good evening ladies and gentlemen
I would like to apologize first for my
English but also because for someone who
is used to be behind the cameras to be
in front of the audience can turn a bit
difficult so I will try not to suddenly
run away from the stage I will try my
best I want to start by showing some
pictures I took in southern Europe
these images are the end of the story so
let me please say start from the
beginning I studied sociology in Madrid
the city where I was born and also in
Amsterdam sociology is knowledge it
helps you to understand the world
something that seemed very interesting
to someone like me it teaches you that
realities are very complex and that the
answers impossible solutions to any
social problem usually tend to be so but
something didn’t work for me I kept
asking myself how could we transmit this
knowledge to each other in an effective
way while studying many of their great
and global problems climate change
hunger Wars migrations on a quality I
kept thinking how can it be that we know
so much about these problems but at the
same time nothing changes or it changes
very little or it changes very slowly
and the first word that constantly came
to my mind was empathy or I could say
the lack of empathy by the time I
started studying sociology I also
started as to learn photography I had
always liked to take pictures but if you
were a child in the 80s and 90s the
relationship with photography was very
different from the one we have nowadays
during years I became obsessed with the
idea of combining photography and
sociology photography and research
photography and writing thinking that
maybe that could be a way to bring these
theories to the audience and perhaps get
to learn and tell about the stories I
was interested on as you can see I was
in various mark since I was already
trying to invent a discipline that had
already existed for many years
photojournalism so I finally decided to
focus on photojournalism
but once again a very frequent question
in my profession kept coming to my mind
does photojournalism work to change
this is a question we asked many times
probably too many times and then we also
asked ourselves I believe it is a very
naive question but at the same time I
think it happens to be a true very
important question that we that we those
who devote their life to this profession
humanitarian crisis does not end with
the publication of a photograph neither
a war and it would be very nice to think
that way
but that doesn’t mean there is no value
in in this way of transmitting
information emotions and knowledge I
think that the effects of
photojournalism can be understood in the
short mid and long term and I will start
with short term in the short term
photojournalism can be used to call
attention in the past few years I have
spent a lot of time covering the migrant
roots in the Mediterranean and in Europe
and I would like to take advantage of
the fact that we are in Greece to give
an example of those possible positive
effects in the short term in 2015 I
guess you are alone more than 1 million
people reached across the Mediterranean
to reserve and about 800,000 did it
through the dnc people reach their lives
more than 3700 people died in the
attempt that year I want to show now
some photos I took on the Greek island
the last pictures were taken on October
28th 2015 that day a vote carrying 300
people from Turkey to the island of
Lesbos capsized that day a lot of people
died and that day there are very few
professional rescuers on the spot but at
least there were some of them and some
of those professionals told us they had
decided to travel to the Greek islands
after watching images photos and videos
that had been published in the previous
days weeks a month did anything change
maybe I’m the one who is too naive but
during that day and during many other
days I saw how professional rescue teams
that had decided to travel to the
islands after watching images saved
lives and that to me is a very small and
simple change that is worth it if the
publication of a photograph does impose
millions of people to the streets to
stop a war on the other side of the
world or to demand a solution to a
humanitarian crisis it would be a
mistake to think that that photograph
wasn’t worth it because that doesn’t
usually happen and it is very difficult
to achieve that goal very difficult
but there is another way to make this
work so photojournalism we can call the
attention of a certain number of a
specialized organizations that can
intervene in any specific crisis or that
can pose the authorities to act in a
different way I obviously don’t think
that photos and videos were the only
reason for those rescue teams to move to
the grid to the Greek islands but I do
believe that they played an important
role on that let’s move now to the
midterm in the mid term the constant
reproduction by the media of photographs
can be sometimes turn negative for the
story we are trying to tell even if we
don’t want that and we obviously don’t
want that to happen I want to so now
follow I study Malia in 2014 Malia is at
12 a square kilometres as punishing
clave
in northern Morocco and separated from
the Moroccan province of another by a
six meters high triple metal fence in
this photograph were not in the photo
but in that moment there were five
hundred young Africans jumping from
Morocco into Spain to enter European
soil during months I became obsessed
with the idea of taking this photo and
by the time it was published when I
finally shot it and it was published it
was published by many media but not
always in a way that seemed right to me
many outlets used images like this one
to spread a message of invasion while
for example the number of people that
managed to jump that fence during that
entire year was about 2,000 people and
that’s a very small figure for a place
of 500 million inhabitants such as the
European Union I want to show now some
other pictures I took on July 25 2017
about the rescue vessel during a migrant
rescue operation in front of the Libyan
there were 160 a survivors aboard a
rubber boat and 13 corpses more people
had fallen into the water before we
found the boat they had to spend more
than 24 hours at sea on the high seas
and among the dead there were mothers
husbands and other relatives to the
survivors the situation in the central
Mediterranean root the most dangerous
one in the Mediterranean has been
largely published by the media and the
photographs taken by a great number of
photographers it helped to raise
awareness among some sectors of the
European population about the risk that
thousands of Africans are facing at sea
and they also helped to raise funds for
the organization of helping them but at
the same time the way those images were
published did also help to increase the
feelings of fear and wrath ISM among
some other sectors of the European
population the reaction of the Italian
authorities to the situation in Libya
and the central Mediterranean has been
to close the borders to reach an
agreement with Libyan authorities to
externalize the control of that border
and the criminalization of those NGOs
that were operating there I obviously
don’t think that photos and media’s can
be a reason for the European authorities
to reach agreements and to close borders
with Turkey Libya or Morocco but I do
believe that the way they are published
does influence the public debate the
constant reproduction of images by the
media of people arriving in southern
Europe without any context without a
good explanation doesn’t seem to help
for the people to empathize with the
story of those ones who appear in those
images for the journalism as you can see
can be a powerful tool but it can also
be a dangerous one depending on the
weight is used by the media I want to
jump now to the long term the long term
is what I find truly interesting well in
the short and midterm the consequences
of photographs are greatly affected by
the way they are used by the media it is
in the long term where we can observe
the power they have by themselves the
pictures that we are taking today will
remain in the future and will help us to
remember what we did what we allowed
others to do and what should never
happen again if we understand that
broadly speaking while we need in the
world is people who work for good by
their own will we must understand that
what we really need is education and
knowledge and I would also add the word
empathy environment family teachers
school schoolmates
many things have a key role to play on
these but also the bush we read the
movies we watch the information we
produce and therefore also the
photographs photographs are one of the
most simple units of information we can
produce if not the most simple one and
that’s why they have such a powerful
capacity to evoke emotions and to help
others to empathize with people they
don’t personally know I want to saw one
more picture this photo was taken by a
Lisa lay in congo in 1904 on the image
we see a man posing as he observes the
hand and foot of his five-year-old
daughter who had been dismembered for
not achieving to collect the amount of
rubber that the soldiers of King Leopold
from valium were forcing the native
population to collect sillies
photographs were used in a Human Rights
Campaign and they helped to start
putting an end to the colonial rule in
Congo I hope that the photographs that
we are taking today we have a similar
impact in the future as this photo had
on me the first time I saw it
excuse me I believed that
photojournalism can help us to make
questions to question ourselves it can
help us to empathize with others he can
bring awareness and knowledge and he can
push us to start thinking and I believe
that anything that make us think is
worth it
you [Music]
I would like to apologize first for my
English but also because for someone who
is used to be behind the cameras to be
in front of the audience can turn a bit
difficult so I will try not to suddenly
run away from the stage I will try my
best I want to start by showing some
pictures I took in southern Europe
these images are the end of the story so
let me please say start from the
beginning I studied sociology in Madrid
the city where I was born and also in
Amsterdam sociology is knowledge it
helps you to understand the world
something that seemed very interesting
to someone like me it teaches you that
realities are very complex and that the
answers impossible solutions to any
social problem usually tend to be so but
something didn’t work for me I kept
asking myself how could we transmit this
knowledge to each other in an effective
way while studying many of their great
and global problems climate change
hunger Wars migrations on a quality I
kept thinking how can it be that we know
so much about these problems but at the
same time nothing changes or it changes
very little or it changes very slowly
and the first word that constantly came
to my mind was empathy or I could say
the lack of empathy by the time I
started studying sociology I also
started as to learn photography I had
always liked to take pictures but if you
were a child in the 80s and 90s the
relationship with photography was very
different from the one we have nowadays
during years I became obsessed with the
idea of combining photography and
sociology photography and research
photography and writing thinking that
maybe that could be a way to bring these
theories to the audience and perhaps get
to learn and tell about the stories I
was interested on as you can see I was
in various mark since I was already
trying to invent a discipline that had
already existed for many years
photojournalism so I finally decided to
focus on photojournalism
but once again a very frequent question
in my profession kept coming to my mind
does photojournalism work to change
this is a question we asked many times
probably too many times and then we also
asked ourselves I believe it is a very
naive question but at the same time I
think it happens to be a true very
important question that we that we those
who devote their life to this profession
humanitarian crisis does not end with
the publication of a photograph neither
a war and it would be very nice to think
that way
but that doesn’t mean there is no value
in in this way of transmitting
information emotions and knowledge I
think that the effects of
photojournalism can be understood in the
short mid and long term and I will start
with short term in the short term
photojournalism can be used to call
attention in the past few years I have
spent a lot of time covering the migrant
roots in the Mediterranean and in Europe
and I would like to take advantage of
the fact that we are in Greece to give
an example of those possible positive
effects in the short term in 2015 I
guess you are alone more than 1 million
people reached across the Mediterranean
to reserve and about 800,000 did it
through the dnc people reach their lives
more than 3700 people died in the
attempt that year I want to show now
some photos I took on the Greek island
the last pictures were taken on October
28th 2015 that day a vote carrying 300
people from Turkey to the island of
Lesbos capsized that day a lot of people
died and that day there are very few
professional rescuers on the spot but at
least there were some of them and some
of those professionals told us they had
decided to travel to the Greek islands
after watching images photos and videos
that had been published in the previous
days weeks a month did anything change
maybe I’m the one who is too naive but
during that day and during many other
days I saw how professional rescue teams
that had decided to travel to the
islands after watching images saved
lives and that to me is a very small and
simple change that is worth it if the
publication of a photograph does impose
millions of people to the streets to
stop a war on the other side of the
world or to demand a solution to a
humanitarian crisis it would be a
mistake to think that that photograph
wasn’t worth it because that doesn’t
usually happen and it is very difficult
to achieve that goal very difficult
but there is another way to make this
work so photojournalism we can call the
attention of a certain number of a
specialized organizations that can
intervene in any specific crisis or that
can pose the authorities to act in a
different way I obviously don’t think
that photos and videos were the only
reason for those rescue teams to move to
the grid to the Greek islands but I do
believe that they played an important
role on that let’s move now to the
midterm in the mid term the constant
reproduction by the media of photographs
can be sometimes turn negative for the
story we are trying to tell even if we
don’t want that and we obviously don’t
want that to happen I want to so now
follow I study Malia in 2014 Malia is at
12 a square kilometres as punishing
clave
in northern Morocco and separated from
the Moroccan province of another by a
six meters high triple metal fence in
this photograph were not in the photo
but in that moment there were five
hundred young Africans jumping from
Morocco into Spain to enter European
soil during months I became obsessed
with the idea of taking this photo and
by the time it was published when I
finally shot it and it was published it
was published by many media but not
always in a way that seemed right to me
many outlets used images like this one
to spread a message of invasion while
for example the number of people that
managed to jump that fence during that
entire year was about 2,000 people and
that’s a very small figure for a place
of 500 million inhabitants such as the
European Union I want to show now some
other pictures I took on July 25 2017
about the rescue vessel during a migrant
rescue operation in front of the Libyan
there were 160 a survivors aboard a
rubber boat and 13 corpses more people
had fallen into the water before we
found the boat they had to spend more
than 24 hours at sea on the high seas
and among the dead there were mothers
husbands and other relatives to the
survivors the situation in the central
Mediterranean root the most dangerous
one in the Mediterranean has been
largely published by the media and the
photographs taken by a great number of
photographers it helped to raise
awareness among some sectors of the
European population about the risk that
thousands of Africans are facing at sea
and they also helped to raise funds for
the organization of helping them but at
the same time the way those images were
published did also help to increase the
feelings of fear and wrath ISM among
some other sectors of the European
population the reaction of the Italian
authorities to the situation in Libya
and the central Mediterranean has been
to close the borders to reach an
agreement with Libyan authorities to
externalize the control of that border
and the criminalization of those NGOs
that were operating there I obviously
don’t think that photos and media’s can
be a reason for the European authorities
to reach agreements and to close borders
with Turkey Libya or Morocco but I do
believe that the way they are published
does influence the public debate the
constant reproduction of images by the
media of people arriving in southern
Europe without any context without a
good explanation doesn’t seem to help
for the people to empathize with the
story of those ones who appear in those
images for the journalism as you can see
can be a powerful tool but it can also
be a dangerous one depending on the
weight is used by the media I want to
jump now to the long term the long term
is what I find truly interesting well in
the short and midterm the consequences
of photographs are greatly affected by
the way they are used by the media it is
in the long term where we can observe
the power they have by themselves the
pictures that we are taking today will
remain in the future and will help us to
remember what we did what we allowed
others to do and what should never
happen again if we understand that
broadly speaking while we need in the
world is people who work for good by
their own will we must understand that
what we really need is education and
knowledge and I would also add the word
empathy environment family teachers
school schoolmates
many things have a key role to play on
these but also the bush we read the
movies we watch the information we
produce and therefore also the
photographs photographs are one of the
most simple units of information we can
produce if not the most simple one and
that’s why they have such a powerful
capacity to evoke emotions and to help
others to empathize with people they
don’t personally know I want to saw one
more picture this photo was taken by a
Lisa lay in congo in 1904 on the image
we see a man posing as he observes the
hand and foot of his five-year-old
daughter who had been dismembered for
not achieving to collect the amount of
rubber that the soldiers of King Leopold
from valium were forcing the native
population to collect sillies
photographs were used in a Human Rights
Campaign and they helped to start
putting an end to the colonial rule in
Congo I hope that the photographs that
we are taking today we have a similar
impact in the future as this photo had
on me the first time I saw it
excuse me I believed that
photojournalism can help us to make
questions to question ourselves it can
help us to empathize with others he can
bring awareness and knowledge and he can
push us to start thinking and I believe
that anything that make us think is
worth it
you [Music]
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