Arquivo

In plain narrative, but broaching most complex issues, Lowering the Camera focuses on day-to-day life for photographers from the main newspapers in Rio de Janeiro. Centering mainly on the ethical issues of the act of photographing, the film shows the anguish and dilemma experienced by these professionals carrying out their job. The debate supersedes the bounds of image and includes statements from psychoanalysts, professors, authorities, community leaders, the photographers themselves, and those photographed. In addition to statements, this documentary records moments of tension that photographers face daily from armed conflict within communities under the dominance of drug traffic to the invasive embarrassment of photographing the burials of the victims of this battle. Without the slightest intent to define what ethics might be, the film only raises the discussion around the subject, allowing spectators to draw their own conclusions.