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Living picturesThe facts depicted in these pictures are history. The photographers have left the scene, the people have moved on and everything has changed since the pictures were made. Yet the dumb facts of the photographs are only the top skin of the story beneath which lies a deeper truth that speaks with a silent voice, a voice from the past that addresses the future. These pictures are not created as a memory, like a family snapshot to be stored and savoured as a reminder of times past; nor are they created as a journalistic record of moments that have come and gone to be filed in the archives for record and analysis. These pictures are more than that; they are vital documents of courage, strength and fortitude, an expression of the living spirit that millions daily experience in the face of the epidemic. Transcending the journalist's stark factual record of "What Where & When" these pictures bring us face to face with the truth that newspaper captions often leave out, the "Who, How & Why". We have developed immunity to the anonymous statistics of this epidemic, but the people who have given their faces to these stories have something to say. They are telling us what they have learned about survival. It's not an easy story, and the photographs speak with an immediacy that denies the viewer the comfort of distance. The pictures spark recognition of ourselves and in the faces of strangers we see the hope and strength to which we aspire and also the pain and despair that we fear in our future. The photographers have held a mirror to the world and in it we see ourselves in our glory and our shame: we see power and powerlessness, affluence and poverty, success, failure and survival. In these photographs are lessons from the people who have been here before us and with their experience comes wisdom about coping with the continuing crisis. The pictures are done but the story is not ended. We are familiar with the many roles that photographs play in the world: sometimes they store memories, sometimes they sell products, sometimes they inform and sometimes, very occasionally they alter the world. Change is not the responsibility of the photographer but rather it is our job as viewers, the new custodians of the images, to reach into the pictures to find the tools we need to face the future. Whether we find a private source of courage, a new understanding of our strengths or recognition of our vulnerability these pictures are about all of us. The facts are history, but the truths they tell are about our future. Stephen Mayes |
