Lens of Justice: Photography As A Tool for Advocacy in the 21st-Century Art World
Abstract Photography, as an artistic practice, has shifted from a passive documentation of human rights abuses to an act of representation that can shape public awareness, curatorial practices, and policy debates. Visually engaged art and its impact, as this article will explore, are redefining the roles of the photographer, the curator, and the art institution. […]
Abstract
Photography, as an artistic practice, has shifted from a passive documentation of human rights abuses to an act of representation that can shape public awareness, curatorial practices, and policy debates. Visually engaged art and its impact, as this article will explore, are redefining the roles of the photographer, the curator, and the art institution. It considers the distinction between traditional documentary photography and photography for the sake of advocacy, the questions of ethics in depicting marginalized people, and curatorial considerations for showing advocacy work within a larger framework of art without sacrificing artistic agency. Utilizing examples from around the world and Africa specifically, including Zanele Muholi’s portraits and campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights, Aïda Muluneh’s water justice advocacy projects, and the project “Photograph-a-Child,” which highlights children’s rights, the discussion illuminates the ways that photography can serve as both art and action. The article concludes with suggestions for how to expand the impact beyond the exhibition space and help establish photography as an enduring form of justice in the 21st-century art world.
Introduction
Photography has traditionally been appreciated for its witness value, its ability to freeze historical moments that risk being lost to history. But, as of the twenty-first century, it has transformed from passive observer to active interloper. More and more photographers are taking on advocacy as a central purpose for taking on the camera, using it to not only document life, but also to speak out against injustice and activate responses. This is not simply an aesthetic shift, but rather represents a new understanding of the social role of the photographer and a new emphasis for curators. Where images call for moral engagement on the part of the viewer, to look at photographs is in itself a form of political action, as Azoulay (2012) contends.
An example of this evolution from mere documentation to deep ongoing engagement with vulnerable populations can be seen in the “Photograph-a-Child” project. The aim is not just to expose the ongoing realities of children’s lives, but to motivate some sort of direct engagement – through policy reform, financial contribution, or changing social perceptions. These kinds of approaches reflect a global trend in which curators and cultural institutions are attempting to integrate socially engaged photography into their exhibitions as a means of engaging with urgent topics like women’s rights, child protection, and environmental justice (Sliwinska, 2016).
The Rise of Socially Engaged Visual Narratives
What sets advocacy photography apart from other forms of documentary photography or photojournalism is its intentionality, its overt obviousness. Whereas documentary photography has historically made a tenuous assertion to neutrality, advocacy photography welcomes subjectivity to advance a cause. It has a perspective, but, as Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas reminds us, “advocacy work is held to an ethical standard that strives not to exploit or misrepresent” (Meiselas, 2019).
The work of South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who represents Black LGBTQ+ subjects through her portraits, exemplifies this. By engaging in staged documentation, consensual photography, and compelling imagery, Muholi’s pieces assert the identity of marginalized individuals while simultaneously refusing the “gaze” of the voyeuristic photographer so frequently desiring to document subjects of oppression (Gunkel, 2019). The images function as fine art and political testimony, and are equally comfortable in the hands of an art institution as a political action group.
In a similar way, Aïda Muluneh, an Ethiopian photographer, combines the symbolic visual language of her “Water Life” series with an urgent message about the need for access to clean water in Africa. Combining bold color sets and images based on African cultural signage, Muluneh presents, “…a locally and globally pertinent advocacy message, reminding us that art can be multilingual, serving as many things including activism…” (Muluneh, 2018).
Such work has an emotional feel in that it “de-abstracts” the concerns. Photographs that document individual stories in a dignified and intimate way can elicit empathy, as opposed to pity, allowing for more public discussion. We see this in child-centered initiatives such as “Photograph-a-Child”, which juxtaposes images of street children, who display everyday forms of resilience, with narratives that contextualize the larger structural forces at play in creating the circumstances surrounding the child, and thereby reframing the child from an object of pity to a conscious subject capable of agency within the mind of the viewer.
Curatorial Response and Public Impact
As advocacy photography has gained in prominence, curators have had to adjust their exhibition practices. Rather than using social issues as a subject matter backdrop, curators are incorporating activist goals at the foundational levels of exhibition design, programming, and outreach. The Tate Modern’s display of Sebastião Salgado’s “Genesis” merged stunning images of natural vistas and creatures with an environmental message to produce an exhibition experience that urged audiences to preserve nature (Tate Modern, 2013).
In Africa, for example, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) has held exhibitions that explicitly foreground activism and situate photographic works within large social and political dialogues. This means exhibitions can function as both cultural and civic spaces – places for appreciating art, as well as critical spaces and sites for public mobilization.
Ethics of Representation and the Curatorial Framework
At the crux of integrating a sense of advocacy within photography exhibitions is the ethical treatment of the photographed individuals, particularly when they come from marginalized or vulnerable populations. Both photographers and curators have a role to play in making sure images are produced and displayed with consent, cultural awareness, and truthfulness of narrative. The problem of “poverty porn” can be resolved, not by desensitizing images, but by representing different images that speak to agency and resilience, and complexity instead of these images of poverty (Dogra, 2012).
This necessitates that the curatorial process work in conjunction with the communities and artists being represented. In Muholi’s images, this process of collaboration and collective ownership is integral to the process of image-making, from pose and clothing choices to narrative framing. In curatorial projects such as “Photograph-a-Child”, facilitators can promote community feedback after the exhibition to guarantee the representations are faithful to the lives of subjects.
Contextualization is also important. Images in activist exhibits need to be supplemented by interpretive materials – artist statements, oral histories, panels – that place the images in a particular socio-political world. Otherwise, this powerful imagery runs the risk of being misunderstood or enacted without its activist intention. Documentaries and public forums that allow various levels of public engagement with the underlying advocacy issues often accompany Aïda Muluneh’s photo exhibitions.
Balancing Art and Advocacy
One of the central tensions in advocacy photography is the sacrifice of art for activism, or vice versa. But many practitioners have demonstrated the power of aesthetic excellence to elevate the impact of advocacy. The power of Salgado’s environmental images or Richard Mosse’s images, made with infrared film in conflict zones, comes from their combination of formal innovation and pressing political messages (Salgado 2013; Mosse 2014). Rather than compromising the quality of the art, advocacy can be a catalyst for formal innovation, as artists push to find new ways of seeing to connect with and move an audience.
In African art specifically, portraiture influenced by fashion photography and historical reenactment, as seen in the work of photographers such as Omar Victor Diop, addresses questions of colonial history and diasporic identity. For his specific example of this, he shows that advocacy does not necessarily mean giving up visual complexity but may even add complexity by imbuing it with meaning and purpose.
Beyond the Exhibition: Sustaining Impact
In order for advocacy photography to meet its potential, impact must not be limited to the moment a gallery has finished exhibiting. Collaborations between arts organizations and NGOs in which exhibitions are linked to community programs or policy campaigns are one way that this could be done sustainably. The “Water Life” series, for example, has been displayed together with clean water fundraising initiatives, converting audience experience into quantifiable social output.
Advocacy can also be maintained digitally. With outreaches like online archives, online exhibitions, and social media advocacy, photography can reach audiences well beyond those who attend a local exhibition. They also help continue discourse, providing a way for artists and curators to continue to be engaged with audiences and stakeholders well beyond a physical exhibition’s closing date (Lister, 2013).
It is the responsibility of curators to empower advocacy photographers beyond simply providing exhibition outlets, to also include fair play, protection of one’s intellectual property, and promotion of their work via directions they support. Advocacy photographers themselves invest high emotional and logistical costs into their work, and providing support to them helps ensure their work continues and grows.
Conclusion
We are now in a new era of photography where its power is measured not only in whether an image is beautiful, but whether it can impact public dialogue and spur action. Advocacy photography requires an ethical, contextual, and intentional curator to maintain the impact even after the exhibit has closed. African and global examples, such as Muholi’s portraits, Muluneh’s water activism, or the “Photograph-a-Child” project, show us that art can support activism and activism can support art.
The curator as an apolitical agent of the art world has been displaced; curators are now political agents in the politics of representation. To display it or to advocate with it means taking a moral stance, putting forward those voices that seek to challenge and change inequities and suggest more viable futures. The camera will remain in the service of justice as well as art, because its power will not be in what it shows, but in what it makes us do.
Kikelomo Solomon-Ayeni is the CEO and Chief Photographer of Red19 photography, a leading art company niched around children, maternity and family photography with a vision of promoting family bond. She is best known as a visual artist-Photographer, and art entrepreneur.
References
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https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/water-life-by-aida-muluneh/
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