Stupid stupid stupid!

So this comes via Lars who got it via Robban. Both of them are excellent photojournalists and Lars now also heads up one of the most exciting photo departments in Sweden, namely the one at Sydsvenskan.

Nevertheless this story must be the most stupid I've ever heard about. In Östersund in the north of Sweden the photo-company that delivers the school photos have during the last three years retouched photos of school children. Thus one girl with a mole every year gets a bunch of photos of herself without the mole. The girl in question that gets this quick 'beauty fix' is not a high school student. She's in bloody primary school! Only six years old and her looks aren't enough apparently. What type of knowledge does this little girl take away from all this. Hopefully it will not be that she isn't good enough as she is. That's my hope at least!

Not so lazy Sunday

So this Sunday didn't turn out lazy which I'm quite glad about. I spent last night alternating between a Ridley Scott action movie on the telly and tweaking some photos for an album cover which is turns out to be so much fun. Since I'm not often doing these types of jobs but rather stick to the photojournalistic side of things, I rarely get to retouch images this way. Interesting, challenging and quite fun. A question though, will it turn into something problematic retouching and editing these types of images in this elaborate manner for jobs like this but not for others, will people mix the genres and will the line between the does and don'ts blur? Another question, do I really care?

Some months ago the debate popped up (yet again) when NY Times published some images taken by a fine arts photographer who had retouched and altered the images. Problematic due to NY Times image policy and obviously to some other issues as well. But for me this gets me to think of my own tiny dilemma - is it easy to jump between the different genres and the different rules that apply to them without putting my own photographic integrity in question (when such an integrity is necessary)? Ok, so now you could callously call out "But hey Petter, you don't have any integrity, so no worries there mate!" And maybe the worries are non, and maybe I don't have any integrity, and maybe this entire debate starts to really go on my nerves. Nevertheless, it seems to be ubiquitous. It keeps popping up from time to time. But wouldn't it also be quite interesting if the debate on what we photojournalists covers for stories was being voiced as ferociously as the debate on retouching. Because isn't this what will keep our profession alive and interesting in the time to come? In a time where the newspapers seem to cut down on everything and where it seems to be harder to finance any type of story unless Michael Jackson would rise from the dead - or maybe that wouldn't generate as much coverage as if he subsequently died/got killed yet again. Listen to this talk from Stephen Mayes, managing director for VII Photo Agency and who's served as Jury Secretary for the World Press Photo Award between 2004-2009, for some rather more insightful thoughts about photojournalism.

But yeah, this Sunday wasn't so lazy. Got to bed really late (or early) due to the exciting retouching I'm discovering. This morning I managed to get up early to go climbing, socializing and then to get some work done. Ok, so I'm at the latter stages now i.e. trying to get some work done. Nevertheless it was a good start to a good day. Hope to get more of these in the years to come.

Following images are from a story I did for Dagens Industri, the largest financial newspaper in Sweden, about some of the impoverished people in Latvia whose life are becoming increasingly desperate due to the economic crisis. What's special about Latvia in a Swedish context is the high level of Swedish involvement , especially our banks, that has been rather devastating for the Latvian people. The photos were taken in the countryside around Jelgava, Latvia in May this year. All images ©pettercohen/DI