Week 29 - 2020
Li Wenliang, selfie from the hospital bed, 2020. Li Wenliang/Gan En Fund via Reuters / NTB Scanpix
Apicture of sickness
Li Wenliang (1986-2020) was the first doctor to warn China about the a possible threat posed by a new and unknown version of the Sars-virus. The new virus turned out to be what we now know as Covid-19; the consequences of which the entire world is currently battling.
In december 2019 Wenliang had informed an online internet forum about a form of sickness developing at a wet-market in Wuhan. This internal message, aimed at fellow alumni and colleagues, caught the government’s attention. By result Wenliang was made to sign a letter declaring his original message as false, made up of rumours and false information. Li Wenliang died of the virus on the 6th of February 2020. His death clearly stated the severity of the virus. Iconic photographs are images that reflects a more complex story. How do we place this image in the story about Covid-19; a pandemic with consequences still unknown to us?
Photo theorist Fred Ritchin informs us that photojournalism is, in a much greater extent, more reactive than proactive. Instead of showing us useful strategies aiming to prevent the worst case scenarios from happening, the visuals shows us the actual castastropies. For example, pictures of chinese citizens wearing masks is not a motif proactive enough for a wider audience, because it symbolizes how the bad things happen to others, and consequently not us. It becomes a much too simplistic understanding of what the actual situation is like. Perhaps this can be compared with pictures of orange detainee uniforms used by the prisoners in Guantanamo? The clothes gives us associations about being guilty. They become triggers and small stamp-like icons on our smartphone as we scroll and look through todays news feed.
Could this image emerge as iconic during a time where the creation and sharing of images appear to be in a constant flow? What we know for sure is that this is a selfie; its is a self portrait from a hospital bed, with an oxygen mask as breathing aid. It is up to us how we choose to interpret it.
You can find this picture as part of the free, outdoor exhibition outside Preus Museum. It is open 24/7.