Today I watched a BBC video of the Israeli military evacuate Israeli settlers from a house in Hebron. Although the event itself is somewhat interesting, much more intriguing is that the video is really about how the many photographers present are working the scene.
Every time a settler is dragged or carried out of the building the photographers cluster around the dramatic moment, holding cameras overhead sometimes to get a better view, scrambling for the right angle, and of course getting in each others way. I’m not implying there is anything “good” or “bad” about the photographers and the way they work – they are necessarily responding to what their editors want, what newspapers and magazines and wire services want – and I’m sure many are doing wonderful work. But it does raise the issue of what kind of images are created out of events like this. The convention is to show the most dramatic moments, those of struggle and conflict, but where are the depictions of the many more (and more important) banal and quiet moments that led up to this clash? I’m thinking, for example, of the times when the settlers were establishing their presence, interacting (or not) with the neighboring Palestinians and patrolling Israeli soldiers, or going to court to make their claims for the building.
Are these photos of the evacuation representative of the larger social and political forces at work? You can argue that these photos are not meant to represent more than the evacuation and that is true, these photographers are documenting a newsworthy event as best they can under difficult circumstances.
However, I think a scene like this is useful for aspiring photographers to consider because it conveys something of the constaints and limits of news photography. At the very least, seeing other photographers at work can give you a sense of how it’s being done now and what might be usefully done differently in order to accurately inform the public.
Just food for thought…
Michelle
Photographer and editor Michelle Woodward teaches the online-interactive course “Developing a Photographer’s Eye” at The Compelling Image.
