Counterintuitive Fall 2024

It seems counterintuitive that a single dead person can command more attention, drama, and controversy, when compared with the pile of corpses that number in the hundreds of thousands!

In 2010, a catastrophic earthquake shook the poise out of concrete buildings in Haiti with magnitude 7 shockwaves, and in the emerging chaos that ensued, shook the poise out of the public with a weight that came from viewing the dead. Much like in war times, photographers are dispersed to areas affected by tragedy. Photographers from many different groups captured candidly or artistically the ruins of concrete buildings, the chaos exploited in light of a weakened government, the thousands of dead, and the sadness and anger from the living.

Of the many photos that would circulate to the rest of the world, several photographers took photos of Fabienne Cherisma: postmortem. However, unlike many of the other photos of the dead, this body was not covered in dust or debris. Fabienne Cherisma was instead killed from a bullet that came from a police officer. What threat could a 15-year-old girl holding mirrors and a picture of flowers pose to a police officer? But that was not the only thing that grabbed attention. Fabienne Cherisma’s dead body appears to be in different positions in different photos. Unless dead bodies can move themselves, who would want to shift Fabiene Cherisma’s from (excuse the irreverent sounding description) a belly sleeping position to a side sleeping position? While this young girl was pierced by a bullet, the general public was pierced by the images of her regardless of which position they saw her in, so much so that some predicted she would become the symbol of the earthquake. In a counterintuitive way, more funds would be sent to Haiti to help support those affected by the earthquake, not entirely because we are motivated by a horrible earthquake, but more so instead motivated by the flood of emotions via disturbing pictures, thanks to police officer that shot a young girl.

Photographers are not a monolith, some are from small volunteer groups, some are from big media companies. While some may capture events without much artistic effort, what photographer would not want their work to have the impact like Marc Riboud and his photo a young woman confronting a row of soldiers with a flower? An inquiry starts: who moved the body? Was a photographer trying to get a “better angle” for a more impactful image. And a debate upon that debate about if the ends of more money (for Haiti or a media company) justify the means (“disaster pornography”).

It may seem counterintuitive but what about the other travesty here? Not investigating the suspected cut corners contributing to the collapsing structures. If the investigation proved fruitful, it could be concluded that countless lives could have been saved if the buildings were properly built to be earthquake resistant. The Haitian government estimates casualties to be around 300,000 following the earthquake, which would make it one of the worst natural disasters in history. Imagine if we could save even half; 150,000 people saved with buildings that were equipped to resist earthquakes. Why is it that the unfair death of Fabiene Cherisma could potentially become a symbol when someone mentions this earthquake, but the hundreds of thousands of unfair deaths together may not? While some claim we all lives are equal, clearly, they forgot to mention otherwise in death.