At 7:13 PM -0700 4/17/07, Herschel Mair wrote:
In my photojournalism class I try to get the students to see that
they have opinions and that they will never be neutral (If such a
place exists.) A photograph is taken from a viewpoint and so all
photographs are biased toward the photographer's sense of "Truth"
Rather than trying to find an unbiased photograph, they should be
looking inwards and examining their own morality and sense of
justice. Then they should get informed and make ethical assessments.
To the extent they can instill this morality; their pictures will be
good for mankind, even though they will still be biased.
Good luck. But even morality depends on point of view, or lack
thereof. So I'm not sure morality is quite the right way to go at it.
After all, the history of bigotry masquerading as moral is extremely
long. And there are many cultures whose sense of justice includes
slavery, possession of women and children as property, tribal
retributive murder, incarceration for being unable to pay ones bills
etc.
These concepts are extremely tricky and, without a universally
agreed-upon ethic, even more difficult to apply.
--
Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
http://www.landsedgephoto.com
http://e-and-s.instaproofs.com/
