Freelancer who shot death photos in NY Post should release his RAW files

The New York Post’s Dec. 4 cover photo showed a man seconds from his death at the wheels of an NYC Subway train. Throughout the day, there was near-universal condemnation from the social mediaverse (and, well, the universe) of the actions of the photographer, and the decision-makers at the Post who chose to run the photo with the headline “DOOMED: Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die.”

Let’s get this one out: this is a poor choice to run as a cover photo, and an even more insensitive choice of headline. This cover should have never made it past a copy desk – or even the headline-writer’s brain.

But the jury is still out on the photographer.

Some background: Ki Suk Han Ki-Suck Han (The initial reports in the Post had his name wrong), of Queens, was thrown onto the tracks on Monday afternoon by a man who had been threatening people on the subway platform. According to the The New York Post, the freelance photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, happened to be on the scene (along with many others), but was unable to help the man. He says that he would not have been able to lift the man off the tracks, so he instead “… ran toward the train, repeatedly firing off his flash to warn the operator.”

It didn’t work, and the train hit and killed Han. Abbasi was left with images that will haunt him for life in his head – and, apparently, in his camera.

I won’t judge the photographer’s actions – the common storyline is that there’s no telling how much time he had to save the man.

Except that there is.

The video accompanying the story on The Post’s website shows several photos from Abbasi. Whenever a camera takes a photo, it embeds a ton of information into the file – shooting settings, camera serial numbers and – most importantly – a timestamp. These attributes cannot be changed easily. Even if the time setting is wrong, examining the files would reveal the amount of time he actually had.

A message for the photographer

So, Mr. Abbasi – stop letting the internet turn you into a villain. Release the RAW files from your camera to the internet, and let the world see where you were standing. Show us the entire string of photos. Let us into your head and see what you shot leading up to Han’s death.

Let the photos, their timestamps and – I hope – the truth, clear your name.

More on the NY Post/Abbasi cover

iMediaEthics.com: Clues that Abbasi lied about New York Post subway photo?

Gawker.com: Would You Have Taken the Post Subway Photo?: Pulitzer-Winning Photographers Respond