The Ethics of Photojournalism

The ethical issue of photojournalists photographing people who are in crises, such as natural disasters, famine, drought, tyranny, war, and other kinds of violence. Is it considered ethical or unethical for a photojournalist to put down their camera and save a starving African child who is being stalked by a vulture in Africa? Is it ethical for a psychologist to tell their teenage patient that they do not have to go home in order to avoid potentially being abused by their parents or friends? The question of ethics is raised across many professions, and it is not an issue that solves itself, the photojournalist or psychologist cannot just go home and forget about that child in Africa or that teenage patient in some other town. The answer to these kinds of questions is never an easy one, as it means breaking one set of rules in order to satisfy another set of rules. It is very much a case of "damn if you do, damned if you don't".


On July 22nd, 1975, Stanley Forman, a winner of three Pulitzer prizes, was in Boston, Massachusetts working for the Boston Herald when he responded to the scene of an intense fire at an apartment building. The pictures he was about to take would be circulated all around the world and would spark arguments over two main topics: the ethics of capturing images of people who are in peril, and the safety regulations regarding external fire escapes. The pictures in question that Stanley took are of  19-year old Diana Bryant, her 2-year old goddaughter Tiare Jones, Boston Firefighter Bob O'Neil, and traffic helicopter pilot Joe Greene who was on the roof above the other three after he had managed to land his helicopter on the roof of the burning building in order to try to assist in the rescue. Diana, Tiare, and Firefighter O'Neil were all at the top of the fire escape waiting for the ladder to reach them when suddenly the fire escape that was holding them up gave out and sent them plummeting down the fifty feet to the ground below. However, the fire ladder was close enough to the fire escape at the point it gave out that Firefighter Bob O'Neil was able to grab onto it and save himself from the long drop, Diana and Tiare were not so fortunate. Diana tried to hold on to Bob but quickly lost her grip and fell making it to the ground before Tiare due to her larger mass. It was the fact that Diana hit the ground first that more than likely saved Tiare's life, as Tiare landed on top of her godmother's body which cushioned some of the impact. Although this was not witnessed by anybody since they fell into an alleyway behind some bins, all the first responders agreed that this was the case. As the pair were falling, Stanley began taking photos, but stopped as they were about to reach the ground: "As they fell, Forman instinctively began shooting photographs, then, just as instinctively, turned away as they approached the ground. 'It dawned on me what was happening and I didn't want to see them hit the ground,' he later recounted to the press. 'I can still remember turning around and shaking.' When he turned back, Forman learned that the woman had broken the child's fall. She died later that night, but the child survived." The photographs taken by Stanley Forman on that summer day are certainly hard to look at, but they ended up being the catalyst that sparked the movement to help improve fire escape safety in the city of Boston and around the globe. It would one year later in 1976 when Stanley Forman would be awarded one of his three Pulitzer prizes for the pictures that he took that day.


The following photographs are the exact photographs that Stanley Forman took on that day in July, 1975, they show the sequence of events leading up to the collapse of the fire escape which killed Diana Bryant and seriously injuring her 2-year old goddaughter Tiare Jones.





All Above Photos by: Stanley Forman



Despite looking away when the two girls were close to impacting the ground, Stanley was not really bothered by the controversies that people around the world were outraged by. In fact, his reactions is very much the opposite, Forman is more worried about not being able to make headlines around the world like he did in that day in 1975. "Now that I‘ve taken a shot that has gotten world-wide recognition, the most frightening thing is the guys in the office who say I’ve reached my peak at age 30, that I’ll never do it again. I hope they’re wrong." Stanley Forman uses the positive feedback that he received from numerous fire departments from across the United States as a buffer to the negative feedback that he received from people who could not believe that he was willing to photograph a woman and a young girl falling more than fifty feet. This kind of scenario is never easy to process, it is neither illegal what Forman did, nor is it considered morally acceptable by society. Certainly, the Boston Herald was not too bothered by the images that he captured that day as he was immediately given a bonus the next day, and a raise within a month. 

With these types of situations, everyone's always going to have their own opinion on how a person in Stanley Forman's shoes at the time of this event should have handled themselves. In my opinion, I would have put the camera down and tried to help in some way, whether that's giving water to the firefighters, assisting people who were trying to get away from the burning building, or trying to help the EMTs in some way shape or form. The way I look at is if I were a person that was being rescued from the burning building, I would not want people to just be standing around watching as I am suffering, I would want as many people to try to help rescue me and the other people trapped in the building as possible.

Photo by: Patrick Agit

Another way I would look at this scenario is if I were there, how would I feel afterwards based on my actions that day compared to my ethics that I try my best to live my life by. For this specific event I certainly would have tried my best to help out the first responders in any little way that I could. As shown in my ethical pyramid above, security, reliability, determination, and compassion are all highly important to me, and they all revolve around helping other people in anyway that I can, no matter what the situation is. Now, just because I say that I would have acted differently than Stanley Forman did that day, does not mean that I would put him down for his decisions, each person has their own ethics and beliefs and are the reasons they do what they do. With maturity and trust being two other big ethical standards of mine, I would never put another person down for their decisions and/or actions, it is just not the way that I like to operate. What I do disagree with heavily is how Stanley Forman reacted after all the criticism he received, the fact that he was more worried about whether or not he had reached his peak as a photojournalist, and whether or not he would take another headlining image again. With photojournalism there is a sense of responsibility that comes with the job, as a photojournalist the person is tasked with telling the story as it happened and not altering it in anyway, which is what Foreman did. But the issue is that along with telling the story as it happened, a photojournalist must also show respect to the people whose lives they have reported on and not be worrying about such trivialities like whether or not they have reached their peak as a photojournalist. The way Stanley Forman was worried about whether or not he would ever gain such recognition again for his work does leave quite the sour taste in my mouth due to the ethical guidelines that I try to maintain myself by and how they do not correlate with what transpired afterwards.