15) Ethics Lecture, Shawn Sobers - 5/2/18

On Monday we had another Photography in Context lecture, this week with Shawn focusing on the topic of ethics within photography. My notes from the session can be seen below.

He started off with some practical points such as where to find ethics forms and model release forms on Blackboard, stating how we should give these to participants of our projects if needed.

He then went on to show us an image (see below) which prompted us to discuss different types of ethical issues within photography.

1. Exploitation:

If I get what I want, you get what you want. I don't want my photography to feel exploitative by the subjects I'm taking photos of, so I really want to build a relationship with them first, and also make them feel involved in the process by giving them prints and images.

3. Representation (lens):

This got me thinking of how I as a photographer represent people. For instance in terms of my van dwellers project, am I going to portray them in a positive light, or how they're already perceived in society in a negative light. I've decided on the positive portrayal, because I want these individuals to be shown for the good people they are within this hard living situation.

5. Representation (cultural capital):

I'm representing UWE, a student, I want to represent helping the community - again going back to showing my subjects in a positive light.

7. Exhibition: Think about context and where you're putting the picture and WHY, for instance entering it into competitions, and do they stand for the subject your photographing and the way you're portraying people.

This also ties into 8. Contextualisation (text with image):

If people were to buy your image and put words with it, they could go against your views and what you wanted to say with the images.

10. Time sensitive:

How long is it going to be around for and does how you portray these individuals still stand or have they moved away from it? Ask for permissions to enter images into competitions and exhibitions.

14. Protection of subjects:

Use of names etc

15. Do we play to what audiences want to see?

They could weaken our own moral values and tastes. Stay true to you.

16. WHY do you want to do it?

Have good reasoning.

For the rest of the lecture we went on to look at artists' images which play with the ideas of ethics closely, having a discussion about them in the lecture.

We went on to discuss how ethics and morals are very context based, and nothing is fixed. For instance in this Spencer Platt image (below), you would assume the individuals in the car are judging the carnage around them as if it doesn't affect them, however they are part of the community and are driving to see if their own home has been destroyed. As viewers we wouldn't know this from just looking at the image, so it highlights the importance of context with photography.

Another interesting artist Shawn brought up was John Paul Filo, specifically his 'Kent State Massacre' image from 1970 (see below). I found this image interesting because he had edited out certain aspects of the image to make the foreground of it more engaging and impactful. Due to this being a photojournalism image and not an art image, the ethics concerning this photography is different, and manipulating and changing the image is not allowed. It is allowed in terms of an art image because you're not trying to pretend it's different from what it actually is.

Another image which sparked my interest was Eddie Adams' photograph depicting the execution of Nguyen Van Lem by General Loan. Over time the photograph caught up on General Loan years later after he'd opened a chain of restaurants, causing uproar. This caused the discussion, do photographs need text with them? I've come to the conclusion that yes, they should have if ethical issues within the image need addressing.

The last thing Shawn mentioned which resonated with me was The Caravan Gallery, a gallery space which travels around exhibiting work from the area they're based. I thought this could be a really interesting way of exhibiting my work, considering it is based around people that live in caravans and other vehicles, and you could even park it up on the same street as people's homes, as if it was an in location private view. I'm not sure how these residents would feel about this ethically, however I still like the idea of it being exhibited in a caravan due to the content of the project.

Overall I found the lecture really informative, and although it was for Photography in Context, I found a lot of interesting points that are relevant to my current project, which have made me reflect on my actions for Creative Interactions in a more ethical way.

#photographyincontext