Rethinking Images

Images and visual narratives are sensitive topics in the humanitarian world. Pictures are important to support fundraising, communication campaigns, and advocacy. The Internet and social media revolutionized the communication world. The graph below shows that while a very broad audience still uses traditional media, the number of internet and social media users is growing remarkably fast. The private sector, the public sector, big and small organizations, and of course citizens have moved to the digital world to have their online space in the global network of new technologies.

Daily time spent with media per capita worldwide from 2011 to 2021, by medium
Statista – Daily time spent with media per capita worldwide from 2011 to 2021, by medium (in minutes) https://www.statista.com/statistics/256296/distribution-of-media-time-worldwide/

 

For the aid world, such as international organizations, NGOs and UN agencies, the transition from traditional media to social media means a different approach to communication. This transition can be seen as a real challenge. Over the past decades we have witnessed a lot of “poverty porn” or “pornography of poverty” in portrayals of the Global South in the context of humanitarian aid fundraising campaigns addressed to the Global North. Poverty porn consists in using images portraying poor people in poor conditions (for example dirty clothes, skeletal, starving kids, flies around, etc.), to trigger emotional feelings within audiences in the Global North, and eventually generate donations or other sorts of funding.

Image from Save The Children (23 June 2021), “More Than 5.7 Million Children Under Five On The Brink Of Starvation Across The World” https://www.savethechildren.net/news/more-57-million-children-under-five-brink-starvation-across-world

 

This use of images is no longer valid. Poor or in need of help doesn’t mean helpless and weak. The colonial white gaze has gotten Global North audiences accustomed to the stereotype of an incapable Global South, but it is now time to shift direction. People from the Global South can represent themselves and have the accountability of producing the images that tell their stories. Social media plays a crucial role in this new form of communication. Everyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can be a photographer and a storyteller. There are plenty of initiatives on social media and on the internet with the mission to contribute to social change using dignifying images and storytelling. Just to mention a few: Regarding Humanity, The Authority Collective, The Everyday Projects, Native and Diversify Photo.

In the next few weeks on this blog I will tackle some of the issues related to the inappropriate use of disempowering images and media content in the humanitarian world. Some of the questions that I will try to answer are: “Can the end justify the means?”, “Who is portrayed?”, “How would they like to be portrayed?”.

Please contribute to the discussion, sharing your experiences, thoughts and dilemmas.

The Everyday Projects website https://www.everydayprojects.org/

 

5 Comments

  1. Super interesting theme and I really look forward to reading more about the questions you teased towards the end. Although the questions posed are complex and not easily discussed, I was thinking about an interesting distinction that might be considered going forward. Although I am aware and troubled by the use of images as the one from Save the Children, I also recognise the potential need to distinguish between communicating about development and communication for humanitarian action. Although still highly problematic, which I do not want to discuss here, one could argue that children and adults starving in remote areas during famine and war are less likely to have the means and opportunities to represent and communicate about oneself. Take the hundreds of thousands starving in Tigray at the moment, without little access to food and no access to the internet. Of course, any communication on that catastrophe should be dignifying but the urgent needs in such a situation really emphasise your questions on “whether the end justifies the means?”.

    al1448
    1. Thanks a lot for your comment! You have a very valid point. Communication for humanitarian actions should be analyzed with a different gaze. Not only in Tigray, there are different crisis around the world at the moment, for example in Afghanistan. The urgent necessity of resources might require an immediate and effective communication strategy, which includes an effective visual imagery. There is not an easy and straightforward answer to “can the end justifies the means?”

      Marianna
  2. Hi Marianna, interesting post!
    Indeed, it is sad to see such communication strategies and bad taste based on the white colonial gaze.

    The picture by Save the Children seems very disturbing. Who authorize on behalf of children in such communications that they can be portrayed this way? And how can fundraising directors approve campaigns with such images at all? Even with the best intentions, the white saviors should be concerned not only about feeding “poor children” but also about their privacy and dignity.

    Great examples of initiatives with the mission to contribute to social change using dignifying images and storytelling, especially The Everyday Projects! Thanks for the links.

    ak9435
    1. Hi! Thank you for your comment. I agree, I also found the Save the Children image disturbing for a few reasons. For example, it was published on June 2021, when discussions around poverty porn have been ongoing for quite some years. Also, if I look at the various elements of the image, it is very evident the contrast between the white hands (clean, with a “nice” ring, and helpful feeding the kid) and the black people represented (an helpless mother and a dirty-face kid).

      It would be nice to have a different representation of the Global South. Probably it is not that easy to get rid of the white gaze on fundraising campaign.

      Marianna

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