Art vs. Press Photography

Two major types of photography are press photography and art photography. Press photographs are meant to capture the moment of an event as it occurs. Art photography is set up to be artistic and is almost never "real".

Occupy Wall Street Credit: Henry Ray, AP October 8, 2011

Iran Protests, Credit: Olivier Laban-Mattei, June 13, 2009

The photographs about are press photographs that show peaceful and violent protests in two very different parts of the world. The first picture shows the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York, New York currently going on. This photo is an example of a press photographer who is not trying to get into the shot and allow people to know they're being photographed. This photographer shot much in the way that Eugene Smith and Sebastiao Salgado. They shot images without interfering the with procession of events.

The second photo shows a protester in the 2009 Iran Political Protests in Tehran, Iran. This man was severely beating and shows his wounds. It looks as though the protester knows the photographer is right in front of him and is trying to embellish his injuries. I do believe this type of image is alright as it would otherwise be difficult to show the viewers of these images to see just how brutal the protesters were.

Press photographs should never be manipulated as it breaks the code of photojournalists. Photos should be presented as they were taken or not used at all as it can dramatically affect the perception the viewer sees the photo in.

Credit: Ben Heine

Credit: QT Luong

The two photographs above show art photography, these photos are heavily manipulating to present them as art to the viewer. The photo of the lady lying on the street was shot normally and edited using High-Dynamic Range and photoshopped to include the sketch of the hawk and the key. The photo of the clouds wasn't modified as much but clearly this photo was not shot exactly as the picture is presented. It is perfectly ethical to manipulate photographs for the sole purpose of displaying them as artistic photographs. Just as with paintings or drawings, your imagination should be the only limiting factor for creativity and manipulation.