09.24.07
Wait..That’s my face on a billboard
Along with censorship of images, another important issue dealing with images is ownership of an image. Once a photo is placed into the virtual world, the lines of ownership are often blurred and almost nonexistent. After an image hits the internet, anyone and everyone has access to it. You wouldn’t want to post images online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see. This was an issue this past summer with Miss. America. She had posted images on her myspace of her partying with her friends. The media claimed that she was being shown in an indecent manor. Ohh the scandal.
Though Allison Chang of Bedford Texas wasn’t caught up in a picture scandal she is having her own issues with the online publication of pictures. She was photographed by one of her friends at a church gathering. After that gathering her friend then posted her picture on the photo site Flickr.com Months later, her picture managed to wind up as a Virgin Phone company ad in Australia.
The Virgin company did not have Chang’s consent to use her image, nor did they get the consent of her family. The ads had taglines such as “Dump you pen friend” and “Free text virgin to virgin” which Chang and her family found offensive. They are suing Virgin to have the images removed from the ads.
They are completely justified in what they are doing. Though the picture was part of the public domain according to the copy right laws set up by flicker, there are privacy rights that protect Allison Chang’s image from being used with out her consent.
They shouldn’t have just used her image with out asking her first. It makes the company seem desperate for images to use in ads. Were they so desperate that while searching the web one night came across the image of a girl giving a peace sign on a personal site that they immediately used it for their newest ad campaign? That’s slightly creepy and stalkerish.
If Virgin really wanted this image so much they could have spent the time and the money to recreate the picture with someone who wants their fifteen minutes of fame. There are plenty of people willing to hold up their hand and smile for a picture if it means seeing their face everywhere. Allison Chang didn’t want fame, and she shouldn’t have been forced to have to see her face hanging everywhere.
09.23.07
A picture’s worth a thousand words?
As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Is it possible for words to ever amount to the impact of a picture? I don’t believe that they can.
Images, of war especially, are able to illustrate what cannot be put into words. Even the best writers in the world cannot completely capture every emotion that photographic images can capture. People are visual creatures by nature, and pictures often make something more real then words ever could. When you come face to face with someone who’s struggling you can empathize with them more when you can see the pain in their eyes. Images such as this one allow readers to see the internal and external struggles that this solider is facing, pushing his struggles into his face and forcing you to understand.
Images are pushier then words could ever be. Its possible to stop reading if something offends you, however once you look at a picture, you’ve seen its story and its impossible to forget it. Pictures offer the greatest amount of emotional impact that cannot be conveyed in any other imaginable way. Pictures make things real. Seeing is believing after all.
Take this image of German soldiers gazing at bodies that were mutilated during the Holocaust. The goal of this picture is to show how many of the German soldiers were simply onlookers to the horrors that occurred. This image isn’t too graphic to handle, yet the emotions that it evokes couldn’t be shown in any other way. The nonchalant looks on their faces convey how they were just doing their duty and that they were almost too lose to the situation to be effected emotionally.
09.12.07
A tribute to the fallen
Newspapers seem to be a dieing art form. Where newspapers used to inform every one of the latest happenings, newspapers are now taking a back seat to the World Wide Web. Often times its easier to log on to the internet and look up news, rather then risking possible paper cuts and probable ink stains on your hands. The internet is fast, convenient and nearly always free. People will often access the internet to keep up to date with their news. Who knows maybe someday the internet will completely replace newspapers altogether.
However one place where this won’t occur is in the halls of a high school. The high school publication is necessary for so many reasons and it will never go out of style. The writers of high school publications often face many of the same issues that regular newspapers face, how to properly represent an issue, accuracy and most of all decency.
Last year an event occurred that pushed the envelope of writing abilities for my school’s newspaper staff. A few months before senior year began; one of our classmates was killed in a car accident. This person was loved throughout the school and throughout whole the town; he was captain of the football team, a member of national honor society, an eagle scout and an all around good guy. As a staff we decided we needed pay tribute to him in our first issue of the year.
Carefully we thought of how to accurately cover his story, this was one story that needed to be one hundred percent correct, and not at all sensationalized in any way. A team of four people, all who knew different sides of the student that had passed away, took on the article. With more then one person working on the story, they were able to make sure they covered all sides of the issue and in no way was this story biased. His tribute was the front page of our paper, there were no other stories worthy of that space.
With everyone working together we were able to compile an accurate, unbiased portrait of a student who unfortunately wasn’t there with us to experience all the highs and lows of senior year.
