The Ethics of Photjournalism

    

Photo By Michele Crameri     

Photo By Michele Crameri

     A controversial time in photojournalism involves Swiss/ Italian photojournalist Michele Crameri.  The article Photojournalist Admits Faking Award-Winning Photos of Honduran Violence by Peta Pixel describes the ethical issue as, "the photographer was joking with the hit men and asking them to demonstrate their execution techniques when the photos were shot." Crameri then published these false photos with the caption deceitfully saying it was actual violence.  Crameri also photographed dramatized scenes of gang members posing to please the camera.  Crameri played all his images off as real, traumatic violence faced by citizens in Honduran cities.  

     Crameri's deceit came out when people working with him exposed the truth.  Both local journalists and the correspondent that brought Crameri to these areas, explained the truth behind the photos.  Orlin Castro was a subject in one of the staged photos pretending to get assaulted.  Castro requested Crameri not use the image, but he published it anyway.    


     An incident like this goes against all my personal ethics, especially those about honesty.  For example, it is not at all truthful and all the pictures have captions that are entirely false.  Playing off these fake sense as real life, traumatic events shows no integrity or morality.
      As a photojournalist, Crameri has the obligation to be transparent with those who are dependent on him for an honest view of the world.  By lying about the staged situation and by disrespecting the wishes of his subjects, Crameri disregards many ethics.  Because I believe in transparency and openness, this is something I would never do.  It is disrespectful to the subjects who were requested to not be published as well as people who actually fell victim to the assaults.  I would never approach this situation in the way Crameri did, with blatant lies.    

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