Ethics

[Kelly]

At what point does stretching the truth (when detailing and documenting our work as photographers) become unethical?

An ethics debate has erupted within the international photography community in regard to photos shot during a high-profile swarm of Rochester’s low-income areas by the world-renowned Magnum Photo agency.

Paolo Pellegrin, one of the photographers here last spring, has placed second in two international contests and won Pictures of the Year International’s Photo of the Year in the freelance/agency category for a picture captioned “A former US Marine Corps sniper with his weapon.”

The picture was in a series he titled “Crescent, Rochester, USA 2012.”

Yet the photo is of Shane Keller, then a Rochester Institute of Technology student, in his Brighton garage miles from the crescent. Keller was a Marine who served in Iraq, but as a combat photographer, not a sniper.....

More: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/2 ... cs-lesson/
More: Controversy surrounds Paolo Pellegrin's prize-winning Magnum photo

I honestly don't see the photo as a winner no matter how it was described or documented.

[Brenda]

I honestly don't see the photo as a winner no matter how it was described or documented.

I agree 100%!!! It does nothing for me.

[Kelly]

Even if I wanted to give Pellegrin the benefit of any doubt and chalk it all up to being in totally unfamiliar surroundings and a possible Italian to English translation error...........I won't forgive his captioning, which consisted of overt plagiarism from a decade old article written on the Rochester neighborhoods he claimed to be photographing in. How could he not notice that Brighton did not look at all like "the Crescent"? He noticed. And lied anyway.

Moreover, an experienced photojournalist knows he must take notes - copious, detailed notes. He must be prepared to defend his claims when challenged. Pellegrin fell short on all of this. Taking a posed photo in a Brighton garage and trying to pass it off as a candid in Rochester's dangerous, crime-ridden Crescent? Didn't know the name of the man you spent the better part of a day photographing? He deserves to be stripped of any awards or titles where these details matter.

Even as a posed shot taken in XYZville, USA, it is certainly not award worthy. Especially at the International level.

And just for the record....

[Matt]

I hate it just because it's a shitty photo (one I would have deleted in camera, and not even given it the chance to get all art-school-black-and-white-filter). And I'm pretty sure that's why most of the criticism is so targeted.
Although I consider my pics from China to be documentary in nature, I would consider it a miracle of the hundreds that I shot, if i got all the names and locations right. Although I do verify things with my friends where either there or are on the ground in China. Even that may not be accurate enough. I don't expect to know all the neighborhoods of Shangri-la, China and I grouped them all in a thread called Shangri-La, while I'm sure some where taken outside in a suburb of Sudo or Napa. Does it matter? I think it depends on the written context. If the man just titled it wrong, I could careless. IF he geocodes it wrong, I can forgive. I can't forgive that disposable camera composition, that cliched "look at me I made art in black and white!!!" of probably a colorful scene, and the jackasses that would consider that a prize-winning photo.

[Kelly]

I don't know that I've ever been so angered by anything in the world of photography as I am about this story. Been following this guy for a while now. So impressed with him. Not only with his work, but the classy, up-front, generous way he operates. Then this - shifty corporate muckity mucks betting on him never finding out as well as being too meek to do anything about it. Can't wait to see how it unfolds.

300 photos used without permission

I am a street photographer in New York City. Several months ago, I was approached by a representative of DKNY who asked to purchase 300 of my photos to hang in their store windows “around the world.” They offered me $15,000. A friend in the industry told me that $50 per photo was not nearly enough to receive from a company with hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. So I asked for more money. They said “no.”

Today, a fan sent me a photo from a DKNY store in Bangkok. The window is full of my photos. These photos were used without my knowledge, and without compensation.

I don’t want any money. But please REBLOG this post if you think that DKNY should donate $100,000 on my behalf to the YMCA in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. That donation would sure help a lot of deserving kids go to summer camp. I’ll let you guys know if it happens.

[Matt]

probably a designer at the company submitted the request in purchasing and purchasing botched the buy and didn't inform the designer. Not an excuse. DKNY is now legally obligated to pay the fair market price, which may be upwards of $500 per image.
Unfortunately this photographer was going to sell his photos for marketing use without signed waivers form the subjects (and i see it prominently features people's faces) and children! That's not only an ethical breech, he's liable for not only release/modeling fees, but damages from any complaints. ANY photography agency won't even accept photos fro commercial use without a waiver. And no respectable photographer should ever sell photos of people for commercial use without their permission.
I also find it humorous that he consulted "A friend in the industry" and despite that friend being knowledgeable, completely ignored that he shouldn't be considering selling pictures of strangers to corporations for use in advertising without signed releases. Nothing like worrying about the $50 and not the hundreds of $100k easy-lose lawsuits.

Anyways, f*** this photographer.

[Kelly]

Anyways, f*** this photographer.

Pretty harsh without knowing all the facts, don't you think?
How do you know there aren't any releases? He talks to each person he photographs if you know anything about him. That's one of the reasons I respect this guy so much. Anyone can stalk, point, shoot and disappear. I should know. I do it all the time. He goes way beyond that and I would be very surprised if he didn't have names and releases from many, no - MOST of his subjects. In any case he was clearly wronged. And shame on dkny.

[Kelly]

I hate it just because it's a shitty photo (one I would have deleted in camera, and not even given it the chance to get all art-school-black-and-white-filter).

I'm going to start putting stacked cases of mayonnaise or antifreeze or whatever that is, in my shitty shots to see if I can win a few international accolades.