Documenting disaster and distress…

The argument whether photographers should photograph people’s suffering in disasters or war ebbs and flows. The subject raises its head each time there is a major event. Inevitably there will those who argue that the photographic coverage is an invasion of privacy, or an exploitation of people’s misery. But, to my mind they arguments is never just black and white. I believe that at the very least, photographs of human misery have the ability to stir empathy and at best, move the viewer to take action in some way to try to relievc that misery.

This subject is covered in a very thoughtful article by Suzy Freeman-Green (Drawing a line in the morality of watching disasters unfold) in the Melbourne, Age today (March 26). I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this issue…

 

MONA Museum of Old and New Art

While only indirectly involved in any way with photography (it is involved with this particular photographer’s life), I visited the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart today.

To say that this privately funded institution is challenging, exciting, controversial is understatement indeed. That it exists in the backwater of Hobart is surprising…but then the whole raison d’etre behind entrepreneur, David Walsh’s generous enterprise seems to be surprise. Now all I’ve got to do see how many visits I can fit in before I set off on my trans-continental odyssey for This Working Life on April 4th.

Fake tsunami photos

Sydney Morning Herald photo editor, Wade Laube, on the vile internet photo hoaxers distributing fake pictures purporting to be from the recent Japan tsunami: http://tinyurl.com/4vvzdud

Or read here on Wade’s blog: http://tinyurl.com/4hc7nuf

Balinese legong…

Conventional though the pictures may be, I just couldn’t resist posting this slide show of Balinese Legong dancers performing in Ubud. Their grace and beauty was incomparable…

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