Reuters, AP photojournalists describe staging of Obama photo

poynter.org ^ | Published May 4, 2011 12:41 pm Updated May 5, 2011 5:48 am | by Al Tompkins

[s_vengali]

Reuters White House photographer Jason Reed describes how the President made his speech to a single TV camera, then immediately after finishing, he pretended to speak for the still cameras.

[s_vengali]

Photos play a strange role in Bin Laden drama:

"At first glance the photo is history. This is the moment in time that will forever be remembered.

For what most of what America saw in print, the images were completely false. By now, most have heard the photo of POTUS announcing that Osama bin Laden had been killed was a re-enactment. Still shooters were kept out of the room during the televised address to the nation. Second passed, then President Obama walked right back in and fakes it for 30 seconds for the still photographers, who took turns essentially making the same boring photo over and over. Boring. I said it. Important and historical? Yes. If it had been real." http://chiplitherland.com/blog/2011/05/history-or-his-story/

"WASHINGTON, DC (May 4, 2011) – Issues surrounding photography and the "truth" of news pictures have become an unusual storyline running throughout this week's coverage of America's commando attack on Osama bin Laden's compound, and the White House's handing of both press photographers here and pictures of the terrorist's body overseas.

Questions are now being raised about access to "real" photographs of President Barack Obama, rather than staged or re-created "photo op" moments, the digital alteration of one of the Pete Souza photographs that was released by the White House, and whether bin Laden's death photographs would – or would not – eventually be seen by the world."

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2011/05/binladen.html

[Yossarian]

A shutters get quieter, or even as / if mechanical shutters go away, I hope we get away from this “re-staging for the cameras” bit.

This is something that happens across all of politics, not just Obama, not just the US.

Eh, it will probably never go away. An image is a powerful thing, and getting a striking image is usually a very intrusive process.

[Quiller]

It makes perfect sense to me.

After all, 0 is staging being a president.

[Spktyr]

Actually, as digital video cameras continue to get better, pulling a still off a video becomes more and more trivial and the still photographer becomes more and more superfluous in situations like this. For example, the RED professional digital cinema camera runs 28000×9334 images - a 261 megapixel equivalent - which is more than most professional still video cameras produce.