News Corp Has Been Dragged For Misrepresenting A “Crowded” Beach In Lockdown Victoria
"People say that the camera doesn’t lie. It’s not true."
Photos of what appears to be crowds of people densely packed onto a Melbourne beach caused a big backlash yesterday, after the Herald Sun splashed one such image across its front page.
But another photographer who was also on the beach says the images misrepresent what she saw that day, and has accused the media of trying to “rile people up” using techniques that don’t show the whole story.
Sarah Walker was at Ocean Grove on Saturday when she spotted a photographer with a huge lens walking towards the beach. On a hunch she took a few quick snaps on her phone, which portray a very different picture to the one that was splashed across the front page of the Herald Sun yesterday.
So @theheraldsun is running this image of the beach at Ocean Grove yesterday. Looks insanely packed, right? Terrifying. Well, time for a lesson in the impact of lenses on a photo. [Thread]. pic.twitter.com/3ZrIKwNwuZ
— Sarah Walker (@sarahtakesfotos) August 30, 2020
As Sarah explained to Junkee, the greater the zoom on a lens, the more it compresses space — which works practically to compress the distance between objects, and make things look closer together.
It’s a photography trick she has used herself to make festivals and events seem well-attended, as it produces a much more vibrant image than a wide angle shot.
Sarah said she and her partner were leaving the beach after going to a surf when they saw the photographer carrying a huge zoom lens.
“As he walked past, I said aloud to my partner, ‘That’ll be the front page of the Herald Sun tomorrow. A compressed shot of the beach that makes it look as though nobody is distancing.’ It was disappointing to be proven so right,” she said.
For comparison, she took a few quick snaps on her phone to demonstrate the actual distance between people on the sand.
“I had a sense that there would be an inflammatory article that used a beach photo to stir up resentment, especially in Melbournians who are struggling with the rigours of Stage 4,” she said.
“It’s particularly disappointing to see this continued approach that the press are taking, both here and internationally, in using photography, a medium that people trust, to suggest that large segments of the population aren’t taking lockdowns seriously.
“In a time when we need to feel united in a community effort, supporting each other through a truly awful global event, the fact that the media are using their reach to create a sense of division feels dangerous and saddening.”
This is what the beach actually looked like at the exact time that press photographer was taking those images. Busy, but not nearly so frightening. pic.twitter.com/vZ0KUMz0h7
— Sarah Walker (@sarahtakesfotos) August 30, 2020
Ocean Grove is outside Melbourne’s metropolitan area, and is therefore subject to Stage 3 restrictions.
Sarah said there were definitely lots of people on the beach, but she was impressed at how well people were managing space. She also said the vast majority were wearing masks, apart from children, surfers and people who had temporarily taken them off to eat or drink.
“What that photo did, as do many of the images that are coming out of the pandemic, was misrepresent the distance between those people. The image makes it seem as though they’re all piled on top of one another, which wasn’t the case,” she said.
She said while using that technique isn’t usually a problem, it is when it’s used to push a particular narrative.
Shots like the one in the Herald Sun don’t happen by accident. Nobody goes out shooting with a lens that big unless their photo editor has specifically asked for a shot designed to rile people up. People say that the camera doesn’t lie. It’s not true.
— Sarah Walker (@sarahtakesfotos) August 30, 2020
“It does become problematic when it’s paired with a headline and an article that implies that the photo provides proof of people behaving in dangerous and irresponsible ways,” she said.
“We’re talking about using a combination of lenses, location, framing and aperture to represent what is there in a way that serves a particular narrative,” she said.
“The phrase ‘the camera doesn’t lie’ comes from the idea that a photograph records data as it is, that you can’t photograph something that isn’t physically in front of the camera. A camera, though, is always wielded by a photographer.
“Photographers are storytellers. They’re using their equipment to tell a narrative. Photography is an art, and like all art, it is subject to the decision-making of the artist.”
Feature Image: Sarah Walker