There is a lot wrong about this but I heard on a television report that there were plenty of other people closer who were also taking pictures or recording the events, using their phones. This guy just happened to have his camera. I guess his instincts kicked in because he was taking pictures while running to help the man that was pushed. No one else was helping.
It's not the first time we have heard of this happening. I see people attached to their phones all the time. If not texting then talking, taking pictures, or videoing.
What happened to this man, should not have happened. The man who pushed him was mentally ill. That in itself is a whole different issue. However, there is a time and a place for everything. We are way to attached to our electronics. Maybe the photographer or someone else could have helped save this man. We will never know.
"The moral issue among professional photojournalists in such situations is "to document or to assist," said Kenny Irby, an expert in the ethics of visual journalism at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based nonprofit journalism school.
He said that's the choice professional photographers often face in the seconds before a fatality."
In the various stories I saw that there were 22 seconds from the push to the hit. I don't know about you, but it would take a few seconds before I could react in any manner. In the remaining ten seconds or so I know I could not cover that distance and get down to try to help.
As a professional photojournalist I can see how his reaction would be to do something with the camera. My reaction would probably have been to turn and throw up.
I question, why wouldn't anyone else try to help. There were other people closer. Maybe no one could have done anything but this photographer and publisher are singled out because they published the photo. What about all those holding up their cell phones photographing or recording this?
@dmortega Right. Who was the person standing next to the victim without a recording instrument? And where were they.
It raises a very important questions though about moral and ethical responsibility to fellow humans and to your art/craft/business. One that sooner or later many of us may face to some degree when carrying cameras with us all the time.
The recent post of the 45 most powerful images of 2012 raised that question for me of with the one man jumping on another crouched on the ground and the officer about to beat the woman with a baton. We don' t know the full or rest of any of the stories behind such images but the question is still raised.
His mistake was grantng the interview in the first place. There was no way he could have saved the man and in the interview it appeared that they were trying to put him at fault. His pictures could be helpful in determining points of what happened. His instincts kicked in to document.
@dmortega@geocacheking there is one thing that may need to be pointed out. According the the news report the pusher had been threatening all the people around him, and the victim was actually one of the people trying to help out. So it was not a confrontation isolated to just two people. Also as an urban transit user, those situations can be scary and ugly and getting distance is a normal human response in a threatening situation.
@geocacheking I agree, there is no way to know the full story and it's not fair for people to assume things - they weren't the ones there. The tone of the article bothers me - but then again, that's what the media does - assumes things to make the story more flavoursome, more memorable.
To be honest, if there was a mentally ill person running around who'd just pushed this man onto the tracks, I'm not sure I would have run over to help, in case he decided to push me in too (even if I were a tall, strong man and not a small female). True, you do have to be a "human before you're a photographer", but you also have to think of yourself before others in situations like this - else you'd both end up on the tracks.
in first aid/emergency training, the one thing that is always stressed before helping a victim is to make sure that it is safe for you to approach the victim to help. it does not improve the situation if another life is put at risk.
for some people adrenalin would kick in and the immediate reaction is to go and help. for most others, seeing the moment unfold freezes them on their feet, unable to move or think.
i'm not familiar with new york subway stations but looking at the photograph, the man seemed to be all alone. maybe it was just one of the 49 shots the photographer got, but there seemed to be nobody near him and that the closest person would have been the photographer. that was undoubtedly a long distance between victim and photographer considering the rate the train was going.
what disgusts me was the report that when first aid/cpr was being performed, that people's natural instinct at rubbernecking kicked in, nosing at and taking photos or videos with their phones. what would be the purpose of one doing that? bragging rights for a million hits on youtube? if i was that photographer, i would have taken photos of those people, but by then, the reality and probablities of his own safety would have sunk in on him and the thought of taking more pictures of the crowd was probably no longer in his mind.
there were a lot of criticism on the photographer and the newspaper that published the photograph from other media outlets. jealousy perhaps that it was not their scoop? for the others, i dare say, until you are in that situation, you wouldn't know what you would do.
in any case, i hope there are video cameras at the platform level that are controlled by the station; the police can review that and they would see what actually happened leading up to the man's death.
The photographer claims to have fired off 49 flashes in 22 seconds. Is this even possible? I don't think my flash is capable of those types of numbers. I don't follow the logic of setting of your flash repeatedly to try and stop a moving train either - sounds like an excuse to me.
Nonetheless, I have more problems with the photographer selling (sorry license as he states) the photo to the NY Post and the newspaper actually posting that photo on their front page. Pretty horrible decisions by both parties in my opinion. Classless and tasteless move.
I don't buy his story at all - I can't believe would get a photo so good if he was running along, firing off shots and didn't even have the right settings at the time.
I don't think the moral debate is relevant - if he chose to take a picture rather than help, it was his decision to make. Other people would have behaved differently and perhaps others there could have saved him but didn't bother to help. Whatever the case, the man died and there's nothing that can be done about that and I doubt the people there would act differently if a similar incident occurred in front of them again. What's done is done and arguing over morality doesn't change the outcome.
Surely there's cctv footage anyway which would show the events?
@chriswang One of the stories I saw had his camera settings. Since he had been shooting outside he was just using the flash as a fill light at 1/64 power. With that setting a .5 second recycle time is believable. I can't remember the other setting details.
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It's not the first time we have heard of this happening. I see people attached to their phones all the time. If not texting then talking, taking pictures, or videoing.
What happened to this man, should not have happened. The man who pushed him was mentally ill. That in itself is a whole different issue. However, there is a time and a place for everything. We are way to attached to our electronics. Maybe the photographer or someone else could have helped save this man. We will never know.
"The moral issue among professional photojournalists in such situations is "to document or to assist," said Kenny Irby, an expert in the ethics of visual journalism at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based nonprofit journalism school.
He said that's the choice professional photographers often face in the seconds before a fatality."
As a professional photojournalist I can see how his reaction would be to do something with the camera. My reaction would probably have been to turn and throw up.
It raises a very important questions though about moral and ethical responsibility to fellow humans and to your art/craft/business. One that sooner or later many of us may face to some degree when carrying cameras with us all the time.
The recent post of the 45 most powerful images of 2012 raised that question for me of with the one man jumping on another crouched on the ground and the officer about to beat the woman with a baton. We don' t know the full or rest of any of the stories behind such images but the question is still raised.
Photographer Of The Infamous New York Post Cover Photo Appears on the Today Show
To be honest, if there was a mentally ill person running around who'd just pushed this man onto the tracks, I'm not sure I would have run over to help, in case he decided to push me in too (even if I were a tall, strong man and not a small female). True, you do have to be a "human before you're a photographer", but you also have to think of yourself before others in situations like this - else you'd both end up on the tracks.
I don't know what to say about this.
for some people adrenalin would kick in and the immediate reaction is to go and help. for most others, seeing the moment unfold freezes them on their feet, unable to move or think.
i'm not familiar with new york subway stations but looking at the photograph, the man seemed to be all alone. maybe it was just one of the 49 shots the photographer got, but there seemed to be nobody near him and that the closest person would have been the photographer. that was undoubtedly a long distance between victim and photographer considering the rate the train was going.
what disgusts me was the report that when first aid/cpr was being performed, that people's natural instinct at rubbernecking kicked in, nosing at and taking photos or videos with their phones. what would be the purpose of one doing that? bragging rights for a million hits on youtube? if i was that photographer, i would have taken photos of those people, but by then, the reality and probablities of his own safety would have sunk in on him and the thought of taking more pictures of the crowd was probably no longer in his mind.
there were a lot of criticism on the photographer and the newspaper that published the photograph from other media outlets. jealousy perhaps that it was not their scoop? for the others, i dare say, until you are in that situation, you wouldn't know what you would do.
in any case, i hope there are video cameras at the platform level that are controlled by the station; the police can review that and they would see what actually happened leading up to the man's death.
Nonetheless, I have more problems with the photographer selling (sorry license as he states) the photo to the NY Post and the newspaper actually posting that photo on their front page. Pretty horrible decisions by both parties in my opinion. Classless and tasteless move.
I don't think the moral debate is relevant - if he chose to take a picture rather than help, it was his decision to make. Other people would have behaved differently and perhaps others there could have saved him but didn't bother to help. Whatever the case, the man died and there's nothing that can be done about that and I doubt the people there would act differently if a similar incident occurred in front of them again. What's done is done and arguing over morality doesn't change the outcome.
Surely there's cctv footage anyway which would show the events?