How photography connects us David Griffin
[Music]
[Applause]
let’s just start by looking at some
great photographs this is an icon of
National Geographic an Afghan refugee
taken by Steve McCurry but the Harvard
Lampoon is about to come out with a
parody of National Geographic and I
shudder to think what they are going to
do to this photograph oh the wrath of
Photoshop this is a jet landing at San
Francisco by Bruce Dale oh he mounted
the camera on the tail poetic image for
a story on Tolstoy by Sam Abel pygmies
in the DRC by Randy Olson I love this
photograph because it reminds me of
Degas bronze sculptures the little
dancer a polar bear swimming in the
Arctic by Paul Nicklin polar bears need
ice to be able to move back and forth
they’re not very good swimmers and we
know what’s happening into the ice
these are camels moving across the Rift
Valley in Africa photographed by Chris
John’s
shot straight down so these are the
shadows of the camels this is a rancher
in Texas by William Albert Allard a
great portraitist
and Jane Goodall making her own special
connection photographed by Nick Nichols
this is a soap disco in Spain
photographed by David Alan Harvey and
David said that there was a lot of weird
stuff happening on the dance floor but
hey it’s at least it’s hygienic
these are sea lions in Australia doing
their own dance by David Doubilet
and this is a comet captured by dr. you
and Mason and finally the bow of the
Titanic without movie stars photographed
by Emory Kristof photography carries a
power that holds up under the relentless
swirl today’s saturated media world
because photographs emulate the way that
our mind freezes a significant moment
here’s an example four years ago I was
at the beach with my son and he was
learning how to swim in this relatively
soft surf of the Delaware Beaches but I
turned away for a moment and he got
caught into a Riptide and started to be
pulled out towards a jetty I went I can
stand here right now and see as I go
tearing into the water after him the
moment slowing down and freezing into
this arrangement I can see the rocks are
over here there’s a wave about to crash
onto him I can see his hands reaching
out and I can see his face in terror
looking at me saying help me dad I got
him the wave break Oh broke over us we
got back on shore he was fine we were a
little bit rattled but this flashbulb
memory as it’s called is when all the
elements came together to define not
just the event but my emotional
connection to it and this is what a
photograph taps into when it makes its
own powerful connection to a viewer now
I have to tell you I was talking to Kyle
last week about this that I was going to
tell this story he said oh yeah I
remember that too I remember my image of
you was that you were up on the shore
yelling at me
I thought I was a hero so this
represents this is a across sample of
some remarkable images taken by some of
the world’s greatest photo journalists
working at the very top of their craft
except one this photograph was taken by
dr. Ewen Mason in New Zealand last year
and it was submitted and published in
National Geographic last year we added a
section to our website called your shot
where anyone can submit photographs for
possible publication and it has become a
wild success tapping into the enthusiast
photography community the quality of
these amateur photographs can at times
be amazing and seeing this reinforces
for me that every one of us has at least
one or two great photographs in them but
to be a great photojournalist you have
to have more than just one or two great
photographs in you you’ve got to be able
to make them all the time but even more
importantly you need to know how to
create a visual narrative you need to
know how to tell a story so I’m going to
share with you some coverages that I
feel demonstrate the storytelling power
of photography photographer Nick Nichols
went to document a very small and
relatively unknown Wildlife Sanctuary in
Chad called zoo coma the original intent
was to travel there and bring back a
classic story of diverse species of an
exotic locale and that is what Nick did
up to a point this is a serval cat he’s
actually taking his own picture shot
with what’s called a camera trap there’s
an infrared beam that’s cutting across
and he stepped into the beam and taken
his photograph these are baboons at a
watering hole Nick or the camera again
an automatic camera took thousands of
pictures of this and Nick ended up with
a lot of pictures of the rear ends of
a lion having a late night snack notice
he’s got a broken tooth and a crocodile
walks up a riverbank towards its den I
love this little bit of water that comes
off the back of his tail but the
centerpiece species of zoo coma are the
elephants it’s one of the largest intact
herds in this part of Africa here’s a
photograph shot in moonlight something
that digital photography has made a big
difference for that was with the
elephants this story pivoted Nick along
with researcher dr. Michael Fay collared
the matriarch of the herd they named her
Annie and they began tracking her
movements the herd was safe within the
confines of the park because of this
dedicated group of Park Rangers but once
the annual rains began the herd would
begin migrating to feeding grounds
outside the park and that’s when they
ran into trouble for outside the safety
of the park were poachers who would hunt
them down only for the value of their
ivory tusks the matriarch that they were
radio tracking after weeks of moving
back and forth in and out of the park
came to a halt outside the park Annie
had been killed along with 20 members of
her herd and they only came for the
ivory
and this is actually one of the Rangers
they were able to chase off one of the
poachers and recover this ivory because
they couldn’t leave it there that it was
still valuable but what Nick did was he
brought back with it was a story that
went beyond the old-school method of
just straight isn’t this an amazing
world and instead created a story that
touched our audiences deeply instead of
just knowledge of this park he created
an understanding and an empathy for the
elephants the Rangers and the many
issues surrounding human wildlife
conflict now let’s go over to India
sometimes you can tell a broad story in
a focused way we were looking at the
same issue that Richard Wurman touches
upon in his new world population project
for the first time in history more
people live in urban rather than rural
environs and most of that growth is not
in the cities but in the slums that
surround them
Jonas bendixson a very energetic
photographer came to me and said we need
to document this and here’s my here’s my
proposal let’s go all over the world and
photograph every single slum around the
world and I said well you know that
might be a bit ambitious for our budget
so instead what we did was we decided to
instead of going out and doing what
would result in what we consider sort of
a survey story where you just go in and
see just a little bit of everything we
put Jonas into Dharavi
which is part of Mumbai India and let
him stay there and really get into the
heart and soul of this really you know
major part of the city what Jonas did
was not just go and do a surface look at
the awful conditions that exists in such
places he saw that this was a living and
breathing and vital part of how the
entire urban area functioned by staying
tightly focused in one place Jonah’s
tapped in to the soul and the enduring
human spirit that underlies this
community and he did it in a beautiful
way sometimes though the only way to
tell a story is with the sweeping
picture we teamed up underwater
photographer Brian scary and
photojournalist Randy Olson to document
the depletion of the world’s fisheries
we weren’t the only ones to tackle this
subject but the photographs that Bryan
and Randy created are among the best
capture both the human and natural
devastation of overfishing here in a
photo by Brian a seemingly crucified
shark is caught up in a gill net off of
Baja I’ve seen sort of okay pictures of
by catch the animals accidentally
scooped up while fishing for a specific
species but here Brian captured a unique
view by positioning himself underneath
the boat when they threw the waste
overboard and Brian then went on to even
greater risk to get this never before
made photograph of a trawl net scraping
the ocean bottom back on land Randy
Olson photographed a makeshift fish
market in Africa where the remains of
filleted fish were sold to the locals
the main parts having already been sent
to Europe and here in China
Randy shot a jellyfish market as prime
food sources are depleted the harvest
goes deeper into the oceans and brings
in more such sources of protein this is
called fishing down the food chain but
there are also glimmers of hope and I
think anytime we’re doing a big big
story on this we’re not only going we’re
not we don’t really want to go and just
look at all the problems we also want to
look for solutions and Brian
photographed a Marine Sanctuary in New
Zealand where commercial fishing had
been banned the result being that the
overfished species have been restored
and with them a possible solution for
sustainable fisheries photography can
also compel us to confront issues that
are potentially distressing and
controversial James Nachtwey who was
honored last year at last year’s Ted
took a look at the sweep of the medical
system that is utilized to handle the
American wounded coming out of Iraq it
is like a tube where a wounded soldier
enters on one end and exits back home on
the other Jim started in the battlefield
here a medical technician tends to a
wounded soldier on the helicopter ride
back to the field hospital
here is in the field hospital the
soldier on the right has the name of his
daughter tattooed across his chest as a
reminder of home from here the more
severely wounded are transported back to
Germany where they meet up with their
families for the first time
and then back to the states to
recuperate at Veterans Hospitals such as
here in Walter Reed and finally often
fitted with high-tech prothesis they
exit the medical system and attempt to
regain their pre-war lives Jim took what
could have been a straight-up medical
science story and gave it a human
dimension that touched our readers
deeply now these stories are great
examples of how photography can be used
to address some of our most important
topics but there are also times when
photographers simply encounter things
that are when it comes down to it just
plain fun photographer Paul Nicklin
traveled to Antarctica to shoot a story
on leopard seals they have been rarely
photographed partly because they are
considered one of the most dangerous
predators in the ocean in fact a year
earlier a researcher had been grabbed by
one and pulled down to depth and killed
so you could imagine Paul was maybe a
little bit hesitant about getting into
the water now what leopard seals do
mostly is they eat penguins
you know of the march of the Penguins
this is sort of the munch of the
Penguins here a penguin goes up to the
edge and looks out to see if the coast
is clear and then everybody kind of runs
out and goes out but then Paul got in
the water and he he said he was never
really afraid of this well this this one
female came up to him she’s probably
it’s a shame you can’t see it in the
photograph but she’s 12 feet long so she
is pretty significant in size and Paul
said he was never really afraid because
she was more curious about him than
threatened this mouthing behavior on the
right was really her way of saying to
him hey look how look how big I am or
you know my what big teeth you have
then Paul thinks that she simply took
pity on him to her here was this big
goofy creature in the water that for
some reason didn’t seem to be interested
in chasing penguins so what she did was
she started to bring penguins to him
alive and put them in front of him she
dropped them off and then they would
swim away she kind of look at him go
what are you doing go back and get them
and then bring them back and drop them
in front of him
she did this for over the course of a
couple of days until the point where she
got so frustrated with him that she
started putting them directly on top of
his head it’s just resulted in a
fantastic photograph eventually though
Paul thinks that she just figured that
he was never going to survive this is
her kind of just puffing out you know
snorting out and sort of disgust and
lost interest with him and went back to
what she does best Paul set out to
photograph a relatively mysterious and
unknown creature and came back with not
just a collection of photographs but an
amazing experience and a great story it
is these kinds of stories ones that go
beyond the immediate or just the
superficial that demonstrate the power
of photojournalism I believe that
photography can make a real connection
to people and can be employed as a
positive agent for understanding the
challenges and opportunities facing our
world today thank you