Press graphic images online

Grayman

Grayman

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Graeme
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Below is a link to an article on the SA Times website. There is a very graphic image of a deceased baby on here. The picture is present as you click the link, no warning or blank picture that has to be clicked on to show.

So, my point for posting this is that I am interested for your views on showing these type of images.

I for one think such images should be shown, if not to remind society just how sad and unbalanced we have become. Also, the good as well as the bad needs to be shown..that's what life is about. What I don't agree with is the lack of secondary warning..people don't expect images with such stories, especially if they don't have the choice to see it or not.

Please don't click on the link if you think you will be disturbed by the image. As I said, the image will appear immediately.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article561147.ece/Baby-burned-dumped-in-field
 
.....it's a sad fact of life that images like this appear, however, I agree they should be shown and disagree that any warning should be given.

The fact we hide images such as this, in my mind, has helped create the namby pamby society that we live in, it isn't nice, but sometimes life isn't.

Every day members of the emergency services witness scenes some people would never imagine, they are still human and are affected by the things they see, without this type of reporting, we, as ordinary members of the public don't fully appreciate the world in which we live.

Paul
 
I personally don't think images of that type need to be shown (never looked at image). It is not the same as say the images from nazi death camps. Images of children in distress, in pain or dead are not worth anything other than shock value.

There is no basic need for that type of image to be shown
 
I can understand both sides of the argument concerning such images. As a society we are increasingly removed from the 'nasties' of life. We are removed from death, we need never prepare a body for burial, the sick are bundled away from our careless gaze.

Why anyone would feel so desperate as to abandon their baby even if dead at birth is unimaginable but to go further in the concealment as to burn the body is beyond me. S/he must feel so isolated and alone.
 
I agree that these images need to be shown in a suitable outlet. The article states that this baby is just another statistic so perhaps this picture will raise a bit more awareness for what seems to be a problem for this area. Photojournalism needs to be censorship free in my opinion but it looks a bit dismal right now. I believe in the majority of today's society, the image is more powerful than the word and that should be used as an advantage for some suffering humans.
 
I read the editorial comment underneath the photograph as well as the content of the story. That's an incredible situation. When you are talking about "many [babies/children] brutally dumped almost every month in the fields" it becomes a frightening trend, for want of a better word. .

I might not 'like' it over here, but don't know what kind of a wake up call the journalists over there feel is needed, nor the steps the Government/police etc are taking to address this issue.

I also don't know the publication or its reputation. So, whether this is sensational reporting or a real whistle blow (for want of a better term) is not for me to say.

I think that a photograph does it's job if it shocks those who can influence a situation into action.
 
I think that we are "protected" too much from reality in modern life. I've noticed since coming to live in France, that images in the media here are far more graphic than in the UK.

If people are shown the reality of poverty and war, would they be more likely to try to stop it, or would they become used to it? I would like to think the former.

Thankfully there are photographers that show life as it is, wether their portrayal of reality gets past the picture editor is another matter.
 
I think if you say "1,000' people die in earthquake, in reality most people don't soon forget about it as they don't associate it with anything and the numbers be come meaningless to an extent, unless they are huge.

If you make the article personal to an individual \ family which people do associate with I think it strikes more of a cord. I find those stories always work better with a telling picture, which I why I think, if relevant it should be shown.
 
Mixed feelings on this! I can't see any problem showing the image without warning as it's not that graphic! However, the subject is quite horrific .... hope you understand the difference I'm trying to describe! What I also feel is that the detail behind the story shows to some extent how sad this world can really be. I would doubt the sensationalistic journalism behind this was trying to raise some of the real issues in SA rather than just to sell a story, although I suspect the latter .... The following quote is possibly the only suggestion of the plight of the people ...

was found burning in fields separating Soweto and Orlando by someone scavenging through the rubbish
Click to expand...
 
POAH said:
I personally don't think images of that type need to be shown (never looked at image). It is not the same as say the images from nazi death camps. Images of children in distress, in pain or dead are not worth anything other than shock value.

There is no basic need for that type of image to be shown
Click to expand...

Firstly...apologies for picking on your post to quote from.

I have to disagree with you. Statistics and numbers or reports, when used are quickly forgotten or not given enough credit. It's only with photographic "proof" that you get the full impact of the message.

As a tryout to (hopefully) prove my point...listen to the Michael Buerk famine report from Ethiopia (it's still available via the link here - it's the video under his picture). Listen to it with your eyes closed and try and establish the impact that the report has. Then watch the report with the pictures. It has a lot more impact (i think anyway).

Another, more historical, image is:
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/images/life/beachdead.jpg

This image was printed in LIFE magazine in 1943 and was accompanied by a full-page editorial entitled "Why print this picture, anyway, of three American boys dead upon an alien shore?" Franklin D Roosevelt had in fact asked it to be printed as he felt that figures and facts alone were leading to complacency amongst the American public about World War II and its casualties. The picture was enough, and has become nearly as iconic for some as the Iwo Jima flag-raising.

They may not appear to be anything more than "shock value" at times, but sometimes a shock is whats needed to raise the awareness of an issue.
 
Yup it does, and I think the editorial comment says it all and is well written.

Editorial Comment: THIS is a horrific image by anyone's standards. Taken yesterday by The Times' photographer Halden Krog, we deliberated carefully about publishing it on the front page of this newspaper. Will you, our readers, think it gratuitous, or will you find the abandonment of an innocent as outrageous and horrifying as we did? Less than a month ago, we reported on another baby abandoned in the same area, in Diepkloof, Soweto. The women there say this happens so frequently that they cannot look any more. The other baby was fortunate: she is still alive. This little one was dead when she was discovered. When a life is discarded so easily, like a useless thing, unworthy of our care, what must we think? It is for this reason that we want to honour this baby girl's life - to shout out that she did not deserve to be dumped like a piece of litter. This child's death should make us ask about the society we want to inhabit, the society we want to create for our children. The dumping of a child - irrespective of the circumstances - must make us ask what value we attach to that most wonderful Constitution of ours. - Phylicia Oppelt, editor
Photograph by: Halden Krog
 
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