Covering up

I am going to Norway tomorrow for a few days. I am attending a conference, after a gap of over two years and I will be doing a presentation. I feel quite excited and a little scared. Will my material be interesting enough? Will I be able to deliver the whole thing within the allotted thirty minutes? Will the technology let me down?

I will also be doing a couple of photoshoots with local photographers - Unbearable Lightness , whose birthday is today (many happy returns, sister!) has inspired me with her wonderful post about Horst and I would like to try out a few things.

It will be cold  so I will have to cover up and wrap up. I have never been to a Scandinavian country and am really looking forward to going!

Covering up  means  to conceal from view and it may mean  to put on clothing to protect your nakedness. We cover up when we dont want to be seen or when it is cold and we need protecting from the elements. By extension a cover up may refer to concealing a scandal or a possible one.

It is an interesting coincidence that as I was thinking of literally covering myself up to brave Northern climes, the news reached me of a cover up in connection with a minor - let's face it, it is minor - transgression that occurred on my favourite site, deviantArt.

Artist: Alex Rennie

I discussed the matter on these pages. A photograph showing a heroin addict injecting was nominated as Daily Deviation on 17th September, as an example of photojournalism. I was disturbed by it and pointed out that the photoshoot had been set up and the heroin had been supplied by the photographer. I obtained the information by scanning through the comments left under the image and the answers given by the photographer.

 Photographer: Marcello Pozzetti

I asked for clarifications and reported the image to dA admins. An investigation took place and it seems that no real heroin was used, the whole thing was a simulation.

So it still is not photojournalism, my initial point - by this token you would have to regard Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream as documentary films. But even more disturbing is the ease with which statements can be retracted. So Pete might not have been a heroin addict after all. He was a model. I am amazed, the shoot looked so very real, his desolate expression still haunts me.

Or perhaps deviantArt realised that admitting that a real class A drug was supplied for a photoshoot might not go down very well. Possession of heroin and supplying heroin are illegal activities.  And as someone pointed out, selling prints of a heroin addict shooting up might raise the question of 'immoral earnings'.

Better to cover it all up and say it was not real, it was art inspired by reality. That's all very well, I am all in favour of meaningful art, art that has a social message to convey. However I always thought that photojournalism was about reporting actual events with objectivity. Was I wrong? Most of all, as I wrote elsewhere: what is the  message conveyed by this deceitful tale?

(All photos modelled by Alex B. )