The True Truth of Photojournalism and Why the Critics of Damon Winter Got it Wrong
There has been whirlwind of pernicious criticism of Damon Winter’s award winning photo of Delta Company 2nd Platoon clearing an exit out of Nahr-i-Sufi, Afghanistan. The image is part of an excellent series entitled “A Grunts Life.” The detractors have taken issue with Winter because he shot the image on an iPhone using the Hipstamatic iPhone app.Chip Litherland decries the continued decay of pure photo journalism as a result of Winter’s photo winning third place in the Picture of the Year – International award. In response to his own question “So do you think this photojournalism?” Litherland writes:
If the answer is yes, then what we knew as photojournalism at it’s purest form is over and POYi just killed it. Well, they didn’t kill it so much as just dig another knife deeper into the back of its decaying corpse. It’s time to really address the crossroads we’re at in photojournalism and figure out where it’s headed versus what it was.
In his piece “Hipstimatic and the Death of Photojournalism”, Matt Buchanan talks about how the Hipstamatic effect does not exist in reality.
Hipstamatic generates an atmosphere, an aesthetic that ostensibly doesn’t exist in reality. Our vision only tends to resemble 1970s photography when our minds are lubricated with pharmaceutical enhancements, after all. Is it photojournalism when an image is deliberately changed to heighten or affect mood that we literally can’t see with our eyes for the sake of aesthetics and emotion? Is the definition of reality here merely confined to the collection of objects depicted in the photograph?
These comments by both Litherland and Buchanan are naïve. There is no pure photojournalism.
The human eye has an optical view equivalent to that of 55mm lens. It also has the capacity to discern a far greater latitude of light than film and digital sensors. Considering Buchanan’s argument, as soon as a photographer deviates from the physiological norms of the human optical system the image ceases to be real. Since it is technologically impossible to match the human optical system’s light gathering capabilities and, unless you shoot with a 55mm lens, all photographs lack reality according to Buchanan’s criteria. This is an extreme interpretation to illustrate a point. Journalists and photojournalists are witnesses and reporters not conduits of reality.
Whenever anyone recounts a story of something they’ve witnessed it is immediately distorted by personal perception which is greatly influenced by the life experience of the individual. Think about visting the gramar school you attended as a child now as an adult. The school yard, the classrooms, the kids are strikingly smaller than you remember. That’s because as a child you perceived the school as huge and intimidating with little concept of its actual size. Advanced concepts of cities, states, countries and the universe are what you learn as you get older. And as you learn these things the perception of how you see your world changes.
If Damon Winter and I were on the same assignment, shooting the same things, our images would be different because we both see the world differently based on our perception. There is a strong possibility that my version of Winter’s photo would have been shot with a wide angle lens because I would have wanted to highlight my sense of how small humans are in the vast landscape of Afghanistan. My perspective is no more or less truthful than Winter’s. The reality of course is that I could never capture the same exact image because it is impossible to occupy the same time and space as Damon Winter. Photojournalism is about being where the story is and deciding when and what to shoot at any given moment.
“The decisive moment,” is a phrase originated by Cartier Bresson and way overused by the rest of us. It is the ultimate statement that captures the essence of photojournalism. There are so many variables that are occurring in nanoseconds within the body and brain that determine when the shutter is released that it defies quantification. However, it is the combination of electro-physiological processes combined with the technology of the camera and the influence of the life experience of the shooter that gives us an image. With all those millions of contributing elements can we claim any real truth?
The difference between a photojournalist and a pedestrian with a camera is a significantly heightened ethical awareness. A journalist has an instinctual predilection to conveying a true story that comes from training and criticism of past work. Winter’s photo is exceptionally effective at drawing me in and making me feel like I am there along side him and the soldiers. Based on what I see, I can get a slight sense of what Winter was feeling when he shot the image. It is an incredibly difficult feat to pull off successfully, which is why the image won an international award. If you argue that Winter had no idea of the effect that the Hipstamatic app would add to the photo, then you’re an wrong. All of us who shoot professionally know intimately the tools that we deploy. Just like Matt Buchanan knows his words. In his criticism of Winter he chose the world “slather” to describe the Hipstamatic effect:
It was taken with the iPhone app Hipstamatic, which slathers photos with moody effects.
His perception is influencing his word usage to make his story more effective at conveying his point. This is not a lie or an altered reality it’s just his choice of how to tell his story.
In a courtroom where cameras are not a allowed we easily accept courtroom drawings as a truthful and accurate representation of what goes on behind closed doors because the artist observes a code of ethics. Courtroom artist Marilyn Church famously drew mob boss John Gotti accurately, with his thick neck, in spite of being threatened by Gotti from across the courtroom. So you see, the truth of a photojournalistic piece has its foundations in the veracity of the photographer more so than the implement used for the image creation.
Upon spending time with Delta Company 2nd Platoon in Afghanistan Damon Winter noticed that the soldiers often took pictures of each other with their mobile phone cameras. What he saw was an opportunity to blend in more with the group than is typically feasible with standard gear. It was a clever, innovative idea that brought him closer to his subject by eliminating the invisible barrier that pops up when a traditional SLR is lifted to a photographer’s eye. I ardently contend that Winter’s choice of using his iPhone brought us to a whole new level of visual truth because Winter got closer to the subjects than is typically viable.
It takes a radical departure from the norm, confidence and supreme skill to pull of what Damon Winter did. And because of his efforts we’ve been transported more closely to the reality of a soldier’s life than ever before.
Photo used with permission from Damon Winter.
