RESEARCH METHODS

APRIL 7, 2006

This review aims to answer the question, ‘does photojournalism portray the world with authenticity and truth?’ It addresses several areas dealing closely with the topic, such as the idea of a photograph’s truth-value, that is, the power of a photograph to triumph over words, the photographic message and its viewers’ interpretations. The claim of photojournalism and photojournalists to neutrality and objectivity is examined, as are the different ways by which photographs can mislead. The basis for research on the question of truth and authenticity in photojournalism is established in recognition of the vital role played by news photographs in the development of views on the world and, in turn, the level of immediacy between those views and reality.

A number of sources present arguments concerning the truth-value of a photograph beginning with the powerful idea, ‘seeing is believing.’ According to the historian Beaumont Newhall, ‘the photograph has special value as evidence or proof’. We believe it because we believe our eyes. Though most people accept what they see as the truth, complications emerge when applying the idea to visual media such as photojournalism. Two main points explain how the photographic image acquired its truth-value. First, the thought that the camera produced visual facts or documents, which began in the nineteenth century with the dominating concept of the ‘camera eye’ functioning as a ‘mirror held up to Nature.’ With its combination of physical and chemical technology, a photograph was seen as inherently objective. Second, authenticity originated as a result of association of a photograph with the individual ‘real’ experience of the photographer. “The authenticity which derives from the sense of ‘being there’ conveyed a special truth-value to works which could claim they were fashioned from experience.” However, photography has also been used to mislead and misinform people. Consequently, many challenges to the idea that photographs provide a historical record raise the very question discussed in this review. “News photographs are powerful documents because most viewers still believe that a camera never lies – a naive belief that hasn’t been true as long as people have made pictures.” Yet news photographs continue to play a vital part in determining the way people view the world. “Despite the increasing awareness that depiction does not embody truth itself, photography remains a principal medium for understanding the world.” In fact, photography’s power to portray the truth in a credible manner has gone far beyond that of the printed or spoken word.

Photographs and words nearly always appear on the page together. However, many sources show that photographs tend to have a privilege over the written word. For example, an editorial in 1904 from the Daily Illustrated Mirror, the first British newspaper to use photographs, declared, ‘our pictures do not merely accompany the printed news, they are a valuable help to the understanding of it, …the direct appeal to the eye, wherever it is possible, will supplement the written word, which is designed in a more cumbrous fashion to penetrate the mind.’ Lewis Hine, an American photographer who exposed the social evils of the industrial revolution in the United States through his images, felt that the camera was ‘a powerful tool for research’ because it mechanically re-creates reality as writing never can. Another American photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, made a statement underlining the point that the representations perceived through photography are qualitatively different from those available through writing. In comparison to words, the photograph simply seems unbeatably closer to lived experience. This supports the claim on the part of proponents of the photographic image to documentary objectivity, by which the photojournalist may help fasten the meaning of a given text by providing it with a representational legitimacy. That is, for any reader who achieves an understanding of the world by scanning images rather than words, photographs carry copious amounts of information, permitting the reader to justify strong views and responses.

Whether or not it presents the world truthfully, a photograph speaks to its viewer. “Images are created in order to communicate a message. Even straightforward holiday snapshots attempt to convey what it was like to be at a particular place at a specific time.” The photograph alone can tell a story through its own visual vocabulary. The photographic language arranges a variety of concepts which help shape the ways in which we understand the world. Though by definition the photograph transmits the scene itself, the literal reality, it is always open to a wide variety of interpretations. That is, though the medium of photography can be assigned objectivity, the photographic image perceived by its viewer is, by nature, subjective. Confirming this, Roland Barthes, a French literary critic, argued that the interpretations are partly determined by the content of the picture, partly by its context, but always drawing something from the assumptions brought to it by its ‘readers.’ In addition, Marianne Fulton stated that the ‘documentary’ nature of photographic journalism is essentially interpretative. Photographs are related to the photographer’s personal interpretations of the events and subjects which he or she chooses to place in front of the camera lens. However, they are also assumed to have some ‘truth-value’ in the sense that they allow the viewer privileged insight into the events they depict. Stuart Hall analyzed in detail the processes by which news photographs are first encoded by those who produce them, and then decoded by their readers, emphasizing the ways in which the context of the image influences interpretations. Though the shifting meanings which distinguish visual images suggest that news photography is untrustworthy, once it is understood that the ‘truth’ cannot be contained within the edges of the frame, the work of understanding the codes, of ‘reading’ the image, of exploring the context and of recognizing the history of a photograph, become central concerns. This consideration, while it emphasizes the importance of a news photographer’s commitment to the truth, calls into question the role of the accompanying text in reinforcing or diluting the impact of the image.

Dedicated to the production of suitable news photos, press photographers must be unobtrusive; one of the fundamental professional norms of photojournalism is that pictures should document happenings, not transform them. In promising the viewer authenticity and veracity, the photojournalist plays the part of a dispassionate observer, uninvolved with events as they unfold in front of the camera. Photojournalism’s commitment to the truth is of great importance, particularly to the public which bases its views upon the images and thus expects and trusts that they are authentic. “The public’s judgements about historical and contemporary incidents are often based on the photographs available to show them. It is a powerful medium, capable of focusing attention on the significant issues of our time.” This relates to the idea that a particular moment in photojournalism may come to signify a general truth. Since photojournalism lays claims to neutrality and objectivity, ‘readers’ are justified in asking questions about photographic truth. “Photojournalists enter an unwritten contract with the public to report accurately what they see. If there is an indication that the photographer has interfered with the scene in front of the camera, its authenticity may be brought into question and the contract with the viewer may be broken.” Photojournalism not only provides access to facts, but also to feelings. Roy Stryker, the leader of a group of photographers who recorded the rural and urban changes which America underwent from 1935 to 1943, argued that ‘good documentary should tell not only what a place or a thing or person looks like, but what it must also tell the audience what it would feel like to be an actual witness to the scene.’ However, this is difficult to achieve when there are limitations on access which are formally enforced, as at time of war.

Photojournalists are exposed to censorship as a result of ‘fear of documentary realism’ on the part of the authorities, at a time when information is itself a weapon. “A commitment to discover and make public those perspectives that governments want to conceal is, for the news photographer, both urgent and dangerous.” In addition to censorship, which prevents the photojournalist from providing the public with the full truth, there are three other, more intentional, ways by which photojournalism may mislead. First, the decisions made by photojournalists concerning content and style inevitably draw on photographic codes which are laden with meaning. For example, photojournalists may choose a wide panoramic shot or select a long lens for a close up; they may go for a high angle which dwarfs their subject, or prefer a low angle which emphasizes the subject’s height; they may look for dramatic shadows or choose the more sober effect of even lighting. Decisions are also formed based on preferences expressed by the target publisher. “At every level, prejudice and ‘common sense’ are at work and a wide range of political opinions and social expectations may well come into play, both in deciding what events to cover and which photographic techniques to use.” Second, the staging of dramas around truth, reality, and the visual continues in both popular tabloids and ‘quality’ press. Staging can be achieved through trick effects, which use the special credibility of the photograph in order to misrepresent a heavily connoted message as merely denoted. Reality can also be staged by the posing of a subject or of objects, which are accepted inducers of associations of ideas, as well as by photogenia, where the image is ‘embellished’ by techniques of lighting, exposure, and printing. Finally, the most modern way of making photographs misleading is that of alterations through digital technology. Though a photograph has always been unstable as a guarantor of ‘reality,’ digital technology allows images to be retouched with a computer. This is unlike traditional retouching methods, in which a print was altered rather than the original negative, allowing for consultation if any questions about an image arose. Journalism manipulation, especially through digital technology, is a serious threat to the integrity of the profession because the concept of authenticity is qualified by the presence of the original.

In conclusion, this review has sought to examine the main areas concerning the question of whether photojournalism portrays the world with authenticity and truth. Though each of the subtopics could be discussed in greater detail, the aim was to show arguments from a number of different sources relating to the question. On one hand, the truth-value of the photograph was supported through discussions as to its power over the word, its function as a message and the dedication of photojournalists when it comes to providing the public with truthful coverage of events. On the other hand, the truth-value was challenged by further discussions on the importance of viewers’ interpretations of photographs, the coding of images and the failure of photojournalists to provide the full truth in their photographs, either because of censorship or through their own decisions related to style and content. Finally, computers make it easy for the content of a digitized news picture to be altered, undermining the picture’s credibility.

 

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