The Role of Photography in Bioethics
Angus Dawson1, National University Of Singapore 1National University Of Singapore
Abstract
In this presentation I seek to answer one question: can photography play a useful role in articulating and addressing issues in bioethics? I provide two reasons to think that the answer is ‘yes’. First, photography can be used as a means of documenting moments and perceptions of relevance to bioethical work. For example, cameras have been used by patients to record the way that they experience their clinical journeys. Or, more contentiously, a camera might be used to document the places allocated, unjustly, for women to express breast milk at work (e.g. toilets, store cupboards, etc.). Second, photography can be used as a powerful non-verbal means of communication, whether in the form of expressing ideas or with the aim of stimulating changes in views and action through dislocation. While clarification of concepts and argumentation may be central to much work in bioethics, I argue that photography can offer a significant additional or, in some cases, even a preferential means of articulating positions within bioethics. I will illustrate this argument by discussing the landscape photography of James Tylor and his use of black space as a means of capturing symbolically the violence of colonisation in Australia and its continuing resonance today. I will also use some of my own photographs to suggest how they might be used to express the idea of connection to land and place. This, in turn, can be linked to a broad notion of well-being, which, I argue, is central to all bioethics.
Biography
Angus is Professor of Bioethics at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics (CBmE) at the National University of Singapore. He has worked previously in Australia, Canada and the UK. His research interests are in public health ethics, non-Western bioethics, and methods in bioethics. He frequently bores people talking about film cameras and photographic work in the darkroom.