Ethical issues in Photography and Reporting
By Jackie Mow
As photography has grown throughout the past few centuries so has what the
photographers are able to do with the medium. Photojournalists, Documentaries and Artists have
all used photos in many different ways to prove a point, to share news or to capture beauty. Yet
not every capture has been used ethically, some photos released to the public have been edited or
warped to show different viewpoints to sway the people. Photo manipulation is more than just
physically changing the image, what is compared to the picture and the text that follows it also
has an influence on how it is perceived by the public.
During the Civil War in the 1860’s, a Scotsman from Paisley named Alexander Gardner
immigrated to the United States to capture the war. Gardner was a well-respected photographer
in New York, working with portraiture. When the war started up, the demand for portraiture did
was well, as the recruited soldiers wanted their portraits taken. Eventually, this line of work in
portraiture led Gardner to become one of the top photographers of the civil war alongside
photographers such as Mathew Brady or Andrew Russell. A few of his photos became the center
of attention when other photographers brought up the positions of the soldiers and the objects
around them; declaring he moved them and stripping the morals and truth from the photos by
tampering with the subjects on the field. In this photo, Battlefield of Gettysburg: Dead
Confederate Sharpshooter at foot of Little Round Top, Gardner was accused of moving the rifle
as it was in a position that would be extremely unlikely if the soldier fell down when shot. It
raised questions as to whether or not the photo was still true, and if it was ethically within the
photographer’s right to move and stage the photo when Gardner was supposed to be
documenting the war; not using it as an art or photojournalism subject.
Alexander Gardner, Battlefield of Gettysburg: Dead Confederate Sharpshooter at foot of Little
Round Top
The Tabloid Newspapers from the 1900’s left much to debate with ethics in
Photojournalism; the journalists were taking and creating their own photos to match scandalous
stories they created just to get a rise out of the public. Tabloids with stories of anything between
scandals of the celebrity world to the weird and bizarre were fashioned to keep the public’s
interest in the on-goings of society. The writers determined to get anything out, fabricated weird
stories and to have it perceived as true, needed to make a photograph, the universal truth.
Tabloid journals such as The Evening’s Graphic, The Daily News, and The Mirror were
some of the tabloids that ignored ethics in favor of having a shocking story. Based mainly on
scandalous sex stories and other graphic categories, Evening’s Graphic spun stories of gossip and
were one of the first tabloids to fabricate photos to match the gossip. In the tabloid, photos called
Composographs, were created in the art department of the studio by taking the faces of the
celebrities in question and pasting them on the bodies of models who were posed to go along
with the story. The settings of the photos ranged from anywhere drama could arise, a person’s
bedroom, bathroom, a party, a murder scene, hospital, a funeral, or a courtroom. Anywhere they
thought they could find a story.
Composograh from the Evening’s Graphic in the 1920’s
This particular image was form the Divorce Trial of Kip Rhinelander during the 1920’s.
When Kip Rhinelander married Alice Jones Rhinelander, a woman of lower standing in society,
Rhinelander’s father was not pleased and pushed for a divorce between the two, claiming she
was of “mixed” blood. When the point was brought up that Kip Rhinelander had to have known
what race she was, brought the defense to desperate means which in turn lead to the photo. In
court, when the journalists were told that no photography was allowed, Alice Rhinelander
stripped in front of the judge and jury to prove her race and her lawyers point. Defying the
judge’s wishes, as well as the wishes of Alice Rhinelander, a Composograh was created to show
the most scandalous part of the story. Alice Rhinelander facing the court and stripping to show
her skin color to the judge and jury. Combined from more than 20 photos and a dance hall girl
who stood in for Mrs. Rhinelander, the composograph was made and sent off against the will of
the bride.
Another moral question for newspapers is the how they use a photo to approach a subject,
and if it still is not to their liking, manipulate it even more to sway the public. When the Wire
Photo came out all newspapers in 1935, journals, tabloids, and magazines could obtain the same
photo at the same time to have the winning photo on the front page the next day. The wire photos
allowed the presses to have the same image on the same day, but what each newspaper was
different with was how they went about using the photo with the story to describe the event.
Depending on what the story said, changed the opinion of the public. One more recent story in
the 1990’s that dealt with the same front page photo from different presses was the story of O.J.
Simpson; who’s photo was shown differently on two different presses which confused the public.
The O.J. Simpson murder case, where the photo of Simpson’s Mug Shot was released to the
press, Newsweek placed his face on the front cover and sent it off to press. Time tampered with
shot, darkened the image to make him look guilty, before his trial was even started. They dulled
his eyes and played on racial traits of his skin tone to frighten the public. This caused a lot of
controversy in the community over which one was true and the ethics of editing the photo to
personalize the story. Many were against Time and claiming they were racist by changing the
photo and darkening it made him look more menacing by intensifying his skin color. Others
claimed that Time was dehumanizing him and that because it was a photo for the newspaper, as
such it should have never been tampered with.
Newsweek and Time portraying the original and manipulated mug shot of O.J. Simpson
In conclusion, over the past century since the photograph was born, the ethics and morals
of reporters, documentaries, photojournalists and artists have changed. Using words and pictures,
they shape the views and beliefs of the public, herding them to one side or the other of the story.
By pairing photos and text together, the way the story is presented changes with each journalist’s
intention.
Bibliography
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photos?” Photo District News, Apr. 2014: 18+. General OneFile. Web.
"Alexander Gardner." Civil War Trust. 2014. Web.
"O.J.‘s Darkened Mug Shot." Museum of Hoaxes. Web. 11 May 2015.
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