I must admit that this concept of a "Global image" has taken me by surprise a bit. If I had been asked to name a global image previously, I probably would have cited the obvious easily spotted corporate logo or symbol. It had never occurred to me that apart from the big news pictures, Lee harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby, or later, President kennedy's young son saluting his fathers coffin,
(which were global because of the possible resonance that assassination might have on the world), or on a lighter note the gangnam style video going viral on social media, there wasn't really anything I would have associated with the term "Global".
I now look at things very differently. I can see that global status can be conferred through many different ideas. For instance, my image of the sun behind an electricity pylon below
I originally took this photo because I wanted to make the point that here was a problem, the greenhouse effect caused by overuse of fossil fuels to supply electricity among other things, and there was a part of the solution, solar energy which is free, clean and doesnt contribute to global warming on it own account.
Having thought about it for a while, I can see how this is a global image because it deals with a problem that the whole world is facing, that of global warming.
I found the webinar on this subject educating too.
Chris Northey showed us an image of a man who chose to be anonymous. I can see the globality in this image because of the subject matter , a person, and the issues surrounding anonymity in a world where everybody else seems to know more about us than we do ourselves.
Gerry hughes showed us images including a semi candid shot of some guys around a pickup truck, and some construction workers going about their business at the top of some steel girders. I can see the globality in this because one might contrast it, as Chris pointed out with the well known pictures of men drinking coffee sitting on girders at the top of skyscrapers from the middle of the last century. Both sets of men have no safety equipment, for example. So we see the same occupation with a fifty year gap.
I think we also have to ask ourselves why any particular photograph is taken in the first place. The photos I referenced at the beginning of this essay were news items, taken to inform. The video's main function was to entertain. I took the photo above to make a point, Chris's was part of a series and Gerry's was something he saw that resonated with him. All different reasons but all ending with images which could be classified as "Global".
To sum up then. Most of the images that end up with a classification of "Global" were not intended to, apart from news photos, advertising photos and photos making a political point. I think we need to question why any particular photo was taken, rather like we might look at a particular painting and ask why it was painted, and we need to ask ourselves why we might be taking a particular photograph.
It's also to remember that with this power to capture and disseminate images come responsibility-just because we think something is okay doesn't mean it is, and we have to have empathy with and sympathy with other viewpoints and ideals. especially in a world where a touch of a button can send one image to a billion places in the blink of an eye
