research
MASTERCLASS: the power and the impact of contributor-led storytelling
This talk explains the ethics of storytelling about real people, specifically in the humanitarian and development sector, and advocates for telling stories in partnership with the people who have lived those experiences. The talk considers three key questions:
Who gets to see?
Who gets to speak?
What is the responsibility of the teller of real life stories?
Originally recorded as a Masterclass at the University of Huddersfield in February 2023.
PUBLICATION: who owns the story?
The ‘Who Owns the Story?’ study, created in partnership with David Girling from UEA, involved two appeal packs going head-to-head with supporters, the first time live financial responses to fundraising campaigns have been tested by a charity.
Charities and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) are often criticised for the use of their imagery and messaging in fundraising appeals. While there have been many recent positive examples of shifts towards what is often known as responsible or ethical storytelling from Euro-US based charities telling stories about those outside this region, the power to decide what story is told and how still firmly resides within the fundraising countries. The researchers aimed to explore how UK audiences respond financially and emotionally to stories of poverty developed and told directly by the image ‘subject’ in their own words, as opposed to fundraising materials designed by the charity.
PUBLICATION: “THE SWEETEST SONGS” - ETHICAL FRAMING IN FUNDRAISING
Much of the discussion on the ethics of the framing of service users in fundraising and marketing materials focuses on the ethical dilemma of whether the means of using negative framing and negatively-framed images—which it is argued are more effective at raising money—justify that end if they cause harm by stereotyping and “othering” the people so framed, rob them of their dignity, and fail to engage people in long-term solutions. Attempts to find the right balance between these two ethical poles have proved elusive. This paper posits a new ethical solution by removing these two poles from the equation and making the ethicality of fundraising frames contingent on the voice and agency of service users/contributors to tell their own stories and contribute to their own framing: as the Niger proverb says, “a song sounds sweeter from the author's mouth.”
ARTICLE: ANTICIPATED AND UNANTICIPATED VOICES
This essay was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to critically reflect on the content generated by the Provisional Semantics project and looks at wider ethical considerations in photography. This project recognised the need for additional context when we look at historical images of people whose names or thoughts have not been captured alongside the image. This acknowledged that the men pictured in this archive were not symbols or objects of colonialism, as they have been presented in these photographs, but humans full of all that fills a human.
PUBLICATION: THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES
The People in the Pictures is a piece of research carried out between 2015 and 2017 in partnership with Siobhan Warrington from Oral Testimony Works. We investigated what those who feature in Save the Children’s communications materials think about the process of gathering their stories and their later portrayal. It is the largest study of its kind and the first to ask contributors for their opinions in these issues.
PUBLICATION: Putting the contributor centre frame. What the people in our pictures think about the way we tell their stories
Putting the contributor centre frame is a green paper published by the think tank Rogare in May 2020. In this paper, number three in the ‘You’ve been reframed’ series, I assess all the research available looking at what contributors think about their representations in charity communications. A digested and easy to read trip through this topic.
BLOG: Race and representation in NGO storytelling. Responses to 5 frequently asked questions
Co-authored with five amazing women, together we try to answer the questions we hear most often on this topic.
BLOG: Informed Consent - Why Conversations Are Crucial
If someone you had never met turned up at your house and started taking photos of you and your family how would you feel? In this blog myself and Tamsin Maunder try and answer this question and outline some practical suggestions for good consent processes.
PODCAST: The Photo Ethics Podcast
In this podcast I am interviewed by the founder and director of the Photo Ethics Centre Savannah Dodd about my career, my research, and my thinking on image making as a process of partnership between the image maker and the person who is sharing their story.
PODCAST: Is NGO storytelling unethical? The Bond Podcast
In this podcast I discuss this question with Ernest Randriarimalala, communications specialist at WaterAid Madagascar, and Rachel Erskine, communications manager at Amref Health Africa UK.
TALK: Magnum Photos Now. Empathy and Photography
In this talk at the Barbican Centre in London, alongside Olivia Arthur and Colin Pantall we try and unpack this topic (from 00: 46).