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We photographers are being slandered and assaulted by the world after the death of Diana. I think this is unfair and I wish to point out a few facts and things about photographers that you folks out there may not know because it's IMPORTANT that we establish culpability and responsiblity before convicting the profession as a whole. And, BTW, although there may be seeming differences between pap and photographers, at one point in one's career, one is forced to do pap work, it's the nature of the job. Therefore there is really no distinction between a pap and a "news" photographer.
Let's look at the facts:
1) the driver of the car was DRUNK, he had more than 1.8 percent blood alcohol level. That's more than two bottles of wine on an empty stomach. There's no way he should have been driving, especially important personages like Princess Diana. Not only is a drunk driver a threat to the occupants, he's a threat to people driving down the road.
2) the driver was going 200 kph in the streets of Paris. this is totally irresponsible and given the fact that he was drunk, which means a) his judgment is impaired and b) and reactions are extremely slowed, he was not fit to be driving and should have told al Fayed that before he got into the car.
3) motorscooters don't go 200 kph.
4) photographers called emergency services upon arriving to the scene.
5) how does an untrained person help a person badly mangled in an auto accident? Moving a person badly wounded could kill the injured person especially if there is a head wound or spinal wound. One photographer took the pulse of Diana to confirm that she was still alive. The most important thing the photographers could have done was call the authorities (which they did) and to redirect traffic around the accident site (I don't know if that happened).
6) Police arrested photographers who showed up to the scene 10 minutes after the accident. Is that photographer in any way responsible for the accident?
now, let's look at some other factors:
1) Di had lived with the pap her entire adult life. She could have told the driver to slow down, 200 kph through the streets of Paris is insane. Of course we'll never know what she said although we may get a feeling after the bodyguard's story is revealed. Pap shoot pictures, they don't kill people.
2) Di used the press as much as they used her. Only the week before she had called the press to her boat to address the issue of her and Dodi. It's a symbiotic relationship.
3) pap photographers fill a need from editors who sell newspapers. More newspapers sell when there are exclusive pictures of Di, or Princess X of somewhere, or of some movie star or even some politician. Face it, people love to read dirt on celebrities. I think it's sick. I never buy people magazine, the sun newspaper, or any of that other crap. However, millions of people do and they are as culpable in this as the photographers are. If they didn't buy the papers, which in turn raise the circulation of the paper on a given day, the editors wouldn't push to get exclusive pictures and the photographers would back off the subjects. That's how it works. In this case it worked the other way around and it ended up in three senseless deaths.
4) photographers everywhere have a job to do. If Nelson Mandela had gotten shot while I was standing there, would I have helped him? No, because there are more qualified people around than myself to do that. I would take pictures, that's what I'm paid and trained to do. If I were alone with Mandela somewhere and he had a heart attack, I would help him as best I could until help could come and THEN I would take pictures. I certainly wouldn't expect to get arrested.
Frankly, the photographers have been tried and convicted before the facts were in. The French cops are totally culpable in this, arresting the photographers on the spot and a dispatch rider. Why arrest a dispatch rider? It's sick. It just goes to show you how much people actually disrespect journalism these days and photographers in particular. People forget that THEY buy these magazines and they are also responsible.
Once all the facts are in I'll bet you 100 SF that ALL the photographers get off because, even if one or two of them did yell at the cops, emotions were running high and it's not enough to convict a person on. What the pap do is perhaps not ETHICAL, but it's not criminal. Each profession has its own set of ethics. Some photographers are more ethical than others. Some architechts are more ethical than others. We can only live with ourselves.
Let's look at photography for a second. In order for a photographer to get a picture of, say President Clinton, he or she must show up at the White House at 6 in the morning, wait until then or 11, be subjected to endless checks by security guards, be corralled into a small pen, treated like an animal and have Clinton walk in for 10 seconds to smile and then leave. This is the reality of the profession.
And what about bringing the public pictures from Rwanda or Bosnia? Huh? Photographers risk robbery, beating, disease in order to document the atrocities that human beings visit upon one another. Do you think Jim Nachtwey or Anthony Suau or I ENJOY watching thousands of people starving to death, shooting each other up or traipsing through dangerous territory as refugees? Do you think we ENJOY getting into a trench full of human shit in order to get a better angle on a picture that will make the front page of Time magazine or the New York Times? No, we don't enjoy that but we feel a social responsibility to bring these facts, these barbarous acts to light so that HOPEFULLY the international community will act. We did it for three years in Bosnia and NOTHING happened. We did it in Rwanda and NOTHING happened. We did it in Somalia and NOTHING happened. And now we are blamed for the death of Diana.
Look at yourself. Look at the facts. Draw responsible conclusions. Don't unjustly accuse.
Love,
