Watching footage of the recent tragedy near Bondi Beach I was forced to readdress an activity of image making that I have considered previously. The citizen journalist documentation of the event itself provides us with heart-breaking images which can be used as evidence of the actions of criminal intent but I am not talking about those images both still and moving. It was the footage of the post tragedy grieving that made me feel uncomfortable. People using their smartphones to photograph the floral memorial to those who lost their lives. People looking to compose their photographs whilst those around them grieved.

I have previously written about others doing the same at the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth II and back in an analogue world at the funeral of the Princess of Wales. Of course, I am writing here from a UK perspective, both of these funerals were national events of importance even if you have an issue with the royal family. I can understand why some people would like to remember their attendance at such events but I am forced to ask when will they look at the photographs they made of somebody’s coffin moving slowly past? I would suggest never.

I know that the history of photography is filled with images that are hard to look at for many reasons. Images that have changed opinions, revealed unpleasant truths and made the world stand-up and demand change but I am not talking about those images. It was obvious that there were professional photographers in attendance at Bondi after the attack. Their cameras clear indicators of their reason for being there searching for a story when the story had passed. Awkward and uncomfortable in their interactions with those also drawn to the place of needless and cruel death.

Whether the professionals should be there at all is open to debate but again that is not my concern here. My concern is that of the belief that everything has to be recorded just because it can. Just because we can should we?

The photographic thought process seems to be broken. The desire to make photographs overwhelming the understanding and importance of why? I am starting to think that the photographic process is no longer about making a photograph as an outcome for many but instead as a Pavlovian response to life. An emotional reaction to an expectation of what we are meant to do at any event without thinking. Whether that is at a concert, sports event or national tragedy. The differences between each confused by the belief that photography is only about creating something to post online. Content created for the sake of content without the knowledge as to the impact that content may have on others or how the poster will be perceived. Feeding the content beast.

Many talk about the death of photography today, invariably because of the rise of AI. I think this is a mistake. It is not the end of photography but the death of the beginning of photography. Photography today has new owners, new forms, new homes and new understandings of its purpose. The fact that these maybe negative is another discussion. The photographic community are struggling with this realisation, the non-photographer is not because it is not a consideration for them. They have been swept along by the smartphone tsunami, and find themselves underwater with no desire or need to break the waves.

I have stayed in Bondi, walked the beach and the road that frames the bay. Looked in the shops and swum in the open air swimming pool. My mother was non-practicing Jewish and therefore I am Jewish through her. For me the images from Bondi of the attack I have seen connected in the way any photograph or film clip does that has a physical or emotional connection when the viewer has a shared lived experience. However, if I was there now I would not be photographing the memorial, or the events that surround it. I would be experiencing the anger and the grief of others and attempting to resolve my own feelings. Understanding the solemnity of the moment and place. My camera would be down. I would be in the present, not looking to use my phone to document sadness to show others online or in-person. That is because as a journalist and photographer I understand the need for empathy. The core foundation for both practices. I don’t see the need to document everything or post everything. Sadly, it would appear that many others do not feel the same as me.

Further Reading:
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/09/18/look-i-was-there-or-i-have-a-photograph-as-proof/
https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2022/09/15/the-final-photograph-documenting-the-end-of-life/

Dr.Grant Scott
After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby’s, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006), Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012) and Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories (Orphans Publishing 2024). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018.

© Grant Scott 2025