Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers VII; Soldier Photography vs. War Images from Professional Photojournalists

This is an update to a lot of messages: all stories in the categories "Iraq|War|Photography: The Meta Level", "Iraq|War: Photos + Reports" and especially these entries showing images:
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers"
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers II"
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers III"
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers IV"
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers V"
"Iraqian Frontline: Images from Moblogging Soldiers VI"
"Q: "What's wrong with this picture?" A: "It's the only one like it we could find""
"Invitation to all our readers"
""It’s not the cellphone, stupid": "There is no ban on camera phones, or digital cameras in Iraq. Do I need to send in a picture to prove it?""
"WHO DELIVERS THE ICONIC WAR IMAGES - PROS OR AMATEURS?"
"Rumsfeld won´t be happy: In-the-shadow-of-a-gun"
"Rumsfeld won´t be happy: THE TIRED AND DIRTY SOLDIER is back"

It is a new phenomenon: soldiers fighting in a war steal images from more or less well-known professional photojournalists and declare: "Hey, I took´em."

It all started with this message: "James Hong of Hot or Not and Yarfo has a page of links to moblogging from soldiers on the front line in Iraq on Yarfo" (Joi Ito) [btw: there are now two directories: "http://www.yafro.com/frontline.php" and "http://jhong.org/frontline.html"].

Following the link, about 20 sites from moblogging US soldiers from Iraq showed up. Clicking through the sites we found images that didn´t correspond to the impression the traditional medias were delivering. Some images even were outstanding. Finally it turned out that these images were mostly stolen from professional photojournalists working in Iraq.

We presented some of those images in the believe that one can trust a person reporting to a public audience  -- given the circumstances of being a fighting soldier -- and with the hope that someone with a personal history (and finally skills) in photography might have taken some of the outstanding images -- although we had early complaints described here in the last weeks.

So we did another review of all images under the aspects:
-Light conditions (will a soldier use a 1.0/50mm for his shooting?)
-Point of view (will a soldier use a 2.8/14mm and a DSLR for his shooting?)
-Resolution/Size (will a soldier use a 11 MP camera?)
-Photo finishing (will a soldier intensively use Photoshop?)
-"Image Hunting Instinct", image composition etc.

Dumb questions. Sad to say, but in the end real evidence that an image had not been stolen and is a testimony of a soldier´s real life and surrounding -- at least in this moment -- is only if it is an amateurish image with a daily life scenery. Anything else is highly doubtful.

Statements if an image shown had been stolen or not, if had been taken by the one who testified he did take it, the probability if it´s amateurish or professional -- all this can be found in the above mentionend posts over the next days; comments are assigend in parenthesis [].

Comments

[David Leeson]

Thank you for this comment:

"It is a new phenomenon: soldiers fighting in a war steal images from more or less well-known professional photojournalists and declare: "Hey, I took´em."

This is a true statement. There have been numerous documented examples of soldiers representing my images from Iraq as their own. This has included but is not limited to: entering them in a photo contest (and winning), selling them as royalty free images on eBay, selling prints in arts and craft fairs, using them in numerous print publications, web sites and independent films. Some have even posted them on photo web sites, accepted praise from visitors and answered questions about the circumstances surrounding the photo.

It is an unfortunate new phenomena but akin to a civilian finding a bronze star and claiming military honors.

For further information - reaed my blog "Behind the scenes of image theft" at this URL:

http://tinyurl.com/4zub63

Thank you for this blog. People need to be aware that images presented by soldiers or citizen journalists should be met with a healthy level of cynicism and suspicion.