Dream In PicturesPhotography

My friend Carissa recently pointed me to this post about photographer, Jill Greenberg, and her portrayal of John McCain during this tight election race.  Greenberg who is famous for some of her highly touched up shots of crying babies was hired by a magazine to get a cover shot of John McCain portrayed as a hero, which in my opinion she did exceptionally well with the cover image of the magazine.

The debate however isn’t about the cover shoot at all, but instead by the various other images she shot casting McCain in a less than perfect light.  The shots were intended to make him look harsh, old, and you could even say scary and evil.  Many people portray McCain this way in their minds, and I am not one to judge anyone by their political preferences, but the question I have is whether Greenberg overstepped her boundaries as a professional hired to shoot a high profile person.

If you check out Greenberg’s website www.manipulator.com you will find that the first thing that loads is the extra image she shot of McCain with a nice text addition to the image.  Is this out of the bounds of professionalism?

My thoughts on this are slightly skewed, as I do feel that I have the right as an artist to shoot images that I want, and I have the rights to those images to do with as I please.  Greenberg did her assignment and delivered a product as asked, and the cover looked great, but is she wrong in using her photos in such a way?  I personally find it highly unprofessional to use a photo in such a way despite whatever my political ideals may be.  Greenberg is an obvious Democrat, she states this openly, and its a wonder to me why the magazine would have hired her for such a job in the first place.

McCain obviously would not have approved of taking the images if he had any concept of how the light she was firing was being cast on him.  Would you?

I am a supporter of the photographers rights to their work, but I am shocked at how little she was thinking when she did this.  I’m not sure she realizes that now every time a photographer is hired, they may be asked a series of political questions to determine qualifications on shooting a candidate.  That in my opinion is a huge step back in media relations…