Photographers Take Pics Of People From Different Perspectives To Show How Easy It Is To Manipulate Photos
It’s no big news that the media loves manipulating the truth to get a certain point across. And two Danish photographers decided to prove just how easy it is.
Copenhagen-based photographers Ólafur Steinar Gestsson and Philip Davali recently conducted an experiment for the Ritzau Scanpix photo agency. They photographed people hanging around the Danish capital during the quarantine and you’ll be surprised how much a different angle and camera lens can change the context of a photo.
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Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
In an interview with Bored Panda, Kristian Djurhuus, the editorial manager at Ritzau Scanpix, said that the proximity of people has been widely debated in Denmark over the past weeks. “Danish politicians and authorities have frequently referred to images which they believed to show members of the public behaving in disagreement with the general guidelines,” said the man.
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Kristian said that as a national photo news agency that supplies visual coverage on the pandemic, they have become aware that their contribution could be misread. “The technical choices have never been a debatable issue in the history of photography,” explained the man.
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Kristian says that as producers of photography, the agency has a responsibility to “draw attention to the fact that images in some cases does not show the proximity of objects as people seem to believe”. He believes that captions under images could help clarify the circumstances so the images wouldn’t be misread.
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
In an interview with a local Danish website, Ólafur explained that the images taken using a wide angle lens better resemble the view we see with our own eyes and that the lens is used “when you are close to what you need to photograph”. A telephoto lens, on the other hand, is mostly used to take photos of things that are far away. “It gets closer to what you are photographing, and in a way, it pulls the subject together,” said the photographer.
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Just like Kristian, Ólafur believes that descriptions explaining how the photos were taken would give editors the freedom to choose. The man also adds that photographers should always keep in mind how they do their jobs, especially during the pandemic.
People had a lot to say about the project
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