Sam read this poem somewhere after we were just talking about how difficult it must be if you're in a terrible situation where people are injured and need help, and as a photographer, do you put away the camera and help, or just continue clicking because it's your job?
Cameraman
You
must see all suffering,
all
cruelty, all injustice, all pain:
you
must fix your eye on the starving,
the
tortured and the executed: you
must
look away from nothing.
You
must not turn your hand
to
feed the children, nor to caress
the
dying, nor to defend
victims.
You keep the lens
in
front of your mind
that
others may reach
into
pockets, knock on doors,
dig
wells. You are the itch
in
others; you can make them
see
clear; if only you watch
exactly;
if you record
just
what happened. Do not be tempted
to
turn the camera inward:
your
stricken looks are no concern
of
the public’s. They need the word
not
what you saw, not how
you
felt. It is they who must feel
they
saw it; they were there; so
involved,
they condemned somewhat
the
remote likes of you.
Sheenagh Pugh
