[Untitled]

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-09-21

Dear Mark,<br><br>First, thanks for being on the scene and taking excellent photographs. It was a horrible attack, and the fact that guys (and gals) like you were there to document it is very important. That's what journalism is all about. <br><br>Second, the concept of you being at fault for capturing a startling image is as stupid as blaming JPL for catching images on Mars that some people thought looked like a face. We are all free to interpret photographs as we like. You took many photographs of the tragic attack. Many papers chose to run your photos.<br><br>The tragedy you shot *was* evil -- devil faces won't make it more or less evil. I can't believe people would complain to *you* because one of your pictures, of terrible smoke and fire pouring from the WTC, captured an anthropomorphic cloud of smoke.<br><br>We are in a profession of few actual reporters and many "media critics." They all need to get out there and do a real job, and quit hassling people who do actually work.<br><br>(Yeah, I'm guilty. I haven't been a beat reporter for five years, but I am planning to return immediately. We have a crucial story to cover.) <br><br>I saw your picture in the Philly paper last week. It creeped me out, made me think of Carl Jung, the famed European psychologist. He's the guy who studied archetypes ... these sort of mass visions related to evolution and whatnot. Never really believed any of it (slept through the college classes), but seeing your picture reminded me of all those failed classes. <br><br>Anyway, my very good friend Jim Lowney heads the news-photo desk at Getty Images in lower Manhattan, and he says your pictures are terrific. <br><br>Ignore the morons and keep doing good work. <br><br>Cheers,<br>Ken<br><br><br>------------------------------------------------------------ Ken Layne ~ http://kenlayne.com<br>layne@tabloid.net<br>Columnist, Online Journalism Review: http://ojr.org http://ojr.usc.edu/content/sectionfront.cfm?request=12 Los Angeles, Calif.<br>

Fri, 21 Sep 2001 02:23:30 -0700