"BEAUTIFUL" PHOTOS

By Matthew Malek

You have likely seen this photo before. The sky radiates blue. The rolling ground shines with the golden hue of dried wheat stalks. A cluster of small huts sits in the center, their thatched roofs complementing the serene simplicity of it all. Hanging on a coffee shop wall, the photo brings a smile to the passerby. Beautiful? No. Behind many such photos, taken during trips to impoverished communities across the globe, lies a cycle of abject poverty and death from preventable diseases. Such photos may be pleasing to the eye, but the beauty disguises a harsh reality. Promoting such photos as “beautiful” propagates the very injustices that we seek to end.

A picture of a tranquil hut in Africa has behind it a sobering truth. The one room may be home to a family of what used to be ten, but is now eight—two children have already died of diarrhea. The hut’s plot lacks sufficient arable land to keep the father at home, and the sexual temptations he encounters in the city may ultimately bring HIV to him and his wife. The mother will pass by forty—her early demise on par for the country average and a forgone conclusion without access to anti-retrovirals. With this back-story revealed, the photo takes on a new reality; it becomes a poster of injustice. To enjoy it, one must ignore the devastation it represents.

Countless photos taken abroad, if viewed with an understanding of the disease, poverty, and hopelessness they capture, are no longer enjoyable. As global health advocates, we must remember this every time we see such a photo.

Moreover, sharing such photos of suffering simply for their aesthetic merits causes real harm. Many reasons can be cited for the continuing inequality across the globe: lack of funding for relief efforts, insufficient numbers of health workers in needy areas, and systems of power that perpetuate the injustice. Behind all these legitimate claims, however, lie two common root causes: ignorance and apathy among the most fortunate. Only in response to a broadly reaching social outcry for the human rights of all people will governments and NGOs expand funding and support to sufficient levels to achieve global justice. Changing the way we portray poverty in our photography constitutes a key step in reversing the current apathy and ignorance about the realities of poverty.

The majority of people gain insight into global health and poverty from the images they see, images that largely come from global health advocates working abroad. Most people do not have the opportunity to experience dire poverty first-hand. Thus, when the public sees a beautiful image of huts sitting tranquilly on an African hillside, they do not see the disease and death lurking inside the dark walls of each home. Instead, they may see how “the poor live simple but peaceful lives”; they see “people who are happy with how they live”. Impressions of this type are grossly romanticized and inaccurate. Even so, this relatively unspoken, yet powerful, misunderstanding of poverty pervades wealthy societies and presents a barrier to beginning a social movement against poverty in developing nations. In this way, even well-intentioned photos of impoverished communities create and perpetuate problematic false beliefs.

At the same time, to raise awareness and begin a social movement, it is necessary to engage a hesitant, and sometimes resistant, audience. One great asset for this outreach is photography. Photos are unquestionably powerful. The choice of the photo used, however, must not leave out the truth. Consider the “Partners in Health” web page (www.pih.org), which complements the text with images of people who are clearly facing difficulties, but who are also visibly working to change their situations. Though these photos honestly demonstrate the harshness of poverty, they also effectively engage the audience by focusing on the hope that activism can bring.

As we work towards a more responsible use of photography, it must be recognized that most travelers instinctively, and justifiably so, desire pictures of their experiences abroad. Unfortunately, the utility of photos as story-telling agents encourages individuals to frame every subject in a positive light, even abject poverty. By the same token, “ugly” or “difficult” images are avoided. For even the most well-intentioned champion of social justice, it is easier and more comfortable to take and share a “beautiful” countryside image than it is to take and share a harsh picture of the inside of a hut. The desire to please audiences at home, combined with an innate penchant for beauty, motivates individuals to take idyllic photos of circumstances universally recognized as unjust. Part of the solution, then, must be to let our photography capture images of injustice, and to allow these images to breed emotions of injustice in our audiences.

The repercussions of our photographs must be considered. Some photos of children may serve to present realities of malnutrition, while others may lead an audience to believe that malnutrition is just “part of the way the world works”. As global health advocates, it is necessary for us to begin recognizing the implications of our photos, so that one day there is less poverty available to photograph.

Matthew Malek is a second year medical student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, NY. He can be contacted for questions or comments at matthew_malek@urmc.rochester.edu

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