bersak:
Should your parachute fail to open on your next skydive, I hope someone is there to
photograph you splattered across the cement of a Home Depot parking lot rather than
put down their camera and offer you help or comfort. While the photos on that roll of
film may be used to prosecute those contributing to Miss Snelgrove's death, there is a
greater human responsibility to help those that need it rather than line your own pocket
with what is called "blood money". I will remeber not your photography but the
photograph you pimped out to a disgraceful rag sheet.
53
Later in the day I received another message:
MESSAGE FOR.. DANIEL BERSAK, AND EVERYONE
WHO ALLOWED THIS PHOTO TO BE PRINTED THROUGH THE BOSTON
HERALD!!!
I got home tonight after a long day at work. I took one look at the paper, and could not
believe my eyes.
There is a fine line between selling a photo and selling your soul!
If you could put yourself in the familys shoes for one minute..without thinking about
how many papers it would sell...perhaps a picture other than appeared, would have
been in its place.
If a tv station can get fined for a Super bowl mishap, for thousands of dollars, I believe
that Daniel Bersak, and the Boston Herald should be punished in the same manner. OR
FIRED!!!!
How in Gods name can you sleep at night?????
When you close your eyes tonight... I hope you wake every hour with the image of that
girl ! I hope the money was worth it.
My letters wont stop here!!!!!
Lorraine Morrison
54
The editorial reaction was almost as visceral. In an article for the Christian Science
Monitor, an Emerson College journalism professor wrote:
The Boston Herald's publication of lurid photos of Torie sprawled bleeding on the
pavement again pitted the journalist in me against the human being. My first reaction to
those photos was to grab up every paper I could find and destroy them. That's not
necessarily what a First Amendment advocate should be thinking, but definitely
something that a regular person would feel. ...the Herald crossed the line of
sensibility...
55
Much of the public discussion and outcry (or private discussion and outcry directed at
me) hinged upon two questions. The first was whether and/or how the Herald should
have published the photos. Many people felt that the images should not have been
printed at all. In an editorial that appeared in the Boston Phoenix, Dan Kennedy wrote:
“We learn absolutely nothing from the photos other than the fact that the Herald in this
instance has lost all sense of decency and proportion.”
56
Others disagreed. In the first
online response to Mr. Kennedy’s article, a reader replied:
I disagree.
I think the photo added alot [sic] to my understanding of how awful this death was and
how unnecessary it was. The photo brings you right into the middle of the crowd just
moments after the tragedy occurred, and you are there, with her friend, suffering. This
photo does what words cannot do.
57
The second question was whether or not I should have photographed the scene in the
first place. Many Bostonians were upset with me for capturing a very public moment
that they felt should have been considered a private one. In a letter to the Herald, one
man wrote that the photos “violated the sanctity and privacy that every life deserves in
its last moments.”
58
People of similar opinion either fail or refuse to consider that Ms. Snelgrove’s shooting
was an act perpetrated by public servants on a public street during a (spontaneous)
public event. A document published by the Reporters’ Committee for a Free Press
entitled The Photographers’ Guide To Privacy states, “If the subject of the photograph
has no reasonable expectation of privacy, then no invasion of privacy is possible.
Photographs taken in public places generally are not actionable. Photos of crimes,
arrests and accidents usually are considered newsworthy and immune from privacy
claims.”
59
While this particular quote pertains to privacy and the law, it serves equally
well to debunk privacy as an ethical challenge in this case. Ms. Snelgrove had chosen
to attend the celebration, outside, on a public street. Though nobody knew the extent
of her injuries at the time, even if her condition had been obvious, the fact remains that
she was in plain view surrounded by hundreds of people.
Ms. Snelgrove’s shooting was a very public act, and though her privacy did not
ethically prohibit my taking her picture, some people felt that photographing her in that
moment of pain was in poor taste. Considering Lester’s Utilitarian doctrine, at the very
least taking the photo effected the most good in the long run. In addition to reacting to
the photo itself, the public also expressed outrage at the police action, the crowd’s
behavior, and the situation in general. Several months previous, when another reveler
died celebrating the New England Patriots Super Bowl championship, the public outcry
did not reach the same fever pitch. Even if taking her picture was in poor taste (a point
which I do not concede), the greater public scrutiny of sports celebrations was well
worth it.
These two questions, whether I should have taken the photo and whether the photo
should have been published, are linked by time. In other words, first the photographer
makes a decision to capture an image, and afterwards an editor makes a decision to
publish the image. If we examine the decisions in order, the first one was mine to
make. I chose to take the pictures because that was my job. To do otherwise would
have been unprofessional. Since that night many people have asked me why I did not
help Ms. Snelgrove instead of photographing her. I am a certified Emergency Medical
Technician (EMT) and a Red Cross CPR instructor, and some have even questioned
my ethics in those fields. It must be remembered that paid, professional people bound
by duty to help Ms. Snelgrove were at the scene. Two of them are in the front page
photo with their backs to her. All police officers are first responders, and required to
know first aid and CPR. I don’t know why they weren’t doing their jobs, but because I
was doing mine, we can see that they were not helping her. When the ambulance
finally arrived, the EMTs did not get out and take pictures. It would have been as
unprofessional of them to neglect their position as it would have for me to neglect mine.
The second question, whether the editor should run the photo, was not mine to make.
Had I refused to shoot pictures because of my own thoughts or feelings, I would have
denied the editor the chance to review the image. It is almost impossible for one person
to make complex ethical decisions in real time in the field. The better option is always
for the photographer to do the photographing and the editor to do the editing. If an
image does turn out to be too graphic, or too intrusive, or too upsetting, the simple
solution is to not publish it.
The images from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2003 raised similar questions of
ethics, taste, and privacy. Not only did American soldiers torture and humiliate
detainees, the soldiers photographically documented their activities. When those photos
became public, newspaper and magazine editors were faced with difficult ethical
decisions. They had to weigh each photo on several axes - was publishing the image
worth embarrassing the subject? Was the image too graphic? Ultimately, many
magazines and newspapers chose to print the photos in one form or another. For the
late noted critic Susan Sontag, the ends justified the means. The photographs
themselves were what compelled the story to newsworthiness. In a 2004 article for The
New York Times Magazine, Sontag wrote:
The pictures will not go away. That is the nature of the digital world in which we live.
Indeed, it seems they were necessary to get our leaders to acknowledge that they had a
problem on their hands. After all, the conclusions of reports compiled by the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and other reports by journalists and protests
by humanitarian organizations about the atrocious punishments inflicted on ''detainees''
and ''suspected terrorists'' in prisons run by the American military, first in Afghanistan
and later in Iraq, have been circulating for more than a year. It seems doubtful that such
reports were read by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney or Condoleezza
Rice or Rumsfeld. Apparently it took the photographs to get their attention, when it
became clear they could not be suppressed; it was the photographs that made all this
''real'' to Bush and his associates. Up to then, there had been only words, which are
easier to cover up in our age of infinite digital self-reproduction and self-dissemination,
and so much easier to forget.
So now the pictures will continue to ''assault'' us -- as many Americans are bound to
feel. Will people get used to them? Some Americans are already saying they have seen
enough. Not, however, the rest of the world. Endless war: endless stream of
photographs. Will editors now debate whether showing more of them, or showing them
uncropped (which, with some of the best-known images, like that of a hooded man on
a box, gives a different and in some instances more appalling view), would be in ''bad
taste'' or too implicitly political?
60
Fig. 11: Perhaps the most
iconic image from the Abu
Ghraib prison scandal, this
photo depicts an Iraqi prisoner
who reportedly was told that
he would be electrocuted if he
fell off of the box.
61
Before any of the Abu Ghraib images became iconic, newspaper and magazine editors
had serious matters of both ethics and taste to consider. Ethically, the editors had to
decide how to treat images that, not only were not taken by professional
photojournalists, but were taken by people intimately involved in perpetrating the
depicted acts. Photojournalists work to avoid influencing or altering the situations they
photograph. Their role is strictly to document. Ultimately, the newsworthiness of the
Abu Ghraib images superseded this ethical barrier. While this may sound like the ends
justifying the means no matter the cost, as Sontag points out, the pictures themselves
were the story. Had these images not been published, the abuse might have continued.
The publication of the Abu Ghraib photos is a perfect example of the role of a free
press in a functional democracy. The press, sometimes nicknamed “the fourth estate”
relative to the three branches of government, is responsible for informing the public as
to the actions and decisions of its representatives.
62
One of the reasons these photos
were newsworthy is the fact that they reflect poorly both on the Iraq war and on the
officials at the top of the chain of command. If not for public scrutiny, abuses of power
both up and down the command structure might go unchecked. The Abu Ghraib
photos were compelling evidence of such abuses, and their publication served a greater
good.
In terms of taste, many of the images were indeed truly shocking. A significant number
depicted fully or partially nude prisoners engaged in forced sexual acts. While that may
have been the truth of the situation, many would consider it distasteful to fully illustrate
that truth on the doorsteps and newspaper boxes of America. Some newspapers did
use fairly graphic images inside, but most chose to address the issue by choosing less
explicit photos for the front pages.
SECTION THREE: Tomorrow
After tracing the history of ethics in photojournalism and examining the state of those
ethics today, one cannot help but wonder where photojournalistic ethics are going.
Since nobody can confidently predict the future, the only option is to examine current
trends and extrapolate. Certain issues are on the cutting edge of the present
photojournalistic ethics discussion, and those issues are likely to play significant roles in
shaping tomorrow’s photojournalism. Of course, without a crystal ball there is no way
to be sure.
From the invention of flash powder that made it possible for Jacob Riis to document the
hideous conditions in New York tenements, to the Adobe Photoshop software that
Brian Walski used to doctor his image, technology has certainly played a part in the
evolution of today’s ethical system. One might even say that technology has been the
predominant influence in the evolution of today’s ethical system (at the very least, but
for the technology of photography itself, there would be no photojournalism).
Likewise, technology will almost certainly be the driving influence regarding ethics in
the future.
Multiple factors will drastically change the ethical landscape. These include the further
assimilation of digital photography work-flows into the newsroom, the improvement of
consumer photo technology, and the omnipresence of photo technology - including
cameras in portable devices such as cell phones and PDAs. The shift away from
printed material and towards electronic media for image consumption will also leave its
own mark on photojournalistic ethics.
Digital photography is the predominant means of image capture for American
newspaper and magazine photojournalism today. Not only has it been that way for
several years, the rate at which it has taken over is astounding. Sports photography
serves as a good representative microcosm of the industry at large. Watching the most
recent Super Bowl on television, I did not see one still photographer on the sideline
using a film camera. Granted that is not a conclusive survey, but with today’s deadline
pressure it would be almost impossible for a professional news photographer to use
images captured on film. Given the current state of the market, at least 98% of the
images from Super Bowl XXXIX had to have been digital. In this day and age,
pictures are bought and sold minutes after they are taken. Film is too slow and too
expensive to produce marketable images in full-on media frenzies like major sporting
events. Six years ago, at Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, 75% of the photos captured
were digital.
63
The Associated Press first experimented with using digital cameras to
cover Super Bowl XXX in 1996.
64
These three data points fit a very steep curve. In
the ten years that the professional digital equipment has been available, it has gone from
experimental to three quarters adoption to almost total ubiquity, if not absolute necessity
for news photographers.
This bitwise blitzkrieg of sorts has brought with it new and difficult ethical challenges.
In the “old days” before digital photography, images had a definite physicality.
Photographs were fixed on pieces of film - acetate coated in a chemical emulsion - and
developed in chemical baths. A photograph was something that could be held in one’s
hand. While not impossible, it was far more difficult to pull off a convincing photo
fake. Twenty years ago, Brian Walski could never have doctored his image in the
field. What might have taken minutes on his laptop would have taken hours, or even
days, in a darkroom. Though the news cycle has sped up considerably since then, even
two decades ago most newspapers and magazines couldn’t afford that sort of delay
before publication.
65
Using Adobe Photoshop, the software with which Walski
effected his fake, is more convenient, more effective, and easier than altering photos in
a wet darkroom.
Newer cameras and more powerful editing software both impact photojournalistic
ethics, however sometimes that impact can be surprising. Since so much of the
substance of journalistic ethics is about the process rather than the result, technology
that enables new (or old) processes will automatically impact the ethical landscape.
One recent example is the release of the Nikon D2x camera. The D2x is a
professional caliber SLR with a unique feature - it allows the photographer to create
multiple-exposure images in the camera itself.
66
Before digital imaging, most SLR
cameras came with a switch that allowed the photographer to cock the shutter without
advancing the film. This allowed the photographer to expose the same frame of film
multiple times. One frequent use for this feature was to couple it with a motor drive,
and take a sequence of photos that showed motion throughout a single frame. With the
advent of the digital SLR, photographers lost the ability to use this technique in-camera.
For a similar effect, photographers could take a series of images and overlay them with
digital editing software. Most publications, however, insisted upon labeling these
images as “photo-illustrations” because of the ex post facto manipulation. The Nikon
D2x restored the photojournalist’s license to create multiple exposure images.
This example illustrates a rare case where the technology lagged behind the ethical
standard. In other words, before the Nikon D2x, in order to stay above the ethical
board one either had to switch to a previous technology (film) or avoid the multiple
exposure technique altogether. Nikon has not released any statements revealing why
they chose to include this feature on their cameras. While photojournalistic ethics may
have been a consideration (especially since many photojournalists use this type of
camera), there may have been other factors involved.
In addition to professional equipment, consumer and “prosumer” camera technology is
also improving, and cameras included in mobile devices are starting to become more
popular. Many of these mobile devices are networked (cell phones, for example), and
are capable of transmitting images in near real time. During major news events, some
photo editors are inundated with images from “citizen photojournalists.”
67
Citizen
journalism, of course, is nothing new. Washington Post reporter Yuki Noguchi writes:
History is full of accidental journalism using portable devices, from the famous
Abraham Zapruder film capturing President John F. Kennedy's assassination to the
videotape of Rodney King being beaten by Los Angeles police and the incriminating
snapshots taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
That tradition accelerates with the widespread use of new recording devices, said
Kenny Irby, visual journalism leader at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based school for
journalists.
"The proliferation of cell phones and digital cameras . . . have led to a great deal more
documentation added to the news stream," he said. Digital cell images provide a
"unique voyeurism," he said. "The intimacy comes out of the spontaneity."
68
The difference between today’s “citizen photojournalism” and the aforementioned
examples is the ubiquity of the imaging devices in modern society. In 2004, consumers
bought 257 million camera-equipped mobile phones. By comparison, during the same
time only 68 million digital cameras were sold.
69
Millions upon millions of people are
walking around with cameras in their pockets, waiting to become accidental
photojournalists. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people in the general public are
not aware of the nuances of photojournalistic ethics. Worse yet, there are people who
actively try to dupe or trick the mainstream media into using ethically questionable (or
flat-out fake) images. Not only can faked photos be misleading, they can have dramatic
real-world consequences. During the 2004 election, it was briefly but widely reported
that Senator John Kerry and activist Jane Fonda spoke at the same anti-Vietnam war
rally. The accompanying photograph depicts Fonda and Kerry standing together at a
podium.
Fig. 12: Faked photo depicting John Kerry and Jane
Fonda supposedly speaking at an anti-war rally.
70
This image was widely published in newspapers and magazines, and later debunked
three separate ways - by the two photographers of the images used to make the
composite, and by the Associated Press, which denies ever circulating the image. The
fact that it was circulated to the press during an election means that this small
fabrication could potentially have had a major impact. Similarly, a hoax image
purporting to be a next-generation iPod recently made its way around the internet.
71
The digital music player industry tends to be a volatile market,
72
and a faked photo of a
new cornerstone product could dramatically affect a company’s stock price. The
potential for these sorts of consequences increases exponentially when editors are
inundated with images from the public, with little time to fully vet those images before
publication.
Fig. 13: Faked Image purported to be a future
Apple iPod that is under development.
73
Nowhere was the power of citizen photojournalism more clearly demonstrated than in
the summer of 2005 during the London subway bombings. On July 7, 2005, three
bombs exploded on London subway cars, and a fourth detonated on a bus. Fifty-two
people died, and some 700 were injured.
74
Within minutes of the blasts, citizens began
chronicling the aftermath using both standalone cameras and cameras embedded in
mobile devices. While working photojournalists and other members of the press
responded as quickly as they could, their still images were not as intimate or immediate
as those taken by the affected passengers. Some of those passengers who took pictures
with their mobile devices later uploaded them to photo-sharing websites like flickr.com.
The next day, in a journalistic first, both The New York Times and the Washington
Post ran front-page camera phone images that were taken by citizens, not by
photojournalists.
75
In describing the emerging citizen journalism trend, Dennis
Dunleavy of The Digital Journalist writes, “The future is here, now. The future came
with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the devastation of the tsunami in the Pacific late
last year, and now without question, London. The digital camera phone is the future
and we have much to learn from this emerging technology.”
76
This widespread citizen media production and consumption raises an important
question. With more and more people carrying cameras in their pockets, will the future
have a place for the “professional” photojournalist? At first the question seems
compelling for two reasons - access and tools. In terms of access, it is impossible for a
small cadre of trained photojournalists to be everywhere and to photograph everything
that is newsworthy. There were no working photojournalists aboard the London bus
and trains that were bombed, but there were people with camera phones. With each
successive generation of camera phone improving in resolution and quality, the gap
between the professional’s tools and the citizen’s tools is closing, just as the ubiquity of
those tools is increasing.
“Professionalism,” however, connotes more than being in the right place at the right
time with the right camera. In the photojournalism industry, professionalism means
technical skill, news gathering experience, and of course ethics. Photojournalist Nancy
L. Ford writes:
A photojournalist's job is to go out and experience life for others, to capture an event on
film, and hopefully capture the emotion that was experienced, so the readers can see
and feel what it was like to be there.
The photojournalist must capture the truth, too. This means the photographer
must only photograph what has happened, when it happened and not recreate a
situation because they didn't get there on time. They must not move things around on
the scene of an event to make the pictures look better. They must not alter their
photographs on the computer or in the darkroom, like take an ugly telephone pole out
of a picture. The photojournalist must also tell the truth, just like the reporter.
77
Likewise, photojournalism icon Peter Howe, writing for The Digital Journalist adds:
[The] unsupervised approach may be even more of a problem with photography,
because the meaning of an image can be manipulated through use in a false context, or
no context at all. In the looting that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime there
were photographs of US soldiers with arms full of money taken off the looters they had
arrested, and which they were returning to an appropriate location. The same
photographs could represent responsible people attempting to restore law and order, or
ruthless invaders plundering the country that was their victim, your choice, depending
on who you are and where you are. With technology enabling even the most unskilled
amateur to take good quality photographs such misrepresentations are likely to occur
more frequently. Not only will there be a greater number of images of any given event,
but once they're on the Internet they will be readily available to anyone with an agenda.
Furthermore, amateur photographers don't have the same training as professional
photojournalists, nor have they acquired the same experience and instincts.
78
This professionalism, experience, and instinct is what ensures the existence of the
photojournalist well into the future. Reportage has occured since the dawn of printed
news, yet seldom is the place of the professional print journalist questioned. This is in
spite of the fact that ordinary citizens sometimes have greater or more immediate access,
and that many people carry pencils and paper (the tools of the print journalist’s trade).
In the world of written journalism, professional journalists (who are bound by their
own ethics) cull quotations from non-journalists. Absent blogs, nobody asks citizens to
write whole news articles about what they witness. In other words, though recently
The New York Times ran a camera phone image that was taken by a “citizen
photojournalist” on its front page, it is doubtful that they would ever run a news piece
by a “citizen reporter” in the same spot.
Sorting out the ethics of the “citizen photojournalist” phenomenon is one of the
challenges facing the photojournalism community in the future. Since the non-
professional is not bound by a code of ethics (and may compromise the integrity of an
image without even knowing it), newsrooms must be cautious when using images that
were taken by the general public. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute asks editors to
consider the following questions when reviewing material submitted by non-
professionals:
1. How do you know the image is authentic?
2. What do you know/need to know about how the image was captured?
3. What was the photographer's involvement in the incident he or she captured?
4. How do you keep from encouraging people to take unnecessary or dangerous
risks in order to capture a photograph?
5. Will you compensate people for images? How will you decide how much to
pay?
6. How much are you willing to compromise your standards of quality in order to
use a cell image?
7. How easy is it for people to send you images and how easy is it for you to use
them?
79
Modern technology has done much to make answering these questions extraordinarily
difficult. As the media through which people consume news photographs change, so
too does the role and the dynamic of the newsroom itself. It is one thing to consider the
questions posed above over a matter of days for a weekly news magazine; the task
becomes more difficult when shortened to a matter of hours for a daily newspaper. The
World Wide Web, however, is published twenty-four hours a day. Since no news
outlet likes to be “scooped,” there is substantial pressure to make ethics decisions on the
order of minutes, or even seconds. In that respect, technology will be an ever-
increasing influence on photojournalistic ethics.
The prediction that technology will drive the future of ethics in photojournalism is
especially compelling in light of the fact that the media through which photojournalism
is delivered are rapidly changing. In the past year (2005), the average newspaper
circulation dropped 2.5%. While a few papers (The New York Times included) saw a
small increase, the majority were not as successful. The Boston Globe, for example,
saw its circulation fall 8.5% in the same period.
80
According to the most recent State of
the News Media, the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) estimated that internet
news consumption was up significantly during the same period:
The NAA estimated that online newspaper readership was up 15.8% in September
2005 compared with September 2004, reaching 47.3 million unique visitors (a total
probably helped by interest in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita). Surveys about online
consumption also suggest that those who visit newspaper Web sites spend less time
with the print product. And privately, executives report that some major newspapers’
Web sites now attract as many users in a day as they sell papers.
81
During the aftermath of the London bombings, it is unknown how many people
skipped news media, print or online, entirely. Images of the destruction were available
directly on photo sharing websites. Several newspapers and magazines went to
flickr.com where they found photos that they then published (after obtaining
permission).
82
When presented with a choice between seeing an edited selection of
images in a newspaper or the “raw feed” on a photo sharing website, some might
choose to eschew the mainstream media altogether.
Conclusion
While print journalism can trace its roots almost to the origins of written language itself,
newspaper and magazine photojournalism have yet to celebrate their one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary. In this short history, however, a patch-work ethical system has
evolved. At first, this system was driven simply by the functionality of the technology
itself. In other words, if it was possible, it was acceptable. Soon after, the news and
photojournalism industry began to consider concepts such as “truth” and “fairness,” and
publications began limiting exactly what could be done to publishable photos. Thus
began the concept of “photojournalistic ethics.” These ethics continually changed and
evolved into the system of rules that we have today.
While there isn’t one ultimate dictator of photojournalistic policy, there have been
contemporary cases and events that have caused fervent discourse within the
photojournalism community. These include Brian Walski’s photo fakery, my own
Boston Red Sox American League Championship Series riot photos, and the images
from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. These together illuminate much of the landscape
of modern photojournalistic ethics. The ultimate imperative is to present accurate,
trustworthy visual journalism to the reader. Though sometimes, this information comes
at a cost, editors must weigh the negative effect a particular image might have (invasion
of privacy, offending readers, etc.) versus the likely benefit. Today’s ethics, however,
will not be the same tomorrow.
Like the past, the future of ethics in photojournalism belongs to technology. Digital
photography casts new doubts on the process through which the photograph goes from
camera to publication. More and more people are not only consuming photographic
news media electronically, they are actively participating in news gathering, using
mobile phone cameras. These “citizen journalists” are seeing their work in newspapers
and magazines next to images by professional photojournalists. At the same time,
editors are being inundated with photographs both during and after major news events,
leaving them less time to make ethics decisions. All of these trends can only continue
into the future.
Bibliography
Allan, Stuart (ed.). 2005. Journalism: Critical Issues. New York: Open University
Press.
Amerika.nu, Boston Riots and the Tragic Death of Victoria Snelgrove, 23 October,
2004, <http://amerika.nu/amerika.php?id=174> (Snelgrove Front Page Image) (8
August 2006)
Ballinger, Nicki (ed.), The Reporters’Committee for Freedom of the Press
Photogra phers’ Guide to Privacy, 1999,
<http://www.rcfp.org/photoguide/intro.html>
(8 August 2006)
Chapnick, Howard. 1994. Truth Needs No Ally. Columbia, Missouri: The University
of Missouri Press.
Colen, B.D. 2001. There Are No Diabetics: Thoughts and Images For A New
Begin ning. New York: Novo Nordisk.
Coles, Robert. 1997. Witness In Our Time. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dictionary.com, Fourth Estate - Definitions from Dictionary.com,
<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fourth%20estate> (8 August
2006)
Dictionary.com, journalism - Definitions from Dictionary.com, 2003,
<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=journalism> (8 August 2006).
Dunleavy, Dennis, Camera Phones Prevail: Citizen Shutterbugs and the London
Bomb ings, 9 July, 2005,
<http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0507/dunleavy.html>
(8 August 2006)
Faas, Horst et. al. (ed.). Requiem: By The Photographers Who Died In Vietnam And
Indochina. London: Jonathan Cape.
Fernandes, Y.M. An email from SportsShooter.com viewer: Y.M. Fernandes. 22
October, 2004, personal email (8 August 2006).
Ford, Nancy L., Photojournalism vs. Journalism, 1998,
<http://nlford.com/career/journalism.shtml> (8 August 2006)
Greenspun, Philip, History of Photography Timeline,
<http://www.photo.net/history/timeline> (8 August 2006)
Howe, Peter, Amateur Hour, June 2004,
<http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/howe.html> (8
August 2006)
Hoy, Anne H. 2005. National Geographic History of Photography. Washington D.C.:
The National Geographic Society.
IMDb, Spider-Man (2002), <http://imdb.com/title/tt0145487/> (8 August 2006).
Irby, Kenny, Digital Camera Scores Big Points With Newspapers, 1 February, 2000,
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=14351> (8 August 2006)
Irby, Kenny, L.A. Times Photographer Fired Over Altered Image, 2 April, 2003,
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082> (8 August
2006)
IT Managers Journal, 9 March, 2005, Sony iPod Attack Dents Apple Share Price,
<http://eyeonit.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=05/03/09/1651259
&tid=70&tid=105> (8 August 2006)
Iwo Jima, Inc., Iwo Jima - The Picture, 2005,
<http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm> (8 August
2006)
Jurkowitz, Mark, Herald Apologizes For Graphic Photos, The Boston Globe, 23
October, 2004, <http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles
/2004/10/23/herald_apologizes_for_graphic_photos/> (8 August 2006)
Kennedy, Dan, A Tabloid’s New Low, 22 October, 2004, The Boston Phoenix,
<http://www.bostonphoenix.com/medialog/2004/10/tabloids-new-low.asp>
(8 August 2006)
Kobré, Kenneth. 2004. Photojournalism, the Professionals’ Approach. Burlington,
MA: Focal Press.
Kobré, Kenneth, Positive/Negative: The Long Tradition of Doctoring Photos, 1995,
<http://www.focalpress.com/companions/0240804155/posneg/
posneg1.htm> (8 August 2006)
Kolodzy, Janet, Pack Journalism: Seen From Two Sides, Darkly, 9 November, 2004,
The Christian Science Monitor, <http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1109/
p09s02-coop.html> (8 August 2006)
Lester, Paul Martin, Faking Images in Photojournalism, 1988, in Media Development,
<http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/faking.html> (8 August 2006)
Lester, Paul Martin. 1991. Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Hillsdale, New
Jer- sey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lidor, Danit, The Future of Photojournalism, 3 October, 2005,
<http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/09/30/photojournalism-
amateurs-
blogs-cx_dl_1003photojournalism.html> (8 August 2006)
Light, Ken. 2000. Witness In Our Time: Working Lives of Documentary
Photographers. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Long, John, Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography, September, 1999,
<http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/self-training_resources/eadp_report/>
(8 August 2006).
Macrumors, Video iPod Fake, 26 February, 2006,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ4wzEEpk1A> (8 August
2006)
Macshrine.com, First “real” iPod Video Shots?, 23 February, 2006,
<http://www.macshrine.com/2006/02/23/first-real-ipod-video-shots/> (8
August 2006)
The Media History Project, 20th Century: Last Decade,
<http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/1990s.html> (8 August
2006)
Mensel, Robert, ‘Kodakers Lying in Wait’: Amateur Photography and the Right of
Pri- vacy in New York, 1885-1915, in American Quarterly 43:1 (1991): 24-45.
The Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus, Ethics, <http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/
thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=ethics&x=0&y=0> (8 August 2006)
Meyer, Pedro, The LA Times Fires a Photographer,
<http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/altered/altered.html> (8
August 2006)
Miller, James P. Newspaper Circulation Falling Faster. Chicago Tribune, 9 May,
2006.
Mobiledia.com, Camera Phones Outsold Digital Cameras By 4-To-1 In 2004, 15
April, 2005, <http://www.mobiledia.com/news/29475.html> (8 August 2006)
Morris, John G. 1998. Get The Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism.
Chi- cago: The University of Chicago Press.
Morrison, Lorraine. Front Page Boston Herald 10/22/04. 22 October, 2004, personal
email (8 August 2006).
Morse, Samuel F. B., Probable Effects. . .The Discovery of Daguerre, from M. A.
Root, The Camera and The Pencil: or the Heliographic Art (Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott & Co., 1864): 390-392.
<http://www.daguerre.org/resource/texts/morse_cp.html>
Moyes, Norman B. 2001. American Combat Photography - From the Civil War to the
Gulf War. New York: MetroBooks.
The National Press Photographers Association, NPA: Bylaws, 2005,
<http://www.nppa.org/about_us/governance/bylaws.html#ethics> (8 August
2006)
The National Press Photographers Association, NPPA: Bylaws, 2005,
<http://www.nppa.org/about_us/governance/bylaws.html> (8 August 2006)
The National Press Photographers Association, NPPA Code of Ethics,
<http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/
ethics.html> (8 August 2006).
Newhall, Beaumont. 1982. The History of Photography. New York: Bulfinch.
New York Times, Feb. 25, 1945 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
New York Times, July 4, 1909 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
New York Times, July 4, 1918 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
New York Times, July 29, 1885 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
The New York Times June 9, 1972 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
The New York Times Company, New York Times: Guidelines On Our Integrity, 25
Sep tember, 2003,
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?
id=46973&
sid=29> (8 August 2006)
The New York Times Company, New York Times Timeline 1881-1910, 2006,
<http://www.nytco.com/company-timeline-1881.html> (8 August 2006)
Noguchi, Yuki, Camera Phones Lend Immediacy To Images of Disaster, 8 July, 2005,
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/
AR2005070701522.html> (8 August 2006)
Nye, David, The Electrifying Future, in Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a
New Technology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990) (CD)
PBS.org, Composograph of Alice Rhinelander,
<http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/features/popups/
rhinelander.html> (8 August 2006)
Peterson, Moose, D2X New Features User Report, 2005,
<http://www.moosepeterson.com/d2x/features.html> (8 August 2006)
Photo District News, PDN 20th Anniversary Timeline,
<http://www.pdngallery.com/20years/timeline.html> (8 August 2006)
The Project for Excellence in Journalism and Edmonds, Rick, The State of the News
Media 2006: Newspapers: Audience, 2006,
<http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2006/narrative_newspapers_
audience.asp?cat=3&media=3> (8 August 2006)
The Pulitzer Board, 1996 Pulitzer Prizes-SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY, Works,
1996, <http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1996/spot-news-photography/works/> (8
August 2006)
Sipa Press, Sipa Press: A Window on the World, 2005, <http://www.sipa.com> (8
August 2006)
Slack, Donovan and Smalley, Suzanne, In Snelgrove Files, Officers Recount Night of
Chaos, The Boston Globe, 21 September, 2005, <http://www.boston.com/
news/local/articles/2005/09/21/in_snelgrove_files_officers_recount_
night_of_chaos/> (8 August 2006)
Slater, Don, Photography and Modern Vision: The Spectacle of ‘natural Magic’, in
Chris Jenks, ed., Visual Culture (New York: London, 1995): 218-237
Snopes.com, Urban Legends Reference Pages: John Kerry, 1 March, 2004,
<http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp> (8 August 2006)
Sontag, Susan. 2001. On Photography. New York: Picador.
Sontag, Susan. 2004. Regarding The Pain of Others. New York: Picador.
Sontag, Susan. 23 May, 2004. Regarding The Torture of Others. New York Times
Magazine.
Spiegel Online, US Torture Debate: Is America Above The Geneva Conventions?, 10
November, 2005, <http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,
grossbild-352090-384163,00.html> (8 August, 2006)
Story, Louise, Witnesses Post Instant Photos on the Web, 8 July, 2005, The New York
Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/international/europe/08blog.html
?ex=1278475200&en=efe9c2980c95a470&ei=5088> (8 August 2006)
Tompkins, Al, The Accidental Photojournalist, 11 May, 2004,
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=65438> (8
August 2006)
Trachtenberg, Alan, Prologue, Reading American Photographs: Images as History,
Mat- thew Brady to Walker Evans (New York: Hill and Wang, 1989): 3-20
University of Minnesota, Duluth, Bigfoot, Mapinguari (the Amazon), Sasquatch, or
Yeti (Asia), <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1602/pcbigft.html>
(8 August 2006)
Van Riper, Frank, Manipulating Truth, Losing Credibility, The Washington Post,
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm>
(8 August 2006)
Wikipedia.org, 7 July 2005 London Bombings, 6 August, 2006,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings> (8
August 2006)
Wikipedia.org, Oklahoma City bombing, 8 August 2006,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing> (8 August
2006).
Xtec.es, Kim Phuc, 2006, <http://www.xtec.es/~aguiu1/calaix/001vietn.htm> (8
August 2006)
Appendix A
NPPA Code of Ethics
Preamble
The National Press Photographers Association, a professional society that promotes the
highest standards in photojournalism, acknowledges concern for every person's need
both to be fully informed about public events and to be recognized as part of the world
in which we live.
Photojournalists operate as trustees of the public. Our primary role is to report visually
on the significant events and on the varied viewpoints in our common world. Our
primary goal is the faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. As
photojournalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its
history through images.
Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and
neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through
the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are
callously intrusive or are manipulated.
This code is intended to promote the highest quality in all forms of photojournalism and
to strengthen public confidence in the profession. It is also meant to serve as an
educational tool both for those who practice and for those who appreciate
photojournalism. To that end, The National Press Photographers Association sets forth
the following Code of Ethics:
Code of Ethics
Photojournalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for
upholding the following standards in their daily work:
1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects.
Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting
one's own biases in the work.
4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable
subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of
grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to
alter or influence events.
6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and
context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead
viewers or misrepresent subjects.
7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or
participation.
8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to
influence coverage.
9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.
Ideally, photojournalists should:
1. Strive to ensure that the public's business is conducted in public. Defend the rights
of access for all journalists.
2. Think proactively, as a student of psychology, sociology, politics and art to
develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current
events and contemporary visual media.
3. Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to
shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show
unpopular or unnoticed points of view.
4. Avoid political, civic and business involvements or other employment that
compromise or give the appearance of compromising one's own journalistic
independence.
5. Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.
6. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.
7. Strive by example and influence to maintain the spirit and high standards expressed
in this code. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not clear,
seek the counsel of those who exhibit the highest standards of the profession.
Photojournalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.
Appendix B
Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics
NPPA Statement of Principle
As journalists we believe the guiding principle of our profession is accuracy;
therefore, we believe it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way that
deceives the public.
As photojournalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve
its images as a matter of historical record. It is clear that the emerging electronic
technologies provide new challenges to the integrity of photographic images ... in light
of this, we the National Press Photographers Association, reaffirm the basis of our
ethics: Accurate representation is the benchmark of our profession. We believe
photojournalistic guidelines for fair and accurate reporting should be the criteria for
judging what may be done electronically to a photograph. Altering the editorial content
... is a breach of the ethical standards recognized by the NPPA.
Appendix C
NPPA Bylaws Regarding Penalties for Ethics Violations
Penalties
1. Committee on Judiciary
1. The committee on judiciary national chairman shall be appointed by the
President. The Board of Directors shall appoint two additional committee members at
the annual board meeting.
2. The committee on judiciary shall investigate and hear charges made against
members for violations of the code of ethics or other activities or actions detrimental to
the best interests of the profession of press photography.
2. Procedure regarding members
1. Complaints by members, made against other members, for violations, must be
signed by five active members in good standing and shall be presented to the committee
in writing, accompanied by all available facts and evidence.
1. Upon receipt of such complaint, the committee may reject the complaint by
majority vote as inadequately supported by the accompanying evidence, or proceed
with complaint, in which case, the chair will send a copy of the complaint and the
supporting data to the accused member by registered mail, notifying the member of a
reasonable time within which he/she may file a sworn answer accompanied by
evidence he/she cares to present.
2. If requested, the accused member shall have an opportunity for a personal
hearing before the committee or a member selected by the committee. At this hearing,
oral testimony received by the committee or its representative shall be reduced to
writing.
3. If, in the majority vote of the committee on judiciary, the charges made
against the accused are justified and fully supported by the evidence and the accused
member's undesirability has been established, the accused member shall be expelled.
4. A member expelled, under (c) above, shall be granted the privilege of
appealing his/her case to the Board of Directors in writing. The decision of the board,
by a majority vote, shall be final.
3. Procedure regarding Board of Directors impeachment
1. It shall be the duty of members of the Board of Directors to support and
enforce the Bylaws and Standing Rules of the NPPA. A board member who willfully
fails in his/her duty or who is guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the
association may be impeached.
2. Complaints, accompanied by all available supporting facts and evidence
against a board member, must be presented to the committee on judiciary in writing,
endorsed by five (5) members in good standing.
3. On receipt of charges and evidence, the chair of the committee on judiciary
shall send a copy of the complaint and supporting data to the accused board member by
registered mail, notifying him/her of a reasonable time within which he/she may file a
sworn answer, accompanied by counter evident he/she may care to present. Failure to
file an answer within the prescribed time shall be considered an admission of guilt.
4. Whenever, in the majority vote of the committee on judiciary, the evidence
presented justifies the charges made, the committee may recommend to the Board of
Directors that the member be removed from office. In making such recommendation it
shall be the duty of the committee on judiciary to present to the board a complete record
of the charges against and evidence in support of the accused.
5. Any board member may be suspended from office by majority vote of the
committee on judiciary.
6. Upon weighing facts presented by the committee on judiciary, the Board of
Directors can remove a member from office by two-thirds (2/3) vote.
1
IMDb, Spider-Man (2002), <http://imdb.com/title/tt0145487/> (8 August 2006).
2
The Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus, Ethics, <http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/
thesaurus?book= Thesaurus&va=ethics&x=0&y=0> (8 August 2006)
3
The National Press Photographers Association, NPPA Code of Ethics,
<http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html>
(8 August 2006)
4
Dictionary.com, journalism - Definitions from Dictionary.com, 2003,
<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=journalism> (8 August 2006).
5
Wikipedia.org, Oklahoma City bombing, 8 August 2006,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing> (8 August 2006).
6
University of Minnesota, Duluth, Bigfoot, Mapinguari (the Amazon), Sasquatch,
or Yeti (Asia), <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1602/pcbigft.html> (8 August
2006)
7
The Pulitzer Board, 1996 Pulitzer Prizes-SPOT NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY,
Works, 1996, <http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1996/spot-news-photography/works/> (8
August 2006)
8
Kobré, Kenneth. 20Photojournalism, the Professionals’ Approach. Focal Press.
308.
9
The National Press Photographers Association, NPPA Code of Ethics
10
Long, John, Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography, September, 1999,
<http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/self-
training_resources/eadp_report/> (8 August 2006).
11
Lester, Paul Martin. 1991. Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Hillsdale,
New Jersey: Lawrence Erl- baum Associates.
12
Greenspun, Philip, History of Photography
Timeline <http://www.photo.net/history/timeline> (8 August 2006)
13
Ibid.
14
The New York Times Company, New York Times Timeline 1881-1910, 2006,
<http://www.nytco.com/company-timeline-1881.html> (8 August 2006)
15
New York Times July 29, 1885 Page 1 via ProQuest
16
Kobré, 336
17
Newhall, Beaumont. 1982. The History of Photography. New York:
Bulfinch. 251
18
Kobré, 340
19
Kobré, 347
20
The New York Times, July 4, 1909 via ProQuest
21
Greenspun.
22
Hoy, Anne H. 2005. National Geographic History of Photography. National
Geographic Society. 167
23
Hoy, 231
24
New York Times, July 4, 1918 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
25
Kobré, Kenneth, Positive/Negative: The Long Tradition of Doctoring Photos,
1995, <http://www.focalpress.com/companions/0240804155/posneg/posneg1.htm> (8
August 2006)
26
Kobre, 348
27
PBS.org, Composograph of Alice
Rhinelander, <http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/features/popups/rhinelander.html>
(8 August 2006)
28
Hoy, 231
29
Hoy, 171
30
New York Times, Feb. 25, 1945 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
31
Iwo Jima, Inc., Iwo Jima - The Picture, 2005,
<http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingb.htm> (8 August 2006)
32
Lester, Paul Martin, Faking Images in Photojournalism, 1988, in Media
Development, <http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/faking.html> (8 August
2006)
33
Faas, Horst et. al. (ed.). Requiem: By The Photographers Who Died In Vietnam
And Indochina. London: Jonathan Cape.
34
Hoy, 205
35
The New York Times June 9, 1972 Page 1 via ProQuest Online Database.
36
Xtec.es, Kim Phuc, 2006, <http://www.xtec.es/~aguiu1/calaix/001vietn.htm> (8
August 2006)
37
Hoy, 207
38
Kennedy, Rusty. 16 July, 1992. AP Wide World Photos via Accunet Multimedia
Archive
39
Photo District News, PDN 20th Anniversary Timeline,
<http://www.pdngallery.com/20years/timeline.html> (8 August
2006)
40
Lester, Paul Martin, Faking...
41
The New York Times Company, New York Times: Guidelines On Our Integrity,
25 September, 2003, <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=46973&sid=29> (8
August 2006)
42
NPPA Code of Ethics
43
NPPA Bylaws
44
Irby, Kenny, L.A. Times Photographer Fired Over Altered Image, 2 April,
2003, <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082> (8 August 2006)
45
Van Riper, Frank, Manipulating Truth, Losing Credibility, The Washington
Post, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm> (8
August 2006)
46
Meyer, Pedro, The LA Times Fires a Photographer,
<http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/altered/altered.html> (8 August
2006)
47
Van Riper, Manipulating...
48
NPPA Code of Ethics
49
Slack, Donovan and Smalley, Suzanne, In Snelgrove Files, Officers Recount
Night of Chaos, The Boston Globe, 21 September, 2005,
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/09/21/in_snelgrove_files_officers_
recount_night_of_chaos/> (8 August 2006)
50
Sipa Press, Sipa Press: A Window on the World, 2005, <http://www.sipa.com>
(8 August 2006)
51
Ibid.
52
Amerika.nu, Boston Riots and the Tragic Death of Victoria Snelgrove, 23
October, 2004, <http://amerika.nu/amerika.php?id=174> (Snelgrove Front Page Image) (8
August 2006)
53
Fernandes, Y.M. An email from SportsShooter.com viewer: Y.M. Fernandes. 22
October, 2004, personal email (8 August 2006).
54
Morrison, Lorraine. Front Page Boston Herald 10/22/04. 22 October, 2004,
personal email (8 August 2006).
55
Kennedy, Dan, A Tabloid’s New Low, 22 October, 2004, The Boston Phoenix,
<http://www.bostonphoenix.com/medialog/2004/10/tabloids-new-low.asp> (8 August
2006)
56
Ibid.
57
Ibid.
58
Jurkowitz, Mark, Herald Apologizes For Graphic Photos, The Boston Globe, 23
October, 2004,
<http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/10/23/herald_
apologizes_for_graphic_photos/> (8 August 2006)
59
Ballinger, Nicki (ed.), The Reporters’Committee for Freedom of the Press
PhotographersGuide to
Privacy, 1999, <http://www.rcfp.org/photoguide/intro.html> (8 August 2006)
60
Sontag, Susan. 23 May, 2004. Regarding The Torture Of Others. New York Times
Magazine
61
Spiegel Online, US Torture Debate: Is America Above The Geneva Conventions?,
10 November, 2005, <http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,grossbild-
352090-384163,00.html>
(8 August, 2006)
62
Dictionary.com, Fourth Estate - Definitions from Dictionary.com,
<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fourth%20estate> (8 August 2006)
63
Irby, Kenny, Digital Camera Scores Big Points With Newspapers, 1 February,
2000, <http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=14351> (8 August 2006)
64
The Media History Project, 20th Century: Last Decade,
<http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/1990s.html> (8 August 2006)
65
Notable Exception: W. Eugene Smith’s image of Albert Schweitzer was carefully
and intentionally manipulated in the darkroom. Smith sandwiched two negatives in
order to make it appear that Schweitzer was holding a handsaw.
66
Peterson, Moose, D2X New Features User Report, 2005,
<http://www.moosepeterson.com/d2x/features.html> (8 August 2006)
67
Lidor, Danit, The Future of Photojournalism, 3 October, 2005,
<http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/09/30/photojournalism-amateurs-
blogs-cx_dl_1003photojournalism.html> (8 August 2006)
68
Noguchi, Yuki, Camera Phones Lend Immediacy To Images of Disaster, 8
July, 2005, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/
AR2005070701522.html> (8 August 2006)
69
Mobiledia.com, Camera Phones Outsold Digital Cameras By 4-To-1 In 2004,
15 April, 2005, <http://www.mobiledia.com/news/29475.html> (8 August 2006)
70
Snopes.com, Urban Legends Reference Pages: John Kerry, 1 March, 2004,
<http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp> (8 August 2006)
71
Macrumors, Video iPod Fake, 26 February, 2006
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ4wzEEpk1A> (8 August 2006)
72
IT Managers Journal, 9 March, 2005, Sony iPod Attack Dents Apple Share Price,
<http://eyeonit.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=05/03/09/1651259
&tid=70&tid=105> (8 August 2006)
73
Macshrine.com, First “realiPod Video Shots?, 23 February, 2006,
<http://www.macshrine.com/2006/02/23/first-real-ipod-video-shots/> (8 August
2006)
74
Wikipedia.org, 7 July 2005 London Bombings, 6 August,
2006, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings> (8 August
2006)
75
Dunleavy, Dennis, Camera Phones Prevail: Citizen Shutterbugs and the
London Bombings, 9 July, 2005,
<http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0507/dunleavy.html> (8 August 2006)
76
Ibid.
77
Ford, Nancy L., Photojournalism vs. Journalism, 1998,
<http://nlford.com/career/journalism.shtml> (8 August 2006)
78
Howe, Peter, Amateur Hour, June
2004, <http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/howe.html> (8 August 2006)
79
Tompkins, Al, The Accidental Photojournalist, 11 May, 2004,
<http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=65438> (8
August 2006)
80
Miller, James P. Newspaper Circulation Falling Faster. Chicago Tribune, 9 May,
2006.
81
The Project for Excellence in Journalism and Edmonds, Rick, The State of the News
Media 2006: Newspapers: Audience, 2006, <http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org
/2006/narrative_newspapers_audience.asp?cat=3&media=3> (8 August 2006)
82
Story, Louise, Witnesses Post Instant Photos on the Web, 8 July, 2005, The New
York Times,
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/international/europe/08blog.html
?ex=1278475200&en=efe9c2980c95a470&ei=5088> (8 August 2006)