Questioning The Valor And Necessity Of American And European Photographers

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

In her essay "On Photography", Alissa Quart writes, "Local image-makers challenge both the valor and necessity of the American or European photographer shooting in a foreign clime, a model that has a certain amount of voyeuristic baggage, as the critic W.J.T. Mitchell has written—a dynamic where a "damaged, victimized, and powerless individual" is "taken" by a photographer who is a "relatively privileged observer, often acting as the "eye of power."

Cowardice is the antonym for valor. If you live in an impoverished land, or have visited one, do you feel disingenuous and cowardly when you take photographs? If a photographer lives in a "'foreign clime", how long does it take to transition from voyeur to "local image-maker," or will one ever? Do you think people such as me rip off "damaged, victimized, and powerless" individuals? Do I see myself as an "eye of power"?

Let us flip the question over. The late native Cambodian photojournalist Dith Pran became an American citizen in 1986, and worked for the New York Times. Obviously, he took photos of strong powerful people while on the job around New York while coming from a background of poverty. Was he "given" more opportunities to photograph U.S. citizens of privilege because people knew about his tumultuous background from the movie "The Killing Fields"? Was he ever seen as a full-fledged member of the local press corps or was he viewed as an outsider throughout his career?

One day U.S. journalist Sydney Schanberg asked Dith Pran, who was his assistant, a gnawing question. Why didn't Cambodians rise up against the Communist insurgents? Was it because Cambodians did not value human life as highly as Westerners did?

"It's not true. You have seen for yourself the suffering," he told Schanberg softly. "The only difference, maybe, is that with Cambodians the grief leaves the face quickly, but it goes inside and stays there for a long time."

"You have seen for yourself the suffering" is the operative phrase here and why journalists, when witness to adverse conditions, try to adhere to the Guiding Principles for the Journalist penned by Bob Steele. Mr. Steele is involved with the Poynter Institute, a journalism think-tank in St. Petersburg, Florida USA where he addresses such topics as journalistic ethics. He writes:

Seek Truth and Report it as Fully as Possible

Inform yourself continuously so you in turn can inform, engage, and educate the public in a clear and compelling way on significant issues.

Be honest, fair, and courageous in gathering, reporting, and interpreting accurate information.

Give voice to the voiceless.

Hold the powerful accountable.

Seek out and disseminate competing perspectives without being unduly influenced by those who would use their power or position counter to the public interest.

Act Independently

Guard vigorously the essential stewardship role a free press plays in an open society.

Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise your integrity or damage your credibility.

Recognize that good ethical decisions require individual responsibility enriched by collaborative efforts.

Minimize Harm

Be compassionate for those affected by your actions.

Treat sources, subjects, and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect, not merely as means to your journalistic ends.

Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort, but balance those negatives by choosing alternatives that maximize your goal of truth telling.

It seems Dith Pran understood that being a witness to suffering isn't something photojournalists relish no matter how famous they become, and Sydney Schanberg wasn't in voyeuristic pursuit of "damaged, victimized, and powerless individuals". Further, he knew Schanberg wasn't an "eye of power" reporting on the days immediately preceding the Khmer Rouge invasion of Phnom Penh in 1975, but instead, was doing his job as a journalist.

Dominican Republic based photojournalist and writer Jon Anderson says, "The photojournalist, according to the cliché, takes these pix to notify the world of the existence of injustices that need to be remedied; but I think there is more to it on every level, including the pj shooter’s motives, the motives of the viewer, the motives of the publishers and even the motives of the subjects in the photos."

I sincerely doubt that American or European photographers shooting in foreign countries are less sensitive than local shooters to the situations they encounter. In fact, it could be argued that they are perhaps more attuned to people's plights than locals who have observed them daily for years.

If the late Nobel Prize award winning photojournalist Kevin Carter was around today maybe we could ask him. Is there a difference between his level of valor and that of slain non-American / European video-journalist Kenji Nagai who hailed from Japan when he was gunned down on a street in Burma (Myanmar)?

We are all witnesses of humanity, and a part, and those facts will stay with us for a long time.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage