Is photography fake?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Nahabedian on January 21, 2009 at 5:20pm

What do you mean by that? "staged them all" ?
Do you mean they were post processed?

Photography is as fake as a painting, or a story book.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Nahabedian on January 21, 2009 at 5:52pm

Well, I wouldn't call it "fake".

I myself have a few photoprojects concerning homeless people and poverty. I would not go shoot true homeless people or pay them to act the way I want them to for my shoot. I'd ask for my friends to help me do the scene.

It's all about telling a story. I want to strike people with a story, create an emotion. It's the result in their mind that's important.

If I wanted to shoot true homeless people, it would be photojournalism and not conceptual photography anymore. It's all about the message you try to convey :)

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Permalink Reply by Frank on January 21, 2009 at 5:46pm

I mean he hired people to do things like models then photographed them. So like if you see a poor man pulling a llama up a mountain trail the poor guy was hired and that's not even his llama.

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Permalink Reply by Edgar on January 23, 2009 at 11:34am

" I mean he hired people to do things like models then photographed them. So like if you see a poor man pulling a llama up a mountain trail the poor guy was hired and that's not even his llama. "

I read somewhere that " Photographer " means someone who make photographs while " Snapshooters " are those who just take pictures.

~ ed

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Permalink Reply by Vina on January 21, 2009 at 7:59pm

Daniel, is there a clearance/permission required if you want to shoot real people and scene and not work in a "stage" for conceptual photography? Would you know how far you can photograph say for example, the true homeless people as you mentioned, and not get into trouble when you load up the picture for any legal violations?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Nahabedian on January 21, 2009 at 10:55pm

To be honest, I still am not 100% sure of the answer.

I'll look over it and give a proper reply :P

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Permalink Reply by Carrie Johnson on January 22, 2009 at 8:23am

If you're in the U.S. you can shoot anyone (with a camera at least) as long as you & they are in a public place -- the only restrictions are in how you use the photo.

You can use the photo in a book, magazine article or for journalistic purposes and you can print the photo and sell it in a gallery. What you can't do it use the photo for any purpose that is promoting a product or service -- so although you can sell a photo without a release in a gallery, you can't use a photo without a release to promote your gallery show or whatever... and you can't use the photo in any sort of advertisement. This is why stock agencies require model releases -- there is no control on how the photo will subsequently be used.

Although legally you do not need a model release for publishing in a magazine article, many magazines are now requiring them to cover themselves just in case.

All of that being said, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice... consult a lawyer in your country if you have concerns.

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Permalink Reply by Vina on January 24, 2009 at 10:04am

Carrie, you're fantastic! Thank you so much for clarifying this matter with me. I'll check with the EU situation also as I'm currently in France.

Merci beaucoup again!

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Permalink Reply by Denny Giacobe on January 22, 2009 at 9:13am

Frank
All do respect, most of the stuff I shoot is "Fake" See Attached Shot "Over Pour" But it sure beats waiting around for the real thing to happen.Plus the talent of a real photographer is the ability to make it look real.
So my dear Friend do be sad, Be happy!
Respectfully

Attachments:

• OverPour.jpg, 88 KB

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Permalink Reply by Denny Giacobe on January 22, 2009 at 10:44pm

Sorry It should read "Don't Be sad, Be Happy"

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Permalink Reply by Ste on January 23, 2009 at 7:31pm

Photography isn't fake, if anything it's exactly the opposite, ever heard the saying "the camera never lies"? What I would say is, some photographs are faked, in that they are often a record of something that isnt or wasnt strictly real.

In the case of say, a commercial photographer taking pictures of homeless people. It wouldnt be right for anyone to benefit financially by exploiting others, especially those in society who are vunerable. However, there is nothing wrong with seeing something worth documenting, and wanting to recreate it later using, say, actors and props. It's what many top photographers do all the time. On top of this, any photographer working with models in a studio, isnt strictly speaking, recording true to life events either, they are creating the specific look that they are after at the time. The same can be said for anyone doing post production. All this said, I don't think it really takes away from the end result, the product of these manipulations of reality is, in the end, a record of what was in front of the lense at the time. If photographers didnt work like this, we wouldnt have the millions and millions of fantastic images we have today, some inspiring, many beautiful and often very thought provoking.

One of the most inspiring photographers for me has been a guy called Chase Jarvis. The pictures he produces are amazing, and if you look at his methods you will see that so many of them have been "faked", yet we are still left with imagery that is simply stunning.

Remember, everytime you select a slow shutterspeed, or use a flash, you are faking the picture - we don't see light trails in reality, flash is used to put sunlight where there isnt any, and so on.

That's my humble opinion anyway!

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Permalink Reply by SoCal Island Girl on January 24, 2009 at 1:38am

Well, these days with the arrival of advanced Photoshop techniques (such as HDR), photography can look "fake" or "too good to be true" but it does not have to be that way. It really depends on what kind of photography/or digital art you like/do.

My favorite photographer is Dorothea Lange - famous for her "Migrant Mother"- a series of photos during the Great Depression amongst many others - to me she is "people's photographer extraordinaire". She remind me of what humanity is all about and what photography should really be. I have a short review on her work on my blog. If you search my older blog posts, there is a link to it.

Some times photography has to be staged, as photography is a tool used to convey a message- a marketing tool if you will. If you don't stage it, you have lots of distracting background that clouds the message. Hence for still life or portraiture you often to stage to get the right shot. That does not mean it is fake. There is a line between photography and creative art and that line is blur today. For example fine art photography takes photography further to the realms of fine arts and that does not degrade photography at all.

There can be and should be a soul in photography, you just have to look for it and shoot with your heart. - there are many examples of that today, don't lose hope.

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