Photos in the News

I felt a need to post about it after I was sent this article, which seriously puts into question the integrity of photographers and the respect for the dignity of human beings. This reminds me of a passage in the the book Zeitoun (it's very good, go read it!), by Dave Eggers,  when Zeitoun is paddling around after Hurricane Katrina and he sees a helicopter descend. Thinking it's a rescue team, he watches, but notices photographers step out, flip over a dead body, snap a picture and leave.

Photography as a means to present the news should be a positive and enriching experience. I am saddened by the lack of compassion seen in these photographers, with a complete disregard for the respect of human life and death. But in order to console myself, I'd like to present 3 excellent sources of news photography. One hopes that they are more than just the paparazzi of the political news.

1. Magnum in Motion

Magnum is a photographer agency, who hosts an online space to present photo essays from its photographers. With narratives or sound effects, the pictures come to life and explain what the photographer is trying to portray. These are beautiful and captivating short presentations.

I particularly like this one about Satellites (as seen to the right here) that have been abandoned in fields, photographed by Jonas Bendikson.
See it here: Satellites Essay

I also felt profoundly affected by the photo essay by Paul Fusco on the after-effects of Chernobyl. This seems eerily relevant, given the recent nuclear energy fiasco in Japan.
See it here:Chernobyl Essay

But there is an infinite number of photos essays hosted on their website, and I have by no means watched them all, so go on and check it out: http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/

2. The Big Picture - Boston.com
Here they take recent events in the news and present a series of photos, often very beautiful but also very real and up front in the action. The is a great site to check in with regularly here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

3. National Geographic
Who can ever forget National Geographic's aptitude for excellent photo-taking. Their excellent animal photos are classic, but they also present a lot of environment and scientific news in a visual way. The website lacks a little design-wise but they offer a whole lot of free large scale pictures that make great desktop wall-paper. And let's face it, their animal pictures (like this one of two owls from their animal-pairs gallery) are just plain cute!

Check out more here:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/