duckrabbit - we produce photofilms » duckrabbit

Back off paedo..

David White, photographer — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:35:49 +0000

Here’s a great project by Anna Brooks and Samantha Harvey……take a look….if you’ve ever had to photograph youngsters in the UK you’ll understand the reasons…

As an aside, here’s a very funny post by the eponymous and anonymous jaded snapper…his blog is always worth a read..

It’s such a glamorous life being a newspaper smudger…

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An oldie, but -damn- …a goodie.

David White, photographer — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:05:33 +0000

”If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

Always good to be reminded.

Cheers Bill

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Photography and dirty propaganda?

duckrabbit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:48:45 +0000

Tonight I have followed Rabbit’s link to Jodi Bieber’s powerful and dignified photos of women in Afghanistan. I then went to look at the Editor of TIME, RICHARD STENGE’s, explanation of why he put the following photograph on the front cover:

‘Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years. Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story by our own Aryn Baker on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban — and how they fear a Taliban revival.’

The problem is that this editorial reads as if Aisha’s ears and nose were cut off before the American/UK invasion and therefore is a justification for the war. Infact the barbaric act took place last year. Despite this the cover states that the girl’s face is representative of ‘What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan’. But this is what is happening in Afghanistan now, after all the billions we’ve spent bombing the place. Some might say it’s dirty propaganda.

Much of my work in Ethiopia was related to women’s rights and the record in that country is as bad, if not worse than Afghanistan. Strangely the US and the UK take a different approach to Ethiopia. Instead of bombing the country every year they donate a couple of hundred million dollars in aid. It’s not always money well spent, but it sure beats bombing people as a way of changing barbaric cultural practices.

TIME’S editorial certainly makes for a great t-shirt ‘Bomb Afghanistan for women’s rights’, but I can’t see many behavioral change experts recommending it as a way to stop women being raped, mutilated or forced into early marriage.

Infact if you took all the billions we’ve spent on bombing Afghanistan and offered the money as payments to not abuse women’s rights (the aid way) then I’m pretty sure you would see change happening a lot swifter. The only problem is all those in the US and UK who profit from war would be a hell of a lot poorer and in this world their right to make money is the most important right of all.

I feel sorry for Bieber, she’s done a great job and cannot be faulted, but I feel this photo has been misused. Just as guns did not solve the problems of racism in South Africa, they will not solve the problems of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Two Contrasting Responses:

Christine Nesbitt Hills

Jodi worked hard to create portraits that represent the women with dignity (see her audio interview on time.com). I believe she succeeded. I feel that the headline that ran on Time’s cover served to change the meaning of her photo on the cover. The text didn’t anchor the meaning of the image, it shifted the meaning, resulting in Aisha being represented as a victim. This is clearly not what Jodi intended or the message delivered through her photo. The meaning of the cover photo is now contested. Time’s editorial spin undermines the integrity of the relationship between photographer and subject. I also feel the photo has been abused, and along with it the subject and the photographer.

Tobie Openshaw

While I’m no apologist for war I think the point that the article makes is that under a resurgent Taliban, this sort of thing will happen MORE – that the US presence is (or was) at least keeping this kind of thing in check, that many “women of Afghanistan, … have flourished in the past few years.”

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Politococks

duckrabbit — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:47:39 +0000

Politico management seems to be trying to soften some of its rough edges. Employees recently received an e-mail message informing them that they had been entered in a drawing to win an iPad. The catch: they would all be required to wear a name tag for a day in the spirit of fostering friendly workplace conversation.

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