I have always been impressed with the astonishing ability of photographers for the New York Times to get spectacularly good dramatic photographs of scenes that were hard to get to, lasted only an instant, and were dangerous to be near. It was a wonder to me that photographers could be so good impromptu. I speculated, "Well, they are talented professionals. And they must have shot a million frames of which that one was the best." But it still made me wonder how they do it so consistently.
I got an inkling of how they do it yesterday. In one of the photos of the demonstrations in Lhasa, I noticed something interesting about the man whom the photograph centered on. One could dimly see the background through his arm. The NY Times photoshops its news photographs.
If they doctor their photographs, what does that tell you about the rest of their reporting?
Jack, you are being too harsh. The NY Times has deadlines, with many stories and photos to print. They can't be expected to read every word of every story or look at every picture they print. They have to fill up that paper, that newspaper of record.
ReplyDeleteAll the news that fits, they print.
So what are you saying -- that they're too busy not to doctor their pictures?
ReplyDeleteNo, what I am saying is the "NYTimes" isnot doctoring the pictures, the freelance photographers who sell photos to the time are and the Times isn't checking the photos they print. This happened before and is still happening. The Times they are not a'changin'.
ReplyDeleteYou're saying their problem is globalization? They call for a photograph and some guy in India answers the phone?
ReplyDeleteExactly...Every time there is an "event", a riot, a flood, a disaster of any kind, there is a photographer from the media and three thousand amateur and freelance guys with high end digital cameras. Newspapers usually run one photo in connection with their story. If some random guy can get the definitive photo of the event, that's the photo that runs.
ReplyDeleteA matter of economics and opportunity.
Harvey's right. Who is Harvey?
ReplyDeleteHarvey is the Sage of Chico, the Hillel of Butte County, the Lao-tzu of the Inland Empire, the Aristotle of the Sacramento Valley, semi-elderly pere of two darling tots of four and almost one, pillar of the community, macher of the schule, my best friend for forty-odd years. Other than that, I have no idea.
ReplyDelete