Photography Ethics Symposium: Online Panel – Representation & Responsibility

June 3, 2026
14:45–15:45PM BST
Photo by Espen Rasmussen / VII. Two men who have just arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos use foil blankets to get warm and dry as they watch two inflatable boats with Syrian refugees approaching the beach coming from the Turkish coast.Each day, around 2, 000 refugees, most of them from Syria, arrive on this small holiday island in the Aegean Sea. Lesvos, Greece. September 9, 2015.

The 2026 Photography Ethics Symposium is jointly organised by Photography Ethics Centre and photographies. The online panels are hosted by The VII Foundation.

As part of the 2026 Photography Ethics Symposium, this online panel brings together three scholars to examine responsibility and representation in contemporary photographic practice. Focusing on contexts shaped by conflict, migration, and militarism, the speakers question how images both document and produce social realities.

Jay S. Dash reconsiders the photographic event through the lens of Danish Siddiqui’s Anti Citizen Amendment Act images. Dr Gwendolyne Cressman explores how the language of “crisis” shapes visual narratives of border crossing in North America, calling for an ethics of care that challenges reductive and dehumanizing representations. Seung Won Choi examines the intimacy and violence in photographs of Camptown women in South Korea, situating them within U.S. militarism.

Hosted by Jess Crombie, the panelists will highlight the ethical work of witnessing, framing, and circulating images, asking what responsibilities photographers, subjects, and viewers have. This session invites participants to rethink how photography can both reinforce and resist dominant narratives in moments of social and political urgency.

Participants

Gwendolyne Cressman is a Senior lecturer in North American studies at the University of Strasbourg (France). Her research interests include conceptual as well documentary photography in Canada and the United States with a special focus on issues related to landscapes, identities and nation
Jay Shreeram Dash is a doctoral researcher exploring the intersections of photographic visual culture, politics, and resistance in South Asia.
Jess Crombie is a researcher, scholar and content director working as a Senior Lecturer at UAL, and as a consultant for the development and humanitarian sector.
Seung Won Choi is a second-year PhD student in Art History & Criticism at Stony Brook University. She holds BA and MA degrees in Aesthetics from Seoul National University.