anders deutsch

Pictures, especially moving ones, are powerful. 1997 they convinced 'us' that masses mourn for Lady Di. After 9/11 they showed us how 'Muslims' celebrated the attacks. And today they proove how 'Muslims' react irrationally against press freedom.

But we do not know how the pictures were produced, what they illustrate. In the case of Lady Di, a friend who lived close to Kensington Palace, told me that the mourners came in masses only after the pictures had circulated. The celebrating 'Muslims' after 9/11 were not celebrating the attacks. And what do today's pictures show us?

We should learn to trust pictures less, to ask more where they come from, who has made them for what reason. We should contextualise them more. But that is quite difficult. Pictures evoke a lot of emotions. We should thus also fight for more responsibility of the media in their selection of pictures.