Inclusive Photography is a tool to promote the diversity in our communities. However, when we make photo whether we do it with a mobile phone or a photo camera, we carry a baggage of identity that makes us to take the pictures in a certain way. From creating a composition, the angle that we take the photo changes according to the standards we learn from our childhood with the biases that we have. In that sense, it is important to understand our biases.
In that sense, firstly we have to learn about the confirmation bias. Confirmation bias means that we interpret the evidence in a way that is partial to our beliefs, expectations or hypothesis [1] . In example, when we take a picture about a woman or a man, we take the pictures according to the beauty standards that we have in our societies. As a result, we exclude the other who does not fit the image that we are biased due to the images that we consume in our societies. We edit photos to concert our understanding of the beauty of a photo that is deep rooted in our personal identity. Therefore, to talk about the inclusive photography, we have to deconstruct the idea of the beauty as well as the idea of “best”, but talk about the reflexive understanding of the photography.
According to the Susan Sonntag [2] , photography is more than an image that seizes the moment. In her article on Photography, she explains to take a picture as following :
“To take a picture is to have an interest in things as they are, in the status quo remaining unchanged (at least for as long as it takes to get a “good” picture), to be in complicity with whatever makes a subject interesting, worth photographing-including, when that is the interest, another person’s pain or misfortune.” (p.178)
From this perspective, we can argue that, when we make photos, we take an interest the another person’s life but we put our perspective through the biases that we have rooted in our identities. Therefore, to discuss about the inclusive photography and making the photography inclusive, we have to understand the vulnerability, the mutability and the circumstances of the picture that are developed and created. Henceforth, when we talk about the inclusivity of the pictures that we are taking, the person who is photographed should participate in the process fully as the agency rather than passively.
Participatory photography should be in the central of the activities taking place to engage young people with their peers as well as create ties with their own communities while empowering them to use photography as a tool to document, to raise awareness and promote the change in their communities. In several fields, the photography has been used to promote social integration and exclusion from education to health and social studies. In the article published by Mari Pienimäki, the photography enabled migrant youth to express their thoughts and experiences without using words but the images in their own communities while promoting the inclusion in the communities. [3]
In both aspects, we argue that, the photography in youth work should be constructed in a way inclusive as well as participatory that young people develop the products and engage with their own communities to document the experiences in a way, how they see fit.
As a photographer, we have a great power when we took the picture of an object, a human, a landscape or a scene. We can decide what is going to be inside of the photo and out of it. It does not matter that we take the photos as hobbyist or professional or even just to document the moment with out mobile cameras. According to the “Photographer’s Guide to Inclusive Photography”[4], the power of photography can be used to advance dangerous ideas to reconstruct the oppressive social practices toward marginalised groups. Therefore, it is important to educate ourselves about the differences, the social practices as well as the communities that we took pictures of before implementing such an action. Within the same guide, they define 10 key questions to ask ourselves as photographers before choosing the images or creating stories. We have adopted this list of questions to our context within the youth work as follows :
- Are we perpetuating stereotypical narratives with our work?
- Have we considered how our perspective or privilege may affect how we approach photography?
- What are the likely consequences of the publication of our photography? Who will be harmed? Who will be helped?
- When selecting photos of at-risk populations, are we applying the same standards as I do for photos of our surroundings?
- Is our aesthetic approach to portraits built on tropes used to dehumanize the others?
- How can we expand the types of people, places and organizations from which I draw story ideas and angles?
- How much time do I spend with people and communities before photographing them?
As we have the power to portray the realities of others and creating stories from our angle, we have to follow simple guidelines to check and balance these issues to promote the inclusivity through our photos. We can simply take a picture without realising that we are promoting already existing oppressive norms rather than deconstructing them.
In example, the photo above, was taken during the field visit that we have implemented in a village in Giresun, Turkey. Before taking the photo, we have sit with them have a tea and listen their stories about the life in the village and engage with them in a constructive dialogue rather than, sneaking to the community without knowing their life to portray them without permission. Neeta Satam [5] argues that “Documenting someone’s story is not a photographer’s right, but rather a responsibility to be carried out in fairness. A photograph by virtue is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it’s a powerful tool to record a moment and on the other hand it may brutally deprive everyone of the context or history that led to that moment.” Therefore, to capture the moment without depriving the context or the history that the picture has been taken. Thus, we have came up with the following guidelines to implement during the photo walk trainings in our communities. During the activities, we took the pictures of people, that the participants do not have any prior connection but to engage with them in a meaningful talk, learn and listen the stories as well as portray the reality as much as possible from the lens of them by weighing in their baggage towards to their communities.
Make your research : During the implementation of the activities, we have chosen the specific places to engage and to prevent the possible harms and outburst from the local community. In example, if you want to implement inclusive photography with LGBTIQ+ community or gypsies, or global south, you have to ensure that, you know the context, you know your biases towards this community and you can engage in a dialogue with them without doing any harm.
Be aware of your biases and privileges : Everybody have biases towards the others. It does not make us bad persons and not every bias is a negative thing. The biases comes from the beliefs that we have and how we interpret our surroundings. Before starting to the photo walk, we have to be sure about our biases and our reactions towards to the others. We have to ask ourselves the following questions:
- What are our core beliefs?
- How do we react to the people from different backgrounds?
- What are out stereotypes or assumptions about a particular social group?
- How do we acknowledge our stereotypes or assumptions about others?
- Do we put ourselves in the situations of the other people even if we do not relate to it?
These questions are the sample questions before implementing a photography action that the participants can ask themselves to understand their own perceptions about the others and how they would react if they have received a reaction from the community that they are trying to portray.
For example, you are going to work with a migrant population in your country and portray a migrant. You are already privileged as a citizen of your country in comparison to the person that you are going to take a picture of. Therefore, you have be aware about the privileges that you hold as citizen while engaging them to understand their challenges rather than simply taking a picture.
Engage with compassion: Our main is to document rather than having an award, or making the best picture that we can make by engaging with the local community. Therefore, at first, we have to engage with compassion ask questions about how the people are, how their life going, listen their own stories without interrupting and learning about their challenges and realities that they have in their life. It is important to be polite, clear and respectful to the social rules while engaging with the people that you do not know their social context or the issues that might be facing in daily faces.
Ask permission: The people might not be willing to engage with you or do not want at all their pictures to be taken. Thus, it is important to ask permission prior to the shooting of the pictures and informing the people about the context of the picture that will be used. As this project is focused on inclusivity, we have worked with the vulnerable communities and it is important to put emphasis while taking the pictures, that should be the first thing to do and if possible, to take a written consent or video recorded consent of the people to have a record of the consent.
Using the photography as a tool for change: Photography is a powerful tool to promote the challenges in our communities. In addition to that, it is a tool to raise voices concerning to the issues in our communities from discrimination to poverty by making the issues more visible or deconstructing the norms that results with the oppression upon the groups that are disadvantaged. A photography can surface the hidden and shadowed issues and realities in our communities and pave the way for a change in a systematic manner.
Share the photos with the people: We took pictures to visualise their stories. Even the people that we took pictures, might not have a smart-phone or a camera to take their own pictures and they will be happy to have the pictures that are taken by others as a memoire. If you work with communities, they do not have smart phone access, you can print and share their pictures with them afterwards of the photo walk activity or invite them to the exhibition to tell their stories as an agency who is portrayed. By doing so, you will promote the change and increase their involvement to the community while making their issues more visible.
Pictures should be dignifying rather than pitying: In photo journalism cases or charity purposes, the pictures of poverty often are used to gather donation by touching the emotions of the people in the Western world. However, these pictures are commodifying the people that are portrayed. While taking the pictures of the vulnerable communities or the people, we should respect their dignity and do not promote the pity but empower them while making their situations visible and telling their stories from their perspectives. The example from the migrant woman picture taken by “Dorothea Lange” claimed the following later on [6] :
“I didn’t get anything out of it. I wish she hadn’t taken my picture. … She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”
If we take a picture to dignify their life rather than considering the value of the picture in a monetary sense, that would empower them. As the rules that we have explained above are the initial aspects, how to portray and deal with the realities in the communities where the vulnerability is present. The approach requires engagement and narration to present the realities. In next, we will explain, how to implement photo voice activities and the usage of photo voice in youth work from the literature that is already developed in the area.
[1] Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175-220.
[2] Sontag, Susan, 1933-2004. On Photography. New York :Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.
[3] Pienimäki, Mari (2021) Participatory photography supporting the social inclusion of migrant youth, Journal of Youth Studies, 24:9, 1179-1198
[4] PhotoShelter. (2020). Photographer’s Guide to Inclusive Photography. https://static.c.photoshelter.com/ps-mkt/doc/photographers-guide-inclusive-photography.pdf
[5] Satam, Neeta(2018) The ethics of seeing. Medium. https://medium.com/re-picture/the-ethics-of-seeing-ac3f77e76bbb
[6] Renteln, Alison Dundes(2018), Images of suffering can bring about change – but are they ethical?. https://theconversation.com/images-of-suffering-can-bring-about-change-but-are-they-ethical-100809
