With Photoshop a Click Away, Can Photography Be Trusted?
We're entering an interesting time in the reporting world, when what was just news is now -- questionable. It used to be that if you could lead your story with a photo of its subject, then that was all the proof you needed. Now, though, in a world of Photoshop tweaks and rather more blatant modifications, that's no longer the case. Newsweek is asking the question whether anyone will ever trust news photography again.
Newsweek spoke with highly regarded photojournalist John Long, who said: "With technology, you can make the moment anything you want it to be. Our credibility has been stretched in so many ways, so I don't think the public has a great deal of faith in us." It's hard to argue that point, with tales of the so-called Montauk Monster being picked up by major news sites everywhere. The supposed beast was spotted on a Long Island beach earlier in the month, photographed by a sun-seeker, then posted online by gossip portal Gawker. From there it was picked up by the big news sites and got plenty of TV time. Many speculated it was a dog carcass, others that it was something totally new. Now a movie director has said it was just a prop from his movie and that this is all a viral marketing campaign, though that's a claim that many believe is itself a hoax.
We've also got those UFOs that popped up all over the newswires last year, but seemingly nowhere in the real world. We've also seen a growing trend of digital slicing and dicing of celebrities, most recently Mariah Carey, but no shortage of predecessors, making this a trend that's not going away anytime soon.
So, the question is: do you trust news photographs any longer?
TAGS: MONTAUK, NEWS, PHOTOSHOP