Manipulating pictures and photos have long been an issue, as it could easily affect the audience and change their perspectives on certain topics. The picture featured on the left originated Basra and was later placed on the Los Angeles Times. It presents a British soldier gesturing and urging Iraqi civilians to seek cover and shelter. It was later revealed, however, that Brian Walski, a veteran photographer at that time, had combined two previous photographs into one. As a result of the manipulation, the picture evoked sentimentality and compassion among the public.
This photo was probably manipulated in order to change the negative stigma of the war in Iraq. As sentimental as the photo was, I believe that manipulating the previous pictures was especially harmful to the public. With a highly controversial subject as the war in Iraq and with a newspaper that is as highly read as the Los Angeles Times, I thought it was wrong to trick the public into thinking a certain way. The revealing of the manipulated photos makes this issue even worse, since people will now become suspicious of other pictures depicting the Iraqi War. Brian Walski defended his picture by stating that he wanted to “improve” his composition. However, I beg to differ. Manipulating photos damages the situation these pictures represent.
I agree with your thouths about how a manipulated photo about a controversial subject makes it even worse. I personally also think that Walski's defense doesn't apply when the photograph is used as news rather than art. I don't know whether or not to blame him or the LA Times, though, because I don't know who chose to present the picture as factual news rather than a composition.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this raises a lot of suspicion surrounding previous pictures from the War in Iraq. Many of them seem very similar to this one and for all we know they could too be fake. I don't think this is a huge deal because this kind of stuff has always gone on, I just don't like how people think they can get away with this stuff.
ReplyDeleteRyan
When I first looked at this picture, I didn't think that the maipulation was harmful because it shows a soldier trying to bring peace to the people. However, I definitely think that you are right that it is harmful because it is deceptive to the public, and people should know the truth. Good blog!
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