Dialogue The Image in Conflict
Editor: Joana Hurtado
Organised by: KRTU, Department of Culture and Communication of the Government of Catalonia, in collaboration with the SCAN photographic festival.
With the participation of: Vilaweb and Metropol Theatre Tarragona
Website: http://enconflicte.dialegskrtu.cat, from 13th of March
Metropol Theatre: 13 May at 19.30 h
Rambla Nova, 46
43004 Tarragona
Tel. 977 244 795
Information and inscriptions: inscripcions@scan.cat
You still have time to visit and participate in the Dialogue The Image in Conflict on our website, a very special event which includes the participation of three internationally renowned theorists of the image such as Pepe Baeza, Clemente Bernad and Ignacio Ramonet. The experience, knowledge and different viewpoints of the three participants (author, editor and analyst), transform The Image in Conflict into a platform for enriching debate and reflection within the field of photographic theory.
The use of the word conflict in the media justifies and makes the title of this Dialogue comprehensible, although to speak of conflict perhaps is the most aseptic way of fomenting a discussion about violence, the death and pain of those to whom these images are owed. We put forward questions such as who chooses a scene of conflict and in which way, or who decides what is shown and what remains invisible. Today’s context, in which the onlooker is faced with a barrage of information, throws up the challenge of generating new images able to capture the observer’s attention and at the same time provoke a rethinking of the concept of reportage and the role of photography in a multitude of contexts.
Pepe Baeza, in his first foray into the debate, says: “We don’t need to justify the testimonial function of photography. It’s obvious that if its connection with reality weren’t so deep, then those independent photographers who obtain images of conflicts around the world wouldn’t run such high risks. Neither would governments be regulating visual access to events and realities that are essentially publicly and socially relevant. The media barons, in league with big business, wouldn’t be imposing visual models which the smaller press agencies take as a reference point. These images, supposedly dedicated to social reality, have aligned themselves in a position of communicative meanness, up to the point that we need to question the journalistic genres which have historically supported this type of image.
If you haven’t been following the virtual Dialogue, we invite you to do so and also to attend the final debate between the three protagonists on 13 May at the Metropol Theatre in Tarragona.
For those interested, SCAN has organised a free bus service Barcelona-Tarragona-Barcelona. The bus will leave from Portal de Santa Madrona, on the corner of la Rambla (in front of Arts Santa Mònica) at 17 h. The return journey will leave Tarragona at 21.30 h, arriving in Barcelona at approximately 23 h.