Video footage shows a young photographer posing a woman in front of a makeshift memorial: is it bad journalism ethics, or just the way it’s done?

A young photojournalist caught on video posing a girl in mourning after the Brussels terror attacks has sparked a furious debate among internationally renowned news photographers about how often news photographs are staged.

In the footage, captured by Fox News during a live cross to Belgium on Wednesday morning, photographer Khaled Al Sabbah can be seen moving the arm of a young girl and directing her in front of the makeshift memorial, while he snaps away with his camera. Photojournalist ethics – outlined by media organizations, industry associations and major competitions – state that news photos cannot be posed.

“It’s one more example of a photographer doing something that destroys public trust in the media,” said Michael Kamber, a former staff photographer at the New York Times and founder of the Bronx Documentary Center, after viewing the video.



Al Sabbah is a 21-year-old Palestinian photographer who lives in Brussels; his work often focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His photo last year of a father mourning his son during a funeral parade in Gaza won first prize in the Hamdan international photography awards and was republished by international outlets, including National Geographic.

Photograph: Screengrab

In an apology posted to Facebook, he said he was not working for a press agency and had taken the photo purely for aesthetic reasons, to practice and post to his own Instagram and Facebook.

A picture from the event was uploaded to his personal Instagram – where he identifies himself as a photojournalist – but was removed after commenters accused him of posing it. “My main ultimate goal is to take an aesthetic photo in solidarity with children no more, no less, a photo that shows the humanitarian side … Fix my mistakes instead of criticizing me,” he wrote in his Facebook apology.

However, the video of Al Sabbah directing the child, posted on Facebook by photographer and artist James Pomerantz, prompted a wide debate by photographers about how common posed pictures have become.



“I see it everywhere, sadly. Congo, CAR [Central African Republic] by very well-known photographers who are seemingly respected in their field,” wrote renowned documentary photographer Marcus Bleasdale – winner of last year’s Robert Capa Gold Medal from the Overseas Press Club of America and two-time winner in the World Press Photo competition.

Kamber covered Iraq for the New York Times between 2003 and 2012, and said posed photographs were “fairly routine” by local photographers, particularly because so many Iraqi publications were owned by political parties. “That’s what they’d been trained to do: take a picture of everyone shaking their fists,” he said. And if someone wasn’t shaking their fist, says Kamber, the photographer would tell them to do it.



When covering the war in Liberia, Kamber said he saw a French photographer directing child soldiers to make it look like they were fighting. “These were famous photos on front pages all over the world,” he said. “You think it was taken in the middle of combat, it was a totally quiet day there with no fighting going on at all.”



Another day, a different European news photographer in Monrovia, Liberia, led a chant with protesters, recalled Kamber. Once the crowd was worked up and shouting, the photographer grabbed his camera and starting shooting.



Iranian-American photojournalist Ramin Talaie, who also works as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism, says he has encountered many local photographers in the Middle East who don’t see posed news photos as a problem.



“I’ve been in situations like … a political rally, where the politician did something and suddenly someone missed the shot and they yell to do it again,” said Talaie. When he was in Tehran for Iran’s 2005 elections “this one guy literally was giving people instructions on how to do it again and moving them around to get a better light on their faces,” recalled Talaie.



He notes it’s not just overseas – Talaie witnessed tabloid photographers do the same thing in New York City during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. “They would try to recreate situations or egg on the protesters to do it again,” he said.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yevgeny Khaldei’s photo of Soviet soldiers raising a flag on top of the Reichstag, which was staged. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Posed photos aren’t new: Yevgeny Khaldei posed one of the most famous photos to emerge of the second world war, known as Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, which shows a Soviet flag being waved over Berlin.



But part of the problem today – and Al Sabbah points out that he is self-taught – is purely a lack of training. “We have a lot of great photographers in places such as Palestine and Iraq. They learn photography … but they didn’t learn ethics,” said Talaie. “A lot of times, editors sitting in New York or London don’t see what these guys do to get shots.”



As media organizations close down or tighten photography budgets, staff photographers have been cut. Kamber points out that 15 years ago most news photographers would be on staff, in union jobs, and if they had a quiet day with no great pictures, they still got paid.



“Today you have a freelancer, if he doesn’t come up with a spectacular photo, he’s not selling that photo, he might not get that day rate. There’s tremendous pressure on freelancers to up the ante constantly and I think that’s leading to more and more faked ones,” said Kamber.