Selfie with an accident background

[JNB_Rare]

Ah, yes – tweets, blogs and selfies. There are so many ways to immortalize one's insensitivity and self-obsession these days. Seems to get some people into trouble, though. Like the Dancing Doctor.

[JNB_Rare]

What are you/we critizing here? The fact that he was taking a selfie with the background injured/scene, or that he was taking a photo of the scene?
Would you criticize him if he was simply taking a photo of what was going on?

Criticize the selfie? YES, IMO. Photographing the scene? It depends on the situation. The photographer might just be nosy or insensitive. OTOH, their document of the scene may become important evidence.

Why does no one criticize the journalist that took the photo? After all, he was also including the injured/scene.

Photojournalists are doing a job to provide visuals to a story. With a good agency/media outlet, editorial/ethical decisions are made as to whether the images are published. However, there are certainly times when photojournalists/media seem to cross the line, IMO. Sensationalist images generate $$$.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Obviously, the outrage was mainly about the selfie aspect. As I mentioned earlier, the face of the image maker would cover many more pixels than the entire accident scene with multiple people. Not a very appealing composition.

So the prejudice is against taking selfies. Anyway, it must be difficult to take a selfie with an appealing composition, given the 28mm -eq focal, inherent angle of view, and distance to self.

Others have criticized the selfie guy for not helping the injured, instead of taking the selfie, but then there was nothing he could do as help was already there. In this regard, I could criticize the photog for taking a pic instead of helping too.

[LesPalenik]

So the prejudice is against taking selfies. Anyway, it must be difficult to take a selfie with an appealing composition, given the 28mm -eq focal, inherent angle of view, and distance to self.

Others have criticized the selfie guy for not helping the injured, instead of taking the selfie, but then there was nothing he could do as help was already there. In this regard, I could criticize the photog for taking a pic instead of helping too.

I should have said -  the outrage was mainly about the insensitivity aspect of the selfie using a scene with the injured person as a distant background. My recommendation to improve the composition and document the scene of the unfortunate accident would be to step in closer and extend the hand with the camera in the direction of the helping paramedics. Using one's own face as a leading object would serve solely the purpose of "I was there", but not to the documentation or a warning aspect of the tragic scene.

[MattBurt]

I should have said -  the outrage was mainly about the insensitivity aspect of the selfie using a scene with the injured person as a distant background. My recommendation to improve the composition and document the scene of the unfortunate accident would be to step in closer and extend the hand with the camera in the direction of the helping paramedics. Using one's own face as a leading object would serve solely the purpose of "I was there", but not to the documentation or a warning aspect of the tragic scene.

This.