Ricchiardi's Essay A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Photographs have become a powerful tool to spread the news that the everyday person cannot see at first hand, yet pictures can lie. Images have a role to portray the raw truth. Yet, when an image is retouched it no longer tells the original story; it tells the story with more extravagant details that were not there in the first place. Thus making it a false reality the photographer wants the observer to see. Pictures are meant to be used to give context to certain aspects words cannot fully capture, hence the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” In the American Journal Review, an article called the “Distorted Picture” by Sherri Ricchiardi examines cases where Photoshop was used to change the perspective of reality. She also points …show more content…
Sherry Ricchiardi notes a couple of cases were photo altering was present and affected photo journalism. Her first example was of Allan Detrich and his tweaking of the Bluffton University baseball team's photo. In the team’s photo, there was a pair of unwanted legs, so Detrich removed the legs to clean up the image. However, someone pointed out the alteration and did not agree with Detrich’s choice and was fired. Going on Ricchiardi examines Brian Walski’s and Adana Hajj’s modified images that put reality in a different perspective. Walski merged two of his photos to make it seem as if a British soldier was helping Iraqi civilians find cover. On the other hand, Hajj manipulated his photos by darkening the Israelis bombings and amplifying the devastation. In the end, both these photographers were fired. Furthermore, Ricchiardi calls out art directors and says that they never know when enough is enough when it comes to the use of Photoshop. She says there is no clear limit to what is and is not acceptable when it comes to using these tools. However, she does claim that “removing visual content from a photo or adding to it crosses the divide.” (Ricchiardi,