Starvation Images

Published December 26, 2008 @ 04:19PM PT

The U.S. Supreme Court isn't noted for its humor, to say the least, but every once in a while a Justice delivers a decent line. For instance, in the 1960s Justice Potter Stewart once tried to differentiate between obscenity, which was arguably protected as free speech, and hard-core pornography, which was not.

A distinction that's far easier to draw in theory than in practice - leading to Justice Stewart's somewhat evasive "I know it when I see it" test.

Which brings us, in a rather roundabout way, to the question of NGO advertising, and particularly the use of starvation images. At what point does showing pictures of suffering cease being justified as awareness raising, and become nothing more than exploitation?

Something on my mind ever since a friend pointed out a recent ad by Concern Worldwide, as part of their Cure Starvation Appeal. The ad show video clips of starving children, while the song "Fields of Gold" plays softly in the background.

At first I included the video at the top of this blog, but then took it down - personally, I think it's rather sick. Or, using the Potter Stewart test, I know exploitation when I see it. And by exploitation, I mean images that treat people as mere objects, suitable for our pity and nothing else.

It's no defense that the images are used for a good cause - according to the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief: "In our information, publicity and advertising activities, we shall recognise disaster victims as dignified human beings, not hopeless objects."

Now, I'm also something of a hypocrite - I've used images that tread close to the line, if not over, such as this photo of a woman fleeing her village, or this video that shows the wounded after a terror attack. Like Potter Stewart, I make no pretense about being able to make a hard-and-fast distinction.

That said, there's something about using photos of starving children to raise money which strikes me as unacceptable, in any circumstance.

For a more in-depth view, see this 2004 article by Ruth Gidley - NGOs still fail standards on appeal images.

If you'd like to see the Concern ad, click here.

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Comments (3)

I think it's good to show a starving child getting some clean water, or kids going to school where they otherwise may not have had the chance; that is glorifying the good things about humanitarianism. I would love to find a video of someone training Africans to drill for fresh underground water (when it can be found). If only oil companies could care more about people. Then we would be onto something.

Posted by John Thompson on 12/28/2008 @ 05:26PM PT
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I think you're dead on. As an amateur photographer, one of the things I've found both striking and (personally) frustrating about living in Kenya is that almost no one ever wants their picture taken. I have a hard time believing that if--as is done in the U.S.--photographers were required to get signed releases for models, there would be many pictures like that at all. Personally, I suspect it's the plethora of images like the ones you're talking about that made so many people reluctant to have their pictures taken in the first place.

Posted by Brooks Keene on 12/29/2008 @ 03:03AM PT
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Interesting point -- not to mention the fact that there's no way a starving child can give much in the way of informed consent even if asked,

MBK

Posted by Michael Bear on 12/29/2008 @ 07:53AM PT
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Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.