We have already seen how photography has the capacity to unite communities and bring about progressive social and political change. But how far do photographic images shape our perception, or build a misconception of the world around us?
Even in the age of ‘social photos’, the act of taking a photograph implies a significance of the subject, or a meaning, to the person behind the lens. As Sontag put it:
To photograph is to confer importance.
Sontag, S. 1977
Often however, this act carries the simultaneous declaration that the subject in front of the lens is different, exotic and otherwise binary or ‘other’ to the photographer and usually the audience of their work.
By actively or inadvertently following established methodologies of those who have gone before them, even well-intentioned photographers can perpetuate stereotypes, which can have a cumulative effect, creating limited, myopic or false impressions of the cultural and political circumstances of situations and individuals affected by them. This can be as true for someone wanting to capture an ‘image of human perseverance’ in the face on an anonymous homeless person, as it is for a budding landscape photographer seeking to create an image of astonishing beauty, without realising the place they are photographing is wracked with historical, social or ecological conflicts.
This topic considers moral and ethical questions that need to be addressed in your methodologies and research, and how you can implement and sustain an ethical, accountable practice.
Ethics, in relation to photography, is not something that can be learned or tested on. Like the critical underpinning of your practice, it is something that needs to be incorporated into your strategies and methodologies, and something you should continually reflect upon. As you become a wiser, more sophisticated and increasingly critical practitioner, your sense of what might and might not be a morally defensible choice in the capture, display or dissemination of images will shift. This will of course evolve as society’s relationship to photography also changes.
Reflect on the ‘triangle’ model (photographer subject audience) in relation to your own practice:
Q. Do you feel that there is any kind of imbalance in terms of the relationships between the three ‘corners’?
A.
Think about any previous experiences out shooting:
Q. Have there ever been any moments when you felt that what you were doing, or had done, was unjust or inappropriate?
A.
Q. If so, what prompted this?
A.
Q. What did this experience teach you about your approaches, both practically and conceptually?
A.