“Pictures are particularly powerful visual weapons (cf. Lilleker, Veneti and Jackson, 2019) against oppression and suffering as has been demonstrated in places like South Africa and Palestine.”
“Google Arts and Culture posits that of all art mediums, photography is perhaps the greatest weapon against exposing and calling to order injustice.”
– Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021, ch. 6
Susan Sontag writes that a photograph passes for ‘incontrovertible proof’ that a given thing happened; the picture may distort, but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture (2014, p. 5). When looking at photographs of what’s currently happening in Palestine, this concept from Sontag is such an important one to remember, particularly in regards to digital activism and disinformation in conflict settings.
Photography oftentimes reveals deep-seated challenges with decolonisation (Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021), but photography also more-often than not reveals deep-rooted forms of oppression and violence within colonisation, as can be seen through ‘resistance photography’ which documents conflicts between oppressors and their victims as to alert, persuade, and elicit support for the oppressed. Palestinian photojournalists have encapsulated this genre in their occupied homeland for decades, as seen through the work of Motaz Azaiza.
Activestills, set up in 2005 by Israeli, Palestinian, and international documentary photographers is another example of resistance photography; documenting Palestinian popular struggle against the Israeli occupation’ amongst other forms of oppression such as rights of women, LGBTQIA+ community, migrants and asylum-seekers, public housing rights, and the struggle against economic oppression (Maimon & Grinbaum, 2016, p. 31). The images created can be ‘offensive’ as they are ‘provocative’ so that they evoke anger in the viewer – hopefully enough to take action (Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021).
But what if that anger and (consequently) action is misplaced?
Stuart Hall writes that photographs are subject to multiple interpretations and meanings, depending on people’s experiences, knowledge, proximity to and relationship with the issues or subjects, and ideology, among others (1973). A prime example of this is how images from Palestine continue to generate support for Israel (especially the U.S.); despite of the genocide currently being documented daily in Gaza (Amnesty, 2024), there continues to be support for the very oppressors that are causing that genocide; due to people’s experiences within Western culture, lack of knowledge about the history of the area, and proximity to and relationship with the issues, subjects, and ideologies at play. In the case of elite philanthropy the political dimension is even more apparent, since big money donors have vast resources at their disposal, which are of sufficient scale to raise concerns about whether their distribution in the form of donations could have a distorting effect on the direction of public debate and public policy (Davies, 2024; Hall, 2013; Reich et al., 2016; Saunders-Hastings, 2018); as seen in the case of Floyd Mayweather donating millions of dollars and pledging his unflinching support for Israel and the IDF to “defend themselves.”
“Readers must always separate works from their creators in order to liberate the text from interpretive tyranny.”
– Barthes, 1977
How can photography and the use of photographs avoid fuelling further violence?
According to Youngblood peace journalism is one potential (tentative) step in ’answering’ this truly pivotal question, which in simple terms: aims to avoid ‘inflammatory language and texts that can fuel conflict’ (2017). To avoid fuelling further violence, Youngblood (pp. 5–7) goes on to suggest that peace journalists should ideally ‘thoughtfully select the images they use, understanding that they can misrepresent an event, exacerbate an already dire situation, and re-victimise those who have suffered’ (Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021). Palestinian people have been re-victimised time and time again through the medium of photography (and film) since the dawn of the occupation, and peace journalism is only one very small step in the process of re-centring/giving space to Palestinian voices in the way that they would like to be heard, especially if the journalists are writing from a Western/Global North (built on the foundations of colonisation) perspective for an audience in that very same area (like us here at this blog).
Questions of how can we use our privilege to help fight for those that are being oppressed have to be constantly asked; additionally, how can this be done in the the colonially engineered colossus age of digital disinformation, ‘imagicides’ and ‘ontocides’ (Sekula 1992: 374)?
“It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war”
– Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021
Disinformation is information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country (Wardle and Derakhshan 2018); whereas terrorism can be defined as the calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, which is done in order to pursue political, religious or ideological goals (Schmid 2004) – the two go hand in hand – however the promotion of violence is a common theme in terrorism-related propaganda and disinformation (Karam & Mutsvairo, 2021).
Internet, (Photography) and Terrorism: A Perfect Combination?
Roberts & Karekwaivanane write that the absence of reliable information has created a vacuum in which disinformation has been able to thrive, and trying to verify online claims, often made anonymously, about inaccessible locations, in the fog of war about on-going conflict is extremely challenging (2024). On top that, Piazza adds that disinformation helps to ferment, reinforce and enhance personal and group grievances; it is designed to be incendiary, regardless of how ridiculous the claims may be. It also plays to existing prejudices held by its consumers, deepening their sense of outrage and grievance and whetting their appetite for militant action (2021). This is precisely what is happening with online disinformation and photography regarding Palestine; while it may seem that government (Israel) appears to be fighting disinformation, it is at the same time using it as a tool to exert political control/influence – all disinformation is a reflection of power relationships: power-holders trying to influence the beliefs and behaviours of others (Roberts & Karekwaivanane, 2024). Furthermore, through photography, disinformation can be exerted through the captions, as captions impregnate a photograph with ‘a culture, morality and an imagination’ (Barthes 1985: 54).
Moreover, new technology makes manipulating and fabricating content/images/pictures easier and more affordable than ever before; when shared on global social networking platforms they can dramatically amplify falsehoods peddled by states, populist politicians and dishonest corporate entities, especially if they are shared by an uncritical public (Roberts & Karekwaivanane, 2024), which poses major challenges to democracy and civil rights (Unver 2017).
This ultimately begs the question:
In this colossal age of digital disinformation, how can the power of photography/pictures as visual weapons be used to reduce violence against the people of Palestine and not fuel the ongoing genocide?
As the death toll of Palestinians continues to emphatically rise, this very brief article written by a privileged white-male photographer from the UK is by no means an answer to this timely and pivotal question, but I do hope it can be a step in providing a better understanding to those of you who might still be a little confused as to what is happening in regards to digital activism on the topic of Palestine. Ultimately even helping to understand that we drastically need to unlearn our collective western understanding and thinking about the “Middle East” in general which has led to the genocide currently happening in Palestine because of our military, financial, and colonial/neo-colonial support and historical actions.
I have used photography as a case study to explore this issue, and to underline its power as a visual weapon that can be used either to help liberate the Palestinian people, or to further fuel their oppression.
References:
- Karam, Beschara; Mutsvairo, Bruce (eds.) (2021): Decolonising Political Communication in Africa-Reframing Ontologies.
- Roberts, Tony; Karekwaivanane, George Hamandishe (eds.) (2024): Digital Disinformation in Africa-Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda.
- Davies, Rhodri (2024): Good intent, or just good content? Assessing MrBeast’s philanthropy, Journal of Philanthropy & Marketing, 29(2), e1858.
- Veneti, A. (2019). Introduction: Visual Political Communication. Visual Political Communication.
- Sontag, Susan (2014). On Photography.
- Azaiza, Motaz. https://www.instagram.com/motaz_azaiza/?hl=en
- Activestills. https://www.activestills.org/
- Maimon, V., & Grinbaum, S. (Eds.). (2016). Activestills: Photography as Protest in Palestine/Israel. Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1gk080g
- Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse. Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Birmingham.
- Amnesty International. https://www.instagram.com/p/DDMwGP2NdGl/
- Floyd Mayweather. https://www.jpost.com/j-spot/article-767722
- Barthes, R. (1977). From Work to Text. In Heath, S. (Ed.), Image-Music Text (pp. 155-165). London: Fontana.
- Barthes, R. (1985). The grain of the voice: Interviews 1962–1980.
- Witt, A. (2021). Allan Sekula: Photographic Work. Getty Research Journal, 14, 151 – 179.
- Wardle, C., & Derakhshan, H. (2017). Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policymaking. Council of Europe.
https://rm.coe.int/information-disorder-report-november-2017/1680764666 - Schmid, A. P. (2004). FRAMEWORKS FOR CONCEPTUALISING TERRORISM. Terrorism and Political Violence, 16(2), 197–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550490483134
