"Supporters of Martin Luther King, Jr. march down Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colo. towards Civic Center Park Monday, January 21, 2008 in celebration of his birthday."
Who knew that a week after this photo was taken that it would have created such the uproar that it did. As I mentioned in my last post I was faced with an unethical issue regarding this photo. The photo was used as our front page picture in The Clarion on Tuesday, January 22. While discussing the previous week's work on Monday evening at our weekly editors meeting our faculty advisor shared her opinion on the image. She complained that the sky didn't look good on the paper and that I should have "colored the sky blue" on the computer. For those of you who are not aware of the ethics regarding photojournalism, digitally altering an image as she suggested is without question unacceptable. You can read about everything that happened next here and here. After reading my posts and several of the other industry professionals in each of those threads you should gain a better understanding of the situation. As you can imagine I have received several personal emails from photojournalists around the country supporting my efforts and standing up for the industry.
Long story short I resigned as photography editor of The Clarion effective immediately. As a student of the nationally recognized Daniel's College of Business with regards to producing students with high ethical standards I feel that it was my personal and public duty to stand up for what I believe in.
I am meeting with the head of Student Life who oversees the paper tomorrow to further discuss the issue. I will let you know how it goes.
-JE
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