This journal discusses photography in all its guises with an emphasis on the art of making photographs.

One response to “Political photography”

1. Thomas Hoepker

   October 5, 2006 at 10:52 am

   I welcome any kind of discussion about my photography or my writing – as long as the basic rules of honest journalism are being observed and a minimum of fairness is applied. Sadly your column titled “Political photography” is a collection of wild and unsubstantiated accusations, a rant without prior research.
   Twice you blame me for anti-Americanism, three times you write about “Hoepker’s fraud”. These are heavy accusations but sadly you don’t back them up with any kind of proof. Where exactly did you find “fraud” in either my image or my written comments? Where have you spotted an anti-American remark?? Instead you are using the old and tired defamatory tactic of quoting just part of a paragraph which I wrote, but omitting the other half. You did quote correctly: “… Was this the callousness of a generation, which had seen too much CNN and too many horror movies?…” but you conveniently left out what I wrote next: …”Or was it just the devious lie of a snapshot, which ignored the seconds before and after I had clicked the shutter? Maybe this group had just gone through agony and catharsis or a long, concerned discussion?”
   I find it remarkable that you write about the New York Times: “Any publication with ethics policies would fire (Frank) Rich for his drivel”. Using an incomplete quote to defame a person is probably the worst violation of fundamental journalistic ethics. That’s exactly what you did with my text. Consequently you should consider firing yourself from pindelski.org immediately.
   At the end of your piece, out of the blue, you get into a peculiar rant against people who “prof(f)er inane apologia for …German industrialists during WWII”. Where did this come from? Some neurons short-circuiting in your brain, simply because you read that I am of German descent? Does this automatically make me apologetic of Nazism and a WWIII terrorist? Some minimal research could have revealed to you that, at the end of WWII, I was nine years old – a bit early to have had a career as a Nazi industrialist, but old enough to be deeply impressed by the American Forces who liberated us from the unspeakable evils of Fascism. This was the moment when my belief in Democracy and my affection for America started and which later led me to emigrate to the US. Can you understand that I am deeply saddened every time I experience more erosion of democratic values in this country, which once stood for fairness, equality and civil liberties or when fair discourse is being replaced by foaming at the mouth?
   I do hope that you pass the final litmus test of democratic decency by publishing this reply to your column.
   Sincerely
   Thomas Hoepker