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.
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
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.
3 quotes that will make you want to read the full article:
- “I’m against the proposed Senate bill on immigration, and I have all of my teeth.”
- “I think it is discriminatory to say all toothless people who represent controversial positions shouldn’t be used,”
- “I feel sorry for the poor photographer,” he said, laughing. “If he takes a picture of one side of my face, there’s no tooth. If he takes the other side, there’s no eye. So what’s he going to do?”
Funny and sad at the same time!
The reach of war: a deadly search for missing soldiers is an impressive audioslide about a a group of soldier facing casualities in Iraq.
Unfortunatly, this kind of work might not be possible now.
You now need written permission from a wounded soldier to publish his photo if he is in any way identifiable. and even if his face is not visible
(…)
One soldier was temporarily blinded and put on a plane to germany. Should I have asked him to sign a piece of paper giving permission to use pictures he can’t see as he’s lying on a stretcher in great pain?
(…)
The question I pose is: What would have happened to our visual history if Robert Capa and Gene Smith were running around the battlefield during WWII trying to get releases signed as they worked? What if this had been required in Vietnam? Or any war?
Vancouver police have undermined the media’s role in society by masquerading as 24 hours reporters to make an arrest
Complete story and valuable comments by Edmonton Sun’s photo editor Tom Braid on the ECNPA board.