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New photojournalism blog; Gadhafi photos too graphic?
A new blog kicks off today, focusing, if you will, on photography.
The occasional blog "Looking Glass" will offer insight into the world of Gazette photographers.
As the subtitle mentions, "Looking Glass" will provide behind-the-scenes stories and photos, photos that were never printed and general discussion on the craft of photojournalism.
One immediate topic might be the very graphic photos on the death of Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday.
The Gazette chose not to run the photos in print on Thursday because of their graphic nature. Widespread use of the images was seen on TV, however.
(Warning: the photos are very graphic. To view one, click HERE.)
The first photos out of Libya on Thursday showed a very bloodied and captured Gadhafi either near death or dead. What are your thoughts? Do you think the photos of a slain Gadhafi should have run in the newspaper today? Or are they best left unpublished?
Jeffrey Haff is The Gazette's online editor.
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1:07 p.m. [ Suggest removal ]
I love the idea of a photojournalism blog and would like to hear more from your photographers. There are many topics that can be explored in creating a storytelling image but the personal motivation that goes into a great photo can only come from the person behind the lens. Is it assignment or aesthetics? Great photos don't often make it to print. Are the editors to blame? Should they rely more on the photographer's intuition and experience? How about those static or routine subjects? A great photo can really make the article. How many reporters are delegated to taking their own photos and writing the article? What warrants assigning a reporter and photographer to a story? How much physical photo editing is allowed? Is any Photoshop use allowed or must photographers rely on the camera's interpretation of what the scene looked like? You may have just taken that great jpeg shot but forgot to set your white balance. Shooting raw files requires at least converting to a usable format with white balance correction. .
These are all topics I wonder about.
Gerald J Skrocki