Does Photography Change The World?

Can a simple photograph change the direction of which the world is going? This question can produce complex answers but ultimately I do in fact believe that it can essentially assist in the change. As Johnathan Klein of Getty Images discusses in his TEDtalk, “images themselves don’t change the world, but we are also aware that since the beginning of photography images have provoked reactions in people and those reactions have caused change to happen.” He is exactly right in his explanation of this; images alone will not produce a change in society but they do however aide in conversation to be had and may change the public's perception on certain aspects. For instance, things that occur on a global level may go without being recognized to an individual that resides in another country. However, a photographer that sets out to convey a message and record realities of other nations will bring the awareness that is necessary to govern change. The more images that are captures of a controversial event, the more difficult is it for society to ignore it.

 

Image published by MassLive

This image is rather straightforward and illustrates a drug bust in the town that I grew up in but also emphasizes the impact of the opioid crisis. The Masslive article reads, “the increasing number of accidental deaths from heroin abuse and related opioid drugs ravaging the state is hitting this community hard - with the highest number who die on a per-capita basis, according to an analysis of state and census figures.” Which is exactly the case. Since I graduated High School, I have attended double the number of funerals related to an overdose in a young person than I have gone to celebrations (such as weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, etc). The individuals that use within the community are not who you would expect it to be. One case in Ware that really impacted me was an individual that I had competed for our dance studio for years with. She and her younger sister began to experiment with heroin until their family and friends began to pick up on hints that they were using. Both sisters were forced to go away to the state of the art rehabs. Upon return, they would relapse and begin again. All until the younger sister had died of complications of chronic use. Since then, the amount of people that began to use in Ware and surrounding towns has become so large and unfortunately, the number of deaths related to opioid drug use have as well.

Photo by AFP- Getty Images

One well-recognized picture that has impacted “the world” is an image of a little boy in the back of an ambulance in Syria. Author Eun Kyung Kim, of the article Syrian Boy in Ambulance Reminds World of War’s Horror, adds, “The simple image of the barefoot young Syrian boy, covered in gray dust after being rescued from a bombed-out building, or the dazed and desensitized look on his blood-caked face.” The five-year-old boy, identified as Omran Daqneesh, was a civilian in the town of Aleppo when an airstrike hit a surrounding building and he was rescued from the rubbish. This photo taken in 2016, was a complete horrifying eye-opener to the impact of the Syrian war on its people and that little boy become the face of Syria. It is known that the U.S. has partaken on war throughout History but it rarely leaves families residing in the U.S. questioning their safety and security on a daily basis. In the same article, a California mother of 2 little boys around the same age as pictured Omran Daqneesh said, “how unfair for these people to have to live like that. My kids are safe in a house and these kids are dodging bombs out there. It’s horrifying. I can’t believe this is actually happening in 2016.” Which is exactly the case, it is unfortunate that the threat of an airstrike lives on the conscious of parents and children in Syria on a daily basis. After being exposed to this image, I followed the news broadcasting that held any information on Syria amongst many other individuals because it was more frequently on the news channels and constantly was discussed over multiple platforms.





Photos that are taken plays an important role in documenting history and informing individuals on a nation or even global level. However, Professor John Nordell adds a valid point within his exemplar in his video Do Photographs Change the World, “if a tree falls in the woods and there is no photojournalist to take a picture of it, did the event happen? Can the event become part of history?” This question that questions reality and validity can be applied to any event that happens in the world. If it is not documented with an image that proves that it happened, it may just be interpreted of “he said, she said” data. The article Ferguson’s citizen journalists revealed the value of an undeniable video written by Dan Gillmor states, “Antonio French, an alderman in nearby St Louis, spent days posting to Twitter pictures and a series of videos of the demonstrations and police actions that he captured on his mobile phone..He is a citizen journalist of the best kind: a credible witness who has helped inform the wider public about a critical matter.” The nontraditional photojournalistic approach of people that take pictures on their phones of something that is occurring. This in the case of police brutality will hold the police officer that may be breaking a code of ethics in the way they are handling a situation accountable for their actions. It serves as hard evidence and allows for appropriate disciplinary actions in a court of law. Without this video/photography captured, a respected police officer or even a civilian would be able to present untrue recall of the events.




What if taken images cannot be published?



This is another issue that may be present within the photojournalism profession because media companies are multi-million dollar industries that control what the public is exposed to. In the article, Big Media Companies And Their Many Brands — In One Chart demonstrate this. It reads, “The Walt Disney Co. has bid more than $52 billion to buy much of 21st Century Fox. It's only the latest merger in the wave of deal-making washing over the media industry. AT&T is facing off with federal antitrust officials over its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, which has been pending for more than a year.” This can be dangerous in who controls what is being published regardless if the news is worthy of being published. Disallowing news that is important to be released to the public or recorded as American history to be published to refrain from damaging the reputation of these major companies.