A-4. Eight things FoundView does NOT do

 

1. FoundView does not object to the manipulation of photographs. FoundView objects to the manipulation of viewers. That's why the FoundView checkmark isn't applied until the final stage of the photographic process—presentation—and even then FoundView is concerned only with photographs that look realistic.

2. FoundView does not have any problem with images that do not look like photographs taken with a single click of the shutter (see Notes). If post-shutter manipulations are obvious to the viewer (for instance, inserting images of giant warthogs flying over a major metropolis), labeling the image to prevent deception is unnecessary.

3. FoundView does not put any limits whatsoever on artistic freedom. As far as FoundView is concerned, anyone, anywhere, anytime is free to manipulate, cut, paste, resize, bend, stretch, crush, and do anything they please to things in photographs—as long as they don't try to pass the results off as single-click photographs. Only then do image manipulations become deceptions. FoundView is not at all opposed to manipulation of content in photographs—only to undisclosed manipulation of content in realistic-looking photographs.

4. FoundView does not break new ground. It is a repackaging of a well-established international consensus on the uses and abuses of realistic-looking photographs.

5. The FoundView checkmark is never applied to others' images, only to one's own. Even then, it's strictly voluntary. Those who feel no need for FoundView are free to ignore it.

6. When it comes to realistic-looking photographs, FoundView does not care whether the scene depicted in a fabricated image "could have happened." FoundView's policy is based on the viewer's wish to see the items that the camera actually recorded at the scene the moment the shutter was clicked. The things pictured in a photograph either were captured by the camera at that moment or they weren't. Period.

7. FoundView does not have a hidden agenda; what is on this web site is all there is to it. It is a completely independent, purely grassroots movement, entirely nonprofit, and is not indebted to any corporation or institution.

8. FoundView does not spell out specific guidelines for pre-shutter manipulations to the subject the way it does for post-shutter manipulations. Issues of how much orchestration or manipulation of the subject is permissible—move a branch? pick up a piece of litter? direct a person? lure an animal?—have been hotly debated for well over a century in all realms of photography. With respect to pre-shutter manipulations, the photographer is encouraged to use his or her discretion, applying the "Would the typical viewer feel deceived?" test to judge whether such changes cross the line and become deceptive.