. Brian Walski

. Photojournalism

. Other Photo Fakes

. Success

. Scandal

 Brian Walski:       

             . The image (brief description- own opinions linking to main aim which is to research).

            . Biography: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Walski and http://www.brianwalskiphotography.com/About.html ) Brief details of influence i.e. background and experiences.

Photojournalism:

            . Define it http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=photojournalism

            . ‘Magnum Photos’ Information about them how they started? Why they started? And who started the company?

. Cappa – influence on war photography – link between him and Walski.

            . Technological advances – Photoshop.

            . Realism

 Photo Fakes:

            . Images of the ‘Bush campaign’ ‘The Smoke’ and ‘The Tsunami’ http://www.museumofhoaxes.com.

            . Also comment on the trailer for bush campaign http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iPnvACXXV0 linking it to the public and further how it details how people want it to be like that (patriotism).

            . Connections between their work and Walski.

 Success:

            . Kashmir – shows he not just a “fake”

            . Brief outline of problem there.

            . http://www.foto8.com/issue03 – Walski shows that even though some of his images do show the hardship Kashmir is in due to the war, it still is a wonderful place to see.

            . His detail to the try and get the “perfect” composition may have forced him in to Photo shopping the soldier image.

            . Include ‘Scandal’

            . His excuse for it and how it affected other people – Von Ripen article – “It is a sad but unforgivable case coming in the midst of a sad but unavoidable war.”

Conclusion:

            . Sum up of everything

            . Clear and coherent making value judgments.

To make it better:

            . Much more references (no book references! Need loads!)

            . More research around the topic of Cappa and linking to other war photographers and article writers.  

I tried to distinguish the fact that realism and manipulation are the same thing, people want to see images like Brian Walskis one. So I went a bit further and started to look at other photo fakes and how they are also just what the audience want to see, this lead me to Cappa and his images of war and how it depicts the live of a soldier. His cleaver use of the camera makes it more realistic to the viewer, as it acts like a P.O.V shot (point of view) because the way it is held and shot it makes it seem the audience are there in the war.

However at then end  Walski was fired and LA Times took the action needed, maybe Walski was stressed and angry with the fact he couldn’t get the perfect shot. But he still is a very good photographer and now owns his own wedding photography business called Colorado Visions.

http://www.brianwalskiphotography.com/About.html (accessed 6th Nov09)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/photo/chi-080710-photo-fakes-photogallery,0,4231467.photogallery?index=chi-fake_walski20080710142803 (accessed 6th Nov09)

http://www.coloradovisions.com/ (accessed 11th Nov 09)

http://www.coloradovisions.com/ (accessed 11th Nov 09) (click enter site, then on toolbar click on ‘about CV’) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Walski (accessed 6th Nov 09)

http://www.foto8.com/issue03/kashmir01.html (accessed 7th Nov 09)

http://www.foto8.com/issue03/kashmir04.html (accessed 7th Nov 09)

http://www.foto8.com/issue03/kashmir03.html (accessed 7th Nov 09)

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOMGNEQ2A&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYD1KRDB1&PN=17&CT=Search  (accessed 11th Nov 09)

http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOMGNEQ2A&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYDZYLO53&PN=23&CT=Search  (accessed 11th Nov 09)

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/fake_smoke_over_beirut/ 

(accessed 8th Nov 09)

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/tsunami_seen_from_a_high_rise/ 

(accessed 8th Nov 09)

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/whatever_it_takes/ 

(accessed 8th Nov 09) 

http://www.sree.net/teaching/lateditors.html (accessed 7th Nov 09)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm (Accessed 8th Nov 09)

(http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=photojournalism [ accessed 11th Nov 09]).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iPnvACXXV0 (Video Clip accessed 8th Nov 09)

. This was the easiest part just copy and pasting the image as well as the referencing.

. Only real problem that happened was that I wanted to upload the image after saving it, but I saved the image in the wrong format. But that was quickly solved.

 Blog post 2:

. This post was just a quick description of the image; I believe that the description I have given is a satisfactory one, as it is not to vague but also not going in to much detail.

. It was a bit hard to think of because I just got back from university so I’m a bit brain dead.

 Blog Post 3:

. All this post was about was questions.

. I have to keep asking my self questions, those were some of them.

. The questions were not too hard because they were relatively obvious ones.

 Blog Post 4:

. The biography was interesting as I got a glimpse in to his life, I also looked at other photos he took (without tampering) and they were really quite stunning.

. Main achievement was making the second part of my entry a primary resource as it is from his website.

. Main setback was trying to find a more detailed biography because the ones I have posted are a bit short on detail.

 Blog Post 5:

. The ‘Scandal’ entry was pretty amusing to look through because he spent all that time trying to find a perfect photo and he only could do that by rendering photos and merging them together.

. However I actually enjoyed looking at the Basra photos and seeing how he tampered with them, because if you look really closely on the back left some of the people are duplicated.

 Blog Post 6:

. The Kashmir war, this is probably one of the most interesting bits to my blog. As I come from an Indian background so I found the images really creative and subversive.

. Also I have been Kashmir and it is one of the most beautifully stunning places I have seen the hills, mountains, lakes, rivers etc all breathtaking.

.  I found it hard to try not to bias and relate to all 3 sides (India, Pakistan and separatist guerrilla movement).

 Blog Post 7, 8 and 9:

. All three posts are the other photo fakes; I really enjoyed looking through all of them and trying to link them to my initial photo.

. I found it hard at first to link them together but then the whole idea of reality came to mind and human emotion along with the human psyche.

. All three images are actually quite obviously doctored and after looking at them properly I noticed them.

. At first I found it hard to find other photo fakes but then I found that one site which had some famous ones. As well as this I added a clip URL because manipulation is not just in images it’s also in moving images.

 Blog Post 10:

. The article by Frank Van Riper was mainly used for my secondary research and other peoples view on Brian Walski’s work.

. I found reading the article and choosing the most important paragraphs a long task. And trying to keep focused on one page is not my strong point.

. I did enjoy however his account of what he thinks of Brian Walski.

Blog Post 11:

. The other questions, these questions were just based on the work of Frank Van Riper as well as the photo fakes.

. These questions I believe to be my best ones yet as they become more wider but more focused on one particular aspect.

Blog Post 12:

. This post was mainly to do with photojournalism and ‘Magnum Photo’.

. I enjoyed looking through all the photos that Robert Cappa did, the WWII photos were extremely good and I was captivated and really I took pleasure in viewing them.

 Blog Post 13:

.  For my final post I thought it be only fair to comment on his recent work as well as his recent company.

. The whole complete transformation from being a newspaper photojournalist to becoming a photographer for weddings is such a huge change.

.  But Brian has very good photographic skills so maybe this type of work best suits him.

 ”Colorado Visions owner Brian Walski combines wedding photojournalism and fine portraiture with the splendour of Colorado to showcase your wedding with the utmost care to achieve high quality images rich in content and cost-effective”

Caption from: http://www.coloradovisions.com/ (accessed 11th Nov 09)

This caption is on his front page of the website and details where he specialises. It also relates to cost which is affective for people on a wedding budget. Also all the images within the company are completely different to what he would have done in the past, from war and hardship to merriment and weddings is a big contrast. Could this be a fresh start for Brian Walski? and How is he differentiating himself from other photographers in the same line of work?.

“Colorado Visions offers a fresh, creative approach to showcase you wedding with the utmost care to achieve the highest quality images, both rich in content and within budget”.

“Colorado Visions provides a full range of photographic services in a variety of formats including hi-resolution digital in both 35mm and medium formats.   Within these formats we custom design quality modern and traditional albums from: Asukabook, Pictage, White Wedding Album and Zookbinders”.

Italic writing from (click enter site, then on toolbar click on ‘about CV’) : http://www.coloradovisions.com/ (accessed 11th Nov 09)

This all basically details how he wants to not be seen and recognised for the ‘Scandal’ and to be seen for his true artistic and photographic genius that he possess.

Magnum Photos:

“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about
what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to
transcribe it visually.” -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Magnum Photos is a photographic co-operative of great diversity and distinction owned by its photographer-members. With powerful individual vision, Magnum photographers chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues and personalities. Through its four editorial offices in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, and a network of fifteen sub-agents, Magnum Photos provides photographs to the press, publishers, advertising, television, galleries and museums across the world.

The Magnum Photos library is a living archive updated daily with new work from across the globe. The library houses all the work produced by Magnum photographers and some special collections by non-members. There are approximately one million photographs in both print and transparency in the physical library, with 350,000 images available online.

Within the library, most of the major world events and personalities from the Spanish Civil War to the present-day are covered. There are constantly updated profiles on most countries of the world, covering industry, society and people, places of interest, politics and news events, disasters and conflict. The Magnum Photos library reflects all aspects of life throughout the world and the unparalleled sense of vision, imagination and brilliance of the greatest collective of documentary photographers. In short, when you picture an iconic image, but can’t think who took it or where it can be found, it probably came from Magnum

The company ‘Magnum Photos’ was most recognisable for there war photography especially WWII. The founders of ‘Manum Photos’ were  Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour all of “who had been very much scarred by the conflict and were motivated both by a sense of relief that the world had somehow survived and the curiosity to see what was still there”.   (http://agency.magnumphotos.com/about/about [accessed 11th Nov 09]).

So they began doing a lot of war photography just like Brian Walski did, Robert Capa was the one that really defined the phrase “going behind enemy lines”, he dived right in to the action and displayed photos like this:

Copyright: ROBERT CAPA © 2001 By Cornell Capa/Magnum Photos http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOMGNEQ2A&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYD1KRDB1&PN=17&CT=Search 

As it is plain to see the soldiers seem to be crossing over a lake of some sort. (Are they going behind enemy lines?) (Was Robert Capa following the soldiers as they went to war?). Furthermore images like the one above really showed the people back in England how the war was going and Capa really captured the essence of war.

Copyright: ROBERT CAPA © 2001 By Cornell Capa/Magnum Photos http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2K1HZOMGNEQ2A&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2S5RYDZYLO53&PN=23&CT=Search 

Also this image much like the previous one shows the soldiers in a lake picking up debris, again Capa distinguishes and creates the imagery of teamwork and commodity amongst soldiers against Germany and its Nazi forces. 

It can be said that Brian Walski was trying to recreate such elegant but realistic photography of war,  but he used the modern technology of Photoshop, which was not around in the time of Capa and the early ‘Magnum Photos’.  The two images above signify this whole idea of realism and the “perfect composition”, realism is created within the photos, as an active audience look upon the photos but through the photographers eyes making it seem the audience are the soldiers and are fighting for the entire nation. Unlike the passive audience who just sit there and engage with the photo but only see it as a photo and not in the eyes of the beholder.

2) Is ‘Manipulating the truth’ and telling a lie the same thing?

3) Can it be said that doctoring images is the key to enhancing a composition?

4) Because he altered one image, is all his photos just “fake” ?

5) Brian Walski now owns a company called CV (Colorado Visions) is he still a “creditable” photographer?

6) Brian Walski was not the first to tamper with a photo but why was he so much in the line of fire?

These questions are really based upon the ‘Scandal’ as well as the article by Franc Van Riper and the other photo fakes.

Manipulating Truth, Losing Credibility

“It is a sad but unforgivable case coming in the midst of a sad but unavoidable war.”

The widely published image, of an armed British soldier and Iraqi civilians under hostile fire in Basra seems to show the soldier gesturing at the civilians – urging them to seek cover – as a standing man holding a young child in his arms seems to look at the soldier imploringly. It’s the kind of picture that wins a Pulitzer.

Not surprisingly, it ran Page One, large and above the fold, in the Times, and across all six front-page columns of the Hartford Courant, which, like the LA Times, is a Tribune Company property.

But the picture is a fake – a computer-generated amalgam of two different photographs, made one after the other. In one (unmanipulated) picture, that prominently features the standing man and child, the British soldier is not gesturing and is looking away from them. In the second image (also unmanipulated), the soldier is gesturing dramatically, but the man and child are much less visible. The conclusion is inescapable: Walski deliberately combined two of his good legitimate photographs to make one superb illegitimate one. The bogusness of the picture was discovered at the Courant, after an employee noticed what appeared to be a duplication of elements and people in the image’s background.

What makes Walski’s action so tragic has very little to do with what he did to his picture, but a hell of a lot to do with the fragile currency in which all reputable journalists trade: their credibility. In truth, what the photographer did had little, if any, effect on the content of the story he was telling – a point made by at least one critic, Pedro Meyer, who appears elsewhere on this website

Assuming Brian Walski’s unforgivable action was the only mistake in an otherwise unblemished career – an assumption I am willing to make with no evidence to the contrary – the sad, tragic fact is that the cloud he has cast over the profession he loves is something all of us now will have to live with – and work to dispel.

For the full article refer to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm (Accessed 8th Nov 09)

Reuters distributed the top image, showing smoke rising over Beirut after an Israeli air strike, on August 5, 2006. It had been taken by Lebanese photographer Adnan Hajj, who had been freelancing for Reuters for ten years..

The conservative “Little Green Footballs” website soon identified the photo as a fake, noting that, based on the unusual repetitive patterns in the smoke, it appeared Hajj must have used Photoshop’s cloning tool to add additional smoke to the sky. When questioned by Reuters, Hajj admitted the photo was altered, but claimed he had simply tried to remove some dust marks from it. Reuters withdrew the image and replaced it with the original

Images and text from: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/fake_smoke_over_beirut/ (accessed 8th Nov 09)

These images were also doctored in order to make it seem there was more smoke than there actually was. This brings up to me the question which is evident in all 3 doctored images:

Is reality altered in order for us it to agree with it?

I thought of this question because the image by Brian Walski shows the viewing public the image they want to see. As on a deeper human level we are wanting to see and believe that, thats how war is. Also with the George .W. Bush image the audience want to see the whole army getting behind its country, as most Americans are very patriotic due to all the hardship such as September the 11th. Furthermore the whole Tsunami crisis, everyone knew how bad it was but people want to see how the big wave actually looked just before crashing in to the city. Finally this image of the smoke Hajj added more smoke, but isn’t this what people want to see? The whole reality of war and its up most upheaval within a country.