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Morality of no coffin Pictures

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
Huh, how come my posts were deleted?

I had come to the conclusion that we urgently needed to support renewable sources of energy so as not to be held ransom to maniacs like Iran's PM, etc while also saving the world, my answer to all the current problems.

Oh well...
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ben,

I didn't delete any posts!

I remember removing some inappropriate language from someone's post in the last week but don't recall which one. We don't delete any professional posts like yours!

Moderators don't permanently delete posts but soft delete spam.

Do you remember what you posted? Maybe you can try again!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ben,

You had me concerned and puzzled! Nobody is allowed to actually delete anything excpet a soft delete. I try to check everything myself so we do not censor.

We really value the tone and sense of respect for each other as we deal with isseus that manners in good company lets one avoid confronting.

So I would be quite upset if anything you had written was deleted. Just want everyone to know we put a great stock in trust and self balancing, even if the remarks get a little testy.

The only material not acceptablle is debasing, exploitative, threatening and humiliating to the extent that it has crossed the line from debate and rationality to destructiveness for that end.

We as photographers, when blessed with insight into ourselves and the human condition can contribute a lot by testing ideas against what is considered to be the truth.

Unlike most other fora, where free discussion of political or social subjects is off topic, here it is entirely relevant since, in my opinion,

The highest photography, that which is made and processed, has human feelings, emotions and ideas embedded in it. It is a vision in the cathedral of the mind, conceived, nurtured and developed to be complete, to have a life of its own, to go out into the world as a living creature that makes us react.

In a few cases, it transcends the particular and asks and challenges about what might have been, what might be and ought to be and so changes the very boundries of the accepted world as we know it.
.

So this is why and where our photography can also tackle what polite company avoids. So here we are in a cauldron to fashion our positions.

Anyway, that is my hope for myself.

Asher
 

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
Had a long chat with my mentor who has been a PJ for a long long time and who taught me wedding photography. His opinion is that to censor by definition is bad as at that point you are accepting the opinion of others as to what is right and what is wrong. Yes censorship will filter out the bad but it may filter out that one bit of good that would make the difference. For all that the media is flawed, biased, working to agendas etc, having a free press is a must for the good or the bad because the good is too important to have missed.

On reflection I can understand his point, the argument for free press photography is the same as that for the right to free speech. Yes it means Neo Nazi leaflets, but it also means that the truth is out there and free to view, even if it isn't particularly represented by certain elements of the media who are chasing headlines, etc. If it is there then at least we can find it.

Assuming of course that we are rational, intelligent, educated and unbaised people who strive to find the objective truth. Sorry had to stop typing, was laughing too much! :)

I will say though that all respect to this board in that a heated conversation can be conducted with so much respect and goodwill. Go Asher!
 
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doug anderson

New member
The resistance of the Bush/Cheney organized crime family to showing pictures of coffins (it didn't work) is indicative of the policy of keeping the public uninformed. I believe that if we vote for a war, we should be willing to take responsibility for each soldier we send there, and acknowledge their deaths as they occur -- with deep respect. The argument given by Bush/Cheney was that it was "indecent to show coffins." That is absolute bovine excreta. These people don't care who or how many they kill. They are the ones who are indecent. My favorite phrase for describing Bush/Cheney is "depraved indifference."
 

Dierk Haasis

pro member
It's unethical - to not show the result of violence.

If [acknowledged] dictatorships like Red China, Libya, Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany decide to not show the death toll of their policies we cry foul. Self-proclaimed free societies seem to be allowed to do anything that tyrannies will be castigated for - and they are still accepted as free.

There was a time it was the actions of politicians defining what they are, not their words or upbringing or affiliations.
 

doug anderson

New member
It's unethical - to not show the result of violence.

If [acknowledged] dictatorships like Red China, Libya, Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany decide to not show the death toll of their policies we cry foul. Self-proclaimed free societies seem to be allowed to do anything that tyrannies will be castigated for - and they are still accepted as free.

There was a time it was the actions of politicians defining what they are, not their words or upbringing or affiliations.


Agreed. If a person, a country, an administration is responsible for the violence, the documentation of it is only just.
 
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