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The New York Times is running a slideshow by photographer Jan Grarup about life in the Daadab, reportedly the oldest refugee camp in the world. "The strength of the project rests within its immediacy," Mr. Grarup said. "It has an honesty to it." I was in Daadab not so long ago myself. I may not have been there for long but I was there long enough to notice that life in the camp wasn't one you would wish on the  worst of your neighbors -Kenyans and Somalis from Somalia aren't the best of neighbors. In the camps there is of course suffering but I would also have loved to see images of the children that were playing in the camp, images of the schools set up, images of the street with all the shops where refugees who've refused to be victims of circumstances are taking charge and rebuilding their lives. Where are the photos of the weddings that happen in the camp and where are the photos of people who despite their many tribulations, still observe prayers without fail? Where are the photos telling the other side of the story?

One surefire way to irritate blind people is to think that you can put a blindfold on for an hour or two and understand what it is to be blind. It sounds like a good idea until you really start to think about it. I should know. I once set out to make a radio documentary for the BBC about the contrasting ways in which the visually impaired and the sighted experience the countryside.

In the vanguard of the Marines, the press corps had already stormed Somailia. Now we will see more of the famailiar pictures of grotesque human degradation, with foreign angels of mercy ministering to starving children, juxtaposed with images of trigger-happy teen-age looters. Such pictures prompted President Bush's military adventure-now they will justify it. The camera can't lie, we are told. But anyone who has watched a Western film crew in an African famine will know just how much effort it takes to compose the "right" image. Photogenic starving children are hard to find, even in Somalia. Somali doctors and nurses have expressed shock at the conduct of film crews in hospitals. They rush through crowded corridors, leaping over stretchers, dashing to film the agony before it passes. They hold bedside vigils to record the moment of death. When the Italian actress Sophia Loren visited Somalia, the paparazzi trampled on children as they scrambled to film her feeding a little girl-three times. This is disaster pornography.

Have you ever seen one of those photos where there's a starving child with distended belly, looking forlornly up at a camera, asking you to save them? On the TV news, in magazines, and occasionally on advertising for charities. Playing on our fears and sympathy, they try to push a giant button on our forehead labeled "GUILT." These images make me angry. They make me angry because that's just not what extreme poverty is really about. Yes, it's real - people really do live in such challenging circumstances, but when it's the only image we see, it sends all the wrong messages. It's poverty porn - gratuitous and explicit images that strip away people's identity and personality, making them out to be little more than meat. It makes out that people in extreme poverty aren't willing or able to do things for themselves. It makes out that people in extreme poverty are victims, that they need us to save them. And, without really even thinking about it, it reinforces the idea that people in extreme poverty are somehow less than us - less valuable, less capable, less intelligent … and less human.

In 2007, Dóchas members adopted a Code of Conduct on Images and Messages. The purpose of this Code is to provide a framework which organisations can refer to when designing and implementing their public communication strategy. The Dóchas Code offers a set of guiding principles that can assist organisations in their decision-making about which images and messages to choose in their communication while maintaining full respect for human dignity. By signing the Code, Development NGOs commit to a set of principles, ensuring that they will avoid stereotypical or sensational images. The adoption of the Code means that aid agencies will choose images and messages that represent the full complexity of the situations in which they work, and that they will seek the permission of the people portrayed in the photos they use.

highly recommended - TED talk by young female Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie, in which she talks about the danger of stereotypes

photojournalist

known for his series THE HYENA & OTHER MEN

Tim Heatherington photojournalist

dutch photojournalist exhibited 'diamond matters' at host galleryJan 2007

Then & Now - Eight South African Photographers Then and Now 160 Images View photos from the exhibit An exhibition of 160 photographs mounted in 5 venues at Duke University. South African photographer Paul Weinberg conceived and curated Then & Now which is comprised of black and white and color photographs from 8 South African documentary photographers. Twenty photographs were selected from each photographer, 10 made under apartheid and 10 photographs made after the historic democratic elections of 1994.

Source Photographic Review presents: An audio interview with South African photographer David Goldblatt. Interview is accompanied by a slide show of the photographer's work. Original interview conducted by Mark Durden.

The iconic South African photographer, in conversation with Max du Preez, discusses the literary influences on his work, including Athol Fugard and Herman Charles Bosman.

MediaStorm produces 'Condition: Critical, Voices from the War in Eastern Congo' for Médecins Sans Frontières

photojournalist

" Welcome to our portrait, in imagery and sound, of a refugee community. This presentation accompanies Wendy James' study of how Sudan's civil wars have affected just one among many minority groups who have lived through loss and displacement. You are invited to enter a series of eight clusters of video clips which illustrate the memory rich landscape of Bonga, one of several refugee settlements in Ethiopia where displaced Sudanese sought safety and assistance over the last two generations. To view the video clips, you will need a broadband connection and Flash 8 player. There are also a few audio clips which require a quicktime player. "

"Instead of media organizations always playing catch-up, the objective should be for them to incorporate data in new and different ways from the very beginning,"