Ian Rowe: Participant vs. Professional Photography
October 1, 2011
In a unique class, Visual Communication and Social Change, 4th-year students explore and contrast the images of professional and “participant” photographers; try to discern the impact of various forms of visual media on its target audiences; and read authors who promote participant-photography and those who are critical of it, as they attempt to answer questions such as, “Do media professionals distort the stories of the poor and dispossessed? Can participant-photography make a meaningful impact given the amateur photographer’s lack of training and experience?” Read their initial analyses and join the conversation.
Participant vs. Professional Photography by Ian Rowe
In the author’s view, photography as a medium for political activism has not been very effective due to a lack of authenticity. She also criticized the photographers mentioned in her paper as maintaining the status quo rather than countering it. I argue that there is no magic bullet to solve a given social or political issue but rather the solution comes from a persistence stemming from artists, activists, community members, and those who consider themselves all of the above. Photography is a medium that can report, express, and contribute to social change. Professional photography and citizen journalism are both necessary and can provide differing advantages in expression, reporting, and political contribution.
Professional photography brings with it people who have mastered their craft of capturing images of high quality in an artistic, functional, and expressive way but may succumb to bias of experience and being an outsider to the issue at hand. This may result in only capturing certain issues without having the knowledge to capture others. The opposite is true of citizen journalism in that the ones with the camera photograph what they know. Though this may not be representative, it is much more authentic in that given situation. In addition, they are not likely to be experienced photographers and thus may be less able to capture a candid, authentic, quality moment and more likely to capture a staged photograph of those close to the photographer.
I think it is a great advantage to have the ones personally involved express themselves through photography because of the authenticity involved, but we must realize that regardless of who holds the camera a creative or political bias will always exist.
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I agree with you that both professional photographers and citizen photographers would have a bias, as photos show a photographer’s point of view. Also, there is no doubt that both professional and and citizen journalism have their own values. Professional photographers are those who internally have a rich background of how to take photos. On the other hand, citizen photographers can take the photos freely without restriction. I believe that both of them are trying to portray different side of the worlds to the audience, which can broaden our horizon and knowledge to different fields. Therefore, both of them have their own values of existence.
Some very good points here. Yes, political and creative bias will always exist when taking a stance on any subject. Ian also mentions an emphasis on authenticity that is somehow compromised by the participant photographer’s lack of experience and potentially staged photographs. It’s interesting that professional photographers face this same challenge because of their outsider status in representing a community to which they don’t belong.
I’m interested to hear more about Ian’s ideas that Ballerini’s criticism lends itself towards a magic bullet theory. While Ballerini does seem limited in her ideas of what can cause social change, I’m not sure if she offers only one potential way of doing so. She may not offer many solutions but I do think it’s important to have a devil’s advocate and keep discussion flowing.
Being a devil’s advocate to your discussion, you said that participatory photographers don’t have a professional bias in their photos. This is true, however, without a specific goal/ social issue/ agenda/ mission in mind when taking their photos, I’ve noticed that participatory photographers often unconsciously shoot positive images of their environment (because I feel people naturally like to shed their lives in a positive light), as opposed to photos that will reveal suffering, hardship and sadness– emotions that are often most useful in prompting action or a response from its audience. Would you not say then that participatory photographers also have their own biases, and that sometimes this may cause their photographs to be less effective in contributing to a social cause?