Comments on: Please, No More Pictures of Dying Africans

By: Tamara Bonacquisti

Tamara Bonacquisti — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:32:26 +0000

WOW...really? You are tired of the whole, starvation, warring, genocide, "critically malnourished 3-year-olds staring mournfully into the camera."-thing? Imagine the poor souls going through these atrocities. I have never read an article like this, or seen a photo spread, and thought that ALL of Africa is like this. Africa is a HUGE continent. If you are covering a country in it, I would hope you would do the country proud, but showing it in it's full views, beautiful and otherwise. It is an ignorant point of view to believe the ENTIRE county is as such, but that in NO means begs the idea that we should stop covering these topics because --"At this point, all a photojournalist does by taking such photos is to make Americans yawn and turn the other way." Frankly this is EXACTLY why these photographers and missionaries MUST continue to cover these stories. So we know that these conditions still exist and still beg our attention, aid, money and love. They beg for us to do something about it. I mean other than to write articles and comment from the comfort of our warm, dry, homes sitting with our full bellies, hoping that someone sends us something to entertain us and fill our time with great pics about things that will not stir in us any discomfort or call to action. Please don't disturb our peace, with all your hunger and desperation, that was sooo last year! Really? America has actual WHOLE magazines and books and television shows dedicated to what is happening in Hollywood! Who slept with who, is divorcing who, is marrying who, where they spent their vacation, or shopped, or ate! Who F$#$ing cares! Please, for the love of God, you photojournalists whom are covering something real in this world...please hear us...on behalf of all those people still ignorant of the deep need we still have in this world...please do not listen to this article...We DO want to see and hear of what is of real substance in the world. When you sum up your body of work at the end of your life, I hope you can look at it and see that your talents went to bringing real change to the world. We have enough fluff to entertain ourselves to death. I think, as long as there are people. bored with the topic, and as long as these conditions persist in the world, we need those that are willing to bring awareness to us in our comfortable little American lives...we so need the stirring in our souls.

By: Danique

Danique — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:03:33 +0000

Whilst the idea of this article is one that people should seriously take to heart, we should not entirely turn a blind eye to the realities of poverty, war and disaster throughout the continent of Africa - and in fact, the rest of the world.

Western society, it would seem, is suffering from a sever case of desensitisation and compassion fatigue. We are so used to such images, that they no longer capture our attention.

Instead of writing such articles as this, it might be a good idea to write about our society's lack of empathy for the suffering and less fortunate - turn the focus on ourselves, rather than others. In this way, the story hits home about our selfishness and disregard for the troubles of others. This may spark a change in attitude among the general public, and help to remedy the devastating problems faced by millions.

By: John Vink

John Vink — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:26:38 +0000

I agree. But: never say never...

By: Eliane Laffont

Eliane Laffont — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 01:38:59 +0000

Photojournalists believe their photos can change the world and history show that, for the most part, they get results.
Lewis Hine photos changed the Child Labor law, Eddie Adams photo of the police chief executing a Vietcong soldier contributed in large part to the end of the war in Vietnam, Eugene Smith photos of mercury pollution made us aware of the environment, Stephanie Sinclair photo essay of child brides gave us a clear idea of the physical social sexual abuse these young girls endure and with these photos, most civilized countries have now defined the age of consent to 18 years, and thanks to the photos taken at Abu Graib, we know now that prison abuse really happened in Iraq and actions were taken to stop it.
The list of remarkable stories told by remarkable photographers is endless and I want to name a few who worked also in Africa. Their mission ‘’to raise global awareness of the problems of this extraordinary place. Africa, vibrant continent in transition and ongoing wars, encompasses 53 nations, nearly a billion people and more than 800 ethnic groups but also plagued by wars, famine, and genocides.
James Natchway’s poverty in Rwanda, Marcus Bleasdale’s genocide in Darfur, Tom Stoddart’s Aids in Sub Sahara, Ed Kashi’s oil pollution in Niger, Sebastio Salgado’s North African immigrants, Brent Stirton’s killing of gorillas in Congo, JP Laffont’s child soldier in Angola, Pascal Maitre’s children orphaned by wars and Aids in Burundi and the list goes on.
Some of these photos will make you sick and hopefully they will make you angry as those problems matter and you want the world to have a good look at it and take action. To say that Africa has become a ‘’perverse playground ‘’ for photojournalists show a lack of knowledge and a lack of compassion.
Without these photos, no knowledge of the problems and without photojournalists, no action to repair them Photojournalism is a code of conduct and photojournalists are our modern heroes. Over the last 10 years, the landscape of photography has changed considerably and Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan has become the capital of photojournalism, the last place that save defenseless people from oblivion, force you to have a look at problems that matter and reward the photojournalists who took action, sometimes at the risk of their lives.

By: Jenny Lynn Walker

Jenny Lynn Walker — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:21:33 +0000

Finaly, someone has seen the light. Halleluja!

By: Marc Climie

Marc Climie — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:50:41 +0000

Amen! There is so much more to the continent than is portrayed. I learned this first hand when I booked a wedding in Nigeria. After that, I booked a double wedding there. On both trips I've been met with the most amazing families. Here are my results:

http://climie.com/_shout/2009/05/04/igba-nkwu-nwanyi-congrats-nina-efiom/

http://climie.com/_shout/2009/05/11/congrats-nina-efiom-calabar-nigeria/

http://climie.com/_shout/category/nigeria/

They deserve a more rounded coverage. It's not all misery all the time.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:21:27 +0000

It's good to see the heavyweights like Paul weighing in on this topic. I have been harping on for a while about the negativity often portrayed by foreign press about Africa, http://text.hmmm.co.za/2009/06/africa-always-a-story-to-be-told/

Thing is, is it hard to tell a happy story or is it just easier to take a shot of a dying kid?

By: Simon MacArthur

Simon MacArthur — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:44:32 +0000

Paul

Your comment about photojournalism becoming a cliche of itself is exactly what has been troubling me for years. Photography has done itself in - it was a matter of bewaring what you asked for. Digital photography, photoshop and motor-driven cameras have destroyed the intrinsic value of any given photo. Don't get me wrong, there is still great photography being produced but it is largely lost amongst the morass of substandard dreck out there.

And I would venture to say that the only people who really appreciate great photography are other photographers - the audience has been lost somewhere - no-one gives a damn. I understand that the average income for a top flight photojournalist is around $30k. That's just sad.

We do have a vastly distorted view of Africa - it is a massively compelling and beautiful continent... we should all be so lucky as to visit. I have only been twice - once to South Africa and once to Kenya. On both ocassions I had a huge sense of not wanting to leave.

By: André Liohn

André Liohn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:32:49 +0000

I cannot belive in this article. Are you tired of Africa?? I think it is because you are among this blind persons that see Africa as Africa. Why don't you put names in the countries? No one is saying that Africa is a hell in earth. We the photographers working there are trying our best to put names in isolated problems. Please! Try to go for holidays in the once beautiful Mogadishu! Or please try to go for a safari in Darfur! Your opinion is full of misconceptions and ignorance about how it is to be working in Africa.
Why do you not say to photographers covering F1 or Baseball or football that we already have far too many pictures of it? How many more pictures do we need of Barak Obama with his family? What have we not seen from the Oscar nomination??
Are you tired of seeing children dieing? I can't imagine how! Your text shows a person with closed yes.

By: Denver Engagement Photographer

Denver Engagement Photographer — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:40:29 +0000

Very interesting post. I'm suprised by this. I think the only tunnel vision comes when you only look at the pictures of despair and pain. I think that there should be a better balance, but at the same time, a story has to be told, struggle, and success.

By: Michael Fox

Michael Fox — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:40:03 +0000

Totally agree with the bulk of this post. The issue, however, is that the humanitarian problems remain. The volume of images coming from pj's who see a trip to third world countries as some sort of right of passage, is adding value to who, exactly? On those few occasions when these images are still printed in mainstream media, the impact has diminished to such an extent that they are largely ignored. With an increasing shift to on-line access to news, readers can filter out any type of news that they do not want to see. How many people will create a filter saying "I want to see pictures of starving African babies" ? Not too many.

So, although I agree that the volume of images on this topic is an issue, the bigger issue is that the topics being represented may be increasingly ignored. What do we do about that?

By: Riaz S. Mesbah

Riaz S. Mesbah — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:55:44 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you! the problem is much larger than Africa and almost all, including myself, photogs have been guilty of it.

The problem has been that in an industry in free fall we are all trying to get noticed for the few remaining dollars that exist. So what do we do? crank up the the melodramatics and sensationalism. Does any think that a work like Frank's The Americans or HCB's The Decisive Moment would actually get published today? There needs to be a system that supports long term documentary work put into place. It needs to come from places like Getty, Black Star, and Magnum with the help of large scale grants from both endowments and the government.

By: Paul Melcher

Paul Melcher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:40:48 +0000

@Rowan. Fortunately, the USA has Hollywood to counter any negative image it might has, along with thousand of multi national corporations with heavy marketing fire power ( Coca Cola, Mc Donalds, etc). Africa, unfortunately, doesn't have that.
Photojournalism is becoming a cliche of itself and its becoming harder to find the jewels in the clutter of repeats. The good news is that the Internet is a great tool for discovery.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:13:24 +0000

Well said. Although as someone living outside the U.S. (New Zealand), I would argue that as a generalisation, that is EXACTLY how America is viewed from the outside. It's all 9/11, Iraq, ghettos, etc. I know this is inaccuarate, but it begs the question; is this just the reality of journalism, and are we all blind to the reality of how much potential journalism has to distort perspective? I guarantee that your views on my little country at the bottom of the world are very different to how we see it oursleves?

Food for thought.

By: Lichtmalerin

Lichtmalerin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:34:14 +0000

Well done: Important topic to be discussed in photojournalism - no matter whether photographers or editors. Tunnel perspectives always lead into desaster!
(BTW: Great blog, interesting, inspiring, thoughtful. Enjoy to read it!

By: Nick Coyne

Nick Coyne — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:22:07 +0000

Well said. I've been thinking the exact same thing recently. There are so many good stories to be told.

By: Stanley Leary

Stanley Leary — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:33:04 +0000

I would agree that we do not have enough other stories being told about some of the positives in Africa.

However, when the conditions improve and there isn't so much heartache, then and only then do you stop telling the stories of those suffering in the world.

Another problem is that many NGO's do nothing more than exist to just tell the stories and do very little to solve the problems. Also, many like CARE do very positive things, but local governments are corrupt and redirect the outside efforts to the pockets of a few.

When presidents of some of the countries in Africa were denying AIDs and those countries were actually getting worse, do we tell how wonderful this is a place to visit instead? I don't think so.

I do think it is sad that so many young photojournalists run to Africa or to a war to make a name for themselves, rather than doing as you propose and just tell stories of average people who do heroic things or just cool people to meet.

By: Trudy

Trudy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:08:31 +0000

Wow. What a poignant and brave post. You totally hit home when you state:
[Just imagine what your perception of the United States would be if all you saw were images of 9/11, Katrina, crime-plagued ghettos and nothing else. Would you ever consider coming here for a vacation?]

Americans would be devastated if the view of America was forced through the tunnel vision of telephoto lenses that only wanted to capture despair. A country's true story is one of both despair and dreams, pain and pleasure. I think more than just pain has to be photographed to show a more inclusive view of any culture.