Alterations in journalistic photography

Journalistic photography is a special tool to help journalists to tell news stories. It is not ethical or acceptable to alter press photographs even the photos that have been modified will become more aesthetic. The prime responsibility for a photojournalist is to disclose the real information to the public. A photojournalist is not permitted to conceal or change the content during the postprocessing, except the colour, journalistic photography must based on the actual and reliable fact and events. With the development of the digital technology, photographs can be altered easily, but there are some negative impacts of photo alterations on journalistic photography. Firstly, once a press photo is altered, its news value will be greatly reduced, or even disappear completely. Press photographs are important proofs for news events, they represent a fact at a special moment, so they have to keep their original looks; otherwise, audiences can not realize weather the photos are reliable or not. Secondly, audiences may be misled while they are looking the photograph that has been modified. It seems that the photographers are lying to audiences by publishing the altered photos. As a photojournalist, he or she is responsible to let audiences know the truth, and it is not allowed to alter the press photographs randomly, which is against the code of ethics. For example, if a photo that shows the scene in the battlefield has been altered or added some desirable features, it will affect a lot, audience can not recognize the real situation at that moment.In short, i insist that press photos are not acceptable to alter.

These two photos show how Reddicliffe looks before and after being altered. Compared to the original photo that lies on the left, the right one shows that Reddicliffe's teeth has been yellowed, dark circles have been added under his eyes; also, his hairline has been moved back. After these alternations, the appearance of Reddicliffe has been changed.

• These two photos show the smoke from burning buildings, the right photo is the one that after being altered. Compared to the original photo, there are much more smoke in the right one, and the colour becomes darker; therefore it seems the fire is more serious, and it is not representing the real conditions to audiences.
  
  Photographs by Adnan Hajj/Reuters
  
• http://meathaus.com/2008/07/07/fox-news-should-hire-less-shitty-photoshop-artists/
  

  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/technology/14photoshop.html?_r=1
  
  http://webct.georgebrown.ca/webct/urw/lc2044122001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_editing
  

Press photography and art photography

It is shot by Keith Carter
http://www.thescreamonline.com/photo/photo4-3/photola/carter.html

It is shot by Arno Minkkinen
http://www.ellen-k.no/%E2%80%9Cas-i-gaze-upon-the-stars%E2%80%9D/

It is shot by Lu Guang

http://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/lu-guang/

It is shot by Mike Wells

http://seanbuckley.ca/blog/2006/01/16/world-press-photo-of-the-year-winners/

I learned something about press photography and art photography after I read some articles. On one hand, they have the same function, no matter press photo or art photo is a useful memory tool, they can record anything that you want to remember, for exempt, if you do not want to forget a person, you can take a photo for him, or when you want to remain the happy moment, you can also take a photo, this is an easy and useful way. What’s more, both good press photographs and art photographs are visual languages, they can tell stories or events to readers.
On the other hand, press photography and art photography have some differences. Firstly, timeliness is an essential feature for press photography. Press photography is required to spread information to readers at the first time; otherwise, the value of photographs will reduce greatly. However, art photography does not have such a feature. Next, they have different subject choice. Press photography emphasis on news value, anything that relate to and important news could be an object for photographers, for instance, the state president attend a meeting or somewhere suffer a grievous disaster is worth enough to be shot.For example, the one that I posted above shot by Lu Guang shows the extremely poor living condition still exists in some area. Nonetheless, art photography pays more attention to sense of beauty. Art photography should fuse the author’s own ideas or feelings to his or her works, such as unfairness, dissatisfaction or complaint. Kertesz said “My work is inspired by my life. I express myself through my photographs. Everything that surrounds me provokes my feeling.” Therefore, no matter trees, lakes hills or buildings may be objects for art photographers. In addition, press photography and art photography use different methods to express their works. Most of press photography is easy to understand because it just represents the real scenes to the life, and it is not permit to process or modify manually, except the colour, so when readers look at the photos, they can get the real information directly. Nevertheless, art photography may use a more implied way to explain the subjects; it provides rich imagination space to readers. In order to study art photography, people have to display their imagination and esthetic ability. Unlike press photography, arts always contain deeper meanings. Also, photographers can modify the photos based on their favours.

In short, there are both similarities and differences between press photography and art photography.

Sources: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzaG9vdGluZ3RoZXRydXRofGd4OjRmNDAzZGZlNjZmMDhkYmE

http://webct.georgebrown.ca/webct/urw/lc2044122001.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct