Dutch Doc Presents End of Ego20 September 2012Programme

© Tue Juelsbo

The series of lectures presented by Unseen Photo Fair was continued on Thursday afternoon with End of Ego. The two-part lecture was started by Fred Ritchin (USA, Pixelpress), who discussed his wish for a paradigm shift in documentary photography. The second part, a talk show -set up with two young collectives, The Cause Collective (USA) and Open Coöp (NL), provided an interesting look at the social engagement of artists.

Fred RitchinProfessor of Photography and Imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Fred Ritchin, talked about his upcoming bookBending the Frame: At the Crossroads of Photojournalism, Documentary and Human Rights. The book, providing valuable insights to rethinking photography, calls for a paradigm shift in photojournalism. This shift will, according to Ritchin, require a turn away from the ego of the photographer: a turn towards the subject.

The turn towards the subject will make documentary photography useful again, said Ritchin. Gone should be the days of seductive, violent images of war - why not focus on peace photography instead? Provocative images will keep the situation as it is, stated Ritchin. Giving a disposable camera to a number of children, living their lives in the middle of a war, might, however, change the way we perceive war - or peace, for that matter.

In today's digital era, there are plenty of possibilities for documentary photographers to give the focus to their subject. Photographers now have the tools to set up a conversation, instead of solely being instances of documenting events. With the help of new media, photography can now be used to create web communities helping the families of war victims; to assist veterans to cope with their traumatic experiences; and to make a deeper understanding of the state of the world possible.

It is thus now left up to us, said Ritchin: what kind of world do we wish to build of all the pixels available to us?

The Cause Collective and Open CoöpContinuing on the shift away from an individual artist's ego, the talk show with The Cause Collective and Open Coöp provided food for thought. The Cause Collective focuses on impacting society with the means of transmedial art. Their projects include the Question Bridgeand the Truth Booth, which will be featured in the US Presidential Election later this year. Like The Cause Collective, also Open Coöp is constantly rethinking public art. The cooperation of artists from various backgrounds, including architecture, product design and even history, constantly involves citizens of Amsterdam in their numerous projects. These two collectives are truly examples of how artists can make a difference in their societies by leaving their individual egos aside.

The lectures at the Unseen Speakers' Corner will be streamed live and subseqently uploaded on our Youtube-channel. For a full overview of the lectures and other festival items, visit the Programme page. More photographs from the first day of Unseen can be found on our Facebook page. End of Ego was made possible by Stichting Democratie & Media, Sam Presser Foundation, and Stichting Dutch Doc Photo.