Becoming What We Oppose
November 30, 2024 by Angela Maloney
He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Lori A. Cash and I started the Responsible Photography Collective because few were talking about the importance of practicing photography responsibly. Yet irresponsible photography practices were at the root of so many problems. Witness the number of people who have died taking selfies. Or note the number of people who have done things like pulling a bear cub down from a tree to take photos with it. Or the sexual harassment and exploitation of models. And the list goes on.
One result of my work with the Responsible Photography Collective is an invitation to participate in an exhibition being held in 2025 in New South Wales, Australia. The theme is the human impact on planet Earth.
I happen to live in an area where there is a great deal of coal mining and power generation occurring. It’s a great place to be to produce work about humanity’s impact on the Earth. And that topic is of great personal interest to me. So, of course, I accepted the invitation.
Since then, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at power lines, smokestacks, massive conveyer belts, and open pit mines. There is no shortage of such subjects here. But many of these subjects, especially the open pit mines, are fenced off, making it difficult to get a good shot.
One of the local smoke stacks captured in this study being used to produce an eventual image for exhibition.
Of course, I often have the opportunity to walk past a gate or a “no entry” sign. Security here is much more relaxed than what I’m used to in the U.S. And I’d be totally justified because I’d be doing it to protect the planet we all live on, right?
Well, maybe not. In fact, that type of thinking where the means justify the ends, and where it is okay to trespass or violate other laws, is a dangerous line of thinking. Though this may seem melodramatic to say, it’s what Nietzsche warned about when he wrote about those who fight with monsters becoming monsters themselves or abysses of darkness staring back at those who stare at them.
It's amazing how tempting it is to take the extra step and feel justified—I’m responsible, I’m doing it in the service of the good cause. I wouldn’t be hurting anyone. I’d just be there to gather information to use in doing my small part to save the planet.
Of course, I’d also be committing a crime. I’d potentially damage property, however unintentionally. Maybe I’d even get myself—or someone else—killed. Certainly, I’d be giving others good grounds to criticize me as a hypocrite because I was the irresponsible photographer myself.
Curiously enough, that line of reasoning is also the same I’ve heard many irresponsible persons employ. Often they argue that their actions, while damaging or illegal, are de minimus and, therefore, are justified by the pleasure that their action may bring them.
I don’t mean to suggest that there is no place for civil disobedience or that all rules, no matter how unjust, must always be obeyed. But perhaps getting a good photograph is not enough justification to break the rules.
In fact, as photographers, getting the good photograph is our trade. We don’t simply search the world for pretty, compelling things. We find the ordinary things and force them to be beautiful or—as is my goal now—compelling and thought provoking. We do this even when we cannot take the shot from the ideal place we’d like to. It’s our job.
A single tree is that all that stands in a clearcut field with powerlines in the background.
I, for one, don’t want to be accused of becoming the very thing I have objected to—an irresponsible person doing irresponsible things to get a photograph. It’s the opposite of being a responsible photographer. So I will rely on my skills to make things interesting, even if I can’t get the ideal shot. That’s what being a responsible photographer is about.