An Eye-Opening Look at How Many Conflict Photos Are Staged

[Biomech]

I've always wanted to get "pulitzer" style photos and maybe go out to warzones etc and get some good gritty harrowing shots. But after watching this video I've become a bit disheartened...

An Eye-Opening Look at How Many Conflict Photos Are Staged

It's a look at the role of the photographer in such shots, how they are often staged and taken out of context to a much greater degree than we think. Worth a watch

[dthomasd]

Wow, that was a very interesting video to watch, thanks. It has never been something that I thought about before when seeing these kinds of things on t.v.

[monstermum]

I heard of this kind of thing happening in Ireland when it was a bit slow news-wise, during the Troubles. Too bad the photographers couldn't have found some good news stories to make us think there is some hope for the situation over there.

[Biomech]

Like I say, I've always wanted to take photos like that and when I see some of them I'm in awe. But if you have to fake it... I'd just feel bad about it and that the photo is worthless.

[Doug Sundseth]

What do you expect? They're journalists; of course they make stuff up.

[SwissJon]

Interesting.. This goes on to beg the question as to whether the "fake" images and the presence of the photojournalists actually serves to occasionally inflame and maintain a problem that might actually reduce and go away if they weren't being witnessed?

One might well look at the press coverage of the riots in the UK. If the press hadn't stepped into the frame giving details of how the first rioters were communicting on TV, I wonder how many of the following riots would have kicked off.

What I mean is, are some of the problems seen within the world actually CAUSED by the journalists misportraying a situation for the sake of the story. Have people actually died because of irresponsible reporting?

[NgaiHill]

Yup, even the famous Iwo Jima photo by Joe Rosenthal was staged (albeit they were just repeating the putting up of the flag but still staged).
We had a photojournalist come along on our last training exercise & yesterday the guys were looking at some of the photos he took. One shot in particular that was point out as "a really good shot" showed a machine gunner on a small rock outcrop, with the linked ammo trailing down the side of the rock, shot from below the gunner's level. The guys like the way the rounds lay down the rock towards the camera. I had a wee smile, while its possible the rounds lay like that when the gunner hit the ground I wouldn't be surprised to find they were "manipulated" to improve the composition of the shot.
I will have to ask the photographer next time I see him