Disgusting
So I had to cover the funeral of Heather Crowe, the woman spearheading the smoke free Ontario campaign for the Lung Association, and I have never been more disgusted with the media thatn I was that day. As soon as the womans daughter came out of the church, she was scrummed by the media. No grieving space, no hugs, no tears.... It was more like a press conference or a wedding, than a funeral. One camera guy from the A Channel was wearing sandals, shorts and all white clothing.
posted by photogs at 9:04 PM
5 Comments:
That was me, BTW.
Well, it just takes one member of the media to take the initiative to make the decision to move in on a subject at an event, and then it becomes a frenzy.
How did the daughter take the attention? Was she put off by it? Was she welcome to the scrum? Was she able to use it as a soapbox to further her mother's legacy?
Perhaps some good open discussion about these kind of ethics is a good idea on the board?
How would the rest of us react to such a situation as photographers? I am curious to know as many of us have probably had to deal with similar situations over our building careers. I know I certainly have on a number of occasions.
Lets hear em' people.
Jordan, you would probably recall the Punky Gustavson case...a young girl murdered in Edmonton. I was assigned to shoot the victims family as the exited the courthouse after the verdict of the killers trial. (Guilty) I can't remember if you were there? I think maybe?
As they began to exit, there was a fairly large scrum but people were pretty much respecting the family's space. I began to shoot the grandfather of Punky, when a young man (who turned out to be a cousin i believe) started yelling "no pictures! no pictures!" and put his hand out to block my camera. As he was saying it I squeezed off a couple frames then lowered my camera and stopped shooting.
After a few moments the grand mother actually told me to start shooting again... the media had helped keep the case in the public eye. The parents ended up talking at length with the media and 'used the soap box' to continue the memory of their daughter.
Anyway.... Back to the newsroom. I got heat for not continuing to shoot. That was one case where I believed that I should respect the family's wishes.
Now can we get to the REAL issue at hand: Is it ok to wear shorts on the job? snicker.
In my short time in this biz i have covered a few funerals. The first was of a muslim woman who was killed by her husband. Went I arrived at the Mosque the people didn't mind the media at all. They actually handed out maps to the location where the body was going to be buried. I also covered 2 biker funerals which were a lot different. I was across the Street shooting with a 300. No one said anything to me. The last one was another muslim funeral for a cabbie which was the same at the first muslim funeral. open to the media. I think you have to play it by ear. I dont think there is a right or wrong thing to do. On the one hand you have to make your editors happy and on the other you are a human being!!! Sometimes I have felt like a scum bag for shooting something but I am there to record what is happening. Thats my job. I try to respect the families whishes as much as I can, in the end you still have to make pictures though, wether it be with a 16 or a 400.
Oh yeah, shorts. I wore shorts once to the globe and I felt like a little kid. Everyone is so serious and in suits! Crazy! So now i go with pants on in the morning and shorts in the trunk for when you need them!
Mark, I do remember the Punky case quite well. They certainly did use the media to their advantage. I remember photographing them at the courthouse and at the cemetary.
I photographed the funeral of a young man who was apparantly a drug dealer that was killed on the front lawn of a residence. It was very cold and snowy, and the family specifically expressed that the media was NOT welcome at the funeral. Well, if we were off the property, that was OK.....but once the casket came out of the front doors, all the attendees blocked it.....so I made the decision to run closer and stand on a bench about 50 meters away with a 300mm. I got my frames until I was noticed and was chased by some very large angry men and was able to talk my way out of being assualted.
Did I feel like a jerk? Yah, I did.....but I would have felt worse if I went back to my editor with anything less than good pictures from such an event.
Perhaps we are sometimes spurred on by the fear of failure to overstep our comfort zone.
Post a Comment
<< Home