perfect PR moment becomes a problem

The perfect Christmas Moment for the New Yorkers  and their Police Department is suddenly not so perfect anymore. The photograph that created that magical PR moment, by going viral, is now creating problems for more than just the  poor 'homeless' man who was given a pair of shoes by a heart of gold Policeman, A perfect cop who  who spent his own money for pre xmas cheer. 

I am taken back to my own early days of shooting pics on the street when I was documenting the down and out in Indian Streets. The problems that I saw in that glorious, documentary tradition  in Photography made me move on to questioning Documentary Photography and its do good attitude. .

This story makes me glad  I turned my camera gaze elsewhere -  away from the down and out.  

It was a fairytale of New York; an image of warmth and compassion on the mean streets that captured American hearts and looked set to make the New York police department's Christmas. After a tourist reportedly snapped this picture of police officer Lawrence DePrimo presenting a shoeless man at Times Square with a brand new pair of expensive boots, the photograph went viral and got more than 1.6m views. DePrimo was feted on television shows for his humane gesture: after speaking to the barefooted homeless man he had simply gone into a shoe shop, bought the boots and helped the poor guy put them on.

And what does the picture really show? Like any image of charity it glorifies the giver, and defines the recipient as a passive, helpless victim. It makes poverty look simple and kindness seem a substitute for larger social change. 

This photograph has done something terrible and cruel to Jeffrey Hillman. He has been held up to totally unhelpful, mean-minded scrutiny. What an unhelpful, unenlightening picture this turned out to be. Obviously, some may suspect a more calculating aspect to the whole affair – did the picture really just happen to emerge with its flattering light on the New York police department? But that aside, assuming it really is a chance record of a moment of sudden kindness, its viral career demonstrates the fragility of truth and the stupidity of crowds.

Everyone likes this picture, it goes round the world in seconds, it becomes a cosy heartwarming cult for a day. Then the questions start and the warm glow hardens into a remorseless searchlight on an individual who clearly does not need this massive public attention. Hillman is right to wonder what he is getting from all this, as some other viral image displaces a moment too complex, after all, for the illusory warmth of a picture one shares while sipping an eggnog latte in a warm coffee shop.