Photography #1 - The Death of Alan Kurdi
Photographs can change the world. Show people what they do not want to see or
shine a light on something that is wrong then people will feel
uncomfortable. If you make enough people
uncomfortable then there is a chance of making change happen. It is not easy and is only going to get more
difficult. Human beings are now used to
being shocked and have an artillery of defence mechanisms to protect themselves
from taking personal ownership of the issue raised.
Recall the photograph of the ‘death of Alan Kurdi.’ You might say which one is that? If you put ‘dead child’ in a google search it
immediately offers up its first choice as ‘dead child on beach.’ You now instantly know which photograph I was
asking you to recall. Think about your
emotional reaction the first time you saw that photograph and contrast it with
how you feel about that photograph now.
For a day this photograph had a massive impact on a huge number of
people on the planet. Particularly in the
developed, safe and privileged communities.
For several weeks there were outcries that something must be done about
the migrant crisis. Political leaders
talked about it with serious faces, dressed in the finest clothes gathering in
expensive hotels and dined in the best restaurants in the world. It showed people something they did not want
to see and most who saw it thought it was wrong.
It is interesting to consider what happens next. In order to capture the worlds’ attention it
is necessary to shock. Each shock has to
be worse than the previous one as our threshold is raised each time. Alan Kurdi is locked away in the subconscious
of most of us now but has also been filed away as something ‘I’ could not do
something about or a problem too big to be solved. Terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on
your point of view, use the same logic.
To capture the worlds’ attention they must shock.
The viewer looks on and has two reactions. The first is ‘that is terrible.’ The second but possibly more important is how
do I protect myself from this information.
It is really unfair what happened to Alan Kurdi but more important is
how I make sure it does not happen to me.
There are massive psychological forces at work. One is protecting our ego and making sure our
own world stays safe and the way we want it to be. Once that is assured a trace of the shock
remains and if motivated in the right way we can be moved to help change the
world.
In a different world a political leader stands up and says
the death of Alan Kurdi is wrong. She
tells us that as human beings we must all gather together and make sure this
never happens again. He tells us we need
to give up some of our excessive wealth and comfort and find ways of sharing it
with those who have nothing because of where they were born. Each of us says that makes sense. None of us take any steps to make it
happen. Many intellectually argue that
the system in place that lets capital decide is the fairest there is for humans
and leads to maximum overall wealth and least poverty and starvation for the
total. Sadly, for human beings the case
made by those wishing to just redistribute does support their case. Look at Venezuela today. This does not make the intellectual case for
the current capital solution correct.
Both are wrong for the interests of all human beings.
The real world has politicians and leaders protecting the
system of the winners. It is not their
fault. You and I put them there and in a
world of impossible conflicts and difficult problems to solve we are most
comfortable with the people we have put in place. This is how we are as human beings. For those of us on the right side of the
fence our only hope is that they can somehow protect what we have and ensure we
do not slip over to the wrong side.
The death of Alan Kurdi photograph will lead to change in
the world. All of us know that the
current set up is wrong. For those of us
who benefit from where we were born we will continue to find ways to file such
shocks under ‘yes it is terrible but there is nothing I can do and the world is
a difficult place.’
The reason I believe the photograph will eventually lead to
change in the world is that the next photograph will be so so much more
shocking. The one after that will be
even more shocking and at some point change will happen. We may not like what happens when this change
is forced upon us.
Len Williamson
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