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David Campany helped to narrow down my theories and evaluations set in place for my dissertation: The Eroding Affair of Ethics Regarding War Photography. 

My initial objective was to focus upon the ethics set in place for visual journalists by the National Photographers Press Association. Campany questioned whether these code of ethics are followed purely for and by all photojournalists. As they are underlined by the National Press Photography Association, they are in fact set for the Associated Photographer of its community. In order to ease my research and theories whilst maintaining the structure of the dissertation coherent, focused and sharp, Campany opened the idea of focusing upon the photographs of war and post-war which were hidden from the wider public.

This proposal began by discussing Ernst Friedrich’s photographic publication War Against War (Krieg dem Kriege! Guerre a la Guerre! Oorlog Aan Den Oorlog!). Which then later developed into the discussion of Susan Sontag: Regarding the Pain of Others. 

Below are several books suggested by Campany during our tutorial.

Just like Ariella Azoulay’s book on The Civil Contract of Photography, Susie Linfield begins her voice towards photographs of suffering from her personal experience towards spectating war – but rather through spectating the effects of war through imagery, not through her actual eye, like Azoulay. Claiming she did not comprehend what the text around the images declared, she later expresses that in fact, the imagery of pain described what happened to the subjects in The Black Book of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust. Linfield passionately declares that spectating such imagery is an ethical requirement to the human as it permits individuals of society in understanding the capacity for cruelty. Her work will support the ethic: ‘do not intentionally sabotage efforts of other journalists’, in relation to editors filtering, trimming or even subtracting particular photographs for the press, when in fact those particular photographs could prevent an echo of history. 

Dispatch will aid The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography in relation to an examination of the production in war imagery, the roles of photojournalists and their professional collaboration with editors of the press. As a short book, flowing with prestigious and not so focused photographs of the Crimean and Afghanistan Wars, Dispatch considers the representation of war whilst profoundly interrogating how the field has developed over 150 years. The thesis will consider the roles and verdicts shaped through editorial authority and therefore altering the photojournalists initial objective which will welcome ethical considerations. This theoretical assessment of Dispatch compares the original prints to what has been reproduced in magazines such as Life. Furthermore, the book expresses the authority decided by editors in order to suit their [news corporations] needs which will maintain my argument concerning how there’s more to war photography than just capturing the scene.

Carved by a witness of war, Ariella Azoulay evaluates the ethical and political status in photography. Azoulay reflects on what the camera is, how it has developed into something mechanical and how contemporary acts as a ‘transit visa’. Contemplating on the ego of mankind, The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography will reflect on how the camera gives power to those who hold the shutter. Considering what it means to be a photojournalist due to: the development of photography, tolerable public access to mechanical cameras, Azoulays opinions on photographs of Abu Ghraib prison give an insight.