In-depth examination of a subject was the focus of the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) last Tuesday, when Hopkins hosted Jane Evelyn Atwood, a world-renowned American photojournalist based in Paris, France.
The last FAS event of the year was less focused on specific aspects of politics. Instead, Atwood presented a series of photographs relating to the more abstract ideal of social justice.
Atwood spent over 10 years traveling to women's prisons around the world to document the conditions there. Her black and white photographs showed couples embracing through a window at a visiting session and even a woman giving birth in handcuffs. One shot depicted a group of women, all of whom had killed their husbands, seated together.
"How many times did I hear the sad litany: 'I was at the end of my rope. It was either him or me,'" she said.
Throughout her career, Atwood has made it a point to spend as much time as possible with her subjects in order to present them as fairly as possible. For her very first photo series, which studied the professional lives of a group of Parisian prostitutes, she spent every night for a year in a brothel, observing the living conditions and lives of the women who worked there.
That experience early in her career shaped the way that she has worked ever since.
"The idea of photographing the intimacy of the bedroom is sort of a metaphor I've used in all my stories," she said.
Indeed, in what she termed "the saddest story I've ever done," Atwood actually moved in with her subject for several months.
It was 1987, and she was photographing a French man named Jean-Louis, the first man with AIDS to allow photos of himself to be published with the information that he had the disorder.
"We had never seen a picture of someone, with his face uncovered, saying 'I have AIDS,' so I started looking for someone I could photograph living with AIDS," she said. "It took me over a year to find someone."
According to Atwood, Jean-Louis "wanted these photos to be everywhere ... so that the youth of the world can see them." Although Jean-Louis died several months after Atwood met him, she told a story of how he had inspired increased education about AIDS throughout France and the world by allowing his image and his story to be published.
"That is the power of the press, when it does what it is supposed to do," she said.
Although the turnout at Tuesday's event was lower than the past events, with approximately 60 people present, those who were there seemed impressed.
"I never quite understood photography before," sophomore Jennie Choi said. "But she literally showed us what photography can do. She didn't have to teach us anything, like photography 101. She just found stories, but the way she took the pictures was so coordinated and showed so much."
Elle Perez, a visiting student, agreed.
"I think the most interesting thing is the perspective that she feels a responsibility for her subjects," she said. "She takes time to represent them in a way they want to be represented but is also honest."
Junior Michael Glenwick, one of the event co-chairs, acknowledged that attendance might have suffered due to the fact that another event was hosting Grace Akallo, a former child soldier from Uganda, at nearly the same time.
"It's unfortunate, since we planned this a long time ago, and then this week we started seeing signs popping up for something that also has a lot of value," he said. "But we got a good number of people, and we hope they did too."
Sophomore and FAS staff member Andrea Nelson did much of the work of contacting Atwood and arranging for her to travel here from Paris.
"We wanted to show the importance of the image in world affairs," Nelson said.
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