Raising awareness or exploitation?

[ALwin]

After seeing some of the entries for a recent weekend project, I have to wonder: when you take photos of unfortunate people on the streets (i.e. homeless), are you trying to raise awareness of their condition or exploiting their situation for personal gain?

Link to weekend project in question: http://dphotographer.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=3977

Did you try to get to know who they were? Or how and why they ended up in their unfortunate situation? Did you ask for their permission to take their photo? Did you offer any aid? Did you even talk to them?

Photos of people in situations, conditions like these can be considered photos taken for the sake of journalism or raising awareness campaigns, yet if we are careless it can cause more harm than help.

For example, we've all heard about this photo:

(Source: http://listverse.com/2009/11/02/10-noto ... er-effect/)

Kevin Carter was a South African Photojournalist who, in March 1993, took the most infamous photograph, so far, of the brutality and disregard for human suffering in sub-Saharan Africa. The photo shows a female Sudanese toddler, alone and severely emaciated, attempting to crawl to an aid station for food. A vulture is standing on the ground behind her, waiting for her to die so it can eat her.

Carter claimed that he waited 20 minutes for the vulture to spread its wings, which he thought would make a better picture, and when it didn’t, he took the picture as is. For those 20 minutes, the toddler had to rest before resuming its trip. She whimpered and panted, and Carter did nothing to help her.

He took the picture, scared the vulture away, then left the girl to continue crawling on her own. No one knows what became of her, but it very likely that she starved to death. This account is denied by Joao Silva, a journalist friend of Carter, who stated that the child’s parents left for only a moment to take food from a plane. Either way, Carter claimed later that he just “didn’t want to get involved.” He killed himself the next year, after winning the Pulitzer for this photograph, by carbon monoxide poisoning, in his truck in Johannesburg.

Link to Wikipedia article about Kevin Carter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter

The old saying "A picture can tell a thousand words"; the camera we hold in our hands is the tool that easily enables us to tell those thousand words. I think there are some ethical and moral considerations to be made when taking photos of certain subjects and we must be careful how we approach the 'shot'.

[anskete]

Well it depends on what you whole idea is for the picture. In most cases, photographers sort of claim that they are taken to raise awareness which does not always work that way as some people feel exploited when taken pictures of.

The main argument in my opinion is if they are not taken in such a way that will put them to harm or put them down.

[Troy]

Well Aung, i think the example you raise above is fairly different to those posted in the weekend project. The homeless we see on the streets may be disadvantaged, but they are (in these photos at least) mostly adults, and not in any immediate danger.

I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't necessarily want to approach someone who seems threatening, especially when holding an expensive bit of kit, but i do get what you're trying to say. Oh and i'm sure anyone witnessing the above scene would have to seriously fight their conscience not to get up and carry the poor child.

[claireg]

Great post and really intersting topic. It was only the other day that I watched the film The Bang Bang Club, which tells the stories of the photojounalists who photographed the apartheid in South Africa. The film includes the story of photographer Kevin Carter and the controversial nature behind what happened after he took this harrowing image of the girl and the vulture. For anyone intersted in this topic it is well worth watching.

I love photojournalism but I couldn't take these types of images.I would find it too difficult. We can judge the photogrpaher for not doing anythng to help (like the example Aung has pointed out here) but many of us look at these images and still do nothing to help either.

[ALwin]

I love photojournalism but I couldn't take these types of images.I would find it too difficult. We can judge the photogrpaher for not doing anythng to help (like the example Aung has pointed out here) but many of us look at these images and still do nothing to help either.

It definitely is not easy to do so and I admire the photographers who are able to brave this challenge. And of course it is not always easy to help people in these conditions.

I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't necessarily want to approach someone who seems threatening, especially when holding an expensive bit of kit, but i do get what you're trying to say. Oh and i'm sure anyone witnessing the above scene would have to seriously fight their conscience not to get up and carry the poor child.

Yes I agree that we have to be careful with our own safety too but perhaps instead of just going out in the street and taking a photo of any homeless person on the street from a distance for a competition to earn a prize for yourself, if you have a friend or two willing to come along and help (and to ensure that you would be in less danger being part of a group instead of on your own), perhaps they (the homeless person) would be willing to let you document his or her living condition/situation for perhaps a bowl of warm soup or something.

My organization's official photographer, who comes from a photojournalism background and often goes into the field on assignments in Africa, Asia, etc. gave me some good tips on doing documentary/photojournalism photography. He told me that if I wanted to submit my photos to the organization's gallery, I couldn't just take singular photos of things relating to the work of the organization that I see on the streets or my travels. I had to get to know the subject, approach them, talk to them, get a series of photos done that tells their story.

For example, take a look at some of Sebastião Salgado's works. To get the photos in his books he not only has to travel to the locations but also immerse himself in the local culture and get to know the lives of his photographic subjects.

[Troy]

Oh i agree it's not necessarily right to do it purely for your own gain. I saw a recent online competition where the winning shot was of a homelss man. The photographer offered him a small amount of money in return for the photo, for which the man was happy to agree to.

I have taken street photos of street performers before. Usually i'll gesture that i'm going to take a photo, and they'll return a smile or nod to let me know it's ok. I even walked up to a man singing and showed him the photo on the back of the LCD while he was mid-song.

Offering some of the homeless a bowl of soup can often not be the way to go, at least from my experience. It was only this morning that i saw a man filling an empty water bottle to the brim with vodka, at 8am! Offering these people food or something other than money, i've found, is met with slight aggression.

[GaryDean]

I might be broadening the topic here (or getting the wrong end of the stick!) but don't issues like these tie into paparazzi culture?

IE. Is the moral issue Kerry Katona taking drugs in her bathroom or is the moral issue the fact that someone set a camera up to spy on them? If anyone did that for personal use of a photo (and again, is "personal gain" classed as personal use too?) they'd be arrested and probably do time.

Sorry if I'm opening up a can of worms here. I just feel this topic ties into our every day life more than the extreme Carter example.

[rjamesfeaver]

I realise this is an older topic but I would like to add my voice and perhaps open it up to further debate as it an issue which is important to me and one I face on a daily basis.

Photographing someone's misery for nothing more than a competition or to sell is wrong, plain wrong. If you are actively documenting an "issue" over a period of time and you get to know the people in your photographs, the story behind how they came to be where they are and that the frame you are shooting is going to actively make a difference to their life then its acceptable.

However I have come across many photographers who are not interested in the stories behind the images or if their shot is going to help this person, instead they are just looking for "that shot" which is going to further their career or sell well and therefore are definitely just exploiting awful and horrific situations for their own personal gain. They jump on the plane at the first mention of a disaster of sorts and head there to get their images uploaded to Getty. Unfortunately you will never rid the world of these people so you simply have to let them get on with it and follow your own moral code.

My photographs have led me to find many people who I consider close friends who are suffering either in desperate poverty or infected with HIV/AIDS. I photograph and record their lives because I care about them and I want to make a difference to their struggle.

So I guess what I am trying to say is photograph things you care about and make sure before you take a photograph of someone suffering in some way stop and think how is this picture I am making going to help them. If you cant find a reason dont shoot it.

[ALwin]

So I guess what I am trying to say is photograph things you care about and make sure before you take a photograph of someone suffering in some way stop and think how is this picture I am making going to help them. If you cant find a reason dont shoot it.

I agree, always stop to consider what you are doing and why. Thank you for your input rjamesfeaver.

PS: I saw your site, great photos and work you are doing.