Snapped Shot

Lightstalker Robert Goddyn seems to have caught three photojournalists covering the war in Georgia participating in a bit of what I like to call "pack photography." He lays out his evidence here, but for your reference, compare:

[Joao Silva/NYT] [Bruno Stevens/Cosmos] [Jan Grarup/NOORimages]

I've covered this topic briefly a couple of times in the past.

While it's true that each of these photographs would stand out by itself, the fact that three photographers each published what is essentially the same frame, to me, cheapens the news services provided by their respective employers. Are we really providing a value to the "news" consumer by publishing the same thing as everyone else (ala Walmart)?

Or, on the other hand, is this merely a side-effect of having so many professional photographers on the scene to cover any given conflict in the modern era?

Incidentally, in the examples provided above, I'm of the opinion that Bruno Stevens, as usual, is in a league all his own.

From a post at LightStalkers, we hear that photojournalist Paolo Pellegrin, working for the New York Times Magazine, was injured in Tyre, Lebanon on the 6th of August. We wish Paolo a speedy recovery!

Paolo has an extensive portfolio of his work on MagnumPhoto, which includes shoots of Kosovo which are reminiscent of the recent Qana imbroglio; though for the record, Paolo is more of an artistic photographer than a wire service stringer. Paolo has published five books of his photography, and his work has been featured in Newsweek, along with other magazines.

Here is the post from LightStalkers, sent in by fellow photographer Robert Goddyn:

photograph journalist Paolo Pellegrin has touched on 6 augusts wounded at a rocket attack in the south of Lebanon. Pellegrin stayed in the city Tyre with report donor Scott Anderson van The New York Times magazine. Anderson, Pellegrin and their driver incurred lord shaking thing and wounds of grenade shards. They got first aid in Tyre and have been vervolgens examined in a hospital in Beirut. Meanwhile they are to the work.

Pellegrin and Anderson reason in the first car of a convoy, and stopped beside a man who had touched at a rocket attack wounded. Exactly then they from their car stepped a second rocket meant about six meters distance, where the gewonde man came for living.

Pellegrin, born in 1964, have been since 2005 member of magnum Photos and have been have experienced conflict photographer. He had won already a lot of prices (among other things at World Press Photo) and has worked since 2000 as a contract photographer for the illustrated magazine Newsweek.

Little Green Footballs is hot on the case again. Check out this Lebanese refugee shelter:



Looks normal, right? Well, other than the fact that there're far more people crowded in there than we'd expect to see in a bomb shelter? Well, it appears that something out of the ordinary is going on after all, for behold:—



Tyler, would you care to explain yourself? Are you trying to hide somebody's identity here? This looks fairly obvious to me, though I suppose there's still an off chance that the gentleman in the second picture is wearing some kind of headwear around his neck...

Once again, our hats are off to the good folks down at LGF for an outstanding job!

In a followup to Gawker's excellent exposé, the New York Times has published a correction re-stating the facts surrounding a series of Lebanon photos.

A picture caption with an audio slide show on July 27 about an Israeli attack on a building in Tyre, Lebanon, imprecisely described the situation in the picture. The man pictured, who had been seen in previous images appearing to assist with the rescue effort, was injured during that rescue effort, not during the initial attack, and was not killed.

The correct description was this one, which appeared with that picture in the printed edition of The Times: After an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in Tyre, Lebanon, yesterday, one man helped another who had fallen and was hurt.

The original caption for this mess, if you can't read it in the picture above:

The mayor of Tyre said that in the worst-hit areas, bodies were still buried under the rubble, and he appealed to the Israelis to allow government authorities to pull them out.

Gawker's also noted that the supposedly-injured man seems to be doing well both before and after the offending picture, so it figures that the Gray Lady leaves much to be desired.

Oh, and with regards to the Mayor of Tyre's call for emergency assistance, I think I can understand why Israel might be a bit squeamish about that...

It would appear that the New York Times has been dinged for falling for the ol' dead body gag. Hint to all of the Hezbullies that may be reading this: Make sure that your "dead" don't move around when they're being photographed.

My hat's off to Gateway Pundit for having such sharp eyes!