Humanitarian Photography:
Through The Lens

Shahary Kabir

 

"I often come across the question, 'which is the best camera in the world?' I would always say, 'Well. You own two of it, since your birth.'" - Kowtham Kumar K. We human live in society, where sorrows, joys, loss, hope, pain all things we face we observe with eyes, feel it, share it and then grow with it by helping thyself & others, be human to human around us; that's how we flourish.

 

In era of 21st century of digitalization, where the world considered as a village; whence Photography makes a Great impact for our life to live. brings world's photographs to our hand, that share stories, through them we feel joy for others, makes movement against bad, focus our rights to live, that how photographs keeps our history growing, keep our memories young.

 

Among all categories of photography when we focus on human being we talk about Humanitarian photography which represent the photography for impact; tell us the powerful stories of social issues where photographs are the catalyst for change.

History

 

In 1851, Henry Mayhew's made a series documenting London labor and London poor people to focus their tough working condition at the time; is considered one of the earliest example of using photography for impact. Though still being a relatively new medium he was not able to directly turn those photographs into prints, so he had to share his series through sketching, a close reproduction of the image he shot.

 

Jacob Riis, advocates for the living rights of new immigrants to the US in 1870 through his photography. He represents a thought that by improving the condition of new immigrants the crime rates and dissolution would fall and quality of life would increase.

 

In this period of 19th century Crimean War, American Civil War was particularly an important period of development photography but the Humanitarian photography developed much later in the end of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th it comes into focus.

 

In the 1890s, it became a force for impact in international relief campaigns. Like the heartbreaking food scarcity that was devastating India; a series was done by Hawthorne captured many harrowing images, some of them known as the "saddest and grimmest spectacles known to modern time".

Later poverty in New York and London and others; humanitarian photography also aimed to document atrocities perpetrated against civilian on that time. Photographs of WWI, Balkan Wars, the wave of refugees in the wake of WWII and further afield, the partition of India-Pakistan, in which thousands of people were put onto the streets, other wars and conflict, Syrian refugees etc. Through this photographer try to include with stories, their point of view along with photographs.

 

Impact

 

In 1992, the price for food increased in Somalia, their food sources get crashed, a famine took place. On that period photographer James Nachtwey decided to go there, though he wasn’t one to get assigned to capture pictures for the Famine.

 

Having received the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross upon arrival, he captured devastatingly moving pictures of the crisis – most notably the photo of a starving lady in a wheelbarrow and another person sitting next to her, became a big hit on the cover of the magazine, "New York Times". After his great action Public support for the crisis to the International Red Cross quickly became the largest relief operation since World War Two.

 

In September 2015 an image of a drowned Syrian boy show the tragic plights of refugees and the world gets shocked, bringing different people around the world to protest the war, to help the refugees; that’s how photographs can wake our sleeping minds, and remind us of our duty to humanity.

Criticism

 

Besides all good impacts question arises when photographs mislead us. In every aspect of life when we add marketing with our works it gets hard to maintain our ethical values so in photography. Our news media, NGOs, organizations often use photographs to bring the attention of people on behalf of their particular topic, except to bring the awareness to help the victims, news media does that to get more profit, and NGOs does to get more aids.

 

More often photographers work with these agencies, for their profession to fulfill organization’s demand they focus what those agencies want to show the world and photographers are most often the outsider so it is also hard for them to bring up the inside situation of a community; that can creates misleading situation.

 

One possible concern is the marketability of such images, and their role in the competition between the NGOs. For getting more donations organization frequently evoking sympathy in the viewer by showing images of hungry and ill children; these images have been termed "poverty porn" which is harmful as it exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support.

 

We shouldn’t forget to give dignity and respect to our photographic subject, it is bring to mind that that person is worthy of respect and admiration despite their circumstances; think if the person saw his photo how he would feel?

 

Humanity is not for business; as a humanitarian photographer we should have knowledge about the circumstance, cultural and religious respect, be accurate and provide context, photographing a subject from behind or silhouette rather than exposing their identity, manipulating the scene or the photographs could be a sin. Moreover we should have empathy for victims, and give them a voice without exploiting their vulnerability; they are also human show them the respect what you expect from others.

Reference

International Committee Of The Red Cross, "Images of humanitarian crises: Ethical implications."

Unite for site, "Ethics and Photography in Developing Countries".

James Estrin Jan ( January 24, 2014), "Truth and Consequences for a War Photographer"

Penda photo tours, "A Brief History of Humanitarian Photography".

Alternatives- Humanitaires, "Interview With Bruno Cabanes: "Humanitarian Photography": An Historian’s Point Of View"

Bryon Lippincott, "Ethical Representation in Humanitarian Photography"