In my industry, we believe that images can change the world. Okay, we're naive, we're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The truth is that we know that the images themselves don't change the world, but we're also aware that, since the beginning of photography, images have provoked reactions in people, and those reactions have caused change to happen.
U mom biznisu, verujemo da fotografije mogu da promene svet. Okej, naivni smo, mi smo bistri i hitri. Istina je da znamo da fotografije same po sebi ne menjaju svet, ali smo takođe svesni, da su od nastanka fotografije, one izazivale reakciju kod ljudi, i te reakcije su dovele do promene.
So let's begin with a group of images. I'd be extremely surprised if you didn't recognize many or most of them. They're best described as iconic: so iconic, perhaps, they're cliches. In fact, they're so well-known that you might even recognize them in a slightly or somewhat different form.
Hajde da počnemo sa grupom fotografija. Bio bih ekstremno iznenađen kada ne biste prepoznali mnoge ili većinu njih. One se najbolje opisuju kao legendarne, toliko legendarne, da su možda i kliše. Ustvari, one su toliko poznate da ćete ih prepoznati i u malo drugačijem obliku.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
But I think we're looking for something more. We're looking for something more. We're looking for images that shine an uncompromising light on crucial issues, images that transcend borders, that transcend religions, images that provoke us to step up and do something -- in other words, to act. Well, this image you've all seen. It changed our view of the physical world. We had never seen our planet from this perspective before. Many people credit a lot of the birth of the environmental movement to our seeing the planet like this for the first time -- its smallness, its fragility.
Ali ja mislim da tražimo nešto više. Tragamo za nečim više. Tražimo fotografije koje sjaje beskompromisnim svetlom na ključna pitanja, fotografije koje prevazilaze granice, nadilaze religije, fotografije koje nas izazivaju da iskoračimo i uradimo nešto, drugim rečima, da delamo. Pa, ovu fotografiju ste svi videli. Promenila je naš pogled na fizički svet. Nikada ranije nismo videli našu planetu iz ove perspektive. Mnogi ljudi smatraju da su mnogi ekološki pokreti nastali kada smo videli našu planetu po prvi put na ovaj način, njenu sićušnost, njenu krhost.
Forty years later, this group, more than most, are well aware of the destructive power that our species can wield over our environment. And at last, we appear to be doing something about it. This destructive power takes many different forms. For example, these images taken by Brent Stirton in the Congo. These gorillas were murdered, some would even say crucified, and unsurprisingly, they sparked international outrage. Most recently, we've been tragically reminded of the destructive power of nature itself with the recent earthquake in Haiti.
40 godina kasnije, ova grupa, više nego ostale, vrlo je svesna destruktivne moći koju naša vrsta može da ima nad našom okolinom. I na kraju, izgleda da radimo nešto po tom pitanju. Ova destruktivna moć ima različite oblike. Na primer, ove fotografije koje je napravio Brent Stirton u Kongu, ove gorile su ubijene, neki bi čak rekli razapete, i neiznenađujuće, izazvale su međunarodni bes. Nedavno nas je sama priroda tragično podsetila na svoju razornu moć sa skorim zemljotresom u Haitiju.
Well, I think what is far worse is man's destructive power over man. Samuel Pisar, an Auschwitz survivor, said, and I'll quote him, "The Holocaust teaches us that nature, even in its cruelest moments, is benign in comparison with man, when he loses his moral compass and his reason."
Mislim da je mnogo gora destruktivna moć čoveka nad drugim čovekom. Semjuel Pisar, preživeli iz Aušvica je rekao, i citiraću ga, "Holokaust nas uči da je priroda, čak i u svojim najsurovijim trenucima, benigna u poređenju sa čovekom, kada izgubi svoj moralni kompas i svoj razum."
There's another kind of crucifixion. The horrifying images from Abu Ghraib as well as the images from Guantanamo had a profound impact. The publication of those images, as opposed to the images themselves, caused a government to change its policies. Some would argue that it is those images that did more to fuel the insurgency in Iraq than virtually any other single act. Furthermore, those images forever removed the so-called moral high ground of the occupying forces.
Postoji još jedna vrsta raspeća. Užasavajuće fotografije iz Abu Graiba kao i fotografije iz Guantanama imale su veliki uticaj. Objavljivanje tih fotografija, za razliku od samih slika, izazvalo je vladu da promeni svoju politiku. Neki tvrde da su te fotografije dolile više ulje na vatru kod pobunjenika u Iraku nego bilo koji drugi pojedinačni čin. Sem toga, te fotografije su zauvek uklonile takozvanu visoku moralnost okupatora.
Let's go back a little. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Vietnam War was basically shown in America's living rooms day in, day out. News photos brought people face to face with the victims of the war: a little girl burned by napalm, a student killed by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio during a protest. In fact, these images became the voices of protest themselves.
Hajde da se vratimo malo unazad. Tokom 1960-ih i 1970-ih, rat u Vijetnamu se praktično prikazivao po ceo dan u američkim dnevnim sobama. Nove fotografije su suočile ljude sa žrtvama rata, mala devojčica gori od napalma, student ubijen od strane Nacionalne garde na Kent univerzitetu u Ohaju za vreme protesta. Ustvari, ove fotografije su postale glas protesta same po sebi.
Now, images have power to shed light of understanding on suspicion, ignorance, and in particular -- I've given a lot of talks on this but I'll just show one image -- the issue of HIV/AIDS. In the 1980s, the stigmatization of people with the disease was an enormous barrier to even discussing or addressing it. A simple act, in 1987, of the most famous woman in the world, the Princess of Wales, touching an HIV/AIDS infected baby did a great deal, especially in Europe, to stop that. She, better than most, knew the power of an image.
Sada, fotografije imaju snagu da svetlo razumevanja usmere na sumnju, neznanje, a naročito - držao sam dosta govora o ovome ali pokazaću vam samo jednu fotografiju - na pitanja HIVa/SIDE. Tokom 1980-ih stigmatizacija ljudi sa ovom bolešću je bila ogromna prepreka za pričanje ili njeno spominjanje. Jednostavan čin, 1987., najpoznatije žene na svetu, princeze od Velsa, dodirivanje bebe zaražene HIV-om, predstavljalo je veliku stvar, posebno u Evropi, da se sa tim prestane. Ona je, bolje od drugih, znala moć fotografije.
So when we are confronted by a powerful image, we all have a choice: We can look away, or we can address the image. Thankfully, when these photos appeared in The Guardian in 1998, they put a lot of focus and attention and, in the end, a lot of money towards the Sudan famine relief efforts. Did the images change the world? No, but they had a major impact. Images often push us to question our core beliefs and our responsibilities to each other. We all saw those images after Katrina, and I think for millions of people they had a very strong impact. And I think it's very unlikely that they were far from the minds of Americans when they went to vote in November 2008.
Kada smo suočeni sa moćnom fotografijom, svi imamo izbor. Možemo da skrenemo pogled ili možemo da ukažemo na problem. Srećom, kada su se ove fotografije pojavile u "Gardijanu" (Guardian) 1998., stavile su fokus i puno pažnje, a na kraju i mnogo novca, na trud da se smanji glad u Sudanu. Da li su ove fotografije promenile svet? Ne, ali su imale veliki uticaj. Fotografije nas često teraju da preispitamo svoja bazična uverenja i našu odgovornost jednih prema drugima. Svi smo videli fotografije nakon Katrine, i mislim da su one imale vrlo snažan uticaj, na milione ljudi, i mislim da je malo verovatno da su bile daleko od svesti Amerikanaca kada su išli da glasaju u novembru 2008.
Unfortunately, some very important images are deemed too graphic or disturbing for us to see them. I'll show you one photo here, and it's a photo by Eugene Richards of an Iraq War veteran from an extraordinary piece of work, which has never been published, called War Is Personal. But images don't need to be graphic in order to remind us of the tragedy of war. John Moore set up this photo at Arlington Cemetery. After all the tense moments of conflict in all the conflict zones of the world, there's one photograph from a much quieter place that haunts me still, much more than the others.
Nažalost, neke vrlo važne fotografije se smatraju previše eksplicitnim ili uznemiravajućim da bismo ih videli. Pokazaću vam jednu fotografiju, to je fotografija Eugena Ričardsa iračkog ratnog veterana deo izvanrednog dela, koje nikada nije objavljeno, nazvano "Rat je ličan." Ali fotografije ne moraju da budu eksplicitne da bi nas podsetile na ratnu tragediju. Džon Mur je postavio ovu fotografiju na Arlington groblju. Posle svih napetih trenutaka sukoba, u svim konfliktnim zonama u svetu, postoji jedna fotografija sa mnogo mirnijeg mesta koja me još uvek proganja, više nego ostale.
Ansel Adams said, and I'm going to disagree with him, "You don't take a photograph, you make it." In my view, it's not the photographer who makes the photo, it's you. We bring to each image our own values, our own belief systems, and as a result of that, the image resonates with us. My company has 70 million images. I have one image in my office. Here it is. I hope that the next time you see an image that sparks something in you, you'll better understand why, and I know that speaking to this audience, you'll definitely do something about it.
Ansel Adams je rekao, i ne slažem se sa njim, "Vi ne slikate fotografiju, vi je pravite." Sa moje tačke gledišta, nije fotograf taj koji pravi fotografiju, to ste vi. Mi dodajemo svakoj fotografiji svoje lične vrednosti, naš lični sistem verovanja, i kao rezultat toga, fotografija se odnosi na nas. Moja kompanija ima 70 miliona fotografija. Ja imam jednu u mojoj kancelariji. Evo je. Nadam se da ćete sledeći put kad vidite fotografiju koja nešto zrači za vas, bolje razumeti zašto, i znam da, govoreći ovoj publici, da ćete definitivno uraditi nešto povodom toga.
And thank you to all the photographers.
I hvala svim fotografima.
(Applause)
(aplauz)