More "inspiring", less "witnessing"

In photojournalism it's perhaps the business of "witnessing" stuff who's time is up. This is no longer enough - it now implies a certain passiveness and arrogance - as if the photographer was an angel peering into humanity, governed by different laws.

Images conceived to shock viewers out of their complacency seem now to have the opposite effect: they only add to the general sense of jadedness and helplessness people feel about events in the broader world.

Aestheticised horror pushes the subject matter out far beyond the point where "us" becomes "them" and empathy, overstretched, recoils.

(sorry, I can't bring myself to increase the size of the above James Nachtwey picture)

Subtler, softer stories are emerging that try to bring their subject-matter closer to viewers. By focusing more on commonalities than stark differences, by including the poetry and uniqueness of life in a certain place, they show "life elsewhere" as being not so fundamentally, irreparably different to life closer by.

We are at the awkward, early beginnings of exploring many new registers in storytelling with images. People in Western countries have developed a terribly warped sense of the broader world, and photographers have a large burden of blame for that. They are doing well to start showing it in all its shades and complexities. Rather than adopting a stern objective stance with its implied omniscience, they are less afraid to put more of themselves into the equation and to try to inspire, instead aiming to force a single, violent response to what they have witnessed.

Keeping it real

"He had the unlucky capacity many men, especially Russians, have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in life. Every sphere of activity was, in his eyes, linked with evil and deception. Whatever he tried to be, whatever he engaged in, he always found himself repulsed by this knavery and falsehood which blocked every path of action. Yet he had to live and find himself an occupation."
Tolstoy, War and Peace (about Pierre Bezuhov)

Looking ahead

Thanks to the web and greater awareness of the scarcity of resources, the hierarchy of value based around modernity, where the most modern is seen as the best and conversely the least modern (generally I'm referring to ways rather than objects) is seen as the worse will lose its appeal. This will add up to quite a major shift. The prestige of sustainability will appear instead, one where respect is given to ingenious and efficient ways of doing things.

Many cultures are great repositories of such ingenuity, but despite the efforts of tiny minority, the vast majority see non-Western as being mainly backward, since they are unconciously programmed to see a system as faulty unless it generates profit for someone. Modernity will be relegated to being more instrumental than a matter of prestige. The elite of each country will start to try to outdo each other in appreciating once again what's left of their own cultures which until recently they had nothing but contempt for.

From Marcus Aurelius

"Don't just take your breath from the surrounding air, but take your thought too from the mind that embraces all things. The power of mind spreads everywhere and permeates no less than the air. It is there for all who want to absorb it just like the air for those who can draw breath."

I wonder what he meant by that?

Thought of the day...

It’s usual to look into the past to try to understand where we are today. We tease out episodes and give them special significance. Together they build up a narrative that explains why things came to be the way they are. But the past can be treacherous and mirror-like, both entrancing and paralyzing: by the time we've worked out what today means it’s already tomorrow and we need to start again, so we’re always one step behind. It may be healthier to accept the present as much as possible and spend more time examining instead the dream or dreams that guide us - where they come from, where they lead to - to try to identify the invisible vector lines we advance along.

Nice idea

Developing into what, exactly?

(not my words)

We have been focusing our energy and resources on trying to solve our Third World problems to become more like the First World. But perhaps it is time that we, the so called Third World minds, focused our energy and creativity on solving some of the First World problems. We will have a brighter future to look forward to, and perhaps this can help us rethink and approach our current problems from a different perspective.

http://designforthefirstworld.com/

update 15.05.10: here's another more arty version of the same concept:
http://ghanathinktank.org/

Drawing

The moment they realised they were wrong

2008 Gouache

A few more drawings

The are all at the centre of their own universes

2009 Pen and paper

This is their heart, this is their brain

2008 pencil and biro

F for fun, give me some

2008 gouache and pen