Is It a Lens Barrel or a Gun Barrel?

Some will say that when 1994 Pulitzer Prize photographer Kevin Carter, 33, claimed his own life from what many believed taking one too many heartbreaking photos (particularly an image of a vulture sitting on the left of a starving Sudanese child, waiting for the child to collapse), that photography is dangerous–is it a lens barrel a gun barrel?

It all depends whom you ask. I myself have almost 30-years experience as a photographer, many of those years photographing women in my private glamour group for what I like to call Photographic Therapy so I can tell you from my own experiences, photography and war, photography is deadly if not executed properly.

What I mean by that, simply put, many photographic therapy clients come from my private shoots. They are usually women with almost 15-years of marriage under their belt, many unhappy with their belt size that age and child bearing years have brought them. Most are looking for a spark or sizzle as an insurance policy to sustain their marriage, through sexy photos.

While great glamour photos that meet their needs are not hard to accomplish as an experienced photographer, many inexperienced photographers could actually do their subjects more harm that good–thus ultimately leading to death.

Now that is a strong statement and many are wondering how can this be true? As an example, some of my private clients are women who want their photographs taken shortly after becoming Moms. Many new mothers suffer from postpartum depression. Depression is deadly and if a photographer doesn’t know what they are doing, poor photography can reinforce the subject’s lethal depression already in place.

As photographers we must realize, we are not there to replace the psychiatrists’ couch, we’re there to capture the inner- and outer-beauty of our subjects to hopefully add a layer of great feelings that can help build self-esteem.

While Photographic Therapy is not usually practiced in the killing fields of a war zone as when Pulitzer Prize photographer Eddie Adams did of his famous photo from Vietnam (General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon), some forms of photography are deadly, especially when photographing subjects in a depressed state of mind–as photographers, we must recognize when it’s the right moment to pass up an assignment to a more qualified colleague.

As the late Adams once put it about his famous photograph, “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation.”

All the best, rg sends!