Photography Ethics Symposium: On Documenting and Exhibiting Vulnerability
The aim of the Photography Ethics Symposia is to promote conversation and critical thought about ethics in photography. This year, for the fourth annual symposia, we worked with RedEye: The Photography Network to approach the topic of vulnerability from multiple angles. We discuss the ethical implications of documenting vulnerability in others, of photographing our own vulnerabilities, and of exhibiting such photographs with care. We also explore how we can exhibit vulnerability in ourselves. When we make mistakes and our ethics are questioned, it can feel like a personal affront. What happens if, instead of responding with defensiveness, we respond from a place of openness to being wrong and to learning something new? How could such moments inspire our own development as photographers, foster productive conversations about ethics, and promote positive change in the industry?
On December 2, 2022, we heard from three photographers: Raphaela Rosella, Justin Carey and Sophie Harris-Taylor. The speakers’ presentations were followed by a roundtable discussion.
Raphaela Rosella is an Australian artist of Italian immigrant and Anglo-Celtic convict/settler descent who resides in Meanjin/Brisbane. Raphaela’s practice draws from her lived experience of being raised in an over-policed, low socioeconomic community in New South Wales, Australia. Working at the intersections of socially engaged art and long-form documentary practice, Raphaela has spent over fifteen years co-creating photo-based projects alongside her friends, family members and extended kin. Their co-created archive has been exhibited at art exhibitions, including Photo Biennale Photoquai in France, Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art for Organ Vida International Photography Festival in Croatia, and The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Australia.
Justin Carey was the recipient of a ReFramed bursary in 2020 to create work about the COVID-19 pandemic, the outcome of which was exhibited at FORMAT photography festival in 2021 and published in the book The Travelling World Is Not Arriving. His project titled Reaching Out Into The Dark was shown at Studio1.1 gallery in London in 2018. He was featured in season 1 of The Photo Ethics Podcast in 2020. He is currently based in Birmingham, UK.
Sophie Harris-Taylor documents the personal lives and experiences of herself and of others. Loosely based in portraiture, her practice is often a combination of images and text. Opening conversations and telling people's stories, which may otherwise go unspoken. The themes are driven by her own preoccupations and vulnerabilities as a way for her to process and digest through the lives of others. Sophie has had three books published, ‘Milk’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘MTWTFSS (Chapter 1).’ Sophie has been selected for the Taylor Wessing Prize, Creative Review Photography Annual, the BJP Portrait of Britain, and others. Sophie was born in London, where she still lives.
