Photographers and pain….

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Pain is in the eye of the beholder, eh what?

Of course I'm living and photographing my own suffering, one way or another. I can look at my photos whrough many "filters" and pain/suffering is one.

Everyone's life probably has their own personal, unique pain/suffering, yet once honired and faced and shared, we probably also see that it is universal and identical in some way to everyon elses.

Oh, I'm so morose in response to this post - lighten up, Peter Blaise!

Click!

Love and hugs,

Peter Blaise peterblaise@yahoo.com Photography is Free Speech http://www.peterblaisephotogrpahy.com/

PS - Of course there are those times when photography IS pain, like when something goes wrong, when the camera is not ready, or when I miss a shot ... ARGH! THAT is suffering! =8^o

Sergei: my wife has Alzheimer's, and I am her primary care give--so I can tell you about pain. I have taken a number of photos of my wife (most always black and white), some reflecting her gloom, some reflecting her remaining beauty. For me, it is a therapy--to become even more intimate with her as I peer through that tiny viewfinder, seeing more of her in composition than in sitting across from her at the dinner table. I am pleased with my photos of her, though I don't display them--not because I'm am ashamed of her condition (or my mediocre photography), but because I can't imagine an audience for them. But, if Bergman's films can show pain or pathos, I suppose at some point I would do likewise. And I am so pleased you brought up this topic--it gave me a chance to reflect.

Vincent , I am sorry to hear what you are going though. The fact that you can still see the beauty in your wife, whether in a Photograph or real life , says as much about you, as it does about your wife. I am sure you will treasure in the future the photos you are taking now as much as the photos of her before this insidious disease over took her. Whether it comes in a instant or over many years, loosing a love one is never easy.If its photos or movies in the origional question , then I think Russian movies, and the Russian People in General, show and express pain much more than American's do.Stalin might have had something to do with that.

Vincent

What you wrote is a beautiful tribute to your wife. I can only imagine that your photos are a thousand times more complimentary. Having lost loved ones to Alzheimer's, I wish you strength and peace.

Vincent, actually I went through a similar thing: I�d been the (almost) single care-taker for my mother in the last three months of her life. There are about 150 frames, b&w, most of them with poor light. You would find some of those pictures frightening or appalling because in the last couple of weeks she was so tired of her condition she looks out of her mind. I even photographed her on the last day when she was agonizing, and right after she died � that was at home. Was it cynical or not, is hard for me to tell (I leave out many details), but these 150 images are the most important thing for me, not only personally, but photographically too � if you know what I mean.

The following is short extract from John Bergers book"ABOUT LOOKING". It is from the chapter entitled"Photographs of Agony". It was written in 1972 the subject then being Vietnam. He asks the question:

What effects do such photographs have?

Many people would argue that such photographs remind us shockingly of the reality, the lived reality, behind the abstractions of political theory, casualty statistics and news bulletins. Such photographs are printed on the black curtain that is drawn across what we choose to forget or refuse to know.They serve as an eye we cannot shut.

Yet what is it they make us see?

They bring us up short.They are arresting. We are seized by them.As we look at them, the moment of the others suffering engulfs us. We are filled with either despair or indignation. Despair takes on the others suffering to no purpose. Indignation demands action. We try to emerge from the moment of the photograph back into our lives. As we do so the resumption of our lives seems to be a hopelessly inadequate response to what we have just seen.

The truth is that any response to the photographed moment is bound to be felt as inadequate. Those who are there in the situation being photographed are not seeing the moment as we have and their responses are of an altogether different order. It is not possible for anyone to look pensively at such a moment and emerge stronger.There is no sense of before and after the moment.

The person who has been arrested by the photograph is confronted by his own personal inadequacy which may shock him as much as the atrocity committed.

Berger wrote these comments in 1972 nearly 30 years ago

One type of photo that I've come to object to is the (cliched) shot of a parent or spouse or relative who has just found out a loved one is dead. I consider it to be intrusive, no better than a papprazzi shot of a topless celebrity.

Of course that person reacts with grief, and great emotion: I knew that, I don't need to see it, and the subject certainly doesn't need me to see them in tears and agony to know they hurt. They didn't ask for the situation, but here's some newspaper running a shot of them at their least attractive, in an incredibly private moment, for the tittilation of yahoos.

It's disgusting

Making people feel rather than think is about the most honest connection I think you can make with someone. Pain as a type of feeling is the universal from of comprehension--no thinking required.

Vincent, like others I would like to say that I am deeply touched by your decision to lovingly document your reflections on this part of your wife's life. As recognised, these may forever remain as just deeply personal reflections on your wife and yourself, for yourself or you may at some stage feel strong enough to gift some of these photos to allow others to experience this deeply personal experience of love not loss.

I think when photojournalists make photos of grieving loved ones it is usually to "slap" the viewer in the face with the sense of grief at that person's loss. I think that's why we have such a strong reaction to it because we don't like to be reminded of other people's hurt as it's too confronting--raw. The other side of the coin is that overexposure to too many instances of this can lead to desensitisation. We are bombarded with the plight of the less fortunate and suffering masses on a daily basis with the inherent risk that eventually we become immune to it; until it happens to us. I think honestly, this is the real reason we don't like to be confronted with personal grief is that it serves as the painful reminder that we will some day experience this sense of loss too--guaranteed.

My latest photo untitled (girl and swing #4). In this photo you can choose to experience either the pain of loss or the joy of life--either way it's your choice.

Cheers...John

Hmmm a tough call. It would seem that many of the most well known photographs in the photojournalism sense are those that show human suffering. The image of the naked girl being burned by napalm comes to mind. The trouble with this as I see it is that some photographers may seek out suffering as a way to try to make a name for themselves. This is when the exploitation factor can come into being. I guess each photographer will have to decide for themselves why they are taking the picture. I'm having this issue right now in fact. You see, I'm mostly interested in documentary photography. As such I'm always on the look out for new subjects. When a co-worker started to talk to me about her grandfather who is in a nursing home with dementia I asked her if she would take me to him so I can shoot a roll of him. She said that would be fine. However, I now cannot really think of a good reason for this. It was maybe an automatic response. I mean he's a stranger, and I doubt his family would be interested in any prints of their loved one in such a state assuming this particular day I shoot he is having a bad day. I lived with my grandmother for a few years and she came down with Alzhiemers and it was very difficult. Avedon got a lot of flack for the photos he took of his dying father. So peoples own convictions also play huge role in how such work is received. I once met a guy who told me his barber is a holocaust survivor. So I had him take me to meet this very friendly elderly gentleman who told me his story and showed me the numbers on his arm. He allowed me to come back the next day and photograph him in the barber shop which I did. The resulting work was a failure though since there was nothing in the pictures to suggest this mans history. They looked like a picture that could have been taken anywhere, that of a elderly barber sitting in a barbers chair. That was about two years ago and whenever the contact sheet surfaces and I look at it, it's always with a sense of puzzlement. I wanted these pictures to say something but I just didn't know what. Maybe they would have if I saw this man as he was at the present time and not as just a historical figure of one of mankinds darkest moments.