What is our justification for looking? and what is our justification fro looking away? Should photographers be involved in their subjects?
Kevin Carter took a photo of a deing African girl with a circulating vulture. The photo is incredibly powerful and horrible, taken during a famine. The photo started a humanitarian movement across the world to help the people of the area. Many saw the photo as awful. Why didnt Carter help the child? Many saw his photo as exploiting someone else's pain, and condemned him for not stepping up and helping the child, while others saw the photo as a lie; some accounts suggest the child's parents were just there but Carter positioned the child to emote most horror. Either way, the controversy meant Carter committed suicide.
a similar account is a recent photo of someone jumping in front of a train in New York. ("the Bridge") The photographer was attacked for not stopping the person jumping, and accused of exploiting a last moment. Others saw this as an important issue as it expresses worrying ideologies and things that happen every day.
Another example is re-enactment, or shooting while asking people to act in a certain way- for example, an Italian photographer asked all the men in the street to whistle at this women, to produce a mood. This is "false", though it could be argued that it wasnt, if it was reflecting a normal experience.
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