Ethical or not

[Runmonty]

I would be interested in people's thoughts about this. Is it unethical and blight on the profession, or is the author being a little bit "precious"?


https://petapixel.com/2018/01/17/photographers-stage-scenes-win-prizes/

[Marko]

ethics are dead. It's especially bad in cases like this where this deliberate posing might look like gritty photojournalism.
The real/true shot here was the wide shot of the video cam.

[Runmonty]

I agree IF AND ONLY IF it is being represented as realistic, photo-journalistic action. I would suspect though that a large percentage of professional photojournalism would have a lot of "can you do that again for the camera" moments.

I think most of these staged shots are probably not claimed as being true photojournalism, but are simply an environmental portrait, in which case it is totally OK. In that case I think the professionals opinion is elitist and out of line (and certainly not practical)

[Marko]

I'm cynical these days.... too often it's just a matter of not getting caught.
The smartphone has changed it all.... EVERYONE is aware of being photographed now so that authentic moments are becoming rarer and rarer. Plus in poor countries people can get paid a few bucks. Lots of cheaters in this world. Local people people pose for them.