Found this article online when I was researching informed consent issues that came up after watching and reading about Titicut Follies and the ensuing court cases. Continue reading “Informed Consent: Must or Myth? by Willemien Sanders”
Month: December 2016
Ultimately We Are All Outsiders: The Ethics of Documentary Filming, Calvin Pryluck
This article was published in the Winter 1976 issue of the Journal of the University Film Association, and is referred to by Anderson. It begins with an open question: “what is the boundary between society’s right to know and the individual’s right to be free of humiliation, shame, and indignity?” which harks back to Anderson’s invoking the first and fourth amendments. Continue reading “Ultimately We Are All Outsiders: The Ethics of Documentary Filming, Calvin Pryluck”
“You Still Takin’ Notes?” Fieldwork and Problems of Informed Consent, Barrie Thorne
Although this article appeared in Social Problems, and is therefore aimed at people doing social research projects, I read it out of interest since I am trying to get to grips with the whole issue of informed consent. Continue reading ““You Still Takin’ Notes?” Fieldwork and Problems of Informed Consent, Barrie Thorne”
Lisa Henderson, Access and Consent in Public Photography
(Image Ethics, pp 91-107) I read this article as part of my last module, when I looked at access and agency. Henderson points out that the strategies of consent employed by photographers are in fact mostly concerned with gaining access for sufficient time to obtain the images required, which is really only consent to having one’s photo taken; explaining how those images will subsequently be used is not always part of the strategy. Continue reading “Lisa Henderson, Access and Consent in Public Photography”
Fred Wiseman, Adjustment and Work
Looking at Wiseman’s other film ventures, I found Adjustment and Work to be a particularly interesting documentary. The approach is similar to Follies, in that we are presented with a filmic narrative with the subjects speaking for themselves without the intermediary of an interviewer. Continue reading “Fred Wiseman, Adjustment and Work”
Compassion Fatigue
Today, documentary photographers working in the tradition of Riis and Hine are recording the situation along the border with Mexico and in new immigrant communities throughout the United States. There is always a danger that the proliferation of photographs of horrendous situations will induce what has been called “compassion fatigue.” (Moeller, Susan D. 1999. Compassion fatigue: how the media sell disease, famine, war, and death. New York: Routledge)
One of the concepts that comes up in any discussion of representations of the Other is the notion of compassion fatigue. Continue reading “Compassion Fatigue”
Susan Moeller
Susan Moeller took the idea of compassion fatigue and wrote an entire book on the subject (chapter 1 available online here). She gives the example of a famous Save the Children campaign, which challenges the viewer to help the child or turn the page. The first time one sees the ad, one may be moved to make a donation; the second time the reader may linger over the picture and read the text, then turn the page; by the third viewing, the page is turned without hesitation, and at the fourth view the reader begins to cynically analyse how the ad is deliberately constructed to work on the emotions and feelings of guilt in the viewer. This is a classic example of compassion fatigue, and Moeller gives the impression that it occurs regardless of the ultimate cause of the charity or advertiser. Continue reading “Susan Moeller”
David Campbell, The Myth of Compassion Fatigue
In a really interesting and informed response, David Campbell takes issue with (in particular) Moeller and Sontag. He published a short introductory article to accompany the first draft of a paper that looks at compassion fatigue in a fresh light. Continue reading “David Campbell, The Myth of Compassion Fatigue”
James Johnson, ‘The Arithmetic of Compassion’: Rethinking the Politics of Photography
This is a very interesting and thought-provoking article by political theorist Johnson (B.J.Pol.S. 41, 621–643 Copyright Cambridge University Press, 2011) that looks at the incoherent notion of politics of compassion, picking up where Campbell left off. The basic idea is that compassion is related to individual suffering, and as such cannot be translated into a call for political action. Continue reading “James Johnson, ‘The Arithmetic of Compassion’: Rethinking the Politics of Photography”
Paul Slovic, “If I look at the mass I will never act”: Psychic numbing and genocide
This paper (published in Judgment and Decision Making, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 2007, pp. 79–95) in a sense repeats many of the ideas expressed by Campbell and Johnson (indeed, both those authors refer to Slovic’s work in their articles. He comes at the topic not from a political or cultural point of view, but from the science of psychology. Continue reading “Paul Slovic, “If I look at the mass I will never act”: Psychic numbing and genocide”
Carl Whetham photography 