The HIV/Aids pandemic and how to photograph it is on top of the agenda today. Ethics are very important in that respect, especially because of the stigma,” photographer Peter McKenzie said on Wednesday at the opening of a presentation on Aids and ethics, part of this week’s Pan African Photo Encounters in Johannesburg.
“Photography has a very important role to play when it comes to showing the world what is going on. One picture can have more impact than a thousand statistics.”
A presentation of work by Debbie Yazbek and McKenzie, together with the discussion on ethics concerning the photographing of HIV/Aids, is part of the first Pan African Photo Encounters, held in Johannesburg this week.
This coming together of photographers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region aims to create a network and identify critical debates in photography today. All sessions are open to the public.
“I felt that we as photographers did not do enough about Aids, showing the people what the disease really meant. I approached my editor and asked him if I could spend some time photographing the pandemic,” said Yazbek, who is a photographer for The Star.
“At first I wanted to approach the subject through orphans. I went into the townships with an aid worker. What I found were two women in the last stage of the disease who were willing to be photographed.
“I followed their lives for the last eight, nine months.”
The pictures that Yazbek took are striking. The disease has diminished both women to mere skeletons; in their eyes, the pain, despair and fear are ever present.
In photographing people suffering from a disease that stigmatises the ones portrayed, Yazbeck faced many ethical questions.
“When taking these pictures, I made sure that the women knew who I was, why I took this picture and what the purpose of the image was.
“If that is not understood, because the patient drifts into a state of unconsciousness, if you feel you are intruding, then you don’t take the picture.
“In the beginning, it was not very difficult to be professional, but in time the boundaries blurred, because we became friends,” Yazbek said.
“When Joyce was dying in a hospice, she called for me. When I came, she was drifting into a coma. I could not talk to her in English, I knew she would not understand me. So I asked the nurse if she wanted to translate, and Joyce agreed on a picture being taken. Two hours later, she had passed away.
“That picture [the one with the tear] was the most difficult picture in my career. I could not take it. This was my friend, and she was dying.
“But I also felt it would be unjust not to take it. It felt like I would have been stringing her along all the time. If I would not take it, I would be telling a story without the ending.
“When it comes to showing these pictures, they have to be used in an educational way. The pictures that were printed in the paper did not identify the women and I would never allow these pictures to be used in any entertaining way.”
The audience for this presentation consisted of a group of young photographers from SADC countries who were invited by Encounters to take part in a master class concerning African photography.
After the presentation, the issue of race and Aids arose.
“Why did you not take pictures of white people who are struggling with the disease?” was one of the questions posed by this
audience.
“These pictures are not about race, they are about a disease,” Yazbek responded. “These were the people I found. I have been criticised before on taking only pictures of black people.
“I would love to take pictures of white people, but it is very difficult to find white people who are struggling with this disease and who would agree in their picture being taken.”
The Encounters programme is open to the public, and runs until November 13. On November 11 and 12, there will be open-air screenings of photographs by David Goldblatt and the Mozambican Association of Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in the Newtown Cultural Precinct. More info: TeL: (011) 834 1444 or click here