A couple weeks ago I saw the traveling World Press Photo ’08 exhibit on display here in Buenos Aires. A fan of the yearly photojournalism contest, I was quite surprised by my reaction to the experience. It was the first time I had seen World Press Photo in person, and I was stunned by the photojournalists’ incredibly diverse and extreme postproduction practices.
Journalistic photography has never been as so-called “objective” as the general public tends to think. From selective cropping to the so-called “hand of god” burning and dogging techniques used by traditional black and white newspaper shooters, photographers have been employing postproduction techniques to better tell their stories since long before the advent of digital. As photographers, we are well aware of this.
Still, seeing the images of World Press Photo ‘08 in person (which I normally see in book form) drove home for me an obvious point that I hadn’t quite appreciated: In the realm of photojournalism, Continue reading “World Press Photo ‘08 and Postproduction in Photojournalism”
