On June 15, 2017 Fran Meckler, a documentary photographer, showcased her photo collection “Fading Traditions: Papua New Guinea in Color”. Students in the Summer Institute were able to meet with her and discuss how her photos were a method to bring injustices to light. Below is a student’s reflection on meeting with Fran Meckler and her thoughts on photography as a way for advocacy.
A couple of weeks
ago, I was fortunate enough to interview Malak Shahin, the founder and
editor-in-chief of Ascend Magazine, for an article I
was writing on literary activism. Shahin is a Palestinian-American who cares
deeply about effecting social change, especially in securing justice for
Palestine. The goal of Ascend was to provide a creative space where art
and protest could intersect. When I asked her whether she believed that art was
inherently connected to activism, she responded with: “Art is a form of
self-determination...giving people the resources to make art can, in some ways,
be liberating or at the very least a step towards liberation.”
While Shahin, as a
college student, is very different from Meckler, I couldn’t help but notice the
parallels between the two. During our Q&A session with her, Meckler
repeatedly stated that she wanted to provide voices to the voiceless; it was
her responsibility to effect change as a global citizen. And while I do believe
that Shahin is more in her place and element--her parents are both citizens of
Palestine and have been directly impacted by the actions of Israel--I really
think that both have a lot to learn from each other. Meckler’s stories on the
culture of Papua New Guinea were enlightening, and I think it just goes to show
the impact storytelling has on education. Art and activism are directly
correlated, and Meckler’s photography revealed much of that concept.
After reading the article
The Importance of
Photography in the Fight for Civil Rights, I was struck by
the fact that images can be the most honest way of showing something that needs
to be shown. Many of Meckler’s photos took subtle parts of tribal life and
transformed them into distinct segments of a narrative. Meckler spoke a bit
about how a few countries were viewed as potentially dangerous to travel to, but
that were often quite receptive to photos. I think that just goes to show that
photos are only a way of reflecting real events and real people. As mentioned
in the article, cameras can be used as “weapons against all social wrongs.”
Quiet depictions of inequality are powerful. As a health educator, Meckler was
very much drawn to portraying the human condition; she wanted to show that the human
experience is universal, not limiting.
While art and
activism are mediums I’m uniquely familiar with as a writer/artist of color, I
was very much impressed by Meckler’s initiative in pursuing her passion of
social change, especially with her organization PhotoPhilanthropy. The truth
behind her photos reminded me of a picture in TIME’s 100 Most Influential
Photos titled The Face of Aids, which was known
as the photo that brought humanity to a disease that had killed so many. I
think Meckler would have appreciated that, being a health educator. Though the
subject matter of the photos--Meckler’s were about rural culture in Papua New
Guinea, and Frare’s photo was about the AIDS epidemic in the U.S--were
completely different, they shared a same deliberate purpose.
What Meckler’s
presentation has taught me is that art, especially photography, will always be
a form of truth. It isn’t up to the public to give us those spaces for creating
social change; it’s up to us to create those spaces ourselves. Meckler’s
photography was just another way of emphasizing the fact that producing art
that tells a story matters, and it’s up to us as citizens and human beings to
tell those stories, and ultimately claim a space for them.
- Valerie Wu
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