International Humanitarian Organizations and the Visual

Representation of Children Online

Claudia Gonzalez
Children in International Affairs
Professor Shepler

Introduction
From advertising on the metro or the walls of bus stop shelters to giving
campaigns advertised online, we are constantly being bombarded with images of
suffering others. Images of children, which have become increasingly popular, are
especially poignant because they challenge our own constructed ideas of childhood. In
the modern Western world, we understand childhood as a carefree, safe, secure and
happy phase of human existence, and we have even exported this model of childhood to
the rest of the world (Boyden 191). Humanitarian initiatives built on the idea of childsaving are one mechanism through which we have spread this Western ideal. Today,
despite the shifting paradigm from child-saving to child rights, organizations continue
to rely on a wide assortment of humanitarian images of children to compel viewers to act
mostly likely in the form of paying or speaking (Wells 31). As a development and
communications practitioner in the NGO sector, especially a Western NGO that works
with children, existing literature on images of children and the role of spectators has
prompted me to reflect on my role, as well as the role of other organizations that Ive
come into contact with. This work aims to understand how international humanitarian
organizations visually portray children online by using a content analysis of
contemporary photographs of children published by five different Western organizations
on their respective websites.
Historical Background
Humanitarianism is a modern phenomenon, which has traditionally been rooted in
what are called theatrical arrangements essentially dramatic images and narratives.
Historically, these theatrical arrangements have separated safe spectators from

vulnerable others in heartbreaking spectacles of human suffering, which invite a

moral response (Chouliaraki 28). In the late-eighteenth century, print media began
staging these spectacles of suffering convincing displays that made pain, distress or
hardship known (Baughan). The spread of technologies like the printing press, as well as
growing literacy rates, turned the abolition of slavery into one of the first everhumanitarian campaigns (Baughan). Throughout the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth
centuries, images of slaves in the Caribbean were widely circulated to create empathy for
vulnerable others by highlighting physical and emotional pain and supporting the idea
of the White [Western] savior (Baughan).
During the First World War, a number of countries, including the United States,
began to focus their humanitarian efforts on children for the first time, thereby
catapulting the child onto the international stage (Bolzman 27). In her article, Laura
Bolzman attributed this shift from the private to the international sphere to the unique
challenges governments faced at the time, especially helping hundreds of thousands of
young victims of the war outside of their borders (27). She also cited shifting priorities
surrounding the protection of the child as nations risked losing control of their youngest
citizens the lively strengths of the nation (Bolzman 27). From 1914 to 1917, future
President Herbert Hoover, a philanthropist at the time, chaired the Committee for
Belgium Relief, later going on to direct the American Relief Administration (Marshall
184). From the armistice in 1918 until 1919, Hoover returned to Europe on behalf of the
United States to feed those affected by ongoing victors blockades, and in 1919, he began
a private venture, the European Children Fund, which gained recognition for its programs
focusing on children (Marshall 185). Throughout World War I, Hoover and his colleagues

built a new feeling of universality around the image of the child by portraying children as
immature and vulnerable beings, whose childhoods had been wrongfully stolen. The
Committee for Belgium Relief asked for the publics support, in order to demonstrate
their neutrality, and in fact, they were so successful that no other program of relief for
allied civilians had the same level of support (Marshall 185). Feeding children eventually
became a way for the United States to retire from European relief, without losing
prestige, and even to better American international relations (Marshall 185).
Before examining how humanitarian organizations portray children at present, its
important to understand the complex history behind the spectatorship of suffering. In
1919, in response to the First World War, Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton
founded the Save the Children Fund (SCF) (Marshall 186). Along with the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), SCIU continued the work that the American Relief
Agency had begun in Europe with the distinctive goal of coordinat[ing] and unify[ing]
all the childrens relief actions in Switzerland and around the world, beginning with
victims of armed conflicts (Bolzman 28). This marked an important turning point as the
two sisters realized the untapped fund-raising potential in starving children (Marshall
187). Like Hoover, they promoted a new internationalism around childhood, which
represented a neutral ground (religious, political, etc.) where former enemies could meet,
although in reality, the organization remained Christian (Bolzman 29). Bolzman
described how based on the Report of the 5th session of SCIUs delegates in 1920, the
Union believed The moralized and saved child would discover international
brotherhood and universal charity, thus creating a new global standard based on love,
forgiveness, and reconciliation (29). Propaganda, in the form of written and visual

accounts, became critical for giving evidence of atrocities and also because the process
of seeing was considered a responsibility in and of itself (Marshall 189). Quoted in
Bolzmans article, a SCIU propaganda sheet from 1920 read:
We must take hold of the imagination, of sensitive souls, of emotions of spontaneity, of
the natural kindness of women and children; of the sprit of human solidarity, of the social
and progressive enthusiasm of the working classes, of national sentiment, of a sense of
responsibility, of culture, even of the vanity of the well-to-do classes, etc (30).

This was achieved primarily by pairing images with loaded, emotionally-engaging

captions like, Every day you delay means a hideous death to a hungry little child,
which promoted SCIUs child-saving agenda, as well as the historical idea of the White
savior (Marshall 190).
In the second chapter of her book, Childhood in a Global Perspective, Karen
Wells charted the shifting discourse from child-saving to child rights during the 20th
century. In 1923, Save the Children created the Declaration of the Rights of the Child,
which was approved by the General Assembly of the League of Nations in 1924, along
with a Child Welfare Committee (Wells 28). The declaration employed child-saving
language, portraying the child as an isolated human being, deprived of reassuring family
or state protection, as well as a resource for its country (Bolzman, 32). While it served
primarily as a propaganda tool, it also led to an expanded version in 1959, which
included more social and economic rights for the child (Wells 29). In 1989, the adoption
of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was a watershed
moment because for the first time in international law, children were acknowledged as
rights-bearing individuals (Wells 30). Nonetheless, at the time of the books writing,
Wells concluded that child-saving had not been entirely displaced by child rights,

especially when considering international non-governmental organization appeals and

broadcast media (44). This was the starting point for my work as it prompted me to ask:
then, how are humanitarian organizations that work with youth visually portraying
children?
Literature Review
Historians Heide Fehrenbach and Davide Rodogno have defined humanitarian
photography as the mobilization of photography in the service of humanitarian
initiatives across state boundaries. In 2015, Fehrenbach and Rodogno co-edited a
volume titled Humanitarian Photography: A History, which compiles the work of more
than a dozen scholars to provide a historical evolution.
While extensive literature exists on humanitarian photography in general, Heide
Fehrenbach is among a smaller number of scholars who have written specifically about
children in humanitarian photography. In her chapter Children and Other Civilians,
Fehrenbach presented a historical evolution of the conventions employed in humanitarian
photographs of children up until 1945. Fehrenbach argued that when children first
appeared in humanitarian photography, they were typically located in European colonies,
much like the early humanitarian campaigns that depicted the suffering of slaves in the
Caribbean (167). These images were informed by ethnographic travel literature,
missionary photography, and the new journalism of the 1880s and were furthermore
grounded in the epistemological authority of the eyewitness account (Fehrenbach
167). Despite their narratives of human suffering, children were typically represented in a
social context and as part of a distinctive culture and community. Compositionally, the
images paralleled middle-class family portraits in the Western world (Fehrenbach 169).

By the turn of the 20th century, imagery increasingly relied on social and familial
framing, or family tropes, to play on the emotions of Western audiences who drew on
sentimentalized notions of parent-child bonds (Fehrenbach 170). Fehrenbach provided
a number of examples including a widely circulated image of colonial violence, a 1904
photograph of Nsala by British missionary Alice Harris. This photograph was carefully
crafted to show a grieving father gazing at all that remained of his family the severed
hand and foot of his young daughter who was cannibalized by sentries serving under
Belgium King Leopold (Fehrenbach 171). An additional family trope, which was
popularized during the First World War, was that of mother and child, which depicted the
mother as a victim, along with her children, emphasizing the failure or insufficiency of a
mothers protection through no fault of her own (Fehrenbach 175).
Another well-established convention was the before and after presentation,
which began with abolitionists, missionaries, and child reformers in the 1860s and was
employed throughout the 1920s by nonprofit groups to show the effectiveness of their
work (Fehrenbach 179). In 1922, the Save the Children Fund (SCF) used this convention
in a feature titled The Deadly Contrast, published in their official magazine. It
highlighted their life-saving relief work by contrasting an image of a child who froze to
death with an image of a child with food, shelter, and clothing (Fehrenbach 179).
Fehrenbach also went on to address Save the Children Funds child-adoption
subscription, which was founded in November of 1920, and is still alive today. This
fundraising initiative contributed to paternalistic notions of humanitarianism by giving
donors the opportunity to godparent a child via a monthly donation. Gradually, the
child-adoption subscription grew to include respectable headshots of unnamed children,

properly clothed and groomed, who were identified by their nationality and eventually
their first name much as they still are today (Fehrenbach 181). Instead of providing
details from the field, SCF relied on the universal notion of the child to create an
emotional pull (Fehrenbach 181). By the late 1920s, the subscription shifted into a
choose your child campaign, where donors could indicate a preferred sex and
nationality for their child, receive their photograph, and potentially even exchange
letters with them (Fehrenbach 182).
The last time period that Fehrenbach explored was the Second World War when
humanitarian photography built upon the trope of war as a breakdown of civil society
(186). American-born photographer and expatriate, Thrse Bonney, exemplified this era
with her images of the civilian wartime experience, which highlighted the breakdown of
families and normal childhoods (Fehrenbach 186). Bonneys photographs tended
towards intimate, individual portraits of suffering that in formal terms, were similar to
child portraits taken in Western studios and evoked a visceral reaction among Americans
on the basis of shared humanity (Fehrenbach 187). Her photography book allowed
readers to become moral witnesses of war as she demonstrated the heartbreaking
effects of war on children who were vulnerable, exhausted and hungry; dislocated and
disconnected from family; in jeopardy, orphaned and thus, deserved the protection of
Western viewers (Fehrenbach 188).
Political scientist Kate Manzo has explored how contemporary non-governmental
development and relief organizations and prominent signatories of codes of conduct have
employed photographs of children more recently. In her article, Imaging
Humanitarianism: NGO Identity and the Iconography of Childhood, Manzo argued that

NGOs employ the iconography of childhood as a sort of brand logo, in order to

produce a humanitarian identity (635). She also examined the inherently paradoxical
nature of this iconography, beginning with images of suffering.
While the alleviation of suffering is the prime motivation of NGOs, present-day
NGOs (and the media) have been widely criticized for using images of suffering to elicit
responses, like donations (Manzo 637). Codes of conduct have warned against portraying
children as passively suffering, instead of actively struggling (Manzo 637). Nonetheless,
these images continue to be used, which Manzo has attributed to intra-organizational
conflicts of interest, like competing objections between fundraising and development
education, as well as the need to ensure institutional survival, which is often done by
recycling images that have worked in the past (638).
In addition to illustrating suffering, Manzo has argued that children are the
dominant signifier of death for example, the teary-faced AIDS orphan (639). Global
media expert, Susan D. Moeller has made the same argument in her chapter on Covering
Famine. In the media, starving children have served as a famine icon because of their
purity of victim status (Moeller, 1999, 98). According to Moellers hierarchy of
innocence, children are considered the most deserving of our protection because they are
not yet associated with the stereotypes attached to their race, culture or political
environment (Moeller, 2002, 48; Moeller, 1999, 98). They are seen as bona fide
candidates for compassion because of their 100 percent victim or nonparticipant
status (Moeller, 2002, 48). As an example, Moeller recalled the famous Times cover story
of an infant trying to nurse from a shriveled breast, with flies in its eyes, which
represented the 1992 famine in Somalia (Moeller, 1998, 98). Although these images

garner significant attention, they falsely suggest that if the children are fed, the famine
will be over, despite the fact that lack of food is rarely the root of a famine. Its important
for the public to understand the complexity of humanitarian situations, although
according to Moeller, the hard job is to retain the publics interest long enough to
educate (Moeller, 1998, 99).
Like Kate Manzo, Lilie Chouliaraki delved into the paradoxes of humanitarian
imagery in her book, The Ironic Spectator. In her chapter on Appeals, Chouliaraki
outlined the historical controversy around appeals, which is centered on the aesthetics of
solidarity, with negative and positive appeals representing the two conflicting sides
(57). As previous literature has shown, appeals have traditionally been victim-oriented
since they have relied upon the spectacle of suffering as a source of emotions and
action (Chouliaraki 58). Early appeals authenticated suffering via documentary
aesthetics, or plain reality, as well as the colonial gaze, which is based on a maximal
distance between this suffering other and the western spectator (Chouliaraki 58).
Through the logic of complicity, negative appeals moralize individual spectators who
feel a sense of responsibility for distant suffering that taps into feelings of shame
(Chouliaraki 61). Its also important to recognize the risks of negative images including
compassion fatigue a term coined by Susan Moeller which is also known as the
Ive seen this before syndrome, as well as the boomerang effect that refers to
peoples indifference to act on suffering as a reaction towards these flows of negative
emotion that leave them feeling helpless (Chouliaraki 60-61).
Conversely, positive appeals depend on realist aesthetics, which represent the
reality of suffering as it is and focus on the sufferer as an agent, instead of a victim

(Chouliaraki 61). Instead of complicity, positive appeals rely on what Chouliaraki has
called sympathetic equilibrium a communicative logic that orients the appeal towards
a responsive balance of emotions between that distant sufferer and the spectator as
potential benefactor (61). The logic of this equilibrium is established through bilateral
emotion: subtle signs of the sufferers gratitude towards the benefactor and the
benefactors empathy towards the sufferer (Chouliaraki 61). While this empowers
sufferers through discourses of self-determination, and also allows the benefactor to
identify in the suffering other a shared quality of humanity, positive images
paradoxically disempower sufferers, as well (Chouliaraki 62). Benevolent emotions, like
images of smiling children, act as instruments of power since they designate these
children as the perpetual objects of our generosity. They may also perpetuate a
misconceived notion of development as an unreciprocated gift, which fails to recognize
deep power asymmetries (Chouliaraki 62). Both Manzo and Chouliaraki have also argued
against positive images since they can be interpreted as evidence of aid efficacy or a
narcissistic, pat on the back for Western donors, which can be problematic due to the
cultural connotations of charity, as well as the misrecognition of aid as fully addressing
an issue (Chouliaraki 62; Manzo 640).
METHODOLOGY
Background
Rico Neumann, a graduate student at the University of Leipzig (Germany) and a
research collaborator at the UN-Mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica), and Shahira
Fahmy, a journalist tenured at the University of Arizona, analyzed the visual coverage of
the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War in their 2012 article, Analyzing the Spell of

War: A War/Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil
War in Western Newswires. Using a conceptual framework that establishes war and
peace journalism as two competing frames, Neumann and Fahmy empirically examined
editorial news photographs of the Sri Lankan conflict in three leading Western newswires
through a process of content analysis (170).
For the purpose of my investigation, I used the same methodology for data
collection and coding items as Neumann and Fahmy did in their work. To begin with,
Neumann and Fahmy picked three leading newswires (AP, Reuters, Getty/Agence
France-Press) based on their Western views of journalism that highlight conflict, as well
as the relevant images they provide. Their next step was to collect a random sample of
editorial news photographs spanning seven weeks, which led to a final sample of three
subsamples (one per newswire) similar in size (184-185). To get a representative sample,
they used systematic random sampling to choose every third, every fourth, or every
eighth photograph, depending on how many photographs the newswire had to begin with
(185). Next, their method of analysis included coding each image according to a list of
variables, which they defined themselves: newswire; region; ethnic focus; date; role;
(with four different identifiable options); age; physical harm (ranging from not severe to
most severe); and emotional harm (with a positive/negative dichotomy) (185-187).
Their results were then displayed in tables, as well as graphs, which demonstrate the
percentages of images that displayed various variables.
Data Collection
This paper examines images published by five different international
humanitarian organizations on their respective websites, as well as their primary online

publications, including their 2014 annual reports and their strategic growth plans. Three
of these organizations, Save the Children International, World Vision, and the
International Committee of the Red Cross, were founded in the late 19th or early 20th
centuries. Two of them, Save the Children and World Vision, began as child-sponsorship
programs but have grown to include other initiatives, as well. The remaining two, The
Global Fund for Children and Room to Read, were founded in 1993 and 2000,
respectively. Four of the five organizations, with the exception of Room to Read, work in
a variety of fields, including child protection, health, education, economic development,
disaster relief, restoring family links, agriculture, and more. Room to Read, on the other
hand, specializes in childrens literacy and girls education programs.
Given the Western perspective in which they are rooted, these five international
humanitarian organizations provide images that represent an appropriate subject of
investigation in regard to my research question. Although there are countless
humanitarian institutions worldwide that this work could investigate, these particular
organizations serve as a diverse sample due to their unique histories. These histories
establish an interesting dichotomy between old organizations (founded in the late 19th
or early 20th centuries) and new organizations (founded in the late 20th century or at the
start of 21st century), as well as a dichotomy between large organizations (i.e. the
ICRC, Save the Children and World Vision) and relatively small organizations (the
remaining two). This led me to wonder if organizations on opposite sides of these
dichotomies would portray children in different ways.
Therefore, my data set included images published by five international
humanitarian organizations. The final sample consisted of five subsamples (one per

organization). In order to get these subsamples, I first saved all of the images found on
the organizations websites, as well as in their primary online publications. I excluded
images that had significantly smaller file sizes since they played a less significant role in
the organizations public communications and could not be analyzed to the same extent as
other images (for practical reasons). All of the organizations had roughly the same
amount of images available (ranging from 25 to 38 images). However, I narrowed all of
the subsamples down to 25 images each using systematic random sampling to get a
representative sample.
Coding Items
Based on my empirical analysis, I coded each image according to the following
variables:

International humanitarian organization: The categories for this item were Save
the Children International; World Vision; International Committee of the Red

Cross; The Global Fund for Children; and Room to Read.

The role of the child(ren): Based on the actions visible in the image, as well as the
angle and framing of the photograph, I have identified two umbrella categories:
Passive or powerless victim and Active or empowered agent of change.
While there is room between these two categories, I coded images based on
whichever category they best fit. Any of the following characteristics may define
a passive subject: stillness of body; absence of tools; body as a space where
violence is done; or simply showing a problem, without a solution. Conversely,
the following characteristics may define an active subject: movement or action;
use of tools; or showing a solution to a problem.

Individuality (or lack thereof): Based on an images caption or content, as well as

its composition (foreground, background, and framing), I have identified two
dichotomous categories: an individual situated both in their immediate and wider
social, cultural, or geographical context versus a generic child of the developing
world. A generic child may be removed from their immediate and/or wider
context if they are shown as isolated in the image, or if there is a neutral

background, a closely cropped frame, or no title or caption.

Physical harm: Like Neumann and Fahmy, I evaluated the extent to which the
subjects of an image (in this case, children) suffered from physical harm, ranging
from No harm, to Harm, to Severe harm. I have coded images as No
harm when there is no visible bodily damage, and the caption does not make
mention of any physical violence. If violence is visible, I coded the images as
either Harm or Severe harm, depending on the severity of the situation. An
example of harm is displacement. Severe harm included amputation (because of

its dramatic visual effect) or death.

Emotions: Here I attempted to assess the emotions of the child(ren), based on the
image itself, as well as its title or caption. As Neumann and Fahmy pointed out,
the angle (close-ups in particular) helps determine the type of emotion being
displayed. I also chose to reproduce their simple dichotomous categories:
Negative and Positive emotions. Examples of negative emotions include
sadness, loneliness, fear, pain, or mourning. Examples of positive emotions

include joy, excitement, hope, pride, and empowered.

Composition: For this item, I categorized each image as either a posed, bodycentered portrait, found or documentary style, or narrative-dependent scene.

Some images were harder to categorize than others or could arguably fall into
more than one category, but I chose to categorize each image just once.
RESULTS
After charting each subsample of data (see Annex A-E), I created a table to
compare all five humanitarian organizations (see Annex F). From this table, I analyzed
the similarities and differences between the organizations.
The Role of the Child(ren)
Three of the five organizations, Save the Children International (64%)1, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (64%), and The Global Fund for Children
(60%), had a similar number of images portraying children as passive victims versus
active agents of change, which can be summarized as approximately a 60/40
breakdown (60% passive and 40% active). Conversely, the breakdown for World Vision
and Room to Read was flipped, with approximately 40% of the images portraying
children as passive, and approximately 60% of the images portraying children as active or
empowered.

Example of a passive child

Source: Save the Children, home page

1 In the Results section, the parenthetical percentages represent the exact percentages of
each organization, as seen in the Annex.

Example of an active or empowered child

Source: Room to Read, Our Programs page
Individuality (or lack thereof)
Unlike the latter, there were not significant trends for this variable. Three of the
organizations, Save the Children International (56%), World Vision (76%), and Room to
Read (68%), had a greater number of images featuring a so-called generic child of the
developing world than a child situated in their immediate and/or wider context. On the
other hand, the two remaining organizations, ICRC (56%) and The Global Fund for
Children (52%), had a greater number of images that represented children in their
immediate and/or wider context.
The International Committee of the Red Cross had the greatest percentage of
images showing individuality, largely due to the Photo Galleries on their website (located
in the Resource Centre). Photo Galleries, such as Nigeria: Farmers returning from
Cameroon sow future, with ICRC seed, include visual representations of the
organizations work and include detailed captions, which help establish the immediate
and/or wider context of the image.

Caption: Mubi, Nigeria. When the residents of Mubi in north-eastern Nigeria fled escalating violence in 2014, they
left behind enough food reserves to live on. But with no one to prevent the cattle from eating the crops during
harvesting season, much of that food disappeared. The community was facing severe hunger.

Example of an image with a child shown in both their immediate and wider context
Source: International Committee of the Red Cross, Photo Galleries

Example of a generic child of the developing world (i.e. removed from their context)
Source: World Vision, home page
Physical Harm
Four out of the five organizations, with the exception of the ICRC, had the
majority of their images showing no [physical] harm. In fact, 100% of images
published by Room to Read and The Global Fund for Children showed no harm at all.
However, only 40% of the sample images from the ICRC showed no harm, and an
equal amount showed some level of harm. Twenty percent of their images even showed
severe harm, which is far more than all of the other organizations.

Caption: Najaf, Iraq. In January 2006, when Sajad Faleh was four years old, he and three of his brothers came across
an unexploded cluster munition and began playing with it. It exploded, killing Sajads two older brothers and lacerating
his younger brothers stomach; Sajad lost both his legs. He is seen waiting for an examination at an ICRC physical
rehabilitation centre.

Example of an image showing severe harm

Source: International Committee of the Red Cross, Landmines: A legacy of war Photo
Gallery
Emotions
By and large, the majority of the organizations had more images showing positive
emotions, instead of negative ones. The ICRC was the only exception with 48% of
images showing positive emotions, while 52% of images showed negative ones.
Composition
All five of the organizations had more posed, body-centered portraits than any
other type of image. For Room to Read and The Global Fund for Children, 60% of the
sampled images were portraits even more for World Vision (68%) and Save the
Children (76%). The ICRC had the least number of posed, body-centered portraits
(44%), with documentary style images coming in second (36%).
Child Protection Policies (and Codes of Conduct on Images and Messages)

While humanitarian organizations often have child protection policies or codes of

conduct, policies or codes specific to images and messages are far less commonplace. In
my research, I was unable to find a comprehensive code of conduct on images and
messages that has been implemented in the United States. However, I did find that
organizations often include a stanza about communications or the use of images within
their child protection policies.
Interestingly enough, outside of the United States, I found two comprehensive
codes of conduct, which aim to provide a framework on which organizations can draw
when designing and implementing their public communications strategy (CONCORD).
The first Code of Conduct on Images and Messages was created in 2006 by
CONCORD, the European confederation of Relief and Development NGOs. According
to the About Us section of their website, CONCORD was founded in 2003 and is
comprised of member organizations: 28 national associations, 20 international networks
and 3 associate members that represent over 2,600 NGOs. Similarly, Dchas, the Irish
Association of Non-Governmental Organisations, adopted their own Code of Conduct
on Images and Messages in 2007, which has 101 signatories today (all of which are
listed online). Dchas describes itself as a meeting place for NGOs, as well as a
leading voice on development issues.
The CONCORD code of conduct has three guiding principles: respect for the
dignity of the people concerned; belief in the equality of all people; and acceptance of the
need to promote fairness, solidarity and justice. These principles are followed by eight
items, which signatories strive for. These items cover a variety of topics ranging from
truthfully representing a situation in its immediate and its wider context, to avoiding

stereotypes, to ensuring that those represented have given informed consent and also have
the opportunity to communicate their stories themselves. The last section of the code of
conduct is a Declaration of Commitment for signatories, which includes items like staff
trainings on the use of images and messages and annual meetings for signatories on using
and implementing the code.
On the other hand, the Dchas code of conduct shares many of the same values
and ideas as the CONCORD one, but a detailed illustrative guide accompanies it and
offers the added benefit of visual dos and donts. For each of their seven guiding
principles, Dchas responded to the question What does this mean in practice? paired
with illustrations of images and messages that are recommended, or not recommend, and
an explanation why. Principle two, for example, goes hand-in-hand with the idea of
individuality, which I examined in my own study. It states, Truthfully represent any
image or depicted situation both in its immediate and in its wider context, so as to
improve public understanding of the realities and complexities of development (Dchas
9). As shown in Figure I, Dchas advises against using an image of a child on a blank
backdrop, with captions like SEND MONEY URGENTLY TO SAVE MALIK FROM
STARVATION, because it only represents a fragment or snapshot of the situation (9).
In this example, Malik is strategically cropped out of context to play on feelings of
vulnerability and destitution (Dchas 10). It would be better to provide a caption
explaining the context of the childs situation, or even to show more of the context, like in
the Recommended portion of Figure I, where Malik is shown with his parents and a
doctor as he receives treatment for acute undernourishment.

Figure I.
Source: Dchas, The Illustrative Guide to the Dchas Code of Conduct on Images and
Messages, page 10.

Unfortunately, even in 2015, many images and messages published by

humanitarian organizations continue to break with the guiding principles proposed by
leading institutions like CONCORD and Dchas. This is evident even among the images
I examined in my data set. Continuing with the example of Malik, all five of the
humanitarian organizations I investigated had instances in which they only represented a
fragment or a snapshot of a situation, instead of including the immediate and wider
context (refer to section on individuality).
Due to their child sponsorship programs, Save the Children and World Visions
public communication strategies are particularly egregious in this regard. If you opt to
sponsor a child via their website, you are presented a tightly cropped headshot of a
generic third-world child. These images lack any type of context since the background is
always blank or something nonspecific, like a brick wall. The captions state the childs
general location (country), gender, and age, as well as a small blurb titled something like
Samuel is waiting for you The captions fail to provide significant information like
the wider context or causes of Samuels situation. As Dchas explains, the main reason
this is a problem is because it does not promote a broader understanding of any

development or humanitarian situation for the public (9). In essence, it fails to show the
complexity of good and bad things happening in a country; it relies on simplistic
juxtapositions between them and us; it presents the child as the only truth about
that country; it forces an individual to represent an entire country; and it promotes the
misguided conception that sponsoring a child will somehow end poverty (Dchas 11).
Although the ICRC, the Global Fund for Children, and Room to Read do not have
child sponsorship programs, their images still separate children from their immediate and
wider context almost half of the time. While this is usually done in a far less dramatic
way, it remains a problem nonetheless. Most commonly, a child is cropped out of context,
without a caption detailing the situation, like where the photograph was taken, when it
was taken, and their names (where appropriate). While the background is not necessarily
left blank, it may be nondescript or even out of focus, with the focus of the image being
the child in the foreground. The viewer will most likely never know why the
photographer or the organization chose to frame the image in this way However, in
their code of conduct, Dchas highlights some Challenges around the Implementation of
the Code, which may be applicable here. For small organizations, it may be an issue of
resources and capacity in identifying and obtaining Code-compliant images and messages
to use, while for larger organizations, there may be differences in priorities between
departments, branches, offices in other countries, and stakeholders such as volunteers
(6). While ideally these challenges should not excuse an organization, small or large,
from complying with guiding principles like respect, equality, solidarity, etc., in practice,
they often influence how well organizations situate images in their immediate and wider
context.

A Behind the Scenes Look at Humanitarian Imagery

As a practicing anthropologist and photojournalist, Aubrey Graham has a unique
perspective on humanitarian crisis photography. After reading her article, One hundred
year of suffering? Humanitarian crisis photography and self-representation in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, I had the opportunity to conduct an informal phone
interview with her to learn more about the issues I have encountered when examining
how humanitarian organizations visually portray children. To begin with, I asked Graham
for her perspective on the biggest problems that shes seen in the field. Graham explained
the problems shes seen in terms of the bureaucracy of aid. In essence, part of the
problem is that aid agencies are using images for different reasons and places.
Generally, consultants or photojournalists take the photographs meant for marketing, not
those who are implementing programs on the ground, while photographs taken by those
on the ground are used internally and not released for the public (Graham). However, the
VIP who travel to these locations to shoot marketing photographs are under time and
money pressure, so they are typically guided to certain stories by an organization who
wants to highlight the most extreme and most cooperative success stories (Graham).
This means the photographer is often brought to a specific person or house since
organizations use these individual stories, often represented through portraits, to speak to
generalities of the situation (Graham).
What Now?
Ultimately, my work culminated in the question so what now? If there are so
many things we shouldnt do, what should we do? Humanitarian photography is a
political/bargaining act, which embodies a perspective on reality angled towards, Can

we get something out of this? (Graham). According to Graham, the first step we can
take is to recognize humanitarian or aid photography as marketing, instead of continuing
to pass it off as documentary reality.
In her own work, Graham combats some of the intrinsic problems with aid
photography by allowing her subjects to determine how they would like to be portrayed.
Whether they prefer to pose or not, whether they prefer to represent themselves as happy
or sad, humanitarian photographers and organizations should allow this to be an
acceptable thing (Graham). In turn, they should provide captions for the images they use
to explain the context of the situation (Graham). While this does not necessarily make an
image any more realistic, it starts to separate the realm of the aid photograph from that
of the documentary photograph (Graham). Furthermore, in her own practice, Graham
prefers to have a long discussion with an organization ahead of time because she likes to
take two days to spend time with the people she will be photographing, in order to
understand how a story sits in the broader narrative of a persons life. This has allowed
her to capture images that do more than just explain what a project does for instance, it
may also capture the importance of a project to an individual. Even better than an
individual photo is a photo story, which can be interpreted as a more honest form of
marketing because of the additional contextual information it provides (Graham).
Conclusion
Today, possibly even more than ever, international humanitarian organizations
continue to rely on images and narratives of children to confront our Western conceptions
of childhood and to compel us to act. When comparing contemporary photographs to the
draconian images of dead or starving children that were popularized in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries by organizations like Save the Children, its clear that the conventions
surrounding humanitarian images have shifted dramatically over time. The paradigmatic
shift in child studies from child-saving to child rights has had a lasting impact on how
children are visually portrayed. Yet, as my content analysis of five diverse international
humanitarian organizations has demonstrated, images of children today continue to fall
along a spectrum for a number of variables and have not yet been entirely displaced by
child rights. In Europe, two major networks, CONCORD and Dchas, are leading the
charge on defining proper codes of conduct for images and messages, especially when
pertaining to children. Organizations in the United States, however, have not yet followed
their lead often choosing to bury a quick stanza on communications somewhere in their
general policy guidelines, instead. While there are many positive ways that photography
can be incorporated into humanitarianism today, its critical for us to recognize
humanitarian/aid photographs for what they are marketing and for all actors involved
to understand and uphold best practice methods when producing and disseminating
photographs.

Bibliography
Baughan, Emily. A short history of helping far-off peoples. Africa is a Country. Africa
is a Country. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
Bolzman, Lara. The Advent of Child Rights on the International Scene and the Role of
the Save the Children International Union 1920-45. Refuge Survey Quarterly
27.4 (2009): 26-36. Web.
Boyden, Jo. Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the
Sociological Study of Childhood. London: Falmer Press, 1997.
Chouliaraki, Lilie. The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism.
Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013.
Confederation for Cooperation of Relief and Development NGOs. (2006). Code of
Conduct on Images and Messages. Retrieved from CONCORD website:
http://www.concordeurope.org/publications/item/115-code-of-conduct-on-imagesand-messages.
Dchas. (2007). The Illustrative Guide to the Dchas Code of Conduct on Images and
Messages. Retrieved from Dchas website: http://www.dochas.ie/knowledgehub/standards-excellence-codes-and-guidelines.
Fahmy, Shahira, and Rico Neumann. "Analyzing the Spell of War: A War/Peace Framing
Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lankan Civil War in Western
Newswires." Mass Communication and Society 15.2 (2012): 169. Web.

Fehrenbach, Heide, and Davide Rodogno. Humanitarian Photography: A History.

New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Graham, Aubrey. Personal interview. 12 November 2015.
Manzo, Kate. Imaging Humanitarianism: NGO Identity and the Iconography of
Childhood. Antipode 40.4 (2008): 632-657. Web.
Marshall, Dominique. (2002). Humanitarian Sympathy for Children in Times of War and
the History of Childrens Rights, 1919-1959. Children and War: A Historical
Anthology. J. Marten. New York, New York University Press: 184-199.
Moeller, Susan D. A hierarchy of innocence: The Medias use of children in the
telling of international news. The Harvard International Journal of
Press/Politics 7.1 (2002): 36-56. Web.
Moeller, Susan D. Compassion fatigue: How the media sell disease, famine, war,
and death. New York: Routledge. 1999.
Wells, Karen C. Childhood in a Global Perspective. Second ed. Cambridge: Polity,
2015.

Annex A
The role of
child(ren)
Image #
STC 1
STC 2
STC 3
STC 4
STC 5
STC 6
STC 7
STC 8
STC 9
STC 10
STC 11
STC 12
STC 13
STC 14
STC 15
STC 16
STC 17
STC 18
STC 19
STC 20
STC 21
STC 22
STC 23
STC 24
STC 25
Total
%

Passive
1

Annex B

Individuality
(or lack thereof)

Active

Individual

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

9
0.36

11
0.44

Harm

Emotions shown

Severe
harm

1
1
14
0.56

Negative

1
1
1

1
1
1
1

1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
21
0.84

Positive
(or neutral)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

4
0.16

Posed, bodycentered
portrait
1

Composition
"Found,"
documentary
style
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

0
0

7
0.28

Narrativedependent
scene

1
1
1
1

1
1

No
harm
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
16
0.64

"Generic
child"
1

Physical harm

1
1
1
1
1
18
0.72

1
1
1
1
19
0.76

3
0.12

3
0.12

The role of
child(ren)

Image #
World Vision 1
World Vision 2
World Vision 3
World Vision 4
World Vision 5
World Vision 6
World Vision 7
World Vision 8
World Vision 9
World Vision 10
World Vision 11
World Vision 12
World Vision 13
World Vision 14
World Vision 15
World Vision 16
World Vision 17
World Vision 18
World Vision 19
World Vision 20
World Vision 21
World Vision 22
World Vision 23
World Vision 24
World Vision 25
Total
%

Annex C

Passive

Active
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

Individuality (or lack

thereof)

Individual

1
1
1
1

No
harm
1
1
1
1
1
1

Harm

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1

1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1

15
0.6

6
0.24

Emotions shown

Severe
harm

Negative

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1

1
10
0.4

"Generic
child"
1
1

Physical harm

1
19
0.76

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1

2
0.08

1
0.04

1
6
0.24

Narrativedependent
scene

1
1
1
1

"Found,"
documentary
style

1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
22
0.88

Positive
(or
neutral)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

Composition
Formal,
bodycentered
portrait
1
1

19
0.76

1
1
1
17
0.68

8
0.32

0
0

The role of
child(ren)
Image #
ICRC 1
ICRC 2
ICRC 3
ICRC 4
ICRC 5
ICRC 6
ICRC 7
ICRC 8
ICRC 9
ICRC 10
ICRC 11
ICRC 12
ICRC 13
ICRC 14
ICRC 15
ICRC 16
ICRC 17
ICRC 18
ICRC 19
ICRC 20
ICRC 21
ICRC 22
ICRC 23
ICRC 24
ICRC 25
Total
%

Passive
1
1
1
1
1

Individuality (or lack

thereof)

Active

Individual
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

1
1
1

9
0.36

1
1
1
11
0.44

1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1

1
10
0.4

1
1

1
1

10
0.4

5
0.2

1
1
1
1
1
13
0.52

1
1
1
1
1
1

12
0.48

1
11
0.44

9
0.36

Annex D
The role of
child(ren)

Individuality (or lack

thereof)

Physical harm

Narrativedependent
scene
1

1
1

Composition
"Found,"
documentary
style

1
1
1
1
1
1

Positive
(or neutral)
1

Posed, bodycentered
portrait
1

1
1

1
1

14
0.56

1
1

1
1
1
16
0.64

1
1
1
1

1
1

Negative

1
1
1
1

Harm
1

Severe
harm

1
1

1
1

No
harm

Emotions shown

1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1

"Generic
child"

Physical harm

Emotions shown

Composition

5
0.2

Image #
Room to Read 1
Room to Read 2
Room to Read 3
Room to Read 4
Room to Read 5
Room to Read 6
Room to Read 7
Room to Read 8
Room to Read 9
Room to Read 10
Room to Read 11
Room to Read 12
Room to Read 13
Room to Read 14
Room to Read 15
Room to Read 16
Room to Read 17
Room to Read 18
Room to Read 19
Room to Read 20
Room to Read 21
Room to Read 22
Room to Read 23
Room to Read 24
Room to Read 25
Total
%

Passive

Active
1
1
1
1

"Individual"

"Generic
child"
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
9
0.36

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

16
0.64

8
0.32

1
17
0.68

No
harm
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
25
1

Harm

0
0

Severe
harm

0
0

Negative

0
0

Positive
(or neutral)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
25
1

Posed,
bodycentered
portrait
1
1

"Found,"
documentary
style

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
15
0.6

9
0.36

Annex E
The role of
child(ren)

Individuality (or lack

thereof)

Physical harm

Emotions shown

Narrativedependent
scene

Composition

1
0.04

Image #
GFC 1
GFC 2
GFC 3
GFC 4
GFC 5
GFC 6
GFC 7
GFC 8
GFC 9
GFC 10
GFC 11
GFC 12
GFC 13
GFC 14
GFC 15
GFC 16
GFC 17
GFC 18
GFC 19
GFC 20
GFC 21
GFC 22
GFC 23
GFC 24
GFC 25
Total
%

Passive
1

Active

Individual

1
1

1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1

1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
1
1
1

"Generic
child"
1

1
1
1
1

15
0.6

1
10
0.4

13
0.52

1
12
0.48

No
harm
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
25
1

Harm

Severe
harm

Negative

Positive
(or neutral)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

0
0

0
0

1
0.04

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
24
0.96

Posed, bodycentered
portrait
1

"Found,"
documentary
style
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
15
0.6

5
0.2

Annex F
The role of
child(ren)

Individuality
(or lack thereof)

Physical harm

Emotions shown

Narrativedependent
scene

Composition

1
5
0.2

Save the
Children
World
Vision
ICRC
Room to
Read
Global Fund
for Children

No
harm

Harm

Severe
harm

Negative

Positive
(or neutral)

Posed, bodycentered
portrait

"Found,"
documentary
style

Narrativedependent
scene

Passive

Active

Individual

"Generic
child"

64%

36%

44%

56%

84%

16%

28%

72%

76%

12%

12%

40%
64%

60%
36%

24%
56%

76%
44%

88%
40%

8%
40%

4%
20%

24%
52%

76%
48%

68%
44%

32%
36%

0%
20%

36%

64%

32%

68%

100%

100%

60%

36%

4%

60%

40%

52%

48%

100%

4%

96%

60%

20%

20%