Chapter Seven

When I think of ethics I think of rules or certain standards of a certain thing. When you look up the word in a dictionary” ethics is the code of conduct for an individual or group.” With the topic of photojournalism it is somewhat hard to define ethics in this case.  For photojournalism the term ethics keeps changing. Now for photojournalism ethics you have to be careful on what you’re photographing because of the subject. According to the NPPA, “This code is intended to promote the highest quality in all forms of visual journalism and to strengthen public confidence in the profession. It is also meant to serve as an educational tool both for those who practice and for those who appreciate photojournalism. To that end, The National Press Photographers Association sets forth the following.”

            Michael Kamber who was born in Maine in 1963 is a photojournalist who has been in this career since 1986. Kamber has worked all around the world as in Iraq, Liberia, Sudan, Haiti, Israel and many other places. His work has been in the United States and Europe. There are many well known magazines that he has worked for. Kamber attended Revson Fellow at Columbia University and was the winner of the Missouri School of Journalism’s Lifestyle Award. In an interview last year Kamber was asked questions about photojournalism and altering images. One day Kamber decided to make an exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center about Altered images. The exhibit showed fake, manipulated, and staged photos. During the interview Kamber was asked good questions that later in the future other photographers can look at and maybe able to change their work. One question that caught my attention in the article is, “Do you feel that image altering is getting worse in the age of digital manipulation?” Kamber had a long response but my favorite part of it was “Staff jobs and apprenticeships with editors that can teach you the ropes over a period of years – that has all gone out the window. I think those were the ways certain standards and ethics were passed down. That whole system has disintegrated. So, you’ve got a lot of young photographers who I think are, to no fault of their own, not really trained in photos and ethics and they have the means of production at their fingertips. They have grown up with Photoshop and can change photos at will.” So many photographers now a day’s use a lot of technology, while this technology gives them the advantage to change pictures in any kind of way.

            Kamber gives different examples of ethics being disobeyed in the interview. One example is a picture in Syria that he mentioned. Narciso removed a video camera when he decided to edit the photo. It was said that the photographer "was cleaning up the image and not changing the meaning."

Photo Taken by: Narciso

Image Source.:http://www.ap.org/Content/AP-In-The-News/2014/AP-severs-ties-with-photographer-who-altered-work

My view on ethics of photojournalism has its high and lows. I feel that altering pictures is wrong at times because its fake and its not showing the real thing. Photoshop has become so popular now that you do not know what to believe. I understand that some photojournalist may want to change the picture to give it a extra dramatic effect or maybe one little detail will make the picture better but it is wrong to the viewers eyes even if they don't know. Personally I wouldn't want anyone to try to change my ethics if they had the chance to. I'm my own person based on my ethics and a picture is its original self based on its ethics.