Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Obviously I don't have any inside information on this, and Tina may through friends in the area. But I still tend to think this is a case of standards having changed and someone ignoring them. As I tell my students, it is ironic but true that as media standards in general - in terms of what is covered and what passes as reporting - have absolutely gone to hell over the past25 years, and particularly over the past 15, standards/ethics/rules for photojournalists have become far, far more stringent. What was indeed acceptable in the darkroom and art department 25 years ago is now absolutely unacceptable.( I remember seeing prints leave the Washington Post darkroom headed for the art department, from which they'd return airbrushed and otherwise touched up!) Clearly what has happened is that with the advent of digital and the ability for any clever 10-year-old to use Photoshop to flat out lie with photographs, newspapers have become less and less tolerant of virtually any but the most basic contrast and sharpening manipulation. I disagree, by the way, about how much he did or didn't manipulate the prize winning photos - they look to me like the photoshop version of Eugene Smith's famous Haitian madwoman. I wouldn't have taken the award from him, but he was certainly put on notice. And if I'd been him, I would have asked an editor before I did so much as throw a curve on an image. All of that said, was someone out to get him? Sure looks that way. And has the Observer gone to hell in a handbasket as Tina suggests? It would be surprising if it had not. B. D. On 9/29/06 7:14 AM, "Ric Carter" <ricc@mindspring.com> wrote: > That was my perception. > > Why did they want to dump him so badly? Like I said, I sure don't see > how it was the photos. > > Ric > > > On Sep 29, 2006, at 6:50 AM, Tina Manley wrote: > >> At 11:01 PM 9/28/2006, you wrote: >>> What was the real story there? >>> >>> I sure didn't get it looking at the photo. >>> >>> Ric >> >> http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp? >> vnu_content_id=1002914629 >> >> Patrick had had awards taken away before when he increased the >> contrast in some photos to make them more dramatic. This time he >> boosted the color to match what he said he remembered but didn't >> capture when he shot into the sun. None of the changes affected >> the meaning of the photos. They were all alterations that could >> have been made in the darkroom if he had been shooting film. >> >> Tina >> >> Tina Manley, ASMP, NPPA >> http://www.tinamanley.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information