Sustaining Hegemony: Educational Use of Photographs Representing Human Distress

The use of photography representing human distress in higher education warrants moral attention, owing to the imperative that we avoid objectifying the vulnerable communities who are often represented in those images. Assuming the fundamental Kantian precept that we should always treat others as ends and never merely as means, I extend this precept to include the photographic representation of human distress which involves vulnerable others. This I explore by drawing on the critical theory of Horkheimer and the critical pedagogy of Gottesman. The tendency to decontextualise and depoliticise the act of ‘using’ photographs freely available in the public domain serves to consolidate the status quo and sustain the existing hegemony that allows such use and guides our moral judgements. Derrida, I suggest towards the end of my paper, has some illuminating things to say about this.