Role of photographers

It seems that in the furor over the Parisian paparazzi sight may be lost of the valuable, even indispensable, role other press photographers play. A great disservice will be done if the impression forms in the public mind that all cameramen are suspect.

Earlier this year the Dutch cultural center, Erasmus Huis, hosted the World Press Photo exhibition, which featured some riveting work from zones of danger and tragedy ranging from Rwanda to Chechnya and Bosnia. Some of the photographers concerned had literally put their lives on the line as one set of photos by Jon Jones of the victims of a Russian artillery attack in war-shattered Grozny graphically proved; the rocket had smashed into a bread queue only meters away from the lensman.

Photographers may record events of importance and put a handle on history. The best of them are the enemies of tyranny, unveiling the dark passages of life and the crimes of those who would rather we did not know. That the worst of them take large packets of money in pursuit of things that do not matter -- I, for one, did not care a whit who Diana was having an affair with -- is, of course, contemptible but should not detract from the bravery and humanity of men like Jon Jones and David Turnley, who produced some of the finest pictures of the refugee tragedies of former Yugoslavia.

DAVID JARDINE

Jakarta