catching.ink

latimes:

Barbara Davidson, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer in feature photography, talks about the back story behind her front page photo of the famine in Somalia.

Photo: Aug. 3, 2011, edition of the Los Angeles Times front page.

From Davidson: 

The day before I made this photo, the hospital was off-limits to all journalists after a photographer had gotten into a physical confrontation with a refugee over her picture being taken without her consent. When I arrived on the crowded, sweltering ward, all I heard was a chorus of sick children crying out in pain. Some were too weak and malnourished to even move and lay lifeless in their desperate mothers’ arms.

It was here, in this place of despair, where I met Hawa and her child. Through my translator, I learned that she was the mother of nine children, four of whom had died in Somalia along with her husband, who died from an unknown illness. She had walked for a month with her five young children to the refugee camp to escape the famine in Somalia. Her son Abdi was in the hospital for a month and was suffering from acute malnutrition. His emaciated body was covered in a painful rash. I asked if it would be OK to photograph her as she tended to her son. I explained to her that people in the United States needed to see the devastating effects of the famine. She said it would be OK.

Consent can be tricky, and am always appreciative for examples of this delicate exchange done well. Have seen confrontation, too, and how it distracts. Tough stuff.