Hurricane Stan, photography show, ethics

[lahuasteca]

I'm posting here because I think this is the appropriate forum. My specialty is

ethnographic photography - this summer I photographed the Fiesta of Santiago Apostol in

Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala. I was to participate in a local art league show in December

in Port Isabel, Texas - my feature was to be the Fiesta of Santiago Apostol. This past

week, the side effects of Hurricane Stan resulted in 20" of precip. on the volcano above

Santiago Atitlan, sending a mudflow into the community burying alive over 200 people.

 

I'm not the most devout person in the world, but personal ethics tell me it would be

sacrilige to profit on the photographs. One idea was to do the show, and donate any sales

to the municipio of Santiago Atitlan. Another thought was not to show anything from

Santiago - just use older material from other villages. I am leaning towards the latter.

Thoughts and advice?

[stephen hazelton]

I believe I'd go ahead with the original show. By omitting the material, you won't be doing anything to help that community.

[jbq]

Any answer here is bound to be a personal one, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw lots of diverging opinions.

 

I believe that you should show the pictures. I believe that would honor the memory of those who died, instead of pretending that they never existed. I understand your concern about making a profit from those pictures. I believe that you should use what you have to help those people, i.e. donate part of the sales. I wouldn't be offended if you kept a nominal part for you in order to cover your costs.

[j_sevigny]

As a documentary photographer, your ethical obligation is to document so other people see.

 

You're in a privelaged position to be able to show Santiago Atitlan before the disaster. Maybe

you can go back and take more pictures to show what happened.

[craig_gillette]

A note in the show catalog or library, or a sign at the show indicating the change of circumstances to the village suggesting a way to assist may be appropriate.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>Another thought was not to show anything from Santiago - just use older material

from other villages...I am leaning ( towards this approach).</I><P>Why? I think it would

be important to show what is lost. If yo uwantto donate the profits to a relief fund that is

a great idea, especially if it makes you feel less guilty. <P>I also think the community

down there would very much welcome a full set of the images on CD-R or DVD as well as

prints that you made during this past summer. Who knows? Your photography might even

help identify the remains of people who died or are missing.

[craig_gillette]

The flooding and mudslides which have devastated that area are of almost unfathomable proportions - small perhaps on a world scale but for a region of that size, too horrific (and have been relegated through a variety of circumstances to practical invisibility in the news media scheme of things). I can appreciate the difficulty you are having in trying to find a way to approach the show in light of the disaster.

[fivetonsflax]

I think Stephen's and Craig's suggestions are very sensible. I don't see any reason not to

show the pictures -- assuming that they are respectful of the community that you

documented. Rather the opposite: showing the pictures could do that town a good turn by

publicizing their plight.

 

Whatever you choose, good luck with it.

[lahuasteca]

As Craig indicated, with each little news report that trickles in, the scope of this disaster

becomes even more enormous. I will definitely exhibit, with notations about the current

circumstances. Probably I won't offer anything for sale, but will just donate the collection

to the Casa de Cultura in Santiago Atitlan on my next trip to Guatemala.

 

Thanks for all who responded. You did convince me not to hide away the images.

 

Gene

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>Probably I won't offer anything for sale</I><P>Once again, why not? If you feel guilty

about having been there, taken photographs and then a diaster happens, what ethical or

moral gorounds do have for not putting your works up for sale? if you had caused the

hurricane and the mudslide to happen so that no one could ever photograph there again

than yes I'd say uyou had an ethical and moral dilemna. In the meantime, not selling the

photos helps no one, hurts you (you paid to make the prints) and potentially hurts the

survivors by not being a potential fundraising mechanism.<P> Have some simple courage

and stop cowering in a dark corner while whimpering "oh poor me, I survived". What

happened to

those poor people

isn't about YOU! You should flog the sales of those prints like a madman and donate

as much of the proceeeds as you are uncomfortable with to a relief fund.

[lahuasteca]

Ellis,

 

My reticence has to do with this: (from AP news)

 

"SANTIAGO ATITLAN, Guatemala - A Guatemalan Indian community, haunted by a

government-sponsored massacre during the country's brutal civil war, refused soldiers'

help Monday in recovering those killed in a week of flooding and mudslides and conducted

its own searches instead."

 

This is an area with lots of tensions, still recovering from the civil war. Normally the

Tutzujil community is quite resistant to being photographed - I had help from local people

setting up, getting permission, arranging with the religious cofradias, etc. I want back

into the community. In simple terms, I don't want to be identified with the dominant

national culture whom they view as exploiting them for profit. Yes, I'm going ahead with

the show, just had some reservations based on the turbulent history of the

region.