Brian Walski
{{Infobox person
| name = Brian Walski
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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}}
| birth_place = Illinois, United States
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| occupation = Photojournalism
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| credits = Won the California Press Photographers Association's 2001 Photographer of the Year
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Brian Walski is a professional photographer who was accused in 2003 of altering a news photograph, which he later admitted to. Until the incident, he was a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times.{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm|title=Camera Works: Photo Essay (washingtonpost.com)|website=www.washingtonpost.com}}{{cite book|author1=Matthew S. McGlone|author2=Mark L. Knapp|title=The Interplay of Truth and Deception: New Agendas in Theory and Research|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UaCRAgAAQBAJ|date=15 March 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-84449-3}} Previously, he had won the California Press Photographers Association's 2001 Photographer of the Year.{{cite book|author=John V. Pavlik|title=Media in the Digital Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbCs5rEEr1AC&pg=PA21|date=13 April 2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51213-8|pages=21–}}
Biography
Walski was born in Illinois and grew up in Chicago. He studied journalism at Northern Illinois University.{{cite book|editor=Roberto Koch|title=Photo Box: Bringing the Great Photographers Into Focus | place=London | page=480 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-spLAQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=9780500543849 }} He has worked as a photographer since 1980 starting his career at the Albuquerque Journal, Patriot-Ledger in Quincy, MA, and the Boston Herald. He spent 12 years on staff at the Herald until he joined the Los Angeles Times in September 1998.{{cite book|author1=Donald Matheson|author2=Stuart Allan|title=Digital War Reporting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TWCoAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT117|date=30 August 2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-7456-3950-5|pages=117–}} During his career as a photojournalist, he covered stories ranging from local news to the Gulf War, the Africa famine, Northern Ireland, the Kashmiri conflict and the crisis in the Balkans.
Iraq photo controversy
On March 30, 2003 Walski was on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, covering the 2003 Invasion of Iraq near Basra. He took a series of photographs that day of British soldiers telling Iraqi civilians to take cover.{{cite book|title=American Journalism Review: AJR|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJJ6G9_vj20C|date=March 2003|publisher=College of Journalism of the University of Maryland at College Park}}{{cite book|author=Dominic McIver Lopes|title=Four Arts of Photography: An Essay in Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ipcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA110|date=5 January 2016|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-119-05307-1|pages=110–}} When he later viewed them, he decided to use his computer to combine two of the images that had been taken a few seconds apart into a single image with better overall composition.{{cite book|author=Scot Macdonald|title=Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century: Altered Images and Deception Operations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjxCIc247pYC&pg=PT32|date=5 December 2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-98351-2|pages=32–}}{{cite book|author=Patrick Lee Plaisance|title=Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kW3b020OVZ8C&pg=PA23|year=2009|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-1-4129-5685-7|pages=23–}} He then sent the pictures to Los Angeles Times staff who posted them on the internal photo sharing system for various media outlets owned by the Tribune News Corporation.{{cite book|title=News Photographer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvbyAAAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=National Press Photographers Association}}
On March 31, media across the country ran the image, including the Los Angeles Times on the front page,{{cite book|author1=Flavia Padovani|author2=Alan Richardson|author3=Jonathan Y. Tsou|title=Objectivity in Science: New Perspectives from Science and Technology Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnugBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72|date=23 March 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-14349-1|pages=72–}}{{cite book|title=New Scientist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fm3xAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=IPC Magazines}} the Hartford Courant, owned by the Tribune Corporation,{{cite book|author1=Laura J. Shepherd|author2=Caitlin Hamilton|title=Understanding Popular Culture and World Politics in the Digital Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AMzDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT71|date=20 May 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-37602-6|pages=71–}} and the Chicago Tribune, which printed it on a jump page.{{cite web|url=http://ajrarchive.org/article.asp?id=2975|title=American Journalism Review|website=ajrarchive.org}}
It was at the Courant, on whose front page the image was published six columns wide, that inconsistencies in the image were noticed.{{cite book|author=Claude Hubert Cookman|title=American Photojournalism: Motivations and Meanings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Yr_2-TMMrYC&pg=PA252|year=2009|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-2358-8|pages=252–}} The Courant's assistant managing editor Thom McGuire confirmed that the image was altered, and then contacted Colin Crawford, Los Angeles Times Director of Photography.{{cite book|author=Gene Foreman|title=The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Pursuit of News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JeygmPKvSoIC&pg=RA2-PT223|date=13 September 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5964-0|pages=2–}}
It took Crawford several days to get hold of Walski who was still in battle conditions covering the war. When confronted with the image Crawford said, "Give me an excuse. Tell me it was a satellite transmission problem. Say something." to which Walski replied, "No, I did it. I combined the two pictures."{{cite web |date=2003-05-07|url = http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/esearch/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000456607| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104071658/http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/esearch/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000456607 | archive-date= 2010-11-04 | title = Brian Walski Discusses His Doctored Photo|publisher = pdnonline| access-date = 2018-04-06 | last=David Walker |quote=}}
As a result of manipulating the photograph, Walski was fired from the Los Angeles Times via satellite phone on April 1, 2003.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-02-war-1walski2-story.html|title=Editor's Note|date=2 April 2003|publisher=|via=LA Times}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/03/pressandpublishing.Iraqandthemedia|title=US war photographer sacked for altering image of British soldier|first=Duncan|last=Campbell|date=3 April 2003|website=the Guardian}}{{cite book|author=Joan Gorham|title=Annual Editions: Mass Media 09/10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MVkhAQAAMAAJ|date=9 February 2009|publisher=McGraw-Hill Companies,Incorporated|isbn=978-0-07-812776-2}} The Los Angeles Times ran an immediate retraction, and on April 2 it ran a front-page article explaining Walski's faked image, illustrated by the two source images and the manipulated image.{{cite web|url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2003/04/02/enespecial/1049305403.html|title=elmundo.es - 'Los Angeles Times' despide a un fotógrafo por manipular una imagen para añadirle dramatismo|website=www.elmundo.es}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-07-oe-russ7-story.html|title=Altered Photos Break Public's Trust in Media|first=Russell|last=Frank|date=7 April 2003|publisher=|via=LA Times}} The Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune also ran retractions.
Since the Iraq War
In 2005 Walski relocated to Colorado and founded Colorado Visions Photography, a commercial and wedding photography business.{{cite web|year = 2001|url = http://www.foto8.com/links/photographers/index.html|title = Links> Contributors|publisher = foto8.com|access-date = 2007-10-01|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080705140631/http://www.foto8.com/links/photographers/index.html|archive-date = 2008-07-05}}[http://www.ColoradoVisions.com ColoradoVisions.com]
See also
References
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