The Ethics of Photographing the Dead: Are we losing them?

As I opened up the newspapers in the last week, they all seemed to focus (and rightly so) on the Uttarakhand Flash Floods that happened. To those who never go through what happens in the world around them, the events unfolds as such-

“A cloudburst happened very close to where Kedarnath is, the water which was now coming down in torrents swept away all the four Dhams (revered Hindu places of travel) and swept away an unknown number of people. Most of them where devotees going to visit the holy Quadrilateral and thus I would assume a lot of Young and Elderly people are among the dead. As of now, around 1000 deaths have been reported”

The complete failure of the Disaster Management authorities to even ensure that buildings and other things are in complete sync with what is taught as Disaster Management at schools are laughable; but that’s not what I will deal with right now. I really feel the glaring and blatant lack of respect to the dead in India amazing and that’s what I would want to air here.

India is an ancient civilization dating to more than 5000 years of history. Here the dead are respected. Dealing with the dead is no doubt a taboo, and the ones who dealt with them were placed in the lowest classes of society but the dead body itself is given a lot of respect with offerings of Ganga Jal to the mouth of the dead to ensure salvation and other things. There is almost no culture or tribe in India that leaves its dead out in the open as an offering to crows, vultures or hyenas as is prevalent in many other ancient civilizations. Also, people here despise to know that the dead are being eaten up by the wild (as in case of Uttarakhand)

Still, even after so much concern about the dead and other things, Indian Media houses (around 95%) which covered this ghastly event seem to have gone out of their way to photograph dead bodies lying on top of each other. Uncared for, exposed to the forces of nature. The photographic editors in these media houses must have gone- “Booyah!! Sensational coverage. Bravo!!” and have gone ahead to print them on newspapers of national circulations and show them on television screens worldwide. These are the same media houses which pride themselves on bring about revolutions and stuff.  That truly is one of the lowest levels a media house can stoop to, and the media houses in India are doing it, and nobody seems to give a damn about it. Interesting!! A country like India where the dead are respected… Are they?

Whatever the case with America is, one of the things to respect about their media is that whatever happens, they never go ahead and print or flash the dead. At least the media houses, which pride themselves as global. They may carry photographs of the injured but never of dead bodies staked on top of each other. They may do a lot of human rights violations which cover global interest but they never violate the rights of the dead. That’s the least they can do and they do it.

It is crushing to see how emotionally detached these photographers can be when shooting the image of dead stacked on top of each other. Please pause and think of all the people who are going to see this photograph. They may be children whose mind take quick impressions of anything that happens, they may be people whose relatives are missing in that natural calamity or they may be people who don’t have a strong enough heart to see it. Although I do highly respect that the hard work and sacrifice that photo journalists go through, all images that have come out of the dead in national television screens and newspapers have personally jarred me.

A Photograph from Times of India highlights the insensitivity of the media house

I see many aspiring street photographers on the web who merely take photos of homeless people down on their luck and label their images as “street photography.” I feel bad for these aspiring street photographers, as they simply use images of people who are experiencing poverty as a crutch for their own photographic shortcomings. I feel the same way for all the photo journalists who go to any lengths to click the dead bodies on the steps of the Kedarnath temple.

Don’t get me wrong– I do not believe that all photos of dead people are distasteful. Sometimes it is necessary for there to be images of dead people to raise awareness of some of the atrocious conditions that the survivors are having to live in. I say yes. We need the truth. Period. This image tells the story. That should never be silenced. Therefore what I am stating is that if you have good intentions about helping take photos of the dead and homeless, that is okay by my standards. However, if you are shooting dead people to simply be “artsy and sensational” shame on you.

I don’t know what the reader may think of it, but I feel disgusted to see terrorists killed in encounters with their bloodied faces and their clothes pulled off. I simply have one thing in mind. Whatever this person did, he lived a life of dignity and did not roam on the streets naked. So please, you may have killed the person and in turn saved hundreds of lives, but it gives you no rights to rip his clothes off and let photo journalists take photographs like that. Whatever he/she was, he/she’s dead now, respect it. Period.  

As always I would finish off with the solution; I would give three points that should be taken care off. Personally I understand that these points will certainly address the issue so as to have relevant journalism and not go on the brash terms.

1. Maximize truth-telling: "This is what journalists do, document reality, report what you see to your audience," Irby says. "You are the eyes of the world and people are depending on you to report what you see." In other words, evaluate the news value of the pictures or videos in question.

Bodies lying outside concentration camps in Poland made the world realize what Nazis are doing.

2. Act independently: Make a decision based on your own guidelines, free from any pressures from outside influences.

3. Minimize harm: "Understand that some of the things we publish will have a negative impact on some individual. There are situations where people can be harmed by what they see, when they see death, when they see pain and trauma. That comes with the territory," he says.

This photograph shook up the world to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

The truth is that photographers can’t please all people at all times, true but Journalism is not a popularity contest.

Comments and discussion on this is very much welcome. The best part of putting viewpoints here is to get a chance to discuss what you have to say about it. Please leave them in the designated sections below.

If you want to see the next blog as soon as it comes, follow me on Google+ or subscribe to my blogs. You can also like the Facebook page Worthy Words to remain connected. To recommend this to others, your click on the +1 button would be great.