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 April 18, 2019

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 May 14, 2018

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 August 5, 2016

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 July 11, 2016

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 June 20, 2016
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