Victorian Visual Culture

As somebody who has gone to different protests for different organizations with a camera by my side, I’ve long considered the ethics of photography that captures politically or violently charged moments. In the case of Willoughby Wallace Hooper, a member of the British state who profited off of both the starvation of the people of India, and the photographs he took of such conditions, such photography should be looked down upon. Here, the commodification of suffering is easy to separate from the potential of journalistic photography; capturing photographs of starving people (who, considering the circumstances, probably received no compensation for their likeness) and then selling them to the upper classes is just another act of exploitation. There is no excuse for such disregard for human life, especially considering the position of the photographer. 

Since photography has been popularized, photographs and their reproductions have been used as calls to action and as evidence (whether against whatever state violence is being enacted against protesters, or against the protesters themselves). Today, in an era of hyper surveillance, the creation of evidence is concerning. In the current state of the world, many protesters have been doxxed, with calls to fire them from their jobs, to evict them from their housing, or to get them kicked out of school; and thanks to the popularity of cellphones, recording and finding people is incredibly easy. 

Recently I attended a protest in which many people, both outsiders and fellow protesters, were taking photographs of the student protesters. Some of these photographs were shared on social media— though it’s a much different case than that of Hooper, it made me wonder why take the photos anyway? Is it a call to action to fellow students, or is it another chance for strangers to identify activists? To weigh the call to action against the possibility of identification can be a struggle, but it’s important to consider others’ safety over the social capital of a poorly lit photo. 

Of course, there are times that the subjects of the photographs themselves call for them to be shared. In the case of Palestinians and the violence they’re facing at the moment, many journalists and civilians alike have asked for their photographs to be shared. When more traditional forms of media and journalism fail to share their stories, the use of social media can be very helpful in spreading the word. Palestinians, in the call for sharing their photos, videos, and stories, want to use photographs as a form of identification— rather than the disidentification that Hooper was doing. 

It’s easy to separate wanting to capture the cause for the cause itself, or wanting to capture a cause for artistic or monetary reasons, but if one struggles with differentiating between them, they can ask a few questions. Am I taking advantage of a vulnerable group or vulnerable person? Am I receiving compensation for this? And if I am, are they? Who is the audience for my piece? Who do I aim to reach, and with what emotion (Disgust? Sympathy? Anger?). Am I posting this on Instagram for fellow student protesters to see, or am I submitting it to a show? Is the safety of my subject at risk?