Exercise 2: The Real and the Digital

Project 5 – Exercise 2: The Real and the Digital

Before digital photography became possible, photographic images were, for the main part, accepted as real because the public believed that the camera captured exactly what was in front of it. Images taken could only be manipulated so far using skills such as burning and dodging, double exposure, cropping an image with scissors or paint etc.. – the range of technical skills, processes and methods for doing this were much less extensive than today. Many of these processes were time consuming and not commonly undetectable. When they were used, it was often on request and not expected to be ‘invisible’.

With the advent of Photoshop, the playing field changed. To begin with only individuals or organisations with enough money to purchase the software and the licenses were able to make use of it. Much of the public were slow to realise it existed.

As the costs became more mainstream and the software more widely available, as well as users becoming more skilled, it is almost a common practice for all photographs to be manipulated in some manner or another – enhancement/colour/’editing’ etc – and the photograph captured ‘in camera’ is becoming  the rarity.

Manipulation has become so common place, in fact, that spotting when this has been done, and identifying glaring blunders when it is done badly, has become a ‘sport’ through sites such as “Photoshop Disasters”.

Perception: Does this change the nature of photography as truth?

You cannot composite every single image that is captured so in essence, photography is still capturing a person/place/event in that segment of time. What has changed is people’s attitude to manipulation. It is no longer seen in a negative light, rather that it is something that can be done to ensure that the image is the best it can be – glamourising a portrait, enhancing colour through high dynamic range, changing the sky/backdrop – are common place.

Exercie 1 - Citizen Journalism

The act of taking a photo or video footage of an event and presenting it as an account does not instantly make it journalism - rather it is the act of an eyewitness.

Citizen journalism involves the active participation of normal people rather than  journalists in first hand news-gathering and reporting. It is an alternative to the media. It plays a role in giving an alternative view on local, national and international events, exposing abuses of power, corruption and seeking accountability.

There are arguments for and against citizen journalism;

·         For:

o   Personal connection to the events

o   Independent point of view, usually focussing on deeper issues that initially perceived by external parties

o   Immediate response if distributed to the media/news outlets.

·         Against

o   Poor image quality

o   No anonymity of sources

o   No respect for privacy

o   No consideration on the effects of the images

o   Questionable objectivity of the subject and composition of the images

Case 1.

Antonio Buehler

Antonio Buehler photographed police arresting a woman suspected of DUI while on a garage forecourt fuelling his car. Buehler stated that the officers were mistreating the woman. He then started taking pictures of the incident and was arrested for interfering with the investigation. (https://www.rt.com/usa/texas-faces-years-recording-692/)

Did the picture affect the story – no, as the original photo only shows the woman being pulled towards the police car. The photo? story itself highlights the events which then followed the taking of the photo.

Allegations were made against Buehler by the officers that he had physically intervened in the situation and had spat in one of the officers faces. Buehler took his story to the internet and was able to obtain photographs and video footage from other eyewitness who had recorded the events on their mobile phones. The footage clearly showed that the officers had abused their power and one of the officers was shown to be holding Buelher against a truck. This was not as described in the police department’s reports of the event.

While Buehler was awaiting charges, over 8000 people joined a Facebook page in support of Buelher. They organised rallies and posted the story and others detailing police abuse worldwide onto the internet.

With this support behind him, the charges were eventually dropped against  Buelher and he went on to form “The Peaceful Streets Project” - a grassroots group for police accountability.

In this case, had there not been individuals who filmed the event and spoken up through the internet then the case of abuse of power would probably have gone unnoticed.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/350955711587953/

http://peacefulstreets.com/about/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/197418972/Peaceful-Streets-Complaint

Objectivity : Was Beulher hoping that the police would over react? Maybe  as he was a known activist and knew if he asked questions and photographed officers in a heightened situation that they may react badly to his presence. His own objectivity maybe a little skewed but personally I think that Beuhler may have acted in defence of what he perceived to be an out of  control situation. I don’t think he planned to get himself arrested on false charges.

Case 2

Texas Video Pool Party

This video taken by a teenager shows a police officer pull a gun on a group of teenagers during a pool party. The video uploaded by Brandon Brooks starts with the officer detaining a girl who refused to leave the  party. As he struggles with the girl, he throws her to the ground. Her friends protest against his action and the officer pulls his gun and points it at them. At this point they run away from the officer and are pursued by two other officers on foot. The first officer pulls the girl to the ground, returns his gun to the holster and restrains the girl by pulling and holding her hair.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/us/mckinney-tex-pool-party-dispute-leads-to-police-officer-suspension.html?_r=0

Did the picture affect the story? Yes. The footage shows an officer out of control, not using his training and allowing his temper to get the better of him. Not sure – would need to see the footage to decide whether the taking of the photo merely documented the event or influenced it.

Had there been no eyewitness to the event, then there would have been no proof. In this event it appears that the officer involved was only interested in restraining non-white individuals. This is demonstrated because Brandon who calmly took the video is white and no police officers interfered with his taking the video footage.

Objectivity - even though the full details of the events that took place at the party are unknown, the video footage shows an out of control event and that the officer involved has lost his own objectivity. Brandon’s footage is clear and consciencious and documents the event without deviation.

 The police officer’s response as shown in the video is clearly an overuse of force. As soon as the footage hit the internet it was picked up by news teams around the world and the startling image of an officer pulling a gun on a group of unarmed teenagers shocked people.

In both these cases a trained photojournalist on the scene would have been aware that they were involved in an important event and may have taken time to collect a larger number of images from which to choose one which presented their conscious decision of “objectivity” as they would be aware of the fact that there is no such things as being unconsciously objective..