Just as photography can have a positive social and political impact, so too there is equal potential for it to be used in negative ways.  Issues around power, responsibility and ethics are extremely important areas for photographers to consider. 

 “Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood. To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge — and, therefore, like power.” – Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977, pg 3-4

Both commercial and documentary photography are fields that are frequently criticised for the objectification of the subject and the misuse of the way in which the subject is portrayed and, indeed, the sense of ownership that is attributed to both the image and the subject by the photographer or by the commercial institutions that gather and commission images. However, these are issues that are not solely confined to these specific fields and need to be considered in all areas of photography. 

As photographers we need to consider very carefully why we are choosing to take a photograph of a particular subject and why we choose to take it at a particular moment in time.  The moment of decision and the selection of a particular moment in time to capture, is in itself an act of power.  The concept of the decisive moment was first proposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1952 and has since been largely misunderstood by photographers and photojournalists as being a technique to be employed in the pursuit of the perfect image rather than a reference to the sensitivity that is required by the photographer in deciding when to take an image. 

“His work, widely published in magazines and in a series of superb books, only rarely reported newsworthy events. It provided, rather, a broad description of a place, its people and culture, and the texture of its everyday life. And it helped create the image of the photojournalist as an alert and sympathetic, but also knowing and detached, observer — an image that dovetailed neatly with the notion of the “decisive moment” and in the process limited its meaning. Under the rubric of photojournalism, the decisive moment is not only a pictorial climax that yields a satisfying photograph but also a narrative climax that reveals a truth about the subject.” – Peter Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, Peter Galassi, pg 9

We also always need to remember that without context an image can be misused or misrepresented, therefore, as photographers we need to consider very carefully how an image can be interpreted, or misrepresented outside of the original context and meaning.  We have to take responsibility for how the subject is portrayed and how the image could be used, manipulated or interpreted. 

An example of this is photojournalist Jeff Mitchell’s image of refugees crossing from Croatia to Slovenia in October 2015 which was used controversially by the UK Independent Party during the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the European Union. This is discussed in greater detail in an interview published in The Guardian newspaper which can be viewed here.

This is not to enter into political discussion or to debate this particular incident, nor is it a criticism of Jeff Mitchell who I do not believe anticipated such a use of his image. Rather, this is to emphasise that as photographers we have to consider very carefully where we sell our work and just how much ownership of it we are prepared to give away. We always have a moral and ethical responsibility that is implicit in our work which means we need to be aware of the nature of any contracts we enter into, whilst also being aware of the power of the image and the way it could be used.

References: Galassi, P. (1987). Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. London: Penguin Books The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/22/jeff-mitchells-best-shot-the-column-of-marching-refugees-used-in-ukips-brexit-campaign