by Amy Weston/Wenn.com via NY Mag
To borrow a line from The Clash, “London’s burning”. And the photographs of the mayhem are stunning. The above shot here is by Amy Weston/WENN.com, as seen in NY Mag. (That image and a bunch more images from NY Mag here).
I’ve been been near riots of this magnitude on two occasions – Paris in 2005-6 and Seattle WTO riots – neither of which I photographed. I’ve also seen a guy get hit by a car and had my camera at the ready but did not shoot. And plenty of other things that I’ve not wanted to photograph. As a pure photographer, only-career-I’ve-ever-had guy, I’m not sure what’s in me that doesn’t pull me to want to shoot so many of these photos, even when I’ve had the chance (like this post). I’m deeply moved by such images -ala London riots, or trama, or the war in Afghanistan. Often times these images are so important to our culture, but at other times it’s shallow and cold to shoot them. I’m especially conflicted with the images coming out of London.
How about you… When do we shoot? When do we help or decide not to spread the horror?
UPDATE: Interview with the photographer (Amy Weston) that captured the stunning photograph in the earlier post below in an article over here at my Google+ page …offers some insights into what she was thinking and plays well with the ongoing discussion here on the blog and over at my Google+ page. (Add me to a circle if you’re G+ing so I can meet you too).
I was on vacation, so you’ll have to excuse my late response to this. I can COMPLETELY appreciate where you are coming from with this post. I contributed an image to the Dasein project that I shot of my daughter after she was bit in the face by my dog. That image haunted my soul and I couldn’t even look at it for weeks after I took it. The only reason I did take it was because my father wanted to see how bad it was and I thought (preshoot) that it would make him feel better knowing she wasn’t deformed or anything crazy…just a small scar. It was when I loaded it into my computer that I realized how much emotion it brought out in me by how much emotion I captured from her. I still don’t like looking at it. It aches my heart, but it also is another mark for the record books. It’s a conflicting situation for sure. I don’t know that I would pull the trigger for the situations you’ve discussed either, but the shot above is incredible!
Chase, it’s not your genre of shooting, but it is for James Nachtwey.
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned it, but the UK media have found the lady pictured, and the man who caught her (a neighbour), who claimed that the men in uniform weren’t handling the situation very well.
Anyway, I tend to find myself unable to photograph situations like this, or any kind of personal moment involving strangers really. That’s not to say I have an ethical problem with it, just a personal shyness.
Its often best not to shoot at riots as you will often get a punch for showing the identity of those committing crime, My friend has recently got out of hospital with some stitches from being kicked in the face while using his camera when a mob turned on him in Brixton.
Chase, you are obviously an artist and not a journalist. The importance of shooting is to document. If no pictures were taken of the holocaust it would be a lot easier to forget all these years later.
You don’t shoot for trophies you shoot to document and expose the event.