By Haeley Ahn

Dubai, On October 27th—Steve Raymer spoke on the theme of Transparency. Photojournalist, author, and educator, Raymer is a long-time National Geographic Magazine staff photographer and a professor emeritus of journalism at the Media School of Indiana University. Currently, he is a visiting professor of Journalism at Zayed University School of Communication and Media Science in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Raymer focused his presentation on the dilemmas surrounding journalism, and expressed his desire to explore with utmost honesty what journalists did right and what they did wrong. He described that photojournalists are often conflicted between professional and personal values, sometimes accused by the public of using people as a means to an end. To combat this, Raymer tries to bring an intimacy to his works to achieve a greater social good.

To exemplify his beliefs, Raymer showcased photos that he had taken in various places around the world — Burma, Eritrea, Cambodia, the Sahara Desert, Jakarta, etc. — and explained their backgrounds. The overall idea was that photography has three main roles: to be society’s professional eye-witness, to expose social evils, and to show the commonality amongst all people. Raymer concluded that a photojournalist has to be able to detach themselves to do their job, but not enough to lose their humanity.

Through his talk, Raymer shed light on the process of photography and its often controversial role in communication. Ultimately, though, he concluded that photography takes readers and viewers to places where they can’t go themselves, and builds intimacy among people all across the world.