The resurfacing discussions about systemic bad practices and disputable ethics by illustrious photo agencies like Magnum or VII often end with - as Robert Godden points out - isolation of the contagion to save the brand. (1/12)
This way, real changes at root level are postponed and avoided. Or maybe not deemed important enough to make them more than part of a PR exercise in promises of commitment. However, by putting these larger organizations on the spot, (2/12)
we might overlook the fact that the issues raised are endemic in the wider community and that hosts of practitioners - including the lesser known and powerful ones - are simply blind to certain types of transgressions. (3/12)
They cannot see the real violence or violations contained in a photographic body of work. It somehow never becomes real for them. And it’s flabbergasting to realize this at times. (4/12)
Here’s an example. At the Unseen book fair a few years ago, I was approached by a young Italian photographer who was eager to show me his self published book. It contained images of burials in India, funerals of the dead, the ceremonies surrounding them. (5/12)
He proudly told me that these images, which he obtained from a local funeral photographer, were made only for the relatives, that it was private material and that the photographer usually deleted the materials after printing. (6/12)
Meanwhile, I was looking at dead people and their relatives I wasn’t supposed to see in their grief. And I was horrified. Because the young photographer admitted he never asked the portrayed for their permission to print these private moments in his book. (7/12)
We got into a real argument in the middle of the fair, and our raised voices drew attention. But no one there stepped in and left me feeling like a fool. Because I couldn’t get into his head that maybe, just maybe, (8/12)
he should have respected the wishes of these families who had not wanted the outside world to see their photographs. He just thought it was a very cool project, and as I sadly learned, he received a lot of praise for it by the jury of a book award, (9/12)
reinforcing him in his belief that he was doing something good or right.

His name is really not important. What stuck with me was the impression of an almost complete disconnect from what this life of ours is really made of, (10/12)
and that this disconnect is not incidental but inscribed into the photo community - after years of desensitization. And I realized that there’s almost no way to stop or overcome this through individual efforts or actions, (11/12)
but that it’s something that requires a movement in society on a much wider level - a movement to regain not only our senses but also our sensibilities. For that to happen, more than photography is needed. (12/12)
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