(Image Source: Shared Future News)

Event explores intersection of peace, photography
A recent article from one of my favorite peace and media sites, Shared Future News, has renewed my interest regarding the role of images in peacebuilding and peace journalism.

The article by SFN editor Allan Leonard titled “Peace Photography: Supporting Conflict Transformation” discusses a recent online session that explored the “intersection of photography and peace. The event brought together a range of experts and practitioners to discuss how photography can foster cultures of peace in different contexts.” The online session analyzed “how photography can contribute to the recovery and transformation of conflict” including making complex histories more accessible, preserving a collective memory, and fostering dialogue and reconciliation.

On the last point, the article describes presenter Jacques Nkinzingabo who spoke about his work at the Kigali Center for Photography  in Rwanda. Nkinzingabo told the gathering that “photography can play a role to bring people together with dialogues within the community on different types of conversation and issues around them.” 

Nkinzingabo’s work (The Home Stay Exhibitions) is striking. Equally impactful is another stellar example of photography as a tool of reconciliation from the New York Times. In 2014, 20 years after the Rwandan genocide, the Times published “Portraits of Reconciliation,” a powerful, chilling photo essay that pictures perpetrators and victims side by side.  

Certainly, the principles discussed in the webinar are aligned with peace journalism. One PJ characteristic advises,  “Peace journalists thoughtfully select the images they use, understanding that they can misrepresent an event, exacerbate an already dire situation, and re-traumatize those who have suffered.” Indeed, in the many peace journalism workshops I’ve taught (34 countries and counting!), we always discuss images, and analyze the appropriateness of using bloody images, for example. Are they needed to tell the story, or are they simply sensational click-bait? I never advise not to use gory or gruesome images, but caution my trainees to see the photo through the eyes of a victim or her family.

In my seminars, we also discuss how images can also misrepresent events. For example, if there are 1000 protesters, and 998 of them are peaceful, should the most prominent images from the protest be two violent individuals clashing with police? Yes, this violence did occur, but do images of that violence that truly reflect the 99.8% peaceful nature of the protest?

Leonard’s article about the online session concludes, “The idea of peace photography is still an emerging concept, but it is already making a significant impact…As the session concluded, the collective sentiment seemed to be that peace photography is not just an art form but a practice deeply embedded in ethical care, community involvement, and proactive engagement.” 

To learn more, you can download a free copy of the thought-provoking guide, “Peace Photography: A Guide” here.