Real and “fake” photos

Many photographers now use techniques to change their photos, thus making it more impressive. However, some held that those photos are not real and should not be appreciated.

The rhythm of life in sea regionJournalist Mai Nam is one of the popular photo reporters during the anti-US war. He is also the author of the black and white photo book about Vietnamese youth named ‘A Glorious Time’.The book has attracted the attention of many foreigners. Many of them met him to get information about photography of Vietnam during the war.Photographer Mai Nam said an American came to see him, asking to buy photos he took during the war time. But he had a strict request that the photos must be developed in black and white manually without any changes.A similar story comes from a Japanese who worked as book publisher. He came to the office of the Vietnam Photographic Artists’ Association to collect photos featuring Vietnamese people today. After looking at different photo books and entries to international contests, the Japanese man asked to see photos which were not selected for contest’s exhibition and prizes and were not printed in publications. Explaining for the reason, he said he has been living in Vietnam for a couple of years and saw that Vietnamese people in their daily life were far different from those in photos published in newspapers or books. Their faces in photos are emotionless and they seem to serve the photographer.So what should be learnt from examples of the above mentioned American and Japanese ? One of the duties of photography is to reflect life so all the interference and distortion cause a negative impact on the beauty of reality. When looking at photos after being changed, viewers seem to look at what is not real. Some photographers strengthen the colour or replace the clouds of one season with clouds from another season.Choosing a person, then asking them to act as a soldier or a labourer for photo is also a way contrary to art. Even in the case they are real soldiers or labourers, it’s not a right way when the photographer ask them to stand or sit in an arranged position for the picture because it’s unnatural.To capture things or activities in a right moment and in a natural condition can bring a long vitality to the work and that’s also the duty of each professional photographer.