You can't change the world if you can't see what's wrong.
I read about and have been told about how much people think journalists (photo and otherwise) are cold and callous and uncaring. They stand there and take pictures or report the news instead of actually doing anything about it. They shove cameras in grieving people's faces, film death and distruction, watch as other people act. But they are acting. They are enabling everyone else to see what goes on everyday, what happens when no one else is looking, when no one else wants to look.
How much of an impact would 9/11 have had on the US if there had been no images of what happened. The journalists, photojournalists, reporters, and cameramen put themselves in danger to show the world what happened. Yes, the police and firemen risked and lost their lives - that is their job. But, journalists captured this while civilians ran away.
My husband is a cop. I see a lot of things most people don't see. Last week, while taking my son to school (off duty) we saw an old man laying in the street having convulsions. It was a busy downtown DC street. The cars were veering around him and honking, angry that he was in their way. We stopped, blocked traffic, and called an ambulance. I was tempted to take pictures, not of the man in the street but of the cold, callous way people insisted they be allowed to go on their way. It took the ambulance extra time to get there as cars wouldn't move out of the way. They didn't care that someone could be dying, only that they were being delayed.
My husband does his job, on duty or off, because that is who he is. He puts himself in danger to make sure other people don't have to. Journalists do their job, because that is who they are. How many of you are willing to go to Iraq or Iran to tell a story? To risk your life to show the world what is happening?
I was in the middle of a riot once. I luckily had the protection of the police car while my husband was out being attacked (yes, physically attacked) by a huge mob. He was the first on scene. If I had had my camera on that day I would have shot pictures. No question about it.
From my point of view, its not that journalists don't care, its that they care too much. For most people, another persons tragedy is just a statistic. "3 people died today." "16 people injured in bombing." "47 people arrested." Journalists enable these numbers to be more than numbers. They give us a way to care about who those numbers were. If there had been no pictures, that woman would have been a statistic. Journalism made her real, made her pain real, made the events of her life and death real for those reading the newpaper. |
