HonestReporting Interview With Ruben Salvadori Who Exposes Anti-Israel Media Bias

Last week I wrote about Ruben Salvadori, whose work clearly and visually reveals the media's anti-Israel bias.

Now, HonestReporting has an interview with Salvadori about his work on the media--EXPOSED: Photographer Reveals Market, Not Truth, Behind Conflict Images:

Your video describes the characteristics of the ideal photo for editors. Can you elaborate on that? How does that influence the content of the photos?

More precisely, my project describes the characteristics of the ideal photo for the Media market, which goes from the one who produces the image, all the way to the viewer. What we (photojournalists, editors, public) expect form a photograph is a dramatic shot, which simplifies complicated concepts in one single frame. In order to break down a complex situation in just one photo, we are forced to use stereotypes.

The Media has no time, everything has to be immediate, and stereotypes do the job. But the main focus of my project is the fact that the market expects us to produce dramatic images. It’s a very competitive market in which we constantly compare our work to the other professionals’ and therefore produce images that are good according to the taste of other photographers, not of the general public.


The “dramatic” model is pushed by the highest standards of the profession; if you take a look at the major awards in the field in fact you’ll see how they promote a search for tragedy. Take the current Pulitzer Prize winner of the breaking news photography session for example; it clearly states that the winner was chosen for the “up-close portrait of grief and desperation” (Pulitzer Prize Website) or 2009 winner for his “provocative, impeccably composed images of despair” (Ibid).

What’s wrong with editors asking a photographer for certain types of images? What’s the line being crossed?

Continue reading EXPOSED: Photographer Reveals Market, Not Truth, Behind Conflict Images

Technorati Tag: Israel and Media Bias.