Under the supervision of Peter Little of Emory University, Aubrey Graham will explore how the photographic documentation produced by international aid agencies working in conflict zones relates to local understandings of conflict and humanitarian effort. International aid agencies number more than 25,000 worldwide; and the images they produce has profoundly influenced international public policy. Through novel methods that use photography, participant observation, and interviews, this project analyzes the connections and contrasts between humanitarian and local visual culture and practice in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) -- the site of both the deadliest conflict since WWII and one of the world's largest humanitarian efforts.
In balancing local and aid agency perspectives through the comparison of local visual culture and humanitarian visual culture (photographs created for aid agencies) this project will produce data that shows how humanitarian photographic practices and processes impact local and international relationships. The unique mixed method approach of this project will enable it to make transformative contributions to the fields of visual anthropology and the anthropology of development and humanitarianism.
In addition to educating a graduate student in anthropology, this project will also influence public policy efforts in the areas of conflict resolution, humanitarianism, and development practice.
This 12-months of supported field work was carried out in North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. By focusing on photography, the research examined how networks of humanitarian aid, power struggles, and conflict intersect and influence individuals' day-to-day lives. The original research question asked ‘What are the implications of humanitarian photography in a region saturated with aid for over 20 years?’ Through this research, the question has expanded to look at both local Congolese and humanitarian photographic practices to understand the broader implications of photography upon identity and the politics of the region. To do so, this research engaged novel photographic methods (such as the co-creative portraits, shadowing and direct photography) and more traditional anthropological practices (participant observation and interviews). Based out of the provincial capital of Goma, it examines the relationship between, and how individuals navigate across the overlapping fields of local (vernacular – mainly photo studio) and humanitarian (images created for aid / development agencies' use) photography. By paying attention to vectors of power and individual’s attempts at controlling the meaning carried within the photograph, this research shows that the photograph creates space to both enact and literally view the politics of a region. The outcomes of this research include: 1) A clear understanding of the bureaucratic and cultural structures that shape what type of photography is created both in the city of Goma and by humanitarian aid agencies throughout the province of North Kivu. By understanding the pressures on how the images are create (and who struggles to control the meaning) as opposed to simply analyzing them for context, this research has shown how it might be possible to make humanitarian photography more responsive to its subjects and thereby, more ethical. 2) The examination of the bureaucratic structures and the resulting power struggles around the photograph’s content and use has exposed two distinct spaces where the current structure produces ‘practice’ that acts contrary to its ‘policy’. More specifically, as aid agencies increasingly profess a policy-based desire to take photographs that show ‘dignity and hope’ they nonetheless, through two structural loopholes (1) their relationship with journalists and contract photographers and 2) their lack of clear communication with local partner agencies), continue to undermine their policy, and enable the creation of images that show suffering and need instead of hope. 3) The research has shown how the repetition of humanitarian photography in the eastern DRC has perpetuated beliefs about what humanitarian aid 'should' do. While the population of the DRC does not often see humanitarian images, they nonetheless witness them as they are created. Thus the actions of the agencies' representatives in the ‘field’ carry increased meaning. This research argues that photography can create ‘half promises’ to individuals and fuel the belief that aid will be provided to quell the need that was depicted in the image. Such an action responds to the social politics of aid in the region and also fuel an ongoing frustration with in the population. 4) Within Anthropology this research provides the following outcomes: A deeply researched ethnography of local and humanitarian aid photographic practices in North Kivu, DRC. A novel set of photographic methodologies and theories that can be reformatted to fit other research conducted by others later. A critique of development / humanitarian aid addressing their images and the structure of the overarching bureaucracy. This research has already resulted in the outcomes of two peer-reviewed journal article publications and a photographic exhibition: 'Portraits in Disneyland - Stories from Mugunga III'. The exhibition encourages the public to critically engage with images in order to raise questions about the politics of humanitarian aid photography and visual images more broadly.
