Every picture asks a thousand questions
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By Daniel Nelson
Do pictures of famine change policy? How many people have to die before a distant event becomes news? Is it possible for the media to present positive images of people in need? Imaging Famine, at the Newsroom in London until September, is an exhibition of questions. Yes, it is an exhibition of photographs of famine, mostly from Africa, but it is the questions that provide its rationale: Are negative images inherently necessary for fundraising by development NGOs? To what extent did Live Aid provide any real depth of political understanding or provoke political change? The organisers bombard us with questions but provide no answers, which leaves the viewer unsatisfied, frustrated. Without the questions, the pictures would indeed be a pornographic display of suffering, a contest to find the most arresting image. And many are certainly arresting, from the tableau of emaciated famine victims in Madras in the 1870s to the hunger-weakened Sudanese girl on the ground with a vulture watching over her. Several of the photographs may have helped save lives by provoking people and governments to send money and relief. But even that is arguable, prompting yet more questions: Should the man who shot the vulture picture have put down his camera and picked up the child? Is being photographed itself a strategy for survival? Are the short-term benefits of raising money offset by the long-term effects of reproducing images with cultural and racial stereotypes? Imaging Famine is described as an ongoing, web-based project and feedback is encouraged, and a seminar is planned to discuss some of the issues raised. The feedback and seminar will probably be as interesting and frustrating as the exhibition, because the effect of media coverage of catastrophes is both important and difficult to pin down. It was academic Amartya Sens insight that democracy and a free press will eliminate famine deaths, on the grounds that famine does not mean an absence of food: simply that some people cannot get access to food. This is a great truth, explaining both why government officials, aidworkers and journalists do not die in famines, and why countries where people are dying of hunger often continue to export food. Imaging Famines seminar and activities should remember that journalists can ignore or highlight famine, but responsibility for ensuring famines do not cause death and ill-health lies squarely with governments. * Exhibition and conference details: Guardian Newsroom * Oneworld UK Events: Oneworld Events listing |
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