Seeing Through The Lens: On Capturing the Scene in the Passion of Christ
April 16, 2017
By Andre Mencias
By Andre Mencias
One of the iconic of photos that depict the suffering in South Africa is the one photo by Kevin Carter in 1993. It entails how a vulture in the background is waiting for the African child suffering from famine to die. The photo garnered a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 however it caused him his life by committing suicide in the same year. It was a photo that became controversial to the journalist due to the numerous criticisms and questions to whether he helped the child or not. The photo depicted suffering that one can imagine through our eyes in a photograph, a suffering that manifested a reality in the third world.
I ponder on this account as one may ask to where one draws the line between being a photographer or photojournalist and becoming human. It is one’s duty as a journalist to create, inspire and expose such realities happening in the midst of our society and the world, but in performing such duty does it necessarily disregard one’s duty to become human as well?
Then I remembered Simon of Cyrene, a passerby who helped Jesus as He felled down. He was a passerby who never knew Jesus yet had the empathy to help, he wasn’t in anyway obligated but he helped anyway. He was the one who took up the Cross of Christ. He was the one who showed mercy and compassion in that one spontaneous moment with the Lord.
If one could imagine, what if Simon of Cyrene was a photojournalist during that time? Imagine he was holding a camera and perhaps a small tickler and a pen to jot down the events happening. But would he help Jesus as he is carrying the Cross or would he just perform his duty otherwise? I sure hoped that it would be the former rather than the latter, but one can always help in the line of his duty. Right after he took the shot, he would quickly helped Jesus.
Seeing through the lens, by the use of our cameras, we have the capability to capture the loveliest of moments and as well as one’s sufferings. One has the capability to not only capture the moment but turn it into a memory. One cannot deny how real suffering can be when he first hand witnessed it and have seen it through the lens of his camera. I am reminded how of one’s duty can numb the conscience to help others, however I am reminded of Simon who helped Jesus without hesitation as he witnessed His suffering in the streets. We depict sufferings without blur, but we are to help as humans, off-camera.
I ponder on this account as one may ask to where one draws the line between being a photographer or photojournalist and becoming human. It is one’s duty as a journalist to create, inspire and expose such realities happening in the midst of our society and the world, but in performing such duty does it necessarily disregard one’s duty to become human as well?
Then I remembered Simon of Cyrene, a passerby who helped Jesus as He felled down. He was a passerby who never knew Jesus yet had the empathy to help, he wasn’t in anyway obligated but he helped anyway. He was the one who took up the Cross of Christ. He was the one who showed mercy and compassion in that one spontaneous moment with the Lord.
If one could imagine, what if Simon of Cyrene was a photojournalist during that time? Imagine he was holding a camera and perhaps a small tickler and a pen to jot down the events happening. But would he help Jesus as he is carrying the Cross or would he just perform his duty otherwise? I sure hoped that it would be the former rather than the latter, but one can always help in the line of his duty. Right after he took the shot, he would quickly helped Jesus.
Seeing through the lens, by the use of our cameras, we have the capability to capture the loveliest of moments and as well as one’s sufferings. One has the capability to not only capture the moment but turn it into a memory. One cannot deny how real suffering can be when he first hand witnessed it and have seen it through the lens of his camera. I am reminded how of one’s duty can numb the conscience to help others, however I am reminded of Simon who helped Jesus without hesitation as he witnessed His suffering in the streets. We depict sufferings without blur, but we are to help as humans, off-camera.