Behind and Beyond the Image
Stories can be told with pictures and photophilanthropy has been established to connect photographers with non profit organisations to tell stories that can lead to social change. I am reminded of the work of Susan Scott (2002) who said you can change the world one conversation at a time (1c@t)
Perhaps the challenge is also to change the world one image at a time (1p@t).
‘India’s future? Men, Machines, but no water’, a photograph by Indian science journalist Pallava Bagla.
Water is a vital but scarce resource. Yet many people throughout the world do not have access to clean drinking water.
The photograph above communicates the idea that all the development of science and technology may fail to deliver on basic needs of people. The image is “posed” like a still life yet it instantly communicates the issue.
The glib answer is disappearing dresses. But much more happened in Belfast over the past couple of days. Wonderland-Belfast opened yesterday at the Ormeau Gallery. This is an extraordinary exhibition resulting from a partnership of talents from the world of fashion and science. The dresses are made from dissolving textiles and as they are lowered into water they disappear. The exhibition questions the environmental sustainability of our current fashion industry and what happens to used clothing. Dissolving bottles, are a further idea put into practice as an exploration of intelligent packaging. Once finished with, the bottles dissolve under hot water to form a gel in which seeds can be grown. The concept could revolutionise the packaging industry and aims to highlight issues surrounding waste plastic.
Today the group were joined by Sarah Brown from UCL and David Grimshaw from Practical Action. The diverse group brainstormed a range of ideas around the theme of “Water Futures”. Watch this space!
Water is a key basic need for everyone and in the UK most people take it for granted in both quality and availability. People living in the Terai area of Nepal are not so fortunate. For many of these people the quality of water is affected by arsenic that leads to long term health problems. Detecting the presence of arsenic in drinking water in a reliable, repeatable, and low cost way is a major challenge. As a member of the team trying to develop a solution that local people will use there is a need to understand the local context and capture it in such a way that the scientists can develop an appropriate technology.
The background is covered well in the following article posted on the Wellcome Trust web site (the funder of the project).
The biggest poisoning in history | Wellcome Trust.
What has this got to do with photography? Perhaps an image may be used to help communicate between science and the community. The challenge is to produce a set of images that will bridge the the gap between science and users.
