On the limits of visibility

Questioning photojournalism + new global media opportunities 🌐

WorldWise readers—

If you’ve ever struggled with the notion of “making a difference” through your work, I have a few thoughts to share this week, inspired by the view from the career pinnacle of some celebrated war photographers.

Anita

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MEDIA EDITION | opportunities and support to grow in communication

World Press Photo 1964, Donald McCullin

INSIDER | views & experience

Let’s get brutally honest.

If you follow photojournalism—and even if you don’t—you’ll have heard of Don McCullin, or at least seen some of his images. The British photographer is regarded as one of the world’s greatest living war photojournalists, having captured conflict in Africa, Asia and the Middle East for decades.

A recent piece by Charlotte Tobitt in the UK’s Press Gazette reports on comments McCullin made about his career at an event in London with a brutal honesty that crosses over into cynicism.

“I don’t really want to be known for taking pictures of other people’s deaths and suffering. I’ve done it but I don’t feel morally happy about it. I went too far I think.”

[Interviewer Tina] Brown suggested that “we all feel that you bore witness, you brought it home and made us care”.

But McCullin responded: “It was a waste of time. Every time there was a war, there was another war waiting in the wings… I know that as one war is finishing, another is following. And so did I do any good, or did we do any good?”

This deep questioning of the value of photojournalism is not unique to McCullin. The article also quotes comments made in the same event by Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in April for his work documenting the impact of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Neither is the questioning new. Earlier this month I attended a talk and exhibition of selected works by Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado as part of the Sony World Photography Awards (he is the 17th recipient of Sony’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography award).

I found Salgado’s work just as powerful as I did on first sighting a long time ago. At least as powerful is the story of his personal disillusionment—partly in response to accusations of being an “aesthete of misery”—and eventual retreat after a celebrated career covering conflict and devastation across continents.

All three photographers have faced a reckoning with the very real limits of what visibility can achieve, even when you are in the position of producing powerful work about powerful wrongs in the world.

Having faced what I suspect was a profound disappointment in people and the damage we inflict on each other, both Salgado and McCullin turned their gaze and their lives towards nature: protecting or photographing landscapes close to home.

From where I’m sitting, it’s not at all difficult to understand the decision. What *is* difficult is to get on board with nihilism about their—our—contribution to documenting wrongs, and hopefully adding a paving stone, however small, to somewhere better.

Salgado made no direct reference to his personal turning point when responding to questions at the Sony event. I was left wondering about the experience behind that simplistic story of before-and-after. In the end, what came through to me is a sense of someone who, despite turning the lens in a different direction, continues to resist human dominance and abuse of power. This time, the victim is nature.

The celebrated ideal of “making a difference” sometimes comes with a burden that’s too much for any single person. Student activism over Gaza suggests that following those ideals may be easier to do before experience weighs heavy. But there’s still a choice to make when it comes to where we stand, and what we’re working for.

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OPPORTUNITIES | working with the media

grants+funding

• GLOBAL | The Global Resilience Partnership is inviting individual artists, science communicators or knowledge brokers who partner with registered organisations to apply for a grant to develop a creative project on evidence about resilience—closing 26 May.

• GLOBAL | The Pulitzer Center is open to applications for it Impact Seed Funding microscale grant which supports education, research, or scientific activities that aim to enrich perspectives and knowledge within the university community—closing 27 May.

• MENA | The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) is accepting applications from anyone based in Arab countries for its Training and Regional Events grants which support training, workshops or other events—closing 14 June.

• AFRICA | Media Monitoring Africa and UNICEF are accepting applications for the Isu Elihle Awards, which offer financial support for research and news story development to encourage coverage of issues affecting children in the continent—closing 30 May.

fellowships+scholarships

• GLOBAL | The Pulitzer Center is accepting applications for its Ocean Reporting Network of journalists to report on ocean-related stories around the world, from fishing and extractive industries to systemic threats to coastal communities—closing 26 May.

• LAC | The CONNECTAS fellowship is inviting applications from journalists based in Latin America and the Caribbean who report on environmental crimes— closing 26 May.

• GLOBAL | Journalists interested in the economics of climate change can apply to the NYU Stern Climate Economics Journalism Fellowship to learn about the fundamental factors and latest trends in climate economics and finance—closing 31 May.

• AFRICA | GroundUp is inviting experienced journalists to apply for a fellowship in South Africa, which will support reporting projects on the themes of prisons and the justice system, some aspects of labour, mining, and climate change—closing 31 May.

• ASIA | Experienced media professionals working for nonprofits in selected Asian countries can apply for a fellowship to gain first-hand experience of the Taiwanese NGO sector through a workshop, NGO placement and roundtable events—closing 1 June.

• GLOBAL | The Climate Change Media Partnership is accepting applications by journalists from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and developing Asia to apply for a fellowship to cover the forthcoming UN climate negotiations (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan—closing 6 June.

training+events

• GLOBAL | City, University of London is offering a 5-week online course for journalists who wish to enhance their skills in non-fiction writing—closing 25 May.

• AFRICA | Young journalists based in Nigeria who have an interest in climate migration can apply for a two-day training which aims to help participants to develop stories that are simple, powerful and accurate, and resonate with audiences—closing 30 May.

• LAC | Taller Arteluz is inviting journalists, community managers and content creators to attend an online workshop in Spanish, which will cover social media strategies for journalists and media organisations—closing 6 June.

• GLOBAL | Journalists interested in using satellite imagery and geospatial data in environmental journalism are invited to attend a webinar by Gustavo Faleiros and Kuang Keng Kuek Ser, editors of the environmental investigations unit at the Pulitzer Center—closing 6 June.

• LAC | The UAM/El País School of Journalism is inviting journalists and others interested in covering science, health, environment or technology to register for an online course in Spanish—closing 12 June.

• LAC | Journalists, researchers, and media entrepreneurs from Brazil and across Latin America are invited to register for Festival 3i, a Brazilian festival dedicated to digital journalism, innovation and entrepreneurship—closing 12 June.

awards+competitions

• LAC | Instituto Prensa y Sociedad is inviting journalists with published work in Latin American or Caribbean news outlets to apply for the "Javier Valdez" investigative journalism award, which aims to encourage greater transparency in government, business and media as well as to promote investigative reporting—closing 2 June.

• GLOBAL | War correspondents can enter the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for War Correspondents, which honours coverage of conflict situations or news events relating to the fight for freedom and democracy—closing 6 June.

• GLOBAL | The BBVA Foundation is inviting entries for the Biophilia Award in Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences, which recognises contributions from the humanities, communication and social sciences that are informed by environmental science—closing 10 June.

• LAC | Journalists based in Latin America, Spain or the US who cover a range of health issues can submit works in Spanish or Portuguese to the Roche Health Journalism Award—closing 11 June.

• GLOBAL | Freelance journalists, local reporters and news fixers can submit entries for the 23rd annual Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism, which recognise excellence and courage in reporting conflict, corruption, injustice and human rights issues—closing 15 June.

audio+visual

• MENA | Al Jazeera Documentary is inviting documentary filmmakers to apply for a grant to support a project idea, and to participate in the third edition of its Industry Days event taking place September—closing 31 May.

• GLOBAL | The DIG Awards are inviting entries by producers of investigative audio and video reporting, as well as pitches to support a work currently in pre-production—closing 2 June.

• GLOBAL | The Women Photograph Mentorship Program is inviting applications from early-career women and nonbinary photographers interested in support for a local visual storytelling project over six months—closing 5 June.

• GLOBAL | The UK’s Royal Photographic Society and The Guardian are inviting applications for The Joan Wakelin Bursary, which offers financial support for the production of a photographic essay on an overseas social documentary issue—closing 6 June.

• MENA | The Cinema program of The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) is inviting applications to support feature and short-length fiction films in the Arab region—closing 14 June.

pitches+positions

• ASIA | Thomson Reuters is looking for a desk editor in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India—apply now.

• LAC | Radio Ambulante, a Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR, is looking for surprising and moving stories about Latin America—pitch now.

• GLOBAL | Journalists interested in fact-checking are invited to apply to work with FACTUAL, a new specialist agency—apply now.

• GLOBAL | Spheres of Influence Uncovered, a cross-border media project, is inviting pitches for data-driven, multi-media, and cross-border stories—closing 31 May.

• GLOBAL | Global regulatory news service Chemical Watch News & Insight is looking for an ambitious news journalist interested in reporting on environmental policy and regulatory developments—closing 14 June.

resources+tools

• Covering the extractive industries – Global Investigative Journalism Network

• Tip sheet: Breaking into ghostwriting books - Association of Health Care Journalists

• Harnessing the power of Global Forest Watch for data-driven reporting on land cover change - Society of Environmental Journalists

• A tool to mitigate the dangers of environmental journalism - International Media Support

• How to turn all that "stuff" into narrative - Nieman Storyboard

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HIGHLIGHT | press note

The Convention on Biological Diversity's subsidiary bodies are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya this month, to review the steps needed to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The meetings are also intended to set the stage for this year’s 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to be held in Colombia. At the conclusion of its meeting, The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 26) adopted recommendations on risk assessment and risk management; synthetic biology; marine and coastal issues; biodiversity and health; and the monitoring framework for the GBF. The Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) is now taking over and is due to discuss setting national targets and updates to national biodiversity strategies and action plans. For more details, see the Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s final report, and this useful backgrounder by Carbon Brief, which tracks progress on protecting nature since COP15.

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VIEW | insight & global news

ICYMI—Catch up on the latest VIEW post, where we pull together recent reports of weather and climate extremes from around the world before concluding with 4 big-picture points.

Extreme weather almost everywhere

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HOUSEKEEPING NOTE

This is the MEDIA edition of the newsletter, full of opportunities and resources for journalists or anyone else interested in communication work. If you wish to support my time and energy for the project through a subscription, you can do that here.

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