The World Through Different Lenses

USC student Amanda Fallon explores how the “insiders” view is changing the paradigm in photographic storytelling: Technological advances are constantly changing and reshaping the ways in which photography is used. New concepts like participatory photography and citizen photojournalism have changed the dynamics of photography. First, technology has enabled many people to own individual digital cameras, which is what led to the emergence of citizen photojournalism. In recent news, when an airplane crashed into the Hudson River in NYC, the most popular photo of that dramatic event was taken by an average citizen, not a professional photographer. On a similar note, because technology has enabled the production of good quality cameras at reasonable prices, there has been an outbreak of a new kind of photography known as participatory photography. This type of photography involves the use of subjects as photographers. Not only is this is a unique form of photography and an interesting progression of photography, but participatory photography has raised many questions regarding the insider/outsider paradigm, the roles of the photographer and subjects, and the future of photo documentary.

In photo documentaries, the photographer can either be an insider or an outsider of the world he/she is documenting. An insider is someone who is a part of the culture that is being documented. An outsider is someone who has not lived in that culture and comes to document it without having been a part of it themselves. The latter, humanistic photography, is the more traditional form of photography, however now that cameras are much more accessible and easier to use, documentarians have begun to get the subjects involved in telling their own story—after all, it is their story, and not that of the outsider photographer.

Participatory or pluralist photography is a significant way in which documentary work has evolved. It attempts to overcome a major issue documentarians have encountered in the past, which involves the notion of having a preconceived idea laid out before the photographer even meets the individuals that make up the culture or community being documented. Having a preconceived notion going into a documentary project “minimizes [a photographer’s] chance for success” (Coles, 154). This often occurs in humanistic photography and undermines the project entirely. Humanistic photography does not help viewers fully understand a culture because it only depicts one aspect of it typically suffering which ultimately leads to the normalization of suffering, “rendering the viewer numb and indifferent” (Bleiker and Kay, 141, 148). Unlike humanist photography, pluralist photography gives “people who are typically photographed by others and depicted as anonymous victims the opportunity to make images of their own and to document the intricacies of their lives for themselves”(Wilson-Goldie). Because it documents various elements of a culture, the viewer gets a more diverse representation of that community in order to have a better understanding of what it is like to be a member of that culture. The major flaw in humanistic photography is that the documentarian does not fully understand the subjects he/she is photographing because he/she is an outsider. Participatory photography enables insiders to document their own lives and break the stereotypes that are constantly perpetuated by humanistic photography. This paradigm is leading to significant shifts in photography.

In addition to breaking stereotypes and invoking compassion in viewers, participatory photography teaches people around the world about the empowerment of photography. This concept is known as photo empowerment. Pluralist photography has the ability to empower individuals who lack a voice in the world. By showing the rest of the world intimate photographs of their life, these individuals are able to have a voice and tell their story. The mutual partnership between the photographers and its participatory subjects must be respected, otherwise the entire documentary not live up to its full potential. A great example of a participatory photography project that serves both parties is Kids with Cameras founded by photographer Zana Briski in 2002. This organization, which “teaches the art of photography to marginalized children in communities around the world,” stands on the principle that photography is “an effective tool in igniting children’s imagination and building self-esteem” (Kids with Cameras). In this sense, participatory photography empowers people by teaching them a form of artistic self-expression that can be seen by people around the world. Unlike other documentary projects where photographers come, take a few photos and suddenly leave, Kids with Cameras gives back to that community through financial support coming from profits of their own photographs. However, most documentary projects are not as beneficial as this example.

Unfortunately there are many instances in which this model is broken. One example is described in Kaelen Wilson-Goldie’s essay, “Beyond the Frame.” Because numerous photographers have visited Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps in recent years, the children living there knew what types of photographs the photographers were looking for. So, in one attempt of a participatory photography project in these camps, the children took the types of photographs that they thought the photographer, Eid-Sabbagh, wanted. These children became so aware of the concept of humanistic photography that they assumed all photographers were looking for the same thing. So in this case, the participatory photography format failed, however it comments a lot on the overabundance of humanistic photography today. Humanistic photography has become such a cliché, however the future of photography can be seen through unique formats like participatory photography in which there is more an than one lens contributing to the documentary project.

Bibliography
Bleiker, Roland and Kay, Amy. “Representing HIV/AIDS in Africa: Pluralist Photography and Local Empowerment.” International Studies Quarterly. (2007). 51, 139-163.
Coles, Robert. Doing Documentary Work. Oxford University Press, 1997.
Kids with Cameras. http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/home/ Accessed on March 3, 2009.
Wilson-Goldie, Kaelen. “Beyond the Frame.” The National Newspaper. Abu Dhabi. December 17, 2008.

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