~ Article by Deon

Morals and Photography

 See the Video below… 

 

Here are some questions on the issue of morals and photography.

The questions are designed to get you thinking.

I can’t give you any clear cut answers, I can only give you opinions.

What are yours?

  • Is it true that what one person considers being moral, another will not?

  • Who is the moral judge?

  • Do we live in a voyeuristic society?

  • With social networking and the Internet, do you really know how many images there are out there of you?

  • Does this make you nervous?

  • Do people who upload these images, have the right to portray you in a specific manner without your permission?

  • Is the camera inquisitive or voyeuristic?

  • If a person is unaware of an image, that is taken of them, does it make it right, and what if that image ends up in a book, website or exhibition?

  • As a photographer, we have a fascination with watching people and while this happens, are we being watched ourselves?  Without the one, there is not the other.

  • What about popular opinion, that celebrities put themselves in the limelight. Does it make it okay for their privacy to be taken away?

  • What about popular opinion, that celebrities put themselves in the limelight. Does it make it okay for their privacy to be taken away?

  • Is there a point where taking the image is no longer the main priority, and the photographer needs to step back? (Should the photographer rather help than record?)

  • How does this influence history? Some of the most iconic photographs are of disastrous incidents. Robert Kappa with the execution of a soldier, Nick Ut with the Nepal bomb attacks and the girl in Vietnam.   Eddie Adams with a Viet Cong officer being executed.

  

  •  Do such images show insight into our history and raise awareness?

  • Has photography raised awareness of the plight of people, countries and situations?

  • Does the advent of digital media and social networking and the “fake it “, influences images in our world?

  • Is it morally correct for a newspaper or a single person to make an obscene amount of money out of the demise of others? How do you balance this with the right of citizens to be informed?

  • Does our fascination in watching other people, social networking, news, spreading of videos, publications, make us fair game too? 

  • Is it human nature to look into something taboo or questionable?

  • Is it asking a lot of photographers when we expect them to be truly moral, in what is an immoral world?

As photographers, we need to think about what we take and what we do with the images. This is not true for just the major news events, but as a principle, it is true for almost every picture we take.  Photography is a voyeuristic medium with consequences that can have a major effect on the lives of individuals and society in a good and also in a bad way. Situations aren’t clear cut, but we do need to give our actions a serious thought.

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