CRITICAL PHOTOJOURNALISM

Mengwen Cao (they/them) is queer photographer, artist, educator and somatic coach creating multimedia portals for collective transformation. Born and raised in Hangzhou, China, they are currently based in New York. 

One of the most important things for a photojournalist to have is curiosity about other people's lives and respect for those people sharing their lives with us. Also, having the research skills to put one person or individual stories into a larger society framework. Photojournalism is about building relationships, building trust and having patience, not just getting access or following a story. 

I personally don't like the word sympathy because I think that immediately puts you above the people you're photographing. From my experience, you’re sometimes photographing people who on paper might look like they are not having a great life, but meeting them and spending time with them made me realize this kind of standard is really opposite to the reality of people’s experiences. Obviously, they are going through hardships. But I've also seen so much resilience, so much strength and so much joy from spending time with them in their daily life. I find that when we go into the story, framing them as the disadvantaged, it's actually taking power away from them. 

I once photographed this Mexican immigrant from El Paso who had crossed the border multiple times and been kidnapped by a Coyote at one point. So, on paper his life is very hard. But when I spent several days with him, he was driving this food truck around and living with his wife and daughter. I was there with the writer and we did a video interview with him where she was asking a lot of questions that were just about information, like just the hard facts (which are also extremely important). But I noticed she didn't ask anything that was a human to human conversation, like, when you first meet someone you want to know how they're feeling, what lessons have they learned from their life, etc. So, I asked him what dreams he had for his daughter, who was I think 6 or 7 years old at the time. At that question, he immediately teared up. He looked completely different compared to when he was answering those factual questions and he said he wanted his daughter to grow up to be a border patrol agent. I was really shocked. I asked him why he said that, and he said because he wanted his daughter to help people like him. This kind of paradox of wanting his daughter to grow up to reinforce the border, but in the way of helping people cross, it's so fascinating. The day after the interview, the translator, the writer and I were having dinner and the writer said, “good job getting him to cry, it's so amazing that you made him cry.” That made me feel disgusted.

I think empathy is so important, but so is curiosity and respect. They are all part of empathy. Especially for photojournalists, we are the people who are on site with the people we're documenting and it is such a privilege to be let into someone's life. Every time people allow me to enter their space as a stranger, I go into it kind of as a stranger at first, as someone who is curious about another person's life. I personally don't like to immediately start with photography. I think it's a little violating. We talk about the camera as a weapon and I truly believe that the camera is more than a weapon. I think it can also be used as a tool to bring people closer. It can do so many things. But it is, ultimately, an intrusive tool between a human and another human. So for journalists, I think we have a lot of responsibility to reflect on the way we use the tool to soften this weapon a little bit, to protect us, and to protect the people we're photographing. That's where empathy really plays into it. You are building a connection first, and then, with their permission, you are bringing your camera to take a photo of them. Not the reverse.

Another thing about that story of the migrant family: we were staying in this fancy Marriott hotel in El Paso where every night the hotel fee was maybe around $250. I remember as I was talking to the guy he said that every day if he can earn $200, that's a big win. So, I again thought of this irony, that we parachuted there — the writer only stayed there for the interview and I stayed there for 3 days following them around — and when we left we received an award for that report, but what changes did we bring to them? And I remember asking the editor if we could do something like a fundraiser for the family but they said, well that is against journalism ethics.

I don't have an answer. I know on a larger scheme, journalism is helping inform people about what's happening there, at the border. But at the same time, if the stories are going out without bringing actual changes to the people who are sharing stories, for me that makes me question what I was doing. So, I think that was a big turning point for me to find a balance for myself to justify this kind of work.