Lesson 2: Visual Ethics and the Challenges of Representation

Lesson 2: Visual Ethics and the Challenges of Representation

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The NPPA Code of Ethics

Ethics define the professional journalist. Visual ethics guide the entire reporting process, from brainstorming stories to dealing with subjects to editing images. Mainstream visual journalists and visual journalism students follow the National Press Photographers Association's Code of Ethics. These standards and ideals reflect the ethical principles of all modern American journalism.

Certainly it's true that different kinds of visual storytellers operate under different ethical frameworks. For example, most wedding photographers don't hesitate to photoshop out a pimple on the bride's nose, even though that would be unethical in photojournalism. To a visual journalist the truth is the truth, blemishes and all.

The video above does not recite the NPPA Code of Ethics line by line. Instead, it is an overview of the broad principles at stake. Then, in Moodle, you will do your own close reading of the code to explain the right ethical approach to various case studies.

Interview with John R. Stomberg

John R. Stomberg is the Florence Finch Abbott Director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Before accepting that job in 2011, Stomberg was a curator and scholar with a particular interest in photography. His research has explored the work of photographers from Ben Shahn to Margaret Bourke-White, and he has curated shows and written about issues such as the aesthetics of photographs of pain.

In this video he discusses four photographic works from the museum's collection. Information about each image can be found on title slides within the video or by searching the museum's online database. Below is Arthur Rothstein's Girl at Gee's Bend, Gee's Bend, Alabama (Artelis Bendolph), which was taken in 1937 and purchased with funds from Julie Herzig Desnick, class of 1973.

Next Step

Now it's your turn.

Log into Moodle to complete the Lesson 2 exercises.