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, even top international judges find all manner of postproduction techniques acceptable. Clearly, even in journalism, anything goes in today’s photography.
Seeing the images in large, color-rich (or lacking) prints side-by-side is what did it for me. I realized that normally when reviewing photojournalism I focus on content and aesthetic considerations mostly related to in-camera style—not postproduction techniques.
Again, photographers are no strangers to the power and prevalence of so-called “photographic manipulation,” dating back to the birth of photography itself. But I wonder if most non-journalist photographers are aware of how much postproduction creativity is taking place in the realm of news photography.
More abstractly, I also wonder how acceptance of more diverse aesthetic styles in photojournalism affects both perception of so-called “factuality”—whether in journalism of the commercial realm. But that’s a much larger topic.
What are your thoughts on postproduction techniques in relation to news photography? Do you have any concerns about the lack of so-called “journalistic integrity”? Or, like me, are you convinced that so-called “truth” is a moving target and that journalists should feel free to take advantage of any manner of postproduction techniques to better tell their stories?