Ethics of Documentary Photography
AmberSide hosted this panel with Sarah Waiswa, Liz Hingley, and Savannah Dodd. This was the second in their series of talks about the ethics of image making. We discussed representation, long term engaged photography, and the differences in approach between documentary, journalism, and art photography. The panellists shared images, stories, and experiences from their own practices, then opened the conversation wider to discuss the ethical framework needed to work with integrity.
Liz Hingley is a photographer and anthropologist born and raised in Birmingham, a UK city home to over 180 nationalities. Her work explores the systems of belonging and belief that shape cities around the world.
Liz’s projects have received numerous awards, including The Photophilanthropy Award, Prix Virginia and Getty Editorial Grant. Her work reaches audiences around the world through publications, workshops and exhibitions, in locations ranging from galleries to gardens, from hospitals to streets. Her book Under Gods (2010), produced with the support of a two-year scholarship at FABRICA in Italy became an international touring exhibition. As a Visiting Scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences she produced three further photographic and academic books, End Of Lines (2013), Sacred Shanghai (2019), Shanghai Sacred (2020). Her work is held in collections in the USA and UK.
Liz is currently artist in residence in the Digital Humanities department at Kings College London and previously held positions within University College London, SOAS University, and University of Austin Texas. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Birmingham and co-creator of PHYART, a platform for dialogue between artists and scientists. Liz is curatorial advisor to Side Gallery and a trustee of AmberSide. She lecturers in photography at University of West England.
Sarah Waiswa is an award winning Ugandan documentary photographer, living and working between Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi Kenya. After getting both her sociology and psychology degrees and working in a corporate position for a number of years, she decided to pursue photography full time. Her desire is to illustrate the plight of various social issues on the continent, in a contemporary and non-traditional way.
In 2015, she was awarded first place in the story and creative categories in the Uganda Press Photo Awards and second place in the Daily Life and portrait categories. in 2016 she was awarded the Discovery Award in Arles, France for her series Stranger in a Familiar Land. In 2017 she was awarded the Gerald Kraal Award in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2018 she was named a Canon Brand Ambassador and was selected for the World Press Photo 6×6 Africa Program. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Vogue just to name a few.
A storyteller, Sarah’s work focuses on identity and explores themes surrounding isolation, belonging and spirituality. She is particularly interested in reporting about women’s issues.
Savannah Dodd is an anthropologist and photographer based in Belfast. She founded the Photography Ethics Centre in 2017 with the aim of raising awareness about the ethics of taking and sharing photographs and other visual media. Her work involves developing educational content on photography ethics for both online and offline delivery. Savannah lectures and facilitates workshops for international audiences from a variety of sectors including academia, media and communications, and international development.
Savannah received her M.A. in anthropology and sociology from the Graduate Institute of International Development Studies in Geneva (2015) and her B.A. in anthropology and religious studies at Washington University in St. Louis (2012). Prior to founding the Centre, she worked in the development sector for NGOs and IGOs in Switzerland, Uganda, and Thailand.
Alongside her work with the Centre, Savannah undertakes independent photography projects. She is currently working on a photobook about the lived experience of dementia, with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland. She also pursuing her PhD in anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast where she is examining the ethics of archiving photographs of civil conflict in post-conflict societies.
