Pictures for the people
Zoriah Miller has an offer you can’t refuse. For only $4000 apiece, you and three other lucky souls can learn all about photojournalism on a workshop in sunny Haiti. You “should be prepared for minimal comforts” and will still need to cover all of your own expenses, including a tent. Remember your sunscreen, and send us a postcard. Read all about it HERE.
I know that doctors and other crisis workers have developed ways to cope with trauma so they can push aside emotions and get to work, and that we rely on photographers to show us the scale of such devastation so we can make better-informed choices. It’s just difficult to see how Mr. Miller can ask for $16,000 for a single week’s work in Haiti, without any mention of how that money will be used. Sure, it’s his income, and he can spend it as he wishes. The four lucky workshop participants might feel that is a good use of their money and time, and it may be a win-win situation. Is it the cost of the workshop that doesn’t sit right with me? I don’t know if that’s the case, because it seems like it would be troubling even if he offered his advice and companionship for free. I hope photojournalists who are in Haiti right now are rolling up their sleeves and pitching in, and that any others planning a trip there will be prepared to do the same. I assume that is exactly what is happening, and that, from the start, workshop participants assume they will also be helping in disaster relief. While we hear and read about unimaginable tragedies from the comfort and safety of our living rooms, we need photographers to do some of the hard work of gathering and transmitting images. These photographers need to learn their craft somewhere, somehow, and maybe this is how it is done.