Good morning, everyone. When I was first asked to do a TED Talk, I Googled to try and find out a little bit more about, you know, how it felt to be giving one. And one of the first things I read was a speaker in the States saying that she felt fine until she came onstage, and then she saw the timer ticking down.
各位早安。 當我一開始被邀請到 TED 演說時, 我上網搜尋,想了解一下…… 做 TED 演說是什麼感覺。 我最先讀到的,是一位美國的講者, 她說她覺得很好,直到她上了臺, 然後她看到計時器在倒數。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And it reminded her of a bomb. I was thinking, "That's the last thing I need."
那讓她聯想到了炸彈。 我在想:「那是 我最不需要的東西。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Anyway, it's a great privilege to be here. I think it's a bit of a joke for an editor of a paper to choose a photographer to open a speaking event.
總之,能在這裡是我的榮幸。 我想這算是個玩笑吧, 一位報紙編輯選擇一位攝影師 來為演說活動開場。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
We're not renowned for our words, and I spent the last 40 years hiding behind a camera so I didn't have to speak. But I'm here today, and what I want to talk about are stories and the importance of stories to me and, I think, the importance of stories to everybody. I'm sure today you'll hear a lot of stories and, by listening to other people's stories, I think we can learn about the world, about other people and get a better understanding. So I want to talk about three stories that I've done as a photographer, and how they've inspired me, and how, in my life, I've become a part of the stories that I document myself.
我們並不是以說話聞名的, 我過去的四十年都躲在相機後面, 所以我並不需要說話。 但今天我在這裡了, 我想要談的是故事, 以及故事對我的重要性, 還有,故事對每個人的重要性。 我相信今天你們會聽到很多故事, 透過傾聽他人的故事, 我們能夠了解世界,了解其他人, 有更多的認識。 我想要談我身為攝影師時 做過的三個故事, 以及它們如何鼓舞了我, 以及我如何變成了 我自己記錄下來的故事 當中的一部分。
As John said, I was a fashion photographer and music photographer for 10 years. I enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun, but always wanted to do something more with my work. And storytelling was always something I wanted to do. So 10 years ago, I set out to travel the world, to go and photograph other people in their situations and to record their stories, to bring them back, so that other people might understand. But this didn't happen overnight. When I worked as a music photographer and a fashion photographer, I always had this nagging feeling that there was something missing, that I wasn't quite using my skills productively. And it may seem very obvious, the link, now, but at the time, I couldn't really work out how could I use my photography to do something useful. So I gave up photography. I walked away from it completely and decided to do care work.
如約翰說的,我做了 十年的時尚攝影師 以及音樂攝影師。 我很享受,很有意思, 但我一直想用我的作品來做更多。 我一直想要說故事。 所以,十年前,我決定環遊世界, 去拍攝其他人 在他們處境中的情況, 記錄他們的故事,帶回來, 讓其他人了解。 但這不會一夕就發生。 當我還是音樂攝影師 和時尚攝影師時, 我總是有種很煩惱的感覺, 覺得少了什麼, 感覺我沒有把我的技巧 做很有生產力的運用。 現在回頭看,這個連結很明顯, 但在當時,我無法想通 我要如何用我的攝影 來做點有用的事。 所以我放棄了攝影。 我完全脫離了攝影, 決定去做照護工作。
As a care worker, I started looking after a young guy called Nick. Nick has autism, very severe autism. But over the years of looking after him, we became very close friends. I would give him a 24-hour care, we would go off and do things from swimming, going for walks ... all sorts. Bit by bit, though, as I got to know him better, I realized that his story wasn't being told. He self-harmed, he would punch himself quite a lot in the face. And nobody really got to see that. So this is Nick. He used to describe his life as living downstairs at a party. He said he could hear the party in the kitchen, but he felt like he was always trapped in the basement, in his own little world, wanting to be part of the party but not able to walk upstairs. So I documented his life. I started to photograph it, not really with any intention of doing anything with the pictures, but just as a way of recording.
擔任照護工作者時,我開始 照顧一個叫尼克的年輕人。 尼克有自閉症,很嚴重的自閉症。 但照顧他多年之後, 我們變成了很親的朋友。 我會二十四小時照顧他, 我們會去做各種事,從游泳到散步, 什麼都有。 雖然,我慢慢地更了解他, 我知道他的故事並沒有被說出。 他會傷害自己, 他常常會揍自己的臉。 沒有人真的看到他那麼做。 這是尼克。 他以前會形容他的人生 就像是住在派對的樓下。 他說他能在廚房裡聽到派對, 但他覺得他總是被困在地下室, 他自己的小世界中, 想要參與派對,但無法走上樓。 所以我記錄了他的人生。 我開始拍相關的照片, 拍那些照片並沒有 特別的意圖要做什麼, 只是一種記錄的方式。
And as I started doing that, I realized that I could tell somebody's story through my photographs. As I said, Nick would self-harm. He would punch himself in the face. And nobody really got to see that. As we built up a kind of closer friendship, he finally would allow me to actually see him doing this and to document it. It was a moment of trust. The social services were not particularly good at helping Nick, and they said that he wouldn't be self-harming as bad as we said.
當我開始那麼做時, 我發現我可以透過攝影 來訴說別人的故事。 如我所說的,尼克會自我傷害。 他會揍自己的臉。 且沒有人真的能看到他那麼做。 隨著我們建立起更親密的友誼, 他終於允許我看他這麼做, 並做記錄。 那是個信賴的時刻。 社會服務對尼克的幫助不太大, 他們說,他自我傷害的情況 沒有我們說的那麼糟。
So one day, I took a photograph of when he'd really been self-harming. We took that to the social services, and their reaction was immediately incredibly different, and they managed to get a lot of help. And I'm glad to say now, eight years later, I actually spoke to Nick last night, and he wanted to let me know that he was feeling a lot better, and he doesn't do the self-harming anymore. And in some small way, I hope that the photographs was a part of that process. The main thing it did is it inspired me to go out with my camera and to tell other people's stories.
有天,當他真的在自我傷害時, 我拍了一張照片。 我們把照片拿給社會服務的人看, 他們的反應馬上就大大不同, 他們想辦法去找了很多協助。 我很高興能說,八年後的現在, 我昨晚和尼克說過話, 他想要讓我知道,他覺得好多了, 他也不再自我傷害了。 我希望我的照片以某種微小的方式 在那改變的過程中有所貢獻。 它最主要的結果, 是鼓舞我帶著我的相機走出去, 去訴說別人的故事。
One of the stories I did was in Kutupalong, on the border of Burma and Bangladesh. Here, the Rohingyas refugees have been left, pretty much to rot, for over 20 years. This is a picture of the unofficial camp. At the top, you can see the official UN camp. All these huts are the unofficial camps. Literally, the raw sewage runs through the camp. The people there have been forgotten, so I thought it was important to go and document their stories. So I arranged with the village elder; the people would come along the next day, and I would take portraits of all these people and record their stories. So as the time went on, I turned up in the morning, I put a big, white sheet up, and I started to photograph these people.
我有個故事是在庫圖帕朗, 那是緬甸和孟加拉共和國的邊境。 洛興雅難民被留在這裡, 可說是等死, 二十年來都如此。 這是非正式難民營的照片。 在上面,能看到 正式的聯合國難民營。 所有這些小屋都是非正式的難民營。 未處理的污水流過營區。 那裡的人都被遺忘了, 我認為去那裡記錄 他們的故事是很重要的。 所以我和村落長老做了安排; 隔天會有人過來, 我會拍這些人的照片, 並記錄他們的故事。 隨時間過去,我在早上露面了, 我搭起了一張大白床單, 開始拍攝這些人。
Suddenly, though, everything got a bit out of control, and, although it was still dawn, we were filled in this small little compound we had made with literally hundreds of people turning up with ailments and diseases and just ... a hopeless situation. And that's exactly what their situation is -- helpless. A child with a tumor that nobody helped, who was slowly suffocating. I got in a bit of a panic, because these people were coming up to me, desperate, and I was trying to explain to the village elder that I was not a doctor, and I couldn't help these people. And the village elder turned to me and he said, "No, it's really important; these people know you're not a doctor, but at least somebody is now telling their story, and somebody is recording what is happening to them." And it was a good moment for me. It was a realization that maybe it was worthwhile going off and doing these things.
但,突然間,一切有點失控, 雖然那時仍然是黎明, 我們搭建的這個小場地中 塞滿了數百人, 他們有病痛和疾病, 還有……就是一個沒希望的情況。 他們的情況就是這樣──無助。 有個小孩得了腫瘤, 沒人能協助,他慢慢在窒息。 我開始有點慌張, 因為這些十分絕望的人來找我, 我試著向村落長老解釋, 我不是醫生,我無法協助這些人。 村落長老轉向我說: 「不,這很重要, 這些人知道你不是醫生, 但至少現在有人在說他們的故事了, 且有人在記錄他們所發生的事。」 對我來說,那是個美好的時刻。 我了解到,來這裡做這些事情, 可能的確是值得的。
Another story that inspired me was in Odessa, in Ukraine. I was documenting a bunch of street kids. I ended up actually living with them in a squat, which I can say was an experience. Many late nights of vodka-fueled violence with me sitting in the corner with my bag, just going, "When was this a good idea?"
另一個鼓舞我的故事, 發生在烏克蘭的敖得薩。 我在記錄一群街頭的孩子。 我最後和他們一起住在 非法佔據的空屋中, 那真的是種體驗。 常常晚上很晚才睡, 伏特加導致暴力, 我則帶著我的包包坐在牆角, 唸著:「這怎麼會是個好主意?」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I would say it's moments like that when I think, "Why did I leave the fashion world?"
就是在這樣子的時刻,我會想: 「我為何離開時尚界?」
But they were great kids, and on the last day, they took me down to the sea for a sort of trip, a sort of farewell. There they are, drinking vodka. And then Serge, who was the oldest and the most violent -- he'd just got out of the prison for stabbing somebody -- comes and puts his arm around me and says, "We go swimming." Now, I have to say, I had a "Lonely Planet" guide to Ukraine and in it, it gave some advice. And in that advice was, "Do not talk to the street kids, at no point leave your baggage unattended and in all counts, do not go swimming."
但他們是很棒的孩子, 最後一天,他們帶我去海邊, 算是種旅行,道別之旅。 這就是他們,在喝伏特加。 賽吉是他們當中 最年長也最暴力的── 他剛出獄, 之前因為刺傷人而坐牢── 他過來用手勾搭著我說: 「我們去游泳。」 我得要說,我有《孤獨星球》 出版的烏克蘭指南, 指南中有一些忠告。 忠告是:「不要和街頭孩子說話, 不論何時都不要 讓你的行李沒人注意, 且絕對不要游泳。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So I was like, "I don't know if this is a good idea." Serge has got his arm around me. I'm like, "OK." So there I am.
我說:「我不確定 這是不是個好主意。」 賽吉的手臂還繞著我。 我說:「好。」 所以我就在那兒了。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I literally handed all my cameras, all my equipment, to these street kids. And they took it. It's kind of funny to know, if you look in the background, you can see the other street kids who didn't get in the water go, "Why would you get in that water?"
我真的就把我所有的相機、 裝備都留在那些孩子那裡。 他們拿走了。 蠻好笑的一件事, 你們可以看看背景, 可以看到沒有下水的 其他街頭孩子在說: 「你為什麼要下水?」
But one of the little kids, Lilic, he was the one who had taken my camera, and he started taking photographs. He was really excited by this camera. And we talked a lot about how I was going to get him a camera and would return and we could start to teach him photography. He had a real eye for things. That's him, there. That was taken on the last evening I was there. I'd been staying there, but that night, I left to go and collect my things. And when I came back in the morning, he was dead. He had taken a lot of pills and a lot of vodka. And he had passed out in the night and didn’t recover. Again, it was another reminder of maybe why I should record these people's stories: because their lives are important, and it's important for me to document them.
其中一個小孩叫立力克, 就是他拿走我的相機, 他開始拍照。 這臺相機讓他很興奮。 我們談了很多,談我要 如何幫他弄一臺相機, 且我要回來並開始教他攝影。 他對事物很有眼光。 那裡的就是他。 那張照片是我待在那裡的 最後一晚拍的。 我一直待在那裡,但那晚, 我離開了,去收拾我的東西。 當我早上回來時,他死了。 他吃了很多藥丸,喝了很多伏特加。 他晚上昏了過去,就沒再醒來。 這件事同樣也提醒了我 為什麼我要記錄這些人的故事: 因為他們的生命是重要的, 而我去記錄他們的生命也是重要的。
Then in February of last year, when I was on patrol in Afghanistan, I stepped on an IED. That's me down there, somewhere. I became part of the story. At first, I was devastated by what had happened, obviously. I thought my work was over, I thought -- everything didn't make sense to me. And then I realized: I never set out to Congo, to Angola, to Bangladesh to take photographs. I went to those places because I wanted to make some kind of change, and photography happened to be my tool.
接著,去年二月, 我在阿富汗巡邏時, 我踩到了土製爆炸物。 那是我,在那裡某處。 我變成了故事的一部分。 一開始,這事很明顯讓我震驚難過。 我認為我的工作完了, 我認為一切對我不再有意義。 接著我發現:我從來沒去過剛果、 安哥拉、孟加拉共和國, 去拍照。 我去那些地方是因為 我想要做些改變, 而攝影剛好是我的工具。
And then I became aware that my body was, in many ways, a living example of what war does to somebody. And I realized I could use my own experience, my own body, to tell that story. And it was also by looking back at the other people I've documented. I thought of Nick, and I thought of his resilience. I thought of the Rohingyas and the fact that they have no hope. I thought of Lilic and a lost life. And in fact, it was the stories that I've documented that inspired me to get through the last year, to survive, to get back up on my new legs and to be able to come and tell their stories, but also my own story.
接著我意識到,在許多意義上, 我的身體是個活生生的例子, 說明戰爭對一個人的影響。 我了解到我可以用 我自己的經驗,我自己的身體, 來說故事。 我也回頭看了我所記錄的其他人。 我想到尼克,我想到他的韌性。 我想到沒有希望的洛興雅難民。 我想到立力克和失去的生命。 事實上,是我所記錄下來的 故事鼓舞了我, 讓我能渡過去年, 能活下來, 能用新的腳站起來, 能夠來這裡說他們的故事, 還有我自己的故事。
So I did a self-portrait, because I wanted to show everybody what a bomb does to somebody, but also to show that losing your limbs doesn't end your life; that you can have what people say is disability, but not be disabled; that you can be able to do anything if you put your mind to it and have belief in it. It's strange, but in many ways I look at where I was a year ago, and I look at where I am now, and I realize that I have a lot of things I didn't have then. I wouldn't be sitting here right now if this hadn't happened. I wouldn't have been able to show you those photographs and tell you those stories. I was lucky 10 years ago, when I sat down and I tried to work out what I could do to make a difference in this world. I realized that my photography was a tool and a way to do it.
所以我做了張自畫像, 我想讓大家看看炸彈對人的影響, 也想讓大家看看,失去肢體 並不表示人生就此終結; 你可能有別人所謂的殘障, 但不要因此失能; 你還是能做任何事, 如果你全心全意投入它, 並相信它。 很奇怪, 從許多方面, 我看看一年前我在哪裡, 再看看現在我在哪裡, 我發現有很多東西是我當時沒有的。 如果沒發生那件事, 我現在就不會坐在這裡。 我就不能讓你們看那些照片, 告訴你們那些故事。 十年前我很幸運,我坐下來, 試著想出我能做什麼 來讓世界有所不同。 我發現我的攝影是一個工具, 也是造成改變的方式。
I think that's what's really key. It's that we all can be part of that wheel. We can all be cogs in a wheel of change. We can all make a difference. Everybody here has an ability to use something to make a difference to the world. We can all sit in front of the TV and go, "I don't know what to do about it," and forget about it. But the reality is that we can all do something. It might be just writing a letter. It might be standing on a soapbox and talking. It might be just recording somebody's story and telling it to somebody else. But every single one of us here, if we want to make a difference, we can, an there is nothing to stop us. And we all have our own experiences that we can use as well.
我想那就是關鍵。 我們都能成為那齒輪的一部分。 我們都能夠是改變之輪上的齒輪。 我們都能造成不同。 這裡的每個人都有能力 去使用某樣事物, 讓世界上變得不同。 我們可以都坐在電視前說: 「我不知道該怎麼做。」 然後就忘了這事。 但事實是,我們都能做點什麼。 可能只是寫一封信。 可能是站在臨時表演臺上演說。 可能只是記錄別人的故事 然後告訴其他人。 但這裡的每一個人, 如果我們想要造成改變, 我們辦得到,沒有什麼能阻止我們。 我們也都有我們 自己的經驗可以運用。
So really, that's all I wanted to talk about today. I just wanted to say that life goes on all around the world. People are going through terrible things. Everyone of us is going through our own terrible experience. But if we share those and we talk about stories, then we can inspire each other to get through our own bad experiences. I know that the people I've recorded have gotten me to this point. And I hope in some small way, the stories I've been able to tell you will help you get through things. And in turn, I hope you will use your experiences to help others.
所以,這就是我今天想談的。 我只是想要說,在世界各地, 人生都會繼續下去。 人們在經歷很可怕的事。 我們每個人都在經歷 自己的可怕經驗。 但如果我們能分享那些事, 說我們的故事, 我們就能鼓舞彼此, 撐過我們自己的糟糕經驗。 我知道我曾記錄的那些人 讓我能走到現在這一步。 我希望我所告訴你們的故事 也能稍微以某種方式, 協助你們渡過一些事。 接著,我希望你們會用 你們的經驗再來協助他人。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)