The photographer that I decided to do my report on is Roy Caratozzolo. He is a free lance photographer from New York. I chose this photographer because he displays many varieties of street photography. His subjects range from objects, to people, to signs, and even animals found in his urban settings. I decided to takes pictures similar to his because I enjoy looking at things in downtown Toronto that people don’t always have the time to stop and look at. I find beauty in the less obvious things and I think Caratozzolo captures exactly what that beauty is all about. The photos I took are in the styles of some of his subjects, I have taken pictures of people, objects, signs and other forms of art in the city.


Roy Caratozzolo


My Picture



The first picture that I took was of a street corner on Front Street downtown. I wanted to capture a moment of interest. In this picture at first glance you just see a street corner but on a second look you see that there are two men to the left of the center wearing large exaggerated top hats. This picture was taken on St Patrick’s day but I decided to change the photo to a black and white picture. My reason for this is because it made the picture become more dynamic and it created a sense of mystery as to why they are wearing those hats. Caratozzolo takes street photography that always has an element of question or an element that makes it out of the ordinary.

Roy Caratozzolo



My Picture




The next photo that I took was from a diner that I went to eat breakfast at. I took this picture because it wasn’t only a piece of ham on my plate but became interesting because of its uncanny resemblance to the continent of Africa. I still wanted it to be obvious what it was but separated it from the other things on my plate in order to get the full objects shape. Again at first glance this looks like a regular photo of food but at another glance you see that there is more to it. Caratozzolo also focuses on taking pictures of objects that are interesting, he focuses on a single object and sometimes adjusts the focus.


Roy Caratozzolo


My Photo



This photo was taken in a park downtown, of a garbage can. I decided to take this photo in the style of some of Caratozzolo’s photos he took of wording on the side of a cab. I thought that this sign was interesting because of its message. There is a double meaning to the term “Pitch in” the first being a literal sense to put garbage in the can and the second to “Pitch In” and save the planet by not littering. This is one of my favourite of the five photos and definably channel’s Caratozzolo’s attention to detail.

Roy Caratozzolo


My Picture


This photo was taken from the train on a rainy day. I took this photo for two reasons; the first reason was because I think that this is an important part of street photography. Graffiti is definably a large part of the urban community and I wanted to include that because I think that’s what Caratozzolo tries to display in different ways. The second reason I took this picture is because the word “Jerk” was spray painted over another profane word. To me this showed that in this day in age it’s almost as if rebellion is censoring itself. By covering up old graffiti of more profane words to put a subtle word to me its shows urban society correcting itself.




The last photo taken was of a friend of mine in class, I took this photo because I thought there was a message behind it. In this photo there is no age and it does not show status or race. It only displays legs and uggs, something that is hard for many to afford especially on the budget of being a college student. But for some is still a necessity as a form of status and social acceptance. Caratozzolo takes pictures of many people normally candid so that what I wanted to try.


Sources

http://www.tozzophoto.com/GALLERY/index.html#user=tozzo&photosetID=104888&photoID=57900609

It is ethical to alter press photography but it depends a lot on what exactly is done to them. Anything majors such as cropping people out or adding people in should be looked at as crossing the line. Basically anything that could persuade the thoughts of the viewer to think differently from what the original photo would portray is something that has gone too far. Altering photos that will be shown to the public defeats the purpose of photojournalism. It should be news in its truest form, as said in the Poynter Online article about photo manipulation “Photography has come to be trusted as a virtual record of an event. We must never betray that trust”.

One example of why press photos shouldn’t be edited is the case of this photo taken at the 14th Chinese Communist Party in 1992. The original photo (the top) depicts paramount leader and reformer Deng Xiaoping shaking hands with Hu Jintao. The photo was altered from the original in two ways: cutting out the people in the back, and emphasizing the two men all in the effort to crop out a rival that was in the background. By doing this the press was able to sway the way Chinese viewers would perceive the picture. Through this photo the photographer displayd a bia political view

China has been known in the past to have strict rules on what the public is able to be exposed to. The communist ways of their government puts restrictions on what the public sees and thinks, thus making them a prime example of how the alteration of a press photo can change your perspective.

In some cases photo manipulation is not always a bad thing. Press photographs should only be edited to get rid of minor defects such as blurriness, red eye, brightness, focus, sharpness and depending on the photo the hue and/or saturation of colour.

The photo on the right depicts the chaos in the Lebanon War, the smoke in the picture has been altered to look more full and bellowing much high than the original. I don’t think this would change what people think or the main idea of the picture so this would be an example of an acceptable change to a press photo.

Sources

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=46964

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FI08Ad02.html

http://listverse.com/2007/10/19/top-15-manipulated-photographs/