Ethical Issues In Photography

A picture says a thousand words and captures what is going on in that moment of time. People share the images with one another because these photos convey an event or story, and can bring up new information, such as a person dying in the middle of the war. War photographers take pictures of the occurrences and bring the report of this new information along to the news journalists so that they can publish the photos. This publication of graphic images, however, brings upon some ethical issues, which engage the readers and the public, at large. In Torie Rose DeGhett’s article, “The War Photo No One Would Publish,” she observes and analyzes the effects of how publishing a disturbing photo can prevent certain people from understanding the picture, especially since the images are from the

The justifying of censorship for graphic photos since the public does not want to see the pain and deaths of the soldiers in the battlefield from the graphic images. She states, “We thought that this was the stuff of nightmares,” Gaines told Ian Buchanan of the British Journal of Photography in March 1991. “We have a fairly substantial number of children who read Life magazine,” he added. Even so, the photograph was published later that month in one of Life’s special issues devoted to the Gulf War—not typical reading material for the elementary-school set.” (DeGhett 81). Life magazine is one of the biggest usages that schools use for children’s reading and to show the graphic photo in the magazine can cause a lot of problems and feelings. Censoring the images and just covering some of the photos has less controversy and puts less pressure on the situation, as a result, justifying censorship of the graphic photos makes up ethics and morals from the publication of war