The ethics of aesthetics

Exercise 40 -  read the booklet on "Imaging Famine" and do some research across printed and online media and find examples that either illustrate or challenge the issues highlighted in this document.  

One article with a 'starving child' was "Three Famines: Starvation and Politics by Thomas Keneally – review", this is a general discussion re the shocking truth about the most avoidable of disasters. This article was run by the Guardian in September 2011 but the photograph dated back to the famine in Ethiopia in 1985 - interestingly the article does not reference the image directly.

"Self Help Africa works with small holder framers, tackling hunger and poverty through food protection and rural enterprise. Join Us." All the images associated whit this site are very positive - showing effectively what well invested money can deliver/achieve.

International Medical Corp. - the website was last updated (in November 2013) with the following definition of famine from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Reference Table (the standard used by the UN), famine occurs when the first three of the following conditions occur:

• 20 percent of population has fewer than 2,100 kilo calories of food a day
• 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished
• Two deaths per 10,000 people, or four deaths per 10,000 children per day
• Pandemic illness
• Access to less than four litres of water per day
• Large-scale displacement
• Civil strife
• Complete loss of assets and source of income

Regardless of this depression definition the accompanying photograph was one of a smiling (happy) well dressed, well fed teenager (?).

Image accompanying IMC article

There are numerous charity websites related to supporting the development of third world countries, for example, UNICEF, Save The Children, Water Aid - not just specifically 'famine' relief. In fact typing the search "third world charities" into Google returned 15 million results in 0.47 seconds! All of the sites I visited showed very positive images of the people they were helping and whilst the conditions were certainly spartan, the people were portrayed as happy and healthy and capable of self-help. However, these images were serious 'situational' portraits rather than jovial snapshots and focused in terms of delivering the message.

Harrowing images of famine can still be found by typing 'famine' into the Google image search - these images are shocking even after decades of being aware of them, when I look at them I'm shocked that human beings had to live through and even die in these conditions. As Roger Tooth, Picture Editor of the Guardian said: "obviously pictures give a story impact ... regardless of the frequency, we should continue to be shocked by shocking images!" 

As the article Imaging Famine aptly puts it, positive and negative images both serve a purpose "short-term imperative and education as a long-term aim, or short-term emergencies and long-term development". The shock factor of starving children enables a rapid influx of much need money to kick-start the aid effort, whereas the softer "their just like us, but not quite so well off" images ensue the continued drip-feed of income for specific projects, for example, Water Aid - just £2 a mount will help communities build wells and install pumps and taps...... 

Do I believe we are suffering from compassion fatigue? 

I'm not sure, the more I read of Linfield's book the less sure I am. I certainly think we tune-out very quickly, plus I think we are quicker to jump to conclusions and I think this may well be down to the fact that we are bombarded with copious amounts of unfiltered data. I think rather than working harder to apply the appropriate filters, it is easier for us to filter out everything that is not of specific interest to us at any specific time - in other words, we've taken the lazy route out.

Overall, I believe this does everybody a disservice - the image makers; the individuals portrayed and ourselves - rather than make informed decision we make ill-informed assumptions.


Reference articles and images: The Guardian