Morten Svenningsen - Let the Children Introduce You to Nepal

July 15th, 2008 | Scroll down for comments

Introduction

Morten Svenningsen is an award-winning Danish freelance photojournalist who has been based in Nepal since 2005. His work is mainly in the socio-political field, covering news, development work and other subjects, always with a strong focus on the human perspective.

Homepage (MSMediaService.com)
Profile at Lightstalkers

The bottom of the page

Normally I publish photos in sets of 9 or 12, but I couldn’t bear to cut a single photo from this one. The result is a lone 13th photo at the bottom. All together these photographs really deliver on the promise of an introduction to Nepal though the children. I appreciate these images more and more with time.

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Now I want to shift gears and call attention to a comment on last week’s gallery. The commenter (Annie) expressed concern about marginalized people being exploited by having their photographs included here. I think her concerns are legitimate, and I will work to address them. I’d like to hear from others as well. I don’t want to cut and paste her comments and my response, but you can read the ongoing thread below last week’s gallery.

People have strong and varying opinions about taking photographs of people who are suffering, living in poverty, marginalized, powerless, etc. The photographer comes from another world, with power and wealth, pointing his or her camera here and there, taking photos to be “consumed” by curious people far away. Most sensitive photographers struggle with questions about the right way to go about such work, if at all, but few can agree on guidelines or where to draw the lines.

Sebastiao Salgado is one of the greatest living photographers, and he has traveled the world photographing people at the extreme margins. Critics say that Salgado crosses lines by taking beautiful pictures of people in horrendous circumstances and turning them into objects of art. (They would prefer if the pictures were grittier and uglier to match the content.) Salgado, on the other hand, considers his work a serious vocation for the benefit of humanity. He says, “I believe there is no person in the world that must be protected from pictures. Everything that happens in the world must be shown and people around the world must have an idea of what’s happening to the other people of the world” (Ken Light, Witness in Our Time, p111).

Then there is Dayanita Singh, who took one of the most moving documentary photographs I have ever seen entitled, Maria, daughter of a sex worker. It shows a beautiful young girl dressed in white. Her father is standing to the side looking sternly in another direction. The caption says Marie will be put on the job within days. After this photograph was published people from all over the world wanted to adopt Marie, but Singh said that “no one wanted to help the thousands of other such girls in Bombay.” (Ken Light, Witness in Our Time, p150). By the time the photo was published and the response rolled in, Marie was already hardened in her role and not interested in being saved. Today it’s very difficult to find this photograph of Marie online or in print. Dayanita Singh herself stopped taking documentary photographs to change the world. Now she takes photographs showing the lives of middle and upper class Indian society, and still lifes with no people at all. She gives reasons for the change here and in the quote below (from an exhibition):

Twelve year old girl Marie, the daughter of a sex worker, had just attained puberty and begged me to take her away from her destiny, but I could not. In India the highest price paid is for the first time, usually around 12 or 13 years. Once the spirit is broken, then it’s just a job. When this ran in TIME magazine, many families wanted to adopt her, so I went back to look for here in Bombay, but she had long been working and was not interested in me. My photograph did not make any difference to sex workers´ children, because finally all the people that contacted us only wanted Marie and not any sex workers´ child. That was the hardest bit to come to terms with. It is still traumatic to write about it. Later I got beaten up by Marie’s pimps because a regional magazine had taken the image from TIME and customers brought the issue in, attracted by the porn story that accompanied Marie’s photo. I could not explain to the pimps that I had not given them the image. That brought to an end my three years work with sex workers and HIV in the early 90s in Bombay… Since the work was widely published, I believe I helped create the HIV stigma that still plagues HIV, of HIV as a result from having sex with a sex worker. I realized I could not change a thing with photos and if I was so concerned, I should become an activist, but photography was in my blood. source

I don’t mean to hijack the wonderful gallery above to start a debate about documentary photography. I chose Morten Svenningsen’s set today, because his work is sensitive, masterful, and clearly reveals the human story of life in Nepal. But please don’t judge his work according to the can of worms I just opened. Feel free, however, to put Singh and Salgado in the spotlight and consider the choices they have made. In the process I’d love to have your input about the direction of this website.

Now have at it. And while you’re here sign up for our email list so you won’t miss future exhibitions!