[antimedia] antimedia: Freelance photographer cites first hand knowledge....

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Posted by antimedia:
Freelance photographer cites first hand knowledge....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1155426418.shtml


   ....of [1]bodies being disinterred under the direction of stringers in
   order to get a photo for the wire services.
   From the actual photographers discussion forum.

     i have been working in lebanon since all this started, and seeing
     the behavior of many of the lebanese wire service photographers has
     been a bit unsettling. while hajj has garnered a lot of attention
     for his doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not, i
     have been witness to the daily practice of directed shots, one case
     where a group of wire photogs were coreographing the unearthing of
     bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to
     position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have already been
     put in graves so that they can photograph them in peoples arms.
     these photographers have come away with powerful shots, that
     required no manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a
     human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical problem.
     whatever the case isâlack of training, a personal drive as a
     photographer to show what is happening to your country in as
     powerful a way as possible, or all out competitiveness, i think
     that the onus is on the wire services themselves, because they act
     as the employer/filter of their photogs work. standards should be
     in place or else the rest of us end up paying the price. and iâm
     not against the idea of local wire photographers, but after seeing
     it over and over for the past month, i think it is something that
     is worth addressing. while i walk away from a situation like that,
     one wire shooter sets up a situation, and the rest of them
     followâ¦....
     by Bryan Denton Fri Aug 11 07:36:08 UTC 2006 | Beirut, Lebanon

   His post was immediately met with skepticism and a demand for more
   specificity. He followed up with this.

     sorry to have not been specific. just to make this clear. i was not
     in qana and am not referring to the massacre that took place there.
     i have been covering beirut, and it was at numerous protest,
     evacuations as well as the israeli strikes in chiyeh, which
     unfortunately did not get that much coverage in the mediaâwhere i
     saw this behavior occur. i have also heard from friends of mine in
     lebanon, respected photographers, that this was not an isolated
     incident.
     unfortunately in each of these cases, it was the lebanese wire
     photographers that started these situations. that said, i am not
     trying to make generalizations. i know that there are a number of
     dedicated and brilliant lebanese photographers here who are putting
     themselves in extremely dangerous situations in order to document
     what is happening here in their country, and in hindsight, i
     realize it was irresponsible for me to post the previous statement
     because it was not specific enough. however, this has been
     something iâve noticed happening here, more than any other place
     iâve worked previously.
     i agree that there is a lot of pressure, particularly on stringers
     (i myself am a freelancer), due to cost cutting and how the big
     image banks pay their non-staff photographers, and while
     unfortunate events like qana and chiyeh require the utmost
     responsiblity, seeing it happen for things like protests and
     evacuations is equally as disturbing and doesnât bode well.
     again, i am terribly sorry for rattling the saber so
     hardâ¦.re-reading my words I too should have been a bit more
     responsible. (Emphasis mine.)

   He's apologizing for upsetting the forum members, but he does not back
   down on his claim of having seen the phenomenon.

References

   1. http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22071_Photographer_Alleges_Unearthing_of_Bodies&only