Analysis Of John Long's Essay 'Ethics In The Age Of Digital Photography'

Photoshop the picture—Photoshop the truth, Photoshop the perception
Digital technology is continuing to evolve in many fields, including photography. Although photo editing applications were originally aimed to assist photographers in enhancing the beauty of reality, there exist people who use them to distort the truth. In John Long’s essay entitled “Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography,” he accentuated the consequences of overusing photo editing software: distorted perceptions and damaged credibility. Nowadays, the excessive use of Photoshop in the media causes viewers like me to become increasingly skeptical about the outlets that produce them.
The influence of an image on viewers’ perception is stronger than that of words. John Long accentuated this statement when he said, “Words can tell us the facts, but photos hit us in the gut” (671). Unfortunately, it is difficult for the public to recognize how easily small factors contributed to a photo can severely influence their psychological perceptions. The neutral standpoint of viewers towards the Time magazine’s cover photo of O.J. Simpson was manipulated when the editors “darkened the handout photo,

Time damaged their credibility by editing the face of O. J. Simpson. The L.A. Times’ photographer was “disciplined severely” (676) when he set up the scene of a fireman pouring water on his head when there was a house burning behind him. Being constantly exposed to digitally manipulated images on the media in this day and age, viewers—including myself, become skeptical and frustrated; and we have the reason to reinforce stereotypes about the outlets that carry them. Credibility is difficult to gain, difficult to maintain, and extremely difficult to rebuild when ruined. Therefore, manipulated images narrows down the possibility of restoring the public’s