Between Morality and the Market: The Circulation of Humanitarian Photography

Abstract

What kind of thing, morally speaking, is an image of suffering? Going beyond questions of representation, here we focus on the creation and circulation of such imagery to ask what we can learn about the ethics of images by examining the contexts and norms within which these move around. Using a 2022 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) controversy as its case study, we highlight the quality of humanitarian images as moral practice and trace 3 moral tensions that emerge as images circulate within and beyond humanitarian spaces. Through this discussion, we make 3 contributions to our understanding of the circulation of humanitarian images. We contribute to the recognition of the implicit norms governing not just the content of images but also their circulation and use; the identification of a dual economy of image circulation: a moral economy and a market economy that both come to shape these norms; and the observation that the ongoing rivalry between these 2 economies renders the norms of image circulation increasingly antagonistic in ways that threaten to undermine the very quality of humanitarian images as a moral practice.