Emma Kollmar - steve McCurry

 I think Steve McCurry was wrong to manipulate his photographs. I do not think there is anything wrong with photoshopping pictures, but being a Photojournalist, McCurry was in the wrong when he photoshopped his pictures and had them published by National Geographic. McCurry says he is a “visual storyteller,” but at the time he made this statement his website still referenced him as a Photojournalist because that is what his job title was. He was a Photojournalist when he made photographs for National Geographic that he manipulated. It was his career to take photographs for journalistic stories. He cant say its ok that he photoshopped his pictures because he’s a “visual storyteller” when his job was to be a Photojournalist. A photographer, Narciso Contreras, was fired by the Associated Press after he photoshopped one of his pictures by removing an object. In Photojournalism, anything more than standard color correcting can break a photographers career.
National Geographic published a cover image of a monsoon in 1984 made by McCurry that they photoshopped to make longer so that it fit the page. What makes this different from the images that McCurry photoshopped and published is that National Geographic made a disclaimer stating the details of the image’s alterations. They were legally bound to issue that disclaimer because in 1982 they were criticized for altering a picture of pyramids to fit their cover page. National Geographic changed their policy after this and decided to declare any digital alterations made to their photos. McCurry didn’t tell National Geographic that he altered his photographs. Had they known, they would have made a disclaimer, if they even published them at all. Since it is National Geographic’s policy to state the nature of any alterations, it was assumed McCurry’s photos weren’t altered. The editor of National Geographic at the time of the criticism surrounding the altered pyramids stated “... When a photograph becomes synthesis, fantasy, rather than reportage, then the whole purpose of the photograph dies. A photographer is a reporter—a photon thief, if you will. He goes and takes, with a delicate instrument, an extremely thin slice of life. When we changed that slice of life, no matter in what small way, we diluted our credibility.” If McCurry knew of this policy then he was lying about his pictures by having them published by National Geographic and he was wrong to do it. He was supposed to be reporting on things happening in the world for others to see, but he instead made the aesthetics of his photographs his priority.

Works Cited

"Eyes of the Afghan Girl: A Critical Take on the 'Steve McCurry Scandal'." PetaPixel, 8 June 2016, petapixel.com/2016/06/07/eyes-afghan-girl-critical-take-steve-mccurry-scandal/.

"Nat Geo Says It's Committed to Honest Photos In an Era of Photoshop." PetaPixel, 5 July 2016, petapixel.com/2016/07/04/nat-geo-says-committed-honest-photos-era-photoshop/.

"Steve McCurry: I'm Not a Photojournalist." Time, 30 May 2016, time.com/4351725/steve-mccurry-not-photojournalist/.