Can
democracy survive all of this? Has it already expired?
Aperture will continue its What Matters Now? program with a series of talks and discussions beginning in late January, themed around issues of photography, technology, and community. And for a larger sense of what happened, including a more comprehensive list of participants, see www.aperture.org/whatmattersnow and #whatmattersnow. Ω
Some in attendance commented that it was the building of community that was the most important outcome of What Matters Now? Some found that what was important was that they could finally share their own personal front pages – stories from their own countries, their own backgrounds – or their knowledge of their own specialties, whether philosophy or history or whatever else they might know of life, including what it is to be young in today’s society. Those at Stephen Mayes’s table responded with a conclusion that, in effect, the current media environment makes explicit what was always problematic about media: ‘Our current cultural anxiety stems from the loss of these fixed reference points and we’re reaching out to replace them with new certainties, to find a new cultural consensus. But rather than looking for new conventions to replace the old, we should embrace the plurality and each take responsibility for our own management of the information that flows around us.’ Where to we go from here? Participants from my table – including photographer, filmmaker and former
135
of white walls and six tables
CNN reporter Brian Palmer, conflict resolution specialist Marieke von Woerkom, photographer and media innovator Jonathan Worth, recent graduates Ariel Ritchin and Alison Wynn, and many others – decided that we will try to construct something useful. We are now just beginning to discuss concrete strategies for a new front page, including reporting that provides more context, enables diverse points of view (including those of the subjects), and is more sensitive to differing cultural perspectives. We also want to write new guides for teachers, for reporters (should the subject be asked to comment on the photograph?) and for readers (how does one read a hypertext?), while also coming up with a transparent code of ethics. Our hope is that we can make our findings widely available and continue to engage in discussion about the best ways to provide the kinds of information that societies, and individuals, need to move forward.
At Aperture we were both informed and shocked by several fascinating talks given by guests – topics that had either not appeared on our personal front pages or had not been sufficiently documented. For example, Simon Norfolk, author most recently of Burke + Norfolk, Photographs from the War in Afghanistan, discussed the limitations of photojournalism in depicting more than simple actions. He was adamant about the need to understand the history of Afghanistan’s long struggle with colonialism (including the 19th-century massacre of thousands of withdrawing British troops), and talked about specifics such as the emerging field of narcotecture – deluxe residences called ‘poppy palaces’ built with enormous amounts of drug money. Garth Lenz, winner of the Social Documentary.net prize for his work on Canada’s Tar Sands, similarly revealed in harrowing detail the environmental and social consequences of this aggressive pillaging of the land for an energy-starved world – and the current discussions to build a pipeline to carry the corrosive crude oil across the United States.