"If being there you could capture the photograph or shoot the video...... you could very well save the guy" was the argument given by many of the members of the audience. The incidence that I am referring to, is bleeding to death of the Tamil Nadu Sub Inspector Vitrival on the duty (http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/three_arrested_for_tamil_nadu_cops_death_on_duty.php).
The video footage shows the SI begging for help while the TN government officials just loitering around. The extended video also had some ot
her police officers who don't seem to be bothered with the incident. Also in the video footage, we see that the victim asking for help from the cameraman too, while the cameraman doesn't leave his coverage to help the dying man.
Having listened to this part of the story, we start to form a bias against each of these players in the incident. However, the victim of public outrage were the poor photojournalists. So much so, that there was a full hour show (http://www.ndtv.com/news/videos/video_player.php?id=1194070) on NDTV on this Sunday to discuss the ethics or the code of conduct that was to be followed by these photojournalists.
But the request for the hour would be to listen to certain premises for the sake of argument before we form an opinion.
On the right we see the Pulitzer award wining photograph taken by one of my most favourite photographers of all time, Kevin Carter. We all know this picture very well. What we intend to know is the fate of the girl if the most popular version of Carter just clicking the snap and not helping the girl is true.
Several versions of the story are available for research. One of them says that Kevin waited for 20 mins so that the vulture should fly away. Finally he shot the photograph and shooed away the bird. He was however condemned of not helping the child up to the relief camp.
Other version of the story is given by Carter's fellow photojournalist Joao Silva to a Japanese reporter. According to him, the photograph was taken in such an angle that both, the vulture and the child, would come into the frame. The child was actually left there by the parent, who was busy collecting the food from the relief plane that had landed there. The vulture flew off in sometime.
The most interesting part of this premise is the suicide note left behind by Carter. Some of the lines read
"I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners...I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."
The next is also a very famous picture from the Vietnam war.
The picture shows the a man being shot at point blank range by Vietnamese General Ngoc Loan. The photographer Eddie Adams won a Pulitzer for this one.
Coming back to the situation in hand, the question we need to ask is
- Could the photojournalist, in any of the above situations, be in a position to Save the victim?
- Is there Sensitivity left in these Photojournalists??
- Or are these photographs or video footages merely for Commercial purposes???
- Who is to be Blamed ????
- Or are we Demonizing the photojournalists for no reason at all?????
Whatever be the opinion, we should always remember that every situation at hand is dynamic and every human being complex. The photojournalist has to balance a lot of situations before taking any action.
The post ends here and we are open to discussions.....
Aastalavista....
All said and done on responsibilities, etc. the question is what comes first - Humanity or profession. This is not just pointed to the photo journalist and the likes but for every profession.
ReplyDeleteLife has a lot for all of us to worry about. The past, the present and the future, but all this is at the cost of living in the present and giving a life to someone to hope to live the same way. In addition to this question that i ponder upon, the whole phenomenon of the person being neutral and not feeling anything about the apathy after being exposed to it for long worries me. If the cops, the doctors, the photo journalist are going to have such an apathetic behaviour over time then where are we all moving towards??? The importance of life and humankind is being lost among so many other things when the essence for us to do anything is the existence of life itself!!!
I would say its more of something like occupational hazard. Though here you get torn and killed emotionally.
ReplyDeleteAnd when we point fingers at the photographers, we should ask ourselves one thing. Can they really do anything every time?
Like in the case of the point blank shooting, what could a photographer have done? But by clicking a picture, at least he brought the brutality out to public.
But in situations like the SI accident the photographer has to make a choice. The worth of a life is much more than a thousand pictures.
All in all, I don't think Humanity and Profession can be an alternative, they have to go hand in hand.. HOw they do, is left upto the individual
Humanity vs Profession is a simile to the chicken and egg story...We can have endless discussions without coming to any conclusion.
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents on this issue...
Be rational in such moments rather than emotional..
The police inspector's life could have been saved or at least an attempt could have been made to do so.. humanity could have set in before profession
However, in case of the Vietnam war photo, I guess clicking the photograph was a smarter move as the photographer probably would have lost his life as well if he would have tried saving the civilian. At least this photo served as a proof of the crime..
To cut the long story short... its the presence of mind that would help to rationalise between humanity and profession.
I agree with the view points above. The least expected out of a photographer is to be sensitive himself to the sensitivity he/she is trying to show to the world.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone would have gotten a chance to save the girl from the vulture or the SI in TN which wasn't a threat to his life.
If you are there, do your part rather than just walk away with the photo.
while the photo journalists do their part, the media blows them exponentially by innumerous repeat telecasts and breaking news.
I think media must exercise rational on the telecast of the photos.
Every time I look at those pictures I feel something should/could have been done. For me, a conscience is a personal thing. If you can do something , you should. Later on justifying that you are lesser to blame because others did not do much either is bullshit. Kevin Carter could not stand it..he killed himself...other have lived to justify their actions/inactions...
ReplyDelete