The Silent Witnesses

It might be a car accident, a fire, a street fight, or even an execution! As a photojournalist, when I was taking photos of an accident, a ritual, or an event, I would sometimes turn toward the people present at the scene behind the ongoing incident. I would look at the faces of onlookers; I would watch and record them watching.

According to some sociologists, the major reason for people’s thirst and lust for watching events at critical junctures (rather than fighting and trying to correct a negative phenomenon) is the lack of entertainment and recreation, the problem of unemployment, and cultural issues. They also believe that the growing apathy and passivity have ensued from inattention to problems experienced by our fellowmen and other members of society.

Nowadays, watching or recording an event with a mobile phone has become a daily recreation for people when they see a social issue, e.g., the governmental punishment of an individual or a group, an act of violence, or even a death.

At such moments, I recorded people’s faces, thinking what else we could do, except for watching, in the face of natural, political, and social phenomena. I wonder what fate awaits us as a result of all nonparticipation and indifference of onlookers toward fellow human beings.