Press Photography vs. Art Photography

by Erik Johansson  http://alltelleringet.com/ 

      The main differences and similarities between art and press photography is that art photography is more free to use manipulation, staging and injection of meaning to produce images that reflect the ‘artist’ desired perspective/view he/she wishes to share.  In contrast, press photography while having perspective, is bound to the ethical guidelines of not trying to interpret the truth but simply document it, objectively. Photographers from both press and art practices have a gift for being in the moment , the right place at the right time.  In an article written by David Friend about the career of Henri Cartier-Bresson, David spoke of the inspiration and merit that photographers give to the rest of us- the spectators," He displayed an intuitive knack for choosing "the decisive moment," as it came to be called, that instant when a shutter click can suspend an event within the eye and heart of the beholder, an exhilarating confluence of observer and observed. His lyrical, loose, ingeniously composed images were a revelation..."

found at: http://vi.sualize.us/view/9aedfb16e78ed011d64d94dabebf34eb/  original artist:M. Shaltout Photography

2.      The photos by Shaltout  and Johansson are clearly manipulated, but relates well  to the quote above in that it can reveal the inner thinking or vision of the individual. Such great expressions.  I think it is ethical to alter art photographs as much as it is ethical to mix primary colors to make secondary colors.  Art has never been one to ‘color within the lines’ and since it is about individual perspective and reaction to and or imagined creative expression then I think it would be quite natural for photo artists to use art studio tools to expand their creativity.

It is not ethical and acceptable to alter press photographs in my opinion for the most part because of the role that press photography plays through the media in providing a lens to bring the challenges and possibilities of the human experience to the individual citizen. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA History Office The Decision to Go to the Moon:
President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech
before a Joint Session of Congress Found at:http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html

This power which press photographers have is one that should have ethical boundaries as it is a role that requires competence, maturity and accountability.

Thememoryhole.org, via Associated Press DOVER, DEL. An undated Defense Department photo released in 2004.

In an essay written by by Gordana Icevska about Cartier-Bresson, Icevska points out that Cartier-Bresson "believes in taking pictures while being invisible, not interrupting the scene. “In whatever picture-story we try to do, we are bound to arrive as intruders. It’s essential, therefore, to approach the subject on tiptoe-even if the subject is still-life. A velvet hand, a hawk’s eye – these we should all have…Unless a photographer observes such conditions as these, he may become an intolerably aggressive character”(Cartier-Bresson,
1952).  In both art and press photography there are many similarities and differences, and both have the potential to open up a view of life to the rest of us that we have known or never knew, but maybe need to see more closely.