One Square Mile: Ethics in Photography

For this lesson we learnt about the ethics in photography. 

First we learnt what are ethics?
- Moral code
- No right or wrong answer
- Moral principles of an individual

"If you have nothing to say then don't take a photograph" - David Hurn.

We were given an image to look at and we had to discuss what is this image? and whats the message? 

I thought it was a children hugging showing that there is no racism when in fact its the 'Angel and Devil' by Oliviero Toscani taken in 1991. The image is about racism.
Here are some people's comments to the photograph:

Woman No. 1: It's about friendship, because they are children. Although with Benetton (the Italian sportswear manufacturer) you never know . . .

Man: The black child's hair looks terrible. It looks like the devil - or (the old "Our Gang" character) Buckwheat.

Woman No. 2: The white child looks happy, and the black child looks sad.

Here is another image by Oliviero Toscani:

Oliviero Toscani resigned from United Colors of Benetton after his images cause too much controversy, especially photographing a man dying from aids. 

Philip Lorca DiCorcia photographed people with a hidden camera and published them. 

One man saw his photograph was published and sued Philip Lorca DiCorcia as he had no permission to photograph him.

 Sally Mann photographed her children playing and in their everyday life. Some of her images of the children were naked and in provocative poses. 

Eddie Adam - 1968 February the 1st General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem, in the street. Eddie Adams asked the General to go outside and shoot the prisoner so he could photograph it.

 Nick Ut, Villagers Fleeing a Napalm Strike, village of Trang Bang, Vietnam, June 8, 1972. 

All these images are about privacy and deciding when it is acceptable to take a photograph of a situation and when it is not. This all depends on the ethics of the photographer. 

We were then asked to list what we would photograph and what we wouldn't.

Things we would photograph:

- War (if we could make a difference)

-Babies

-Animals

Things we would not photograph:

-Dying people or already dead

-Pornography

-Paparazzi

-War

-Weddings