| 阅读理解 "Wanna buy a body?"That was the opening line of more than a few phone calls I got from self-employed photographers when I was a photo editor at U．S．News．Like many in the mainstream press I wanted to separate the world of photographers into "them" who trade in pictures of bodies or run after famous people like Princess Diana and "us" the serious newspeople．But after 16 years in that role I came to wonder whether the two worlds were easily distinguishable． Working in the reputable world of journalism I told photographers to cover other people's difficult life situations．I justified marching into moments of sadness under the appearance of the reader's right to know．I worked with professionals talking their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines．And I wasn't alone． In any American town after a car crash or some other horrible incident when ordinary people are hurt or killed you rarely see photographers pushing past rescue workers to take photos of the blood and injuries．But you are likely to see local newspaper and television photographers on the scene-and fast… How can we justify doing this? Journalists are taught to separate doing the job from worrying about the consequences of publishing what they record．Repeatedly they are reminded of a news-business saying：Leave your conscience in the office A victim may lie bleeding unconscious or dead．Your job is to record the image(图象)．You're a photographer not an emergency medical worker．You put away your feelings and document the scene． But catastrophic events often bring out the worst in photographers and photo editors．In the first minutes and hours after a disaster occurs photo agencies buy pictures．They rush to obtain the rights to be the only one to own these shocking images and death is usually the subject．Often an agency buys a picture from a local newspaper or an amateur photographer and puts it up for bid by major magazines．The most sought-after special pictures command tens of thousands of dollars through bidding contests． I worked on all those stories and many like them．When they happen you move quickly：buying dealing trying to beat the agencies to the pictures． Now many people believe journalists are the hypocrites(伪君子)who need to be brought down and it's our pictures that most anger others．Readers may not believe as we do that there is a distinction between clear-minded "us" and mean-spirited "them"．In too many cases by our choices of images as well as how we get them we prove our readers right． |