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 think most people have said it on here: there should be a line between being the camera, telling the stories that need to be told, and being human.
I’m always torn by the Kevin Carter photo of the starving child in Sudan being stalked by the vulture. It’s an importantly shocking image to get out into the world, that might hopefully motivate people to act — but at what point does your humanity turn back on? When do you stop being ‘the photographer’ and just walk over and kick that bird in the head?
There’s an interesting video that came out of the G20 mess in Toronto last year of one of the marchers taking down a looter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKkLYYczdM
Everybody cheered and thought it was awesome. But my big question was, what about the person shooting the video? They’re obviously chuffed to have captured this moment, and are playing it up on Youtube. But from the way the event seems to unfold, the camera person couldn’t have known that that would happen when they started shooting. Which means they were initially just filming somebody looting and were content to let that happen (as was everybody else in the area).
And that, for me, is completely on the wrong side of the line.
I’ve never been in a situation like this. It’s hard to say what I would do.
All in all, I guess it’s important to document such things, but looking at the images, I still get the feel of “disaster porn”.
I have to agree with Chase; Having been a full-time forensic (crime scene photographer) for almost 20 years I never have an off the clock interest in shooting anything that would not be considered beautiful to look at. I think that photography is an extension of who we are as people and what we want to capture and share. Dont get me wrong; I love my full-time job, the experiences it has given me and have photographed some of the worst violence that can be imagined but really have no interest in showing those images…..
This is one of the beauties of photography, you get to capture things that some people fail to see.
Shoot. Its history and needs to be documented. But my background is in newspaper photography and I still shoot for papers (just not as much) not commercial. Photojournalist and instructor David LaBelle talked about this. I don’t remember which book off hand, The Great Picture Hunt or Lessons in Death and Life, I have both. He received a letter from a reader that he thinks didn’t even realize she was paying him a compliment. She said something like nothing is safe from Mr. LaBelle’s camera, he shoots everything from the womb to the tomb. Dave goes on to explain its not if or what you shoot (everything should be shot) its how you go about it and present yourself. His site is http://www.greatpicturehunt.com/index.html -Bryan