Questions role of photojournalists and whether they care more about their photographs than the subjects depicted in them. Challenges the ethics of taking photographs of situations that the photographer themselves could have gotten involved in and potentially helped.
This photograph of Presidential candidate Bob Dole in 1996 is an example of this questioning; one photographer can be seen saving Dole's head from hitting the ground missing a potential front page photo opportunity, while the others get the shot without regard for Dole's wellbeing. There was also then an argument by some news analysts at the time about whether a photo of Dole in such a compromising position is fair to take and then to publish for sales, concluding that it wasn't.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z3JqJFO5qMUC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=the+dispassionate+observer+photography&source=bl&ots=F78E8GIPmQ&sig=1hnpgKE9k7dr0PYuY7jZThyR_Yw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipwJepva3XAhVGthoKHZIPDFAQ6AEIOjAD#v=onepage&q&f=false
There was greater controversy in 1993 with a photo of the Sudanese famine, depicting a starving child being stalked by a vulture. Kevin Carter, the photojournalist who captured this horrifying moment, received negative responses regarding this photo, calling him inhumane for not helping the child, despite him not being able to for his armed escort of soldiers. Carter was very tormented by his experiences which contributed to him taking his own life a year after this picture was taken, yet without it the sheer extent of the suffering of the famine would not have been made known.
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/kevin-carter
In this case perhaps drawing would not offer a better alternative to taking a photograph. The fleeting moments of both of these scenarios may not have been possible to capture in the drawn image. Even as reportage illustrator George Butler argues that 'drawing is a handshake' ideal for gaining subject's trust when creating work about them, the pure practicalities of drawing vs photography means that photographing the above events was the best means of telling the story.
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