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Posts on the topic of Visual Practices & Ethics.

23 Posts
Notes Photo April 13, 2020

New York’s AIDS Memorial Through the Lens of COVID-19

Todd Heisler's photo of the New York City AIDS Memorial in the midst of the COVID-19 health crisis honors memory and design.

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Notes Photo March 23, 2020

Coronavirus and Stock Photography

Stock photography is tricky. Take, for example, the meaning and messaging of this "stop coronavirus" image in the midst of the pandemic.

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Notes Photo June 27, 2019

Trump’s Napalm Girl: Consequences of a Drowned Migrant Father and Daughter

The significance of the drowning photograph: America at a tipping point. What it says about Trump. When a photo like this should be seen.

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Notes Photo May 31, 2016

Steve McCurry’s Rickshaw

If McCurry’s aesthetic and the doctoring to achieve it deserves the criticism, I’m wondering what is positive and worthy for us to learn from it.

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Notes Photo August 25, 2015

Since Katrina, What’s So Different? — Outside the Crawfish Shak

One thing that characterizes a good deal of these retrospectives is the sense that: that-was-then-and-this-is-now. What stands out to me is how much the racial schism then mirrors the racial schism today.

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Notes Photo August 25, 2014

On Publishing Photos of a Public Execution by Hamas Fighters: Still More Ethical Questions

As we’ve been asking in instance after instance over many months now, where is the line between news and propaganda? between reporting and enabling? between editorial responsibility and corporate self-interest when it comes to publishing such material?

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Notes Photo July 29, 2014

David Frum Accuses NYT and Reuters of Staging Gaza Hospital Photos (GRAPHIC)

Certainly, these organizations have better uses of their time right now -- including, keeping their photographers alive while adhering to ethical standards -- without having to contend with libelous charges being leveled on impulse.

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Notes Photo July 23, 2014

Yes, News Photos are Becoming More Graphic … and Beautiful

I think the degree of artistry and the level of poetry in these photos only increases with the horror. Apparently, the artistry is acting like a buffering agent, the beauty and mystique confounding the more amplified violence and gore.

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Notes Photo July 20, 2014

On That Over-Processed Times Cover Photo of MA17 Crash Site

If something happened at night, you can't turn it into day.

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Notes Photo March 27, 2014

The Dysfunctional Guitar: More on the Reuters Syria Photo Controversy

In this atmosphere of doubt, it's worthwhile to consider these images involving the presence of this musical instrument in multiple images. What really convinced me to share them publicly, though, was the confusing and misdirected explanation I received from Reuters after having contacted them.

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Notes Photo March 25, 2014

Were the Reuters "Boy in a Syrian Bomb Factory" Photos Staged?

We hope that this post might contribute to a thoughtful, open and persistent examination about the truth behind this story as well as the issues surrounding how photos in conflict zones can be procured today.

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Notes Photo February 20, 2014

The Real Winners of World Press Photo 2014: The Palestinians

If it's a sad commentary on the state of the Western news media gaze, it's a pleasure and a relief to see Palestinians as "not one thing" -- to see Palestinians who are secular and devout; who do "regular things"; who don't spend every moment seething; and who experience...

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Notes Photo December 18, 2013

Photo Ops and Staging: Beyond White House Access, the Larger Issue is What We Have Access To

The current antagonism between photographers and the White House needs to be broadened beyond the simple question of access. It is time to look at the bigger picture, and make the photo-op as much the subject, so we have a visual record of how events and issues are...

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Notes Photo October 29, 2013

My Lai, Sexual Assault and the Black Blouse Girl: Forty-Five Years Later, One of America’s Most Iconic Photos Hides Truth in Plain Sight

What are we to make of this erasure, one that indicates sexual violence in the light of day? And why is it that most Americans readily recognize the “Napalm Girl” but not the “Black Blouse Girl?”

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Notes Photo October 10, 2013

Facebook Censorship, Photographer Jacob Aue Sobol and a Birthday

You don't have a good idea, a lovely day, a touching moment, a sense of awareness, a sense of poignancy or connection -- a sense that someone is a part of you or you are a part of someone else -- (in other words, anything that makes Facebook Facebook)...

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Notes Photo October 2, 2013

Thoughts on Afghan Girl’s Third Cover Appearance as National Geographic Looks Back, Forward

Has the same portrait ever appeared on the cover of a major US magazine even twice, not to mention three times? Still, it's not exactly clear to me why she's on the anniversary cover.

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Notes Photo May 29, 2013

A Photographer, A Fixer, the New York Times and Child Servitude in Haiti: A Story Gone Haywire, then Simply Gone

A post about child servitude in Haiti, deleted from the New York Times Lens Blog, serves as the basis for questions about the ethics of photojournalism, the practice of online journalism and the issues involved when the American media market trains a lens on ethical behavior in a country...

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Notes Photo May 14, 2013

Hansen’s World Press Winning Photo Not Fake… Just Unbelievable

Based on detailed scientific analysis, it has finally been established that a photo doesn't have to be fake to be incredible on its face.

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