Photographic Authenticity and Visual Misrepresentation:
Vitamin Angels’ images represent real people in real-life situations. Maintaining the humanity and dignity of those individuals is of the highest priority. As such, any use of Vitamin Angels’ photography should be done in keeping with Vitamin Angels’ Principles and Guidelines for Ethical Reporting on Children.
Editing Images:
Photographic authenticity may be compromised by inappropriate use of digital photo editing software. Editing of our photographs has ethical, and possibly legal, implications for Vitamin Angels and may affect our credibility. Manipulation of photos for graphic design purposes is generally acceptable as long as the meaning of the image is not distorted by the change(s); this may include cropping, contrast or color balancing. However, manipulation of a photo that distorts the reality of the image is not permitted. This includes, but is not limited to altering images by inserting, removing, or re-touching content. Examples include removing dirt or from a subject’s cheek or a fly from a subject’s eyes.
Accurate Representation:
Any visual misrepresentation of the content of an image is not permitted.
This includes, but is not limited to using a photograph taken in one country and implying it was taken in another. Such use violates the right of the subjects to be accurately represented, and viewers are manipulated into thinking they are viewing subjects from one area, when they are not. Vitamin Angels has an extensive library of photos from the countries we serve, if content from a specific country is necessary, please contact us for available imagery.
For the same reasons, it is our strong preference that our partners do not use stock images to represent the individuals benefitting from our efforts.