The Camera Doesn't Lie?
(AP)
On January 14, for example, shortly after unmanned U.S. aircraft fired missiles at several suspected leaders of Al Qaeda who were thought to be staying in the village of Damadola, Pakistan, Agence France-Presse distributed a picture said to be from the scene. AFP is based in Paris, and the picture was sent by one of its locally hired photographers, a stringer. The photo showed a piece of military equipment placed on a damaged stone wall, flanked by a solemn old man and a young boy. Another firm, Getty Images, also distributed the photo to picture editors at newspapers and magazines around the world. The New York Times published it in the paper's January 14 Web edition, and Time magazine ran the picture in its January 23 print edition, along with the caption "Detritus from the latest U.S. raid in Pakistan."So how do most news agencies obtain such photos and what complications are involved? Munro interviews several photo editors from major papers and news agencies to get at that question.News agencies rely heavily on various photo agencies and distributors such as Agence France Press, Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images, which, because of persistent dangers in the field, must in turn rely on local stringers:But the caption was wrong, the pose was staged, and the picture was, in essence, untrue.
The photo agencies are in a difficult position. Western customers demand a constant stream of photographs from dangerous locations around the globe, said Emmanuel Dunand, AFP's bureau chief in New Delhi, but threats from terrorists or insurgents against Westerners often force the agencies to rely on local stringers to get those images.And stringers, while necessary, aren't always reliable:
Patrick Baz, AFP's photo director for Iraq, is based in Cyprus. He said in an interview, "We don't hire them for [their skills as] reporters; we hire them because we can't go there.... We teach them and try to explain to them what a real reporter is. Some become real reporters, some do it for money, some are involved in the insurgency ... or terrorist activities, but we stop them when we find them going too far." Baz declined to provide examples of what he considers unacceptable behavior. AFP is nevertheless well positioned to control its stringers, he said, because its editors speak Arabic, and local stringers "can't trick us the way they trick non-Arab-speaking persons."