Photojournalism and Aesthetics

Ed, if you're attempting to suggest that Walski couldn't have manipulated the photo and the blame should be put on the LA Times, you're desperately fighting the known facts.

Walski admitted to creating a composite photo in the field. He did it, by his own account, on his laptop while editing and transmitting his pix to the paper. He said he was fooling around and his judgment failed because he was exhausted.

Since his manipulation made the picture more dramatic, he made it more likely that the picture would be published -- which it was, as his editors at the LA Times dutifully fell for it and published the most dramatic picture.

Your point that editorial staffs bear much more responsibility than reporters and photographers for distorting the news is entirely valid. The reporters and photographers take the blame because the editors are usually anonymous. But that's not to say that reporters and photographers themselves don't participate, sometimes unwittingly, in distorting the story.

Andrew - Ed Greene, AKA Suda Mafud, is a disturbed, unstable individual that has a long history of bombastic, inflammatory posts. He takes posts that are not in agreement with his views as personal attacks, and has been know, at times, to send personal threatening e-mails.

He�s not worth the keystrokes.

"The only joy in photography is geometry, the rest is just sentimental."

- Henri Cartier-Bresson

Perhaps a little misquoted, but oh well... what's one to do?