Fred Ritchin

Recent Articles

Columbine Students Are Asking: Will Sharing Photos of the Dead Change Our History of Violence?

We have long debated when it is appropriate to publish photographs of those who have been killed. When does the news value of the image override the right to the privacy of the dead? And...

By Fred Ritchin

A Visual History of ISIS

ISIS, that much feared, reviled, celebrated, media-savvy and somewhat phantasmagoric entity, “promotes itself much less through a coherent ideology than via the equivalent of an aggregated, gigantic snuff-selfie,” writes Peter Harling in A Brief Visual...

By Fred Ritchin

Should News Outlets Show Photographs of Terrorists?

"Looking at their faces, or knowing their names, in no way is an affirmation of their lives or their deeds, but only an acknowledgment of what unfortunately exists."

By Fred Ritchin

In the Livestream Era, 'the Trauma Is Widespread'

The ubiquity of smartphones is changing our democracy, but does it give us a license to photograph and publish everything?

By Fred Ritchin

Why Photos Don't Always Tell the Truth

"Neither a person nor a photograph should be taken at face value; it is more complicated than that"

By Fred Ritchin

Why Violent News Images Matter

Fred Ritchin discusses the graphic display of war and suffering in the news

By Fred Ritchin

What the World Press Photo of the Year Means for Photography

The underlying message of this year’s World Press Photo selection can be seen then as a nod to the increasingly pivotal role of social media.

By Fred Ritchin

Syrian Torture Archive: When Photographs of Atrocities Don't Shock

During the last century, photographs of mass murder in Nazi Germany, Argentina, Cambodia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia seared the civilized conscience with their revelations of barbarity. Some of the more irrefutable images were the...

By Fred Ritchin

Superstorm Sandy, One Year Later: Self-Portraits by Communities in Distress

One year ago, more than 800,000 photos were uploaded and tagged as Superstorm Sandy made landfall. On the anniversary of the devastating storm, Fred Ritchin writes for LightBox on the power of the photograph as self-documentary in 2013.

By Fred Ritchin

War of Images: Rolling Stone, Tsarnaev and the Branding of a Tragedy

Fred Ritchin writes for LightBox on the photographic branding and rhetoric of the modern villain following the Boston bombings.

By Fred Ritchin

What a Photograph Can Accomplish: Bending the Frame by Fred Ritchin

On the advent of his newest book, Fred Ritchin writes on the power of the photograph in the modern era and the relationship between social justice and photojournalism.

By Fred Ritchin
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