Photo Bill of Rights

[twvancamp]

Read about this Photo Bill of Rights, which is part petition, part declaration and found it very interesting. The basic idea is to question the longstanding rule that groups/protests are fair game for journalistic photography, and draws attention to some of the potential consequences of covering these types of gatherings. Some pretty large groups (including the NPPA) have signed on.

I'm not a journalist (and don't know how many we have on the forum) but I wouldn't want to be in this bind. This article provides some nice context and a bit about the reaction so far.

 

[Out to Lunch]

Thanks for sharing with the caveat that, at least for now, this is for Americans, only. My initial reaction: you are on that slippery slope when diversifying rights for particular groups of news gatherers. Cheers, OtL

 

[twvancamp]

That's a good note, OTL, it does seem to be American photographers, though since it is just a list of best practices and not legally binding, it could be picked up internationally.

I appreciate this initiative. Journalistic 'neutrality' is an unrealistic ideal. Seems that making photographers alert to the potential fallout of their work is worthwhile, even if practices/laws don't need to change.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

From the link in OP.

The white, Western, cisgender male gaze has been used to colonize, disenfranchise, and dehumanize.

I'm sick and tired of this.

 

[Timmyjoe]

I couldn't read the article as it is behind a paywall. As for the Bill of Rights, I've been doing this for a lot of years and have been very lucky, worked for a number of different publications. The landscape is getting worse and worse. I'm getting close to retirement age, so I'm just trying to go with it, but it certainly wouldn't be a field I would encourage anyone to enter unless, like most of us, you can't see yourself doing anything else.

As I tell friends still, "The worst day making images (and there have been some pretty bad days) is still better than the best day doing anything else."

Best,
-Tim

 

[ptpdprinter]

I think I would be more worried about having work next week.

 

[aizan]

Read about this Photo Bill of Rights, which is part petition, part declaration and found it very interesting. The basic idea is to question the longstanding rule that groups/protests are fair game for journalistic photography, and draws attention to some of the potential consequences of covering these types of gatherings. Some pretty large groups (including the NPPA) have signed on.

I'm not a journalist (and don't know how many we have on the forum) but I wouldn't want to be in this bind. This article provides some nice context and a bit about the reaction so far.

Actually, the Photo Bill of Rights is about labor issues in the photography industry, not the ethics of documenting protests (like in the second linked article).

 

[emraphoto]

The topic of consent is not sitting well with many photojournalists I know.

My question is how often does this occur? Where an individual is either charged or convicted as a result of a press photo? I know the answer isn’t ‘never’ but is this really a problem? With the amount of surveillance going on via technology already being incomprehensible in scope, is this much ado about nothing?

 

[charjohncarter]

The topic of consent is not sitting well with many photojournalists I know.

My question is how often does this occur? Where an individual is either charged or convicted as a result of a press photo? I know the answer isn’t ‘never’ but is this really a problem? With the amount of surveillance going on via technology already being incomprehensible in scope, is this much ado about nothing?

If you want to commit a crime don't have photogs near you. Or be sure you do your crimes are in a location that is easy on criminals: like my old home towns: Seattle and Portland.

 

[Bart Bart]

Another way of squashing dissent from anything but the prevailing narrative, preparing us for a new age of even wider censorship.

But I do like "Lens-Workers", Brooks Jensen would be proud.

 

[lynnb]

An excellent open letter to the NPPA in response to this matter on photo ethics from PJ David Burnett.

 

[MrFujicaman]

More BS from the far left...

 

[css9450]

I keep reading and re-reading the "Bill of Rights" and I am still uncertain as to what it is. That it's full of buzzwords only adds to my confusion.

 

[Dogman]

I'm agreeing with KoFe.

It's BS. Apparently designed to make life miserable and untenable for working PJs.

As a former NPPA member, I'm appalled this organization has bought into giving up their journalist's rights to appease a political group--any political group, no matter how trendy this month/year.

 

[Dogman]

By the way, what the eff is a "cisgender"?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

By the way, what the eff is a "cisgender"?

Cisgender means you're normal. You were born a man, and you think you're a man. Or, you were born a woman and you think you're a woman. Normal.

The opposite of Cisgender is Transgender.

 

[KoNickon]

Chris -- "out there," some will take offense at an assumption that cisgender means "normal." 🙂

I know what you're getting at of course -- maybe "more typical" is better (or less potentially offensive) than "normal."

I haven't read the piece being discussed. Jargon of any sort, such as the line Ko.Fe. deplores up in #4, is tiresome. But deal with it -- it's true, even if you don't want to hear it.

 

[Dogman]

Thanks, Chris. Never consider myself to be very normal but, by this definition, I guess that's me. Just plain boring normal. Maybe there'll someday be therapy to help people like me. Probably will. How thrilling.

 

[seany65]

So, is this "revolution", this "uprising", wanting to stop the media photographing and filming these marches and demo's etc?

If so, why?

The original worry may have been bias by the media against the marchers, demonstrators and "revolutionaries", but doesn't this "bill of rights" smack of wanting to control the media and what it shows, and isn't the idea that the media is a controlled entity by a small group something they are complaining about?

They are forgetting that they are filmed almost everywhere they go by security cameras and most of them give abysmal-quality images and often no sound so it's hard to know what's really going on in any situation.

I presume they are prepared and able to film and photograph themselves, as they aren't biased against themselves, but would they film themselves doing bad crap (if they did any), or would they NOT film themselves doing crap in order to give the impression that they are "angels"? If so, would that not be presenting a biased view?

 

[emraphoto]

I'm agreeing with KoFe.

It's BS. Apparently designed to make life miserable and untenable for working PJs.

As a former NPPA member, I'm appalled this organization has bought into giving up their journalist's rights to appease a political group--any political group, no matter how trendy this month/year.

A lot of current NPPA members are not pleased