I went to see the presentation, “Arising from Tragedy: 25 years after Pan Am flight 103.” This presentation was put on by the Alexia Foundation. The Alexia Foundation was founded by the parents of one of the victims of the attack. The foundation is to give light to Alexia’s dream, it is meant to better the world through photography and to shed light on injustice.
The presentation was about how photographers are storytellers and how stories can bring about change. In order to drive change, a photographer, or any storyteller, must have a deep understanding of what’s going on. The photographer must truly understand and a care about a subject. It is important to do research. Figure out where the accountability lies. Whose fault is it? How could it be made better? Also, in order to drive change, the photograph must spark a dialogue for individuals and the community as a whole. That is how the story spreads. It’s about finding a picture that sparks personal connections. Personal connections are the driving force of change. As one of the panelists said, “Everyone carries their own personal pain that you need to touch.”
The importance of objectivity was something that was touched on during this presentation. There were mixed reactions within the panel about its importance. Two photographers said that it was sort of important, while the other said that it wasn’t important at all. On one hand, it is the photographer’s work. If there is something that the photographer feels is important or that they feel inspired to cover, they can. It is art. It is the photographer’s view of the world and issues that the photographer feels are important to bring light to. On the other hand, the argument for objectivity was that sometimes pictures can be used in court cases. If the photographs are blatantly biased, then they could be considered invalid.
It is important to have a lot of sides represented and to be honest in photography. I had never thought about the extension of ethics and bias to storytelling done with photography. It was an interesting idea. I had also never considered photography to be such a powerful form of storytelling, but it is. Just like stories, there are images that get stuck in your head. There are images that make you want to do something. I thought think that storytelling with photography is very powerful and can drive great changes.