Regarding the Jill Greenberg controversy…

The Atlantic Monthly will send a letter of apology to John McCain, will not pay Greenberg, and is considering legal action against her

What other photo editors think of this stunt? “Jill Greenberg officially took herself off everyone’s list with that little stunt. (…) Even if some Photo Editor wanted to hire her now they wouldn’t get her past the editor let alone the publicist.”, says the Photo editor blog

Jeffrey Goldberg, writer for the story on McCain that Greenberg took photos of: “I don’t know Greenberg (I count this as a blessing) and I can add nothing to what James Bennet told the Post except to say that Greenberg is quite obviously an indecent person who should not be working in magazine journalism”

Editor of The Atlantic answers questions from Fox News

As a photojournalist, I photographed every political leader, both on the federal and provincial scenes. 4 parties in Canada, 4 in Quebec, that mean 6 of them where not my guy/girl. But each time, I did my job the best I could, putting aside my political view.

Apparently, not everyone do the same. Jill Greenberg is a top photographer, working with major US publication. How many of us can say they had 15 minutes with US presidential candidate John McCain?

On assignment for Atlantic magazine, she was on assignment for the cover. Interviewed in PDN magazine, Greenberg tells how she feels about McCain and how she duped him.

Greenberg asked McCain to “please come over here” for one more set-up before the 15-minute shoot was over. There, she had a beauty dish with a modeling light set up. “That’s what he thought he was being lit by,” Greenberg says. “But that wasn’t firing.”

What was firing was a strobe positioned below him, which cast the horror movie shadows across his face and on the wall right behind him. “He had no idea he was being lit from below,” Greenberg says. And his handlers didn’t seem to notice it either. “I guess they’re not very sophisticated,” she adds.

And she added insult to injury by putting amongst others those pictures in rotation as a splash screen of her website.

Now, tell me how someone will trust her to take a photo of them? And which magazine will trust her for a job?

I think she somewhat sums it up:

so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.

Agence France-Presse has issued a correction, saying that the image of four missiles was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. The fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said.

In an Iranian Image, a Missile Too Many

Excerpt:

The images themselves, quite frankly, are boring snapshots.Yet, a lot of people are up in arms saying they are insulted by these images. I found it fascinating that images can become insulting not by what they depict but rather by what they do not show

(…)

We say that an image is worth a thousand words. Well, it this case, an images needs a thousand more words.

When simple images become revolting

So, do I have a problem with this? I sure do. To me, it is misleading. The newly toned picture looks flashed or looks like it was shot outside during a night football game. Not inside a well-lit dome it was shot in. The background is blackened out. And frankly, this new dramatic lighting changes the entire mood of the picture. The reader walks away with a different feeling.

When post-processing skills are just too much.

If you are, you can sue for copyright infringement pretty much every papers in North America

But the paranoia over photography has truly gotten out of hand. Carrying a camera in today’s America invokes nothing but suspicion and fear. People only assume the worst

Trent is so right!

Through tears, my wife said, “Trent, what are you doing? Get your camera out. We need you to document this moment.”

Trent Nelson on covering funeral

According to a Wall Street Journal article, the NFL will force member of the media to be an advertisement billboard

But some of the NFL’s other actions have horrified Alex Marvez, president of the Pro Football Writers Association and a South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporter. He winces at the new rule requiring photographers to wear red vests with small Canon and Reebok logos. Mr. Marvez calls the idea of using working press members as advertising vehicles “really alarming.”

Even worse, some people try to force you to give away all your copyright!

She was taken aback when, before June’s Pocono 500 auto race, she was asked for the first time to sign a credential application agreeing that Nascar would own all images captured at the event. She pushed back and received press passes without hassle.

(…)

That incident echoes a battle between the Ladies Professional Golf Association and photographers resisting the organization’s assertion that it had broad rights to re-use photos shot at a 2006 tournament in Hawaii without permission of the organizations that took the pictures. After the AP and local papers boycotted the first day of the event, the LPGA relented.

First, there where kisses. Then there where hugs. But as the clock was ticking, tears started to appear.

Covering the first Van Doos leaving for Afghanistan was absolutely heartbreaking: one of the most difficult assignment I had to cover yet. Many time I had to restrain my emotion, many time I had to restrain the tear that was coming to my eyes.

Seeing so many mothers hugging their kids, so many kids hugging their father, so many fathers hugging their son, so many loving spouse and girlfriends hugging their beloved one…

First, we had to “steal” those very intimate moments. And then, we had to step in to ask names. One time, it was so heartbreaking that I could not. I had to ask a friend of the guy, because his girlfriend was so in pain that I was just not able to ask myself (third photo).

I did not know it would be so emotional. Even after the event, when I was editing my photos, many times a “ball of emotions” came right down from my gut, up to my eyes.

It is a good thing after all that my friend Hubert, who was getting married the day before (pictures on this blog soon!), will leave only next week, when medias will not be invited. I am not sure I would have been able to do my job properly with him being one of the guys leaving yesterday.

I already talked about photographing grievance and other painful moments. Again, I had the proof that what we do is important. Late yesterday evening, Nathalie Dupont, the lady in the second photo, sent me this email after discovering it on the Gazette web site (reproduced with her authorization):

Bonjour!
Un petit mot pour souligner votre remarquable talent pour saisir l’émotion du moment! Si vous saviez tous les reproches essuyés par nos nombreux neveux et nièces avant le départ, n’ayant pas de photos convenable de nous deux… Une seule comme celle-là leur suffit amplement! Moi qui a longtemps cru que je n’étais pas photogénique… preuve à l’appui que le problème est souvent derrière la caméra, pas vrai? Merci pour ce baume au coeur!
(…) Pour les moments touchants, dommage que vous manquiez tous les ohhhhhh! et ahhhhh! des gens qui n’étaient pas sur place et qui s’ébahissent ici devant la photo

My free translation:

Hello!
Some words to underline your remarkable talent to photograph all the emotion of a moment! If only you would know all the everyone in the family was sad to not have a decent picture of us before his leave. Just one like this is more than enough for them! And me who was thinking all those year that I was not photogenic… Now I have the proof that the problem was behind the camera, right? Thank you for healing our heart!
(…) For the touching moment, it is sad that you miss all the “owww!” and “awwww” of the people gathered here when they look at the photo.

I sent her a high-resolution version of the photo. That is the least I can do to repay my invasion of their privacy.

With my work with La Presse, and now with this one for The Gazette, I feel very connected with those guys. I have photos. I have names. I will check the headlines with another eye now.