2020年经济学人 疫情的影像(3)（在线收听）

Her perspective inside the hospital was unique. But a series Mr Montgomery did at the Farenga Brothers Funeral Home in the Bronx involved even thornier ethical challenges. His images of the dead and their grieving relatives are meant to humanise the fact of mortality. They also restore the individuality of some of the pandemic’s many victims.

坎宁安从医院内部拍摄的视角是独特的。但蒙哥马利在位于布朗克斯的法伦加兄弟殡仪馆拍摄的影像引发了更为棘手的伦理问题。他拍摄的关于死者及其悲痛的亲属的作品意在使死亡的事实更加人性化。这些作品同时也复原了疫情的死难者的个性。

“The moral issues were huge,” acknowledges Kathy Ryan of the NYTM. “It’s not very often you see pictures dealing with the dead in our culture in this way.” In one image, editors blurred out a name-tag attached to a body bag. The series includes open coffins and refrigerated corpse trucks, but the most graphic scenes were omitted. The Purewals, the family at the centre of the shoot, were willing to be photographed as a way of honouring their late father. For some who were unable to give their loved ones proper funerals, Mr Montgomery’s pictures became a memorial.

《纽约时报》的凯西·瑞恩承认：“这些作品涉及的道德问题非常重要。在我们的文化中，很少以这种方式处理死者的照片。”在一张照片中，编辑把附在尸袋上的姓名标签进行模糊处理。这一组照片中，有打开的棺材和冷藏运尸车，但最生动的镜头都被删除了。作为拍摄中心的普雷沃尔一家很乐意入镜，以此来缅怀已故的父亲。对于一些无法为亲人举办像样的葬礼的人来说，蒙哥马利拍摄的照片能为他们留个纪念。

What, for the West, has been an unusually intimate encounter with death has affected views on how suffering elsewhere in the world is portrayed. In March, after seeing the devastation that covid-19 was causing in Lombardy, Nana Kofi Acquah, a Ghanaian photographer, posted an address to white journalists on Instagram. “Can you photograph Africa with the same level of respect and empathy?” he asked. Azu Nwagbogu, director of the African Artists’ Foundation, hopes the global nature of the pandemic will lead to a levelling in the way anguish in different places is covered. “I think there’s now a clear understanding of the dignity and respect for human life that needs to be given to all patients.”

对于西方人来讲，这次与死亡非同寻常的亲密接触，影响了他们的一些看法，即世界其他地区所经历的苦难是如何报道的。三月，加纳摄影师娜娜·科菲·阿奎赫在目睹新冠肺炎病毒在伦巴第造成的危害后，在Instagram上发表了一封写给白人记者的信。“你能以同样的尊重和同情心来拍摄非洲的情况吗？”他问道。非洲艺术家基金会负责人阿祖·恩瓦格博古希望，记者们能够在疫情蔓延全球的情况下对不同地区的痛苦程度都加以报道。“我认为现在大家已经清楚地认识到需要给予所有的患者尊严和对生命的尊重。”

Pictures are, after all, one of the ways posterity will remember the pandemic and the lives it disrupted. Arts institutions are already beginning to shape the way it will be seen—and they are not relying only on professionals. The National Portrait Gallery in London, for example, has received over 30,000 submissions for “Hold Still”, a community photography project launched in response to the virus. “I see people voicing gratitude and manifesting dreams about better times, lives and loves after lockdown,” Magda Keaney, a curator, says of the entries. Professionals still shape perceptions of crises, wrestling with their motives and responsibilities as they shoot. But they are no longer alone.

毕竟，照片只是其中一种记录手段，让后代们牢记这次疫情及其对生活的扰乱。艺术机构已经开始塑造疫情的呈现方式，而且已经不再仅仅依靠艺术专业人士了。例如，伦敦国家肖像美术馆已经收到了3万多张关于“Hold Still”的投稿照片，这是一项为抗击疫情发起的社区摄影项目。美术馆馆长马格达·基尼在谈到这些作品时说：“我看到人们都在表达感激之情，表达封闭后关于美好时光、美好生活以及美好爱情的梦想。”专业摄影师依旧塑造着人们对危机的认知，在拍摄的同时，内心的动机和肩负的责任相互博弈。但是他们不再孤军奋战。