One situation that caused a lot of controversy, where a
photojournalist may not have been fully ethical is a situation that took place
in Israel with a man named Menahem
Kahana. This situation has to do with photojournalists editing or altering
photos. According to Mark Hancock’s blog, In this case, “Menahem Kahana's image
appeared in Yated Neeman, an ultra-Orthodox
Jewish newspaper and clearly someone had messed with the image.” In the photo, someone had removed the female ministers from the photo,
and replaced them with men to make it all men in the photo. The New
York Times added that another newspaper posted the same picture, also getting rid of the women, but did it a little differently. "The weekly Shaa Tova simply blacked the women out" instead of replacing the women with men, they just blocked there faces. The photograph the women were cropped out of was taken
at an official ceremony welcoming the nee Israeli leadership. Per the San Diego Union-Tribune, “Ultra-orthodox
newspapers consider it immodest to print images of women.” Though this was a very controversial photo
altering, it is what the religion believes in making it a tough issue to
resolve. “In the United States cloning over people is a “terminal offense” but
in the Middle East image manipulation has recent precedents as well The Tribune stated.”
original photo vs. the photo after cropping out the women.
Photo by: Menahem Kahana
Image source: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/setbacks-for-women-in-israel-pakistan-and-afghanistan/comment-page-9/?_r=1
Photo oh Limor Livnat, one of the women ministers that was cropped out of the photo.
Photo by: Daily Mail
In my opinion the actions of this photographer were unfair,
unkind and would not follow my personal ethics. Especially for me being from
the United States and living in the kind of country, and times I do that would
totally not be excepted here, by anyone. People have fought for many years and still
are for women’s rights. To me, the action of taking these women out of the
photo is discriminatory and is hurtful which violates ethical codes in general.
Though, I do understand that Israel is a very different place and being ultra-
orthodox is something totally different then what I know and am used to. I’m sure
to them it made sense and is even part of how they normally act so it isn’t
totally out of the norm for them, which I can understand. Though I do feel like
it could have been handled differently without totally changing and
photo shopping a photo.
Based on my personal ethics I would have approached the
situation totally differently. I think I would have just not included that
photo in that newspaper to begin with. If that newspaper was unaccepting of
women being photographed I would have not put the photo at all. If they wanted
a photo of the cabinet in there, it still would have been even better to take a
photo with just the men then to crop the women out and replace them in my
opinion.
Though I think it still would have been discriminatory to
leave the women out, trying to understand that religious groups personal ethics
I would have at least done that. I feel like by cropping those women out and
replacing them it made a fake photo, and made them look bad. I would have approached
the situation in the most kind and fair way possible to all people involved.
This includes the women, the ultra-orthodox Jewish people, and everyone
involved. I think doing one of the two things I suggested would have been the fairest
to everyone.
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