Representing Need: Images of Suffering and the Ethics of Fundraising Flashcards
Western tropes (5)
Certain Western artistic tropes encourage reflection on suffering, particularly within Christianity
The crucifixion is the central symbol of suffering in Christianity
The story of Peter being allegedly crucified upside-down highlights the theme of martyrdom
These religious symbols of suffering are more prominent in Western traditions than in Eastern ones
Eastern traditions like Buddhism may present suffering differently, such as the image of the starving Buddha
Fransisco Goya y Lucientes
Los Desastres, The Second of May 1808, The Third of May 1808
Augustine’s Confessions III.2
‘Why is that a person should wish to experience suffering by watching grievous and tragic events which he himself would not like to endure’
‘The pain itself is his pleasure’
Why are people prepared to neglect real suffering and instead take pleasure in fake depictions of suffering?
Alice Harris - context
The Congo - Instead of being a national colony, the Congo personally belonged to Leopold II who anted to extract as much personal wealth as possible
White Belgians were often supported by Congolese police
Police were required to prove that they killed individuals by cutting off their hands
Estimated that around 10 million Congolese people – roughly 50% of the population – died due to forced labor, violence, starvation, and disease
Alice Harris
1870-1970
Her and her husband became missionaries with the Congo Balolo Mission in 1898, and she brought a camera
Alongside other missionaries, she campaigned against colonialism through speaking tours and reached high fame
One of the most famous images is a man called Nsala of Wala looking at the severed hand and foot of his five year old daughter - image was staged
The Falling Soldier
July 12 ,1983
Life magazine published Robert Capa’s image of a ‘Spanish soldier in the instant he is dropped by a bullet through the head’
Recent evidence has shown it was staged by matching the background
2015 image of Syrian Refugee Alan Kurdi (6)
Drowned while trying to make the journey from Turkey to Greece
A photograph of the boy dead on the beach focussed western opinion
Lead to French President Francois Hollande phoning the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
David Cameron said he felt ‘deeply moved’
Lead to a generally massive global response to the refugee crisis e.g., Germany’s open-door asylum
Shock images are often deemed unethical but they also often have huge impact
SCF (Save the Children Fund) publicity materials
Children are often photographed without their parents unless they were not strong enough to be photographed alone
Images are frequently of eye contact
Always in black and white unless there were white celebrities/visitors e.g. a Royal Visit
Images used in the UK were far more positive
Lilie Chouliaraki, The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism
Children often photographed and even staged naked or in rags
Michael Burke’s BBC report on Ethiopia lead to the Live Aid concert in 1985
Contrast between Audrey Hepburn as UN Goodwill Ambassador and Angelina Jolie
Hepburn experienced genuine starvation in WWII The Netherlands, which she brings up but without shifting focus onto herself (e.g. ‘I was suffering for him because… but HE…’)
Jolie always speaks through herself (’as a mother…’, ‘I am forever changed’), implying the emotions are real when passed through her
Martha Nussbaum
Argues that images evoke empathy by making distant suffering feel immediate
Susie Linfield
(The Cruel Radiance, 2010)
Ethical photography can amplify marginalized voices, humanising subjects rather than reducing them to ‘pity objects’
Luciano Floridi
Visuals can document charity work’s impact, building donor trust through evidence-based appeals
Susan Sontag
(Regarding the Pain of Others, 2003)
Images of suffering can commodify pain, turning beneficiaries into spectacles for donor gratification
Teju Cole
Warns of the ‘White Savior Industrial Complex,’ where imagery perpetuates reductive narratives of helplessness
Edward Said
Orientalism
pPerpetuating a Western gaze that reduces non-Western subjects to passive victims, reinforcing colonial power dynamics by framing “rescue” as a white savior’s burden rather than addressing systemic inequities
Our Moslem Sisters
The proceedings of a conference of women missionaries held in Cairo in 1906
‘They will never cry for themselves, for they are down under the yoke of centuries of oppression.’
