Gian-Reto Gredig & Goran Galić

Photographers in Conflict

 

June 7 - July 12, 2009

 

 

In their conceptually oriented work “Photographers in Conflict” the two artists Gian-Reto Gredig and Goran Galić question photographers whose images from conflict and disaster areas are seen all over the world each day. In order to analyze the asymmetric power relationship between image maker and the image subject, the photojournalists were posed and photographed in the style of aristocratic portraiture and interviewed according to a set of questions on camera. With this work, created during the 2006 Photojournalism “Visa pour l’Image” in Perpignan, Galić and Gredig examined the problem of constructing reality with photography and video.

 

“The festival, ‘Visa pour l'Image’ is more spectacle than critical examination of the reality that it attempts to portray with the exhibited photographs. In addition to the photo reportages mostly exhibited in sacred buildings, a nightly projection takes place at the Campo Santo — a review on a large screen of the major events and selected reports of the last year, accompanied by emotive music and applauded by the audience, to which the photographers add their own applause, being witnesses to the suffering of others. Here agencies meet photographers and exchange ideas with each other; a separate panel holds talks on the future of photojournalism. It was interesting to bring the people who cover the stories in conflict and disaster areas in front of the camera in the framework of the festival. The asymmetric (power) relationship between image producer and those portrayed should be reversed for once. Where do photojournalists stand in this moment in their attempt to describe reality? Have they reached the point to which their position leads ad absurdum of being able to effectively depict the world by photographic means, or to even be able to change the world through their work? Will this guild of photographers soon belong to the past — a once privileged caste who traveled the world taking pictures to bring home, but which ultimately is just witness to the suffering of others and nothing more?” (Goran Galić and Gian-Reto Gredig)

 

Goran Galić (* 1977) studied photography at the School of Art and Design Zurich, Gian-Reto Gredig (* 1976) studied ethnology at the University of Zurich; both live and work in Zurich.

 

 

THE REAL HEROES OF THE MEDIA WORLD

The photojournalist answered standardized questions on camera. For the sake of better comparability, they are associated with header phrases like “publish or perish,” “The Man on the Street,” “Cameras down,” “Hours in the Dark Room.” Central themes that have to do with the professional identity and self-reflection of the reporter are addressed: How much must one compromise as a “vendor,” as one of the photographers calls his work in a deliberate distancing, in order to keep the customers — agencies or photo editors — happy? How much is one manipulated by governments, and also by employers?

“Ultimately we are all manipulated,” Bruno Stevens says laconically. What is the role of the “citizen journalist”? It is a fact that important and/or initial images of events are made more often by laypeople with mobile phones or digital cameras — see Abu Ghraib, see the London bombings.

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL ROFILE OF A PROFESSION

The questionnaire is considerable in connection with the important contributions to the discussion in recent years — Susan Sontag's essays on the topic or Christian Frei's well regarded film War Photographer about James Nachtwey. The six half-hour videos are exciting not only at the level of direct answers. With time a psychological profile of a profession arises. It is striking that key terms such as “respect,” “responsibility,” “mission,” “ethos” are used again and again, which is contrast with the fact that this is about a business with tough rules.

 

From “Sie schaffen das kollektive Bildarchiv unserer Epoche” (They create the collective image archive of our times), Barbara Basting, Tages-Anzeiger, July 21, 2007.

 

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