📸 When Photography Crosses the Line – Pipeaway Newsletter #164

Hi from Lalibela!

While I’m still in the European Alps, where record-breaking April snow (Montana measured 58 cm in a day!) brought unexpected spring surprises like this one, I’m mentally transporting myself to this Ethiopian town sometimes nicknamed African Jerusalem.

I didn’t think of hopping to Lalibela just because it was Easter, but because it’s a place where I ended up questioning myself – am I a racist?

While taking photographs at Bete Giyorgis, a spectacular underground church with a ground plan of a Greek Orthodox cross, I conflicted with a group of Chinese photographers who treated this sacred site as their private photo studio. With local believers attending mass as puppets, objects they can manipulate any way they want, to get that National Geographic glow in their albums.

I described several more examples of my encounters with camera-armed Chinese tourists in that article, if you wish to read it.

So naturally, when I attended Thaipusam in Penang, Malaysia, and experienced a photo-conflict with ANOTHER pushy Chinese, one that sent me “back to my country” because my backpack allegedly made him “almost fall”, it did make me think about why our universes on appropriate behavior in culturally sensitive areas clash so much.

A reader wrote in: “What was jarring as I read the article was the encounter with the aggressive and racist photographer. I am of Chinese ethnicity, and I am ashamed of the behaviour of many others of this ethnicity who behave inappropriately for their own purposes. I was at Sydney‘s Mardi Gras parade this year, a couple of months ago, and 2 younger Chinese guys were taking pictures in the crowd and acted in a similar way. This approach, I am ashamed to say, manifests itself with people of this kind in varying degrees all over the world as I observe their behaviour, especially in tourist spots. My apologies!”

Now, nobody should feel ashamed because of other people they share ethnicity with. There is no collective guilt for the sins of other people, even when we manage to recognize a pattern. I would love to not reinforce stereotypes, but on the other hand, I also believe that writing on cultural differences can be educational.

Of course, when I reported on the Thaipusam incident, I could have just said “one photographer” instead of calling him a “Chinese photographer”.

But that morning, this parking lot felt packed with photographers of Chinese descent, so much in fact, that my Caucasian face was a part of a minority. So even if I didn’t practically speak a word in that constructed verbal conflict, it felt so natural for him to call me “f***ing rude” and send me “back to my country”.

I just published a new Pipeaway Walks video from the Thaipusam procession in Penang. It’s a three-hour-long thing, made only for those who have a stable combination of patience and passion.

If you switch your focus from the rituals of the devotees to the behavior of the photographers, I’m sure you’ll notice a line or two or a dozen crossed.

One example where I intervened, with a minimal mime behind the camera, was ethically disturbing to me because it involved a child being exploited for photography, without any empathy or feeling for measure. You can see this (Chinese) photographer in action if you jump to 01:11:20.

This woman notices a pretty girl about to take a selfie with her family, and takes her out of the private situation by literally pulling her aside and suggesting a pose for her gigantic lens. The girl complies with a smile at first, but 45 seconds later, as other Chinese photographers join the session, she starts rolling her eyes awkwardly.

At the 50th second (01:12:10), the girl has had enough and decides to walk away to reunite with her family, but the lady photographer gesticulates, “no, no, no, we need more”.

And now this unpaid model has to stand and pose, with body language clearly saying she doesn’t feel like it.

As much as the photographer squats, adorning the situation with her own smile, the moment is ruined. She cannot get the picture she imagined. Any photographer would give up, say ‘thank you’, and walk away. But this one… At 01:12:33, she decides to take her backpack off and go down to serious photo business.

The tension doesn’t stop, and now even the girl’s family cannot cheer her up, to participate in an utterly dehumanized photo rape.

At 01:13:05, I try to wave my hand to get the girl’s attention and gesticulate to her that it’s okay to walk away. The girl is confused, but her family interprets my mime. The girl runs into an older woman’s sari to hide away from the world.

These two minutes must feel like an eternity when you’re a victim. They certainly felt like eternity to me, as an observer.

There are limits to what we call documentary photography, and I don’t think that directing a subject (!) in such an intrusive way, especially against the subject’s will, serves any purpose for the outcome.

It’s a disgusting, paparazzi way of seeing the world as a shooting ground, with teleobjectives as snipers, and victim models as expendables.

If I can use Lady Gaga‘s words, they’ll “chase you down until you love them”. But do paparazzi ever produce love? Do they even say ‘thank you’ after they stop a holy mass (like in Ethiopia) or a private family ritual (like in Malaysia) for a pitiful attempt at winning a photo contest?

If you have time to watch the video and give your opinion on how we, the photographers, treat the subjects of our craft as objects, I’d appreciate your feedback.

And don’t ever feel guilty, no matter your origin.

Have an empathetic week!

Ivan Kralj        
Pipeaway.com

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Ivan Kralj

Editor

Award-winning journalist and editor from Croatia