In Response to "Surveyors and Surveyed"

I found this article very interesting, following documentary photography's journey from its creation till the present, and the various ways in which it has been employed. Unfortunately, when using this medium to convey the truth, it isn't too difficult to show things in a certain light, take photographs at different times and under different conditions than implied as 'true', and mislead the public. This is evident in the case of Dr. TJ Barnardo, the philanthropist who took posed photos of orphans in his care to make himself look better. In other cases, a "documentarian" will move an item or a body, even just a few meters, to make a photograph come out stronger. This is inappropriate; in terms of art, it is ok to change things to make them more aesthetically pleasing, but in documentary photography, the point is to convey the truth, and moving things around to alter the effect on the public is a terrible reality of this form of expression.