Ch. 5 book 1 Envisioning Demands- Rose

1. photographs are involved in making proximities and distances in todays globalised world.
   1. migrants carry photos with them where ever they travel to. They are the material objects that forge those attachments to the homeland and community. The mediation is done through photographs.
   2. Photographs bring distant places closed. Before invention the world was unknown to many people. National Geographic made it possible for people to see distant places and make them closer.

      Annotations:

      • PROXIMITY is created through photographs! 
   3. Photographs are another aspect of the globalising mediation.
   4. Photograghs also evoke some kind of absence by making some kind of demand. They are used as a form of protest of demonstration in campaigns.
      1. Visual petitions like the Million Faces petition (2006) the Control Arms campaign invited people to send their picture via email.
         1. People were not there present but the picture represented them. Their absence was filled by the photograph. They became part of the protest. The number of people 1 million was important as it would be difficult for 1 m. people to be protest phisically in front of the UN.
      2. "Not in my name", how absence matters, protest using pictures of children (not present at the protest) but their absence used to protest against the invasion of Iraq 2002-2003, Stop the War Coalition
         1. The children's absence also symbolises the possible absence of a future for them (like in the Nuclear Disarmament campaigns.
2. NGOs like Oxfam or Friends of The Earth make use of photos to make demands on people to take responsibility, compassionate or connective responsibility on distant others. Making far away places proximate and present!

   Annotations:

   • Young's responsibility concept is applied here! We are responsible for the condition some people are and if we don't react to those demands we are responsible for their wellbeing. If we choose to ignore it then we are putting distance between us and others in need by ignoring their plea. 

1. Case study: International campaign for justice in Bophal (India) image of a blinded child as a victim of the explosion. Horrific images, 20.000 people died in 1984, by explosion of pesticide factory.
2. Photographs that changed the world, Lorraine Monk, all of these photos have changed the perception of reality forever.

1. Case study: 1977 Mothers of the Disappeaed in Plaza de Mayo in Bueno Aires, they meet every year there carrying the pictures of their loved ones who went missing demanding justice. The photographs give and emotional depth to the demands for justice.

   Annotations:

   • between 1976 and 1983 between 10.000 and 30.000 people were taken from their homes and disappeared in Argentina, military abduction by the right wing government.  The mothers of the desaparesidos created the Associasion Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Demanding justice and that someone take responsibility for their children's disappearance. 
   1. The absence of the child is made present by the photograph and the emotional connection it creates between the mother and child is strong. The photo is a sunstiture for the missing child.

      Annotations:

      • Link to Juarez murders, photos of missing women and little girl murdered, Veronica, her mother Maria Ofelia, has picture on the wall of her 3 daughters. Connection with absent daughter. 

Annotations:

• Family picture are predictable and boring. Portraits don't show the mundanity of life. Many migrants send studio made protraits with their best cloths to show they are doing well and have arrived safely. People look happy and successful in portraits. Stuart Hall Afro CAribbean immigrants in UK did this.

1. Familty portraits and photos tend to be ignored on the mantlepiece or cardbox, they become invisible even though they are emotionally charged.
   1. Stanley Cohen (2001) explores the reason why many images of help and demand are ignored by people. Seeing and not reacting is denial!

      Annotations:

      • This could be connected to Young's responsibility, choosing to ignore demands is the same as not taking responsibility.
      1. NGOs use striking photographs to show horror and torture, but many times they are ignored. This depends not only on the way the photo creates presence and absense, but on the way the photograpph is seen as part of distances that make the globalised world.
         1. In the Western society photos and images are everywhere and with social networks it is even worse. People learn to see things without being deeply affected by it.

            Annotations:

            • Connection to Antisweatshop campaign. People do not take responsibily and demands are not met. They put distance between them and those far away who suffer. Too many demands!!
            1. Historical connection with Colonialism and Western approach to photography and imagery. European thought of themselves as civilised and superior to the other people they colonised.
               1. NGOs have to be careful how they depict people in distant places, making sure the dignity is kept and the Western perspective.

                  Annotations:

                  • Stanley Cohen commented that it is important to depict Africa as it is, people dying and striking poverty and misery. There is little evidence on what drives people to make donations, but the use of photographs of victims in desperate situations is more likely to receive most money!
         2. The Western media still depict developing countries as backwards and inferior to the affluent nations of the world (North -South divide). Viewers are absolved by images in far away places and are distanced from them. They feel that that's the way it is over there and it is not our problem (Cohen's explanations)

            Annotations:

            • Connection to how demands are not met and ignored. Young's responsibility. The media coverage of distant underdeveloped places is rara, unless there is a war, like Iraq.. SELECTIVE VIEW! Connection also to alternative media coverage in Ch 7 book 2 on Solidarities. 
         3. Mediation of events is seen in colonial terms, The DISTANCE between US and THEM is huge and they are shown as they cannot cope. The sense of inferiority comes out all the time.
         4. The denial of responding to demands is also met with a sense of hopelessness and dispair by affluent viewers. They may see poverty and famine and be moved by them, but they do not always respond to it with taking responsibility (compassionate) by making a donation to a relief effort.
            1. It is not just the number of images that flood us, but the longstanding ideas about the people and the places they show, making viewers feel helpless and DISTANT in front of the images. DEMANDS is DENIED.