Crisis Pictures makes “stories about other people” into “stories about other people just like me.”

Is Air America behind Crisis Pictures?

It's Superbowl, or Big Game, Sunday. Hope you have all ordered your pizzas, your case of beer or keg and will watching the New England Patriots battle it out with the Philadelphia Eagles.

ESPN has you covered. So, check out the site. The image you see on the front page now has an embeded Flash-based gallery that my colleague Luke Armstrong created. Very slick indeed!

Kickoff is at 6.30 EST. Party on!

Ideally, a photograph is the untouched, unmanipulated transcript of what was there. Except, says Larry Gross, everybody knows there are elements of selection built in.

Now computer algorithms are being developed to check an image's veracity. It's not fool-proof, but at least there is now a way to stall, albeit temporarily, those who wish to deceive us with their “photoshopped” images.

Here is what I think – it's ok to manipulate images. No, really. It's ok. Just don't call it photojournalism. Call it art, with a capital “A” if you want to. That's fine by me. Photojournalism for me will always remain a practice of capturing and bearing witness to a scene, situation or a sequence of events without any overt guidance or direction from the photographer.

It's harder to do, no doubt, these days given the kinds of editorial deadlines we face and the financial risk some photographers assume when they drop into disaster zones or the battlefront. Resist that temptation. Be true to your metier. Consider it a professional courtesy to your colleagues and foremost to yourself that you do not cheat.

If you are in the least bit interested in the history of photography, you should check out the books Brooks Johnson, curator of photography at Chrysler Museum of Art has published over the years.

Photography Speaks I & II contain biographical information and an original statement from each photographer, accompanied by an example of their work. Photography Speaks I and II were enthralling. Now comes III.

If I were to find some fault in this series, it is that the photographers are largely from the West. But that, I admit, can be seen as petty given that photography is an invention of and from the West. Thoughts?

The National Press Photographer's Association has, after several months, published a document that “recommends fair and practical solutions to issues such as rights, fees, expenses, and responsibilities for all parties involved.”