Shocking Images
Saturday 4th November

The use of strong images in the media and advertising has developed to the point where Oliviero Toscani used images of condemned prisoners to advertise the United Colours of Bennetton. More recently campaigns with constructed photographs by Jim Hodson (for the Salvation Army) and Nick Georgiou (for Dr Barnado's) have had problems with the newspapers and poster sites. Should advertisers be allowed to appropriate powerful documentary images as shock attention grabbing for their commercial advertising purposes? Should strong documentary images of suffering be considered and displayed as "art"? Is the use of such images just "cynical, self-serving advertising that in practical terms does nothing to support the cause it purports to espouse"? Who makes the decisions on the context and use of photographs? Does the photographer have the ultimate sanction on the context and manipulation or not? Are we needing stronger and stronger images to jolt us out of our compassion fatigue?

As a photography festival that concentrates on human social and cultural issues, we want to address these topics in a one day conference during exposure, the hereford photography festival this year.