When it came time to pack for this trip, I had a small debate with myself... do I take my state of the art top of the line Nikon D3 and carry gear amounting to over $10,000 on my person? Or do I pack light to shoot from the hip and not have extra weight. WHAT? This was the wrong debate. Instantly, I felt a pang of selfishness. Was I taking advantage of this opportunity to travel to Haiti to make compelling photojournalistic human interest images? Did you know there even exists a category for Picture of the Year International called Natural Disaster Picture Story? There are competitions whose winners have captured someone else's pain and suffering for the sake of art. Some of you may argue that without images like this, we would not know of the suffering that exists around the world. And that is exactly where I stood - between "social change driven by photography" and emotional manipulation. I mean, isn't that what we are as photographers? Manipulators? Telling a story visually from our perspective to illicit a response?
Many of you have said you can't wait to see my photos. Some have asked if I took photos of destruction. Some knew I was going to be around children. I just could not bring myself to photograph the misfortune of another. Riding with our windows up in a fairly decent FH vehicle through the rubble strewn roads (if that is what you can call them) while vendors lined every square inch trying to sell anything they could brought me to a paralysis. I didn't lift my camera to the window. I locked eyes with a few women squatting with their produce and tried to imagine how many other white people had passed by the same way... safe in their ride, going someplace other than where she was; staring at her through ground glass that costs more than what it would take to rebuild a home for her and her family.
This quote knocked me off my soapbox:
"In times when (some) photographers hold celebrity status, it is useful to be reminded that a good photograph does not solely depend on the photographer's ability to choose the right subject, location and light, but also on the chemistry and the collaboration, between photographer and subject...Despite my deep sympathy for socially inclined photographers, when the people portrayed feel ashamed of their portraits, there clearly is something wrong with this kind of photography." - Hans Durrer
(http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/EDITORIAL/oped1105.shtml - I read this essay by Hans Durrer after I wrote this blog post and added the quote here. But if you want to really go deeper into this discussion it is a must read)
I'm not knocking photographers whose passion is to share the poverty and suffering and mistreatment of people throughout the world. There is a place for that, I just wasn't for me on this trip. I want to connect with people and co-author their story through images, not as a voyeur. I have been wrestling with the moral implications of this type of photography. I even had a conversation with Jeremy Willet about release statements in America that protect individuals from being profited from and the lack of such protection for third world countries. I acknowledge I have much to learn about this area and I would enjoy conversation about it. I have been reading about some influential photographers involved in social change and have found some I really respect and some that just turn me off. But I don't want to get hung up in lengthy ethical discussions for the sake of interesting dinner party talk. That is a waste of time and ultimately as much an insult to the human dignity as stealing images of people along the way.
That being said... I can't wait to share with you the images I DID make while there. I will post them separately to my blog, but please know that each pair of eyes you will see belonged to an incredible image of God standing before me. Some were shy, some were silly, some were more than willing to play for my camera - but all were fashioned in their mother's womb by the Creator and loved by him and us. Now I am challenged to be praying for each one. I have tried to remember all the names and stories, so if one image stands out to you and want to know more about them, please ask me! It will help me remember that the soul in the image is more than the photograph.
I welcome your comments on this blog!!!
