Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/12

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] RE: world press winners 2006
From: scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)
Date: Sun Feb 12 07:55:17 2006
References: <000401c62f9b$03cfe370$3af1c547@Aubin>

I would think in a disaster situation that there are folks whose job it 
is to
help and other folks whose job it is to report.  Like Army photographers,
it's not immoral for them to not fight; their job is to take pics or 
footage.

I imagine that if one were alone with a person who was bleeding and
needed help, it would be immoral to take pics of them instead of calling
an ambulance.  But this logic doesn't apply to disaster situations where
there are alot of helpers running around doing their jobs.

Scott

Norm Aubin wrote:

>B.D. et.al.-
>
>Pardon my asking, but does this logically resolve to saying that it's 
>more important to get the picture of the blood spurting than to staunch 
>the wound?
>
>Or to extend your question - while he's doing more than the people 
>at home questioning him, is he doing more than the people on the 
>scene - and more importantly - is he doing as much as he can? 
>
>Is it a moral or an ethical question if the photographer is doing this for 
>pay - i.e. he's a mercenary and his job is to get the picture and make 
>money for his employer?  
>
>Let me ask it differently - when do you put the camera down and get 
>involved?  There are some on this list who do humanitarian work, and
>take beautiful pictures on the side, Tina's work being the exemplar for 
>this, so in her case I can do nothing but be in awe of her spirit, as well
>as 
>her artistic skills.
>
>I'm really curious - I shoot for fun, I don't have to make this decision - 
>I can put the camera away whenever I want to and get involved in what
>ever worthy cause I choose - how do the pro's handle this, and how do 
>they rationalize this?
>
>Best of light,
>Norm
>
>-----------------------------
>  
>
>>Message: 21
>>Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 20:46:02 -0500
>>From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@comcast.net>
>>Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: world press winners 2006
>>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>>Message-ID: <C013FD8A.C394%bdcolen@comcast.net>
>>Content-Type: text/plain;     charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>>What do you mean, "is it moral?" Are we all morally required 
>>to go to the
>>scene of disasters to 'help?' Of course not. The photographer 
>>or reporter on
>>a scene is doing far more to 'help,' by bringing the event, 
>>disaster, to the
>>world's attention, than people sitting at home questioning 
>>the morality of
>>photographing rather than 'helping.' ;-)
>>
>>    
>>
>
>  
>

-- 
Pics @ http://www.adrenaline.com/snaps
Leica M6TTL, Bessa R, Nikon FM3a, Nikon D70, Rollei AFM35
(Jihad Sigint NSA FBI Patriot Act)



In reply to: Message from puff11 at comcast.net (Norm Aubin) ([Leica] RE: world press winners 2006)