Monday, May 08, 2006

Journal #5- Moral Obligations?

I think that a photographer’s moral obligations depend upon what the photographs will be used for. If the photography is for personal recreation or artistic purposes then the I think in most cases the photographer can take a picture of whatever he or she wants. This is along as whatever is being photographed is something that is in public and could be seen by the naked eye.

However, I thing that with photojournalism comes more moral obligations. Because photojournalists’ photos have the potential of being republished all over the world, there should be some guidelines. I know personally I don’t think pictures of dead people or grieving people should be published. To me the issue here isn’t because of the people that might see the images. I see it out of respect for the subject.

Yet a photographer is often obligated to tell the truth. Sometimes you must ignore that voice telling you no to take the picture because you may get a photo that really tells a story and that is the most important obligation of a photographer- is to tell the story…

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