Week #6-Reading Response

Tania Ralli, Page 641, Question #3

Graythen appeals to his fellow photographers in all three ways; ethically, logically and emotionally with his response to the uproar his photo and caption caused.  Ethically he is saying that he as a photographer shot the picture as it happened.  In his mind and through the lens he saw the people who "found" the items.  He goes on to state that they weren't the only ones who found food; there were others of every race and creed who grabbed the items floating in the water.  He looked for the "best picture."   The store had no doors, it was full of water and the groceries were floating away.  No one-including the couple whose photo he chose to print- broke down any doors, had bags of stuff they couldn't use and didn't swim away with television sets and computers.  

Logically he is saying that the items were floating away "a million items floating in the water." These people were desperate and most were homeless and in dire straights.  Why shouldn't they take what they could find even though there was a chance that none of the items was edible?  It didn't matter at the time.

I think the most poignant paragraph is when he states "I'm not trying to be politically correct. I'm don't care if you are white or black."  "I am a journalist and a human being-and I see all as such."  Basically he is asking the reader to remember what is important at this point.  The couple photographed had some dirty, water logged items that they found in the water-so what?

All around him were people including his family who had lost everything.  He himself had spent hours rescuing people, dogs and cats-color was not important.  What was important to him was that people realized just how horrible it was, how everyday people lost their homes, their livelihood, their lives.  And how this was going to affect everyone-even those who didn't live in that part of the country.  A person reading his response can tell how much the hurricane had affected him, his family and anyone else living there.  It was bad, really bad and he implored people to help out in any way they could.  He implored people to let this photo be what it was. There were more important things to worry about.

As for his typing and spelling errors it only added to the severity of the problem and the emotionality of the time.  It did not detract from his argument at all-it only contributed to the overall feeling of desperation that people were feeling at that time.