Should Photographers Interfere?

I come to this question this week after the murder of Ki-Suck Han who was pushed onto the subway tracks in New York. The photographer who shot a picture of the man on the tracks, R. Umar Abbasi, is now under attack for not trying to save the man. He defended himself by saying there was nothing he could have done for the man.

It reminds me of the story of Kevin Carter, whom we learned about in class. He was ostracized for not helping a starving Sudanese child of whom he took a photo in the early '90s. In the photo, the child is shown crawling to a U. N. feeding center; a vulture stands nearby, waiting. Carter ended up taking his own life when he was no longer able to cope with the backlash of this photo, among other things. From what I learned in class, Carter could not help the child because of the risk of disease.

In each instance the photographer did not intervene. Is that okay? I think it depends on the circumstances. The photographer, as with any bystander, shouldn't be expected to put him or herself in danger. The choices must be weighed in each circumstance. I would be the first one to step in if I saw a bunch of 10-year-olds bullying a 7-year-old, but if a grown man was attacking a smaller man, I wouldn't put myself in the middle. But I would call the cops.

So, it all really depends on the choices made in those few critical seconds. Could Abbasi have done anything to help the man. I think trying to grab his hand would have been a nice gesture of humanity, but I don't know how close the train was when this happened. Was there time for that? I just can't judge this man for not putting his own life at risk.

In Carter's case, what more could he have done? He probably had a little more time than Abbasi, but what could he do? The child in the photo was most likely not the only starving child in the area. Could he have walked to the feeding center to get food for her? Would the staff at the feeding center allow that? If he got food for her, would he then have to go back for each other starving child? Where would it end? I don't know... because I don't know the circumstances. So I can't judge his choice either.

I feel for Ki-Suck Han's family. It must have been a horrific few seconds of panic, something that no one should have to experience. But I don't think it was Abbasi's fault, so he shouldn't be blamed for it. I hope society will learn from the past and not judge this man too harshly for what he could not control.

(On a side note, whether or not the photo should have run on the front page of the New York Post, is another question all together...)