May
Photo with a Voice
Posted under Art, |
I heard about TB PhotoVoice through a close friend and tuberculosis advocate, and began researching the project with the notion that it used photography to document the horrors of TB from the viewpoint of those living in communities directly impacted. I believed I was investigating a project whose mission was to generate awareness, through artistic documentation, about a a disease many people have relegated to the past.
In reality, TB PhotoVoice has a vastly more complex and far reaching plan; in fact, its mission and methods are revolutionary in the field of tuberculosis control. Perhaps this is because TB PhotoVoice was developed by a man whose personal and tragic involvement with the disease opened his eyes to the human element of the international tuberculosis crisis, an element that is rarely addressed in the multitude of international conferences and "high-level" meetings that surround this pandemic.
Following the deaths of his wife and child, Lacson attended the 2005 World Conference on Lung Health. Being a researcher for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lacson was accustomed to communicating with statistics and numbers. However, as he listened to presentation after presentation, seated amongs representatives of such heavyweight institutions as the CDC, World Health Organization, and American Lung Association, Lacson found his mind turning to the voice that was mysteriously missing from all conferences and discussions -that of those living with tuberculosis. Despite convening some of the world's foremost experts in disease research and government officials, the conference covered many aspects but seemed to ignore the human side of tuberculosis in constructing its strategies for control and prevention.
Upon his return from the conference, Lacson contacted a fellow graduate student in the Master's of Public Health Program at the University of South Carolina, Sherer Royce, who gave her dissertation on PhotoVoice, a campaign that used photographic narratives in a structure devoted to empower marginalized communities.
With the help of others, Romel Lacson developed a methodology for choosing the initial project sites, considering a matrix of factors like: disease prevalence, health system infrastructure, and personal affinities with the region, to facilitate collaboration with local agencies who could oversee and carry out the work of TB PhotoVoice. Lacson winnowed down 21 high burden areas to four TB PhotoVoice implementation sites which included Thailand, the U.S.-Mexico Border, Brazil, and rural South Carolina. He resigned his position with the CDC and devoted his time to training chosen agencies in each area to carry out the project. These agencies in turn provided cameras and photography training to TB patient-artists who documented the realities of living with TB disease. The photos revealed a person's daily life with tuberculosis; hurdles with treatment plans, the difficulty of getting the proper nutrition required for drug efficacy, decaying medical facilities, and the cultural stigma associated with disease.
So what IS TB PhotoVoice, and how is it different from simple photodocumentation? This is the question I asked Lacson during our conversation. He was quick to respond that while the photographs document the "historical politico-social environment that has allowed TB to flourish", TB PhotoVoice images are never presented without the artists. This sums up the innovative approach of "Living Exhibitions," which operate on two levels; images and text combine to form a narrative constructed by the artists, and the artists are present to give a voice to that narrative. Living Exhibitions avoid the common trappings of many photojournalistic endeavors which present static images of anonymous sufferers (whose permission was not granted whose names are unknown), placing the viewers in a voyeuristic stance, looking upon a displaced and anonymous tragedy.
Living Exhibitions, on the other hand, create a social space for tuberculosis advocacy outside the medical and scientific arenas where the viewers can engage in a discussion, shifting the focus from tragic narratives with an emphasis on mere awareness to awareness with an emphasis on change.
This is but one face of the TB PhotoVoice's multifaceted approach to advancing the rhetoric surrounding tuberculosis, which traditionally relies on sterile facts and figures.
In 2007, two years after the project's inception, Lacson and his bubbly public relations manager Teresa Rugg, attended the 38th Annual World Conference on Lung Health in Cape Town, South Africa. Lacson and Rugg invited more than 20 distinguished guests, including TB experts and government officials, to attend a panel discussion held outside the meeting space and its posh hotel surroundings. After witnessing the devastating poverty in South African shanty towns on their way to a community center in the township of Khayelitsha, the guests spent a revelatory afternoon listening to presentations given by representatives from each of the four TB PhotoVoice sites. Lacons and Rugg's presentation "Tuberculosis Through the Eyes and Voices of Patients Around the World" had the desired effect; having seen the human side of tuberculosis, many of these leaders returned to the conference with a deeper insight into the effects of the international tuberculosis pandemic. They took away a renewed commitment to not only halting the progress of the disease but to improving the living conditions that enable it to thrive.
More than "art with a purpose", TB PhotoVoice is an ambitious and brilliantly implemented campaign designed in recognition of a "visible and articulate community of people affected by TB who are ready to engage with people at a policy level." TB PhotoVoice has set about correcting the absence of the TB-affected community from involvement in international TB policies and program strategies. TB PhotoVoice began with the belief that "It's all about the people...People affected by TB must continue to share their stories and be active participants in shaping local and global TB strategies."
Photography and Living Exhibitions are the tip of the iceberg for TB PhotoVoice, a project that began with human connections, and that will achieve its greatest successes by making more.
By Molly Dierks
Interested parties can view some of the art on the website, www.tbphotovoice.org
A special thanks to Teresa and Romel.
