In my ongoing research about practices and experiences in projects that unite collaborative art and collaborative ethnographic practices the topic of ethics has come up time and time again, mostly in discussions with project facilitators who find themselves face to face with ethical dilemmas which were unanticipated at the outset of their work. From issues to do with power and control in how projects are established and run; dynamics about money and profit from materials made; to the physical and psychological risks that can come from participating in some kinds of activities – ethics in the context of this kind of work are complex, and need to be more openly debated.
Following on from the last post about participatory photography and film projects in the Palestine region check out an article from the Jerusalem Post in 2008 written by Jim Hubbard criticising the risk to children involved in a participatory photography project to document human rights abuses in Palestine…. Part of this article is Hubbard distancing himself from a project that is using the same name as a separate project he began in the 1980’s, but he is also raising provocative issues about the potential risks that come from becoming an author of politically volatile material in a situation characterised in part by physical violence and payback, where you can not leave, because you are a local… Hubbard writes “The camera is sometimes a dangerous weapon not only for the subject but also for the photographer.”
What do you think?
The locals who cannot move have the right to put themselves at risk, with informed consent. But children….? Do parents have the right to let their children? Do childen have as much right to fight oppression as anyone else?
When I was a child I certainly thought so.