Fotoğrafın Sırtındaki Yük (≈The Burden on Photography’s Shoulders)

Refik Akyüz, Serdar Darendeliler

IstanbulArtNews, October 2015, Issue 24

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"Not a day goes by without our encountering heartbreaking news reports and photographs in newspapers, news bulletins, or on social media about Syrian refugees fleeing the war in their country and trying to reach Europe. Among the tens of thousands of Syrians who, in the hope of reaching a safer life, have attempted to make the dangerous crossing from Turkey’s shores—where they had taken refuge for a long time, albeit only as “guests”—to the Greek islands, the first point of European Union territory where they hoped to attain “refugee” status, was three-year-old Aylan Kurdi. He was one of those who tried to make the journey in an inflatable dinghy but never completed it. The photograph of his tiny body washed ashore on the beaches of Bodrum, and the relatively increased willingness of Europe to open its doors to refugees that followed the photograph’s extensive coverage in the international press, once again brought to the fore the debate over whether photographs have the power to put an end to such tragedies and change—or improve—the world.

In the days that followed, numerous newspapers and magazines published lists under headlines such as “photographs that changed the world,” attempting to demonstrate the power of photography. In response to the backlash it received for publishing the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, and in order to emphasize the importance of news photography, the German newspaper Bild published its 9 September issue with all the spaces normally reserved for photographs left blank.

It was even claimed that this photograph, taken by DHA photographer Nilüfer Demir, would have a global impact comparable to Nick Ut’s iconic photograph of the Vietnamese girl running and screaming in agony with burns covering her body after being caught in the effects of a napalm bomb dropped “by mistake”—a photograph widely credited with helping to galvanize the American anti-war movement and ultimately contributing to the end of the twenty-year Vietnam War. The suggestion was that Demir’s photograph might similarly trigger a new wave of mass pressure capable of prompting the European Union to take action and bring the refugee crisis to an end.

But does a photograph really possess the power to accomplish such a thing? Or is photography—much like the way we have approached its relationship with reality—merely a totem that we have convinced ourselves possesses this power, a construct we have created with our own hands?"

(Translation of the excerpt from the article)

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[Click here to view and download the full article in Turkish as the original PDF.]