その誰の責任か?についてですが、自分たちがpdfX12やI WAS THEREをはじめたきっかけも、その「配信」を担う責任の部分を自分たちが手助け出来ないかと始めたものですが、それでも、なにかの問題に取り組んでシャッターを切るつもりでいるのであれば、写真家自身がその成果をどうやって人びとに届けるのかを考えるべきである。もしか、考えないなら、シャッターを切るべきではないのじゃないか。また、駆け出しの写真家たちが「冒険心」で現地に赴くようなことがあるけれど、そういう場合は、機材を買うお金と飛行機代を、そっくり被写体となるべく人びとにあげたほうがましだ、というようなことを述べてます。
A few thousand miles away, in Bangkok, Yumi Goto works with a team of 10 collaborators to create pdfx12, a monthly online publication that highlights the work of one photojournalist at a time. (You can download the archive here.) Of her entirely volunteer staff she says, “They all want to do something that they can dedicate to society, using their professional skills, because in their day jobs they are not necessarily helping society. We all want to help expose and promote photographers and issues.”
But even while she takes on the responsibility to promote others, she believes that each photographer has some responsibility to distribute their own work as well. “This kind of work, if they really want to change something, they have to think about distribution,” she says. “And if they don’t think about it, maybe they shouldn’t click.
“Many young photographers just want an adventure, just to go out into the field and click. But sometimes I think, if that is the case, maybe they should just take the money for the camera and for the plane ticket, and just give it to the people instead.”
Yumi Goto, I might add, is a master of distribution. Not only does she manage a major grassroots initiative in pdfx12, with its 2000 subscriptions and both English and Japanese editions, but she also maintains a new blog called “reminders–I WAS THERE,” and an enormous presence on Facebook, both personally and for the reminders project; and twitter, where she shares photo-related opportunities and information constantly. For Yumi, distribution is synonymous with generosity and relationship building.
I asked her who she has noticed doing a good job of distributing their work. She cited Italian photographer Marco Vernaschi.
“Big media are good too,” she says, “it’s good if they can save a spot for these longer stories. But with new media you don’t have to be published by big media to make a difference.”