TORONTO, October 3, 2005 -- Photojournalism enables us to bear witness to tragedy, but may also violate the dignity of the people it portrays and promote stereotypes of them, York University professor Fuyuki Kurasawa says.
Kurasawa, a professor of Sociology, will address a group of high school photography teachers Tuesday about the importance of discussing in their classrooms how depictions of human tragedies are used.
The event is part of the World Press Photo 05 exhibit which is visiting the Allen Lambert Galleria, BCE Place (Bay and Wellington Streets) from Oct. 3-23. Kurasawa is one of several speakers taking part in the educational evening, from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Photo by Arko Datta, India, Reuters
“We need to have a debate,” Kurasawa says. “We need to ask, ‘Do we have a responsibility to make images of human suffering available but at the same time to be aware of the effects these photos have?’”
World Press Photo, an independent, non-profit organization devoted to promoting professionalism among press photographers internationally, is the organizer of the world’s largest and most prestigious photojournalism competition. The winning photo this year, by Indian photographer Arko Datta, for Reuters, shows a woman on a beach, mourning a relative killed by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami that took the lives of almost 300,000 and left millions destitute.
“We need to ask: if we were her would we want that photo published?” said Kurasawa. “I’m not here to provide ready-made answers, but I think we must ask what are the roles and responsibilities of the photographer, the audience, and the subject of the photograph?”
Kurasawa is researching the relationship between human rights and visual representations of suffering, a topic he first became interested in many years ago when he was exposed to images from the Ethiopian famine, and is studying the power of a photograph to move public opinion and cause governments to act.
It is important, he says, to recognize there is a tension between the benefits of photojournalism and the potential exploitation of people who are experiencing very private moments of horror and grief.
“With the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster, for example, we need to ask how the affected people were portrayed – for example, why were poor and homeless African-Americans overwhelmingly perceived as passive victims or criminals?” said Kurasawa.
“A lot of journalists are very interested in these questions but, given their daily lives, they don’t have a lot of time to think about them. This is where I hope my work can help.”
York University’s Faculty of Arts is one of the educational sponsors of the exhibit. Click here for details.
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For more information, contact:
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca
