The Image Makers section examines how a photo determines our view of reality. This week: vaccination in a mountain village in eastern Turkey.
In an effort to understand the antivaxer’s mindset, I wondered what, once the pandemic is over, he would tell his children about his vaccination-reluctance upon seeing Bulent Kilic’s photo. In mid-February last year, with major vaccination programs gaining momentum worldwide, well-known AFP photographer Kilic recorded how much effort the doctor Akay Kaya and nurse Yildiz Ayten undertook to vaccinate old residents of a barely accessible mountain village in eastern Turkey against covid- 19.
Would the antivaxer explain to her or his child that “Big Pharma” in its pursuit of profit maximization was already spreading its rule to the farthest corners of the world early last year? That he conquered deep ravines and high mountains, defying the cutting winter cold and snowdrifts, to also impose his deadly coercive will high above the Turkish treeline with the hypodermic sheep? Yes, that Big Pharma earns so much from it that it even pays to have two dearly paid doctors, loaded like pack mules, clamber up to the hamlet?
In the village of Güneyyamac, Kaya and Ayten, among others, found 101-year-old Berfo Arsakay – they victimized the very elderly, the antivaxer might say. She was given the Chinese-developed Sinovac, whose effectiveness turned out to be rather disappointing later in 2021. But to be scornful about it seems to me, in view of the efforts of these Turkish doctors, misplaced. They scrambled with the only resources they had, doing what they could to protect the presumably penniless residents.
Kilic’s photograph from Güneyyamac is one of the rare scenic images captured from worldwide inoculation campaigns. Because the locations where the vaccinations take place usually only distinguish themselves by their collective lack of photogenic qualities. People with a fear of threshold and vaccination fear are not really tempted by the physical environment to enter such a vaccination center: white party tents, anonymous sticks behind the mouth cap with rubber gloves in bare rooms: from the point of view of speed, efficiency and hygiene it is all more than understandable. Yet it is striking how little GGDs worldwide do to make the injection sites look more like what they are: gateways to a safer existence.
Assuming that corona continues to harass us for a while and vaccinations continue to be necessary on a regular basis, it would be nice if the prick spots were boost to get. Why not take an example from the Nana’s by the French artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002)? She made huge, voluptuous female figures from polyester, colorful and cheerful. In the time of flower power, 1966, she made in Stockholm a nearly thirty meters long reclining Nana, who was entered through her vagina. Pictures show long lines of interested people, waiting meekly between Nana’s thighs.
Such seduction techniques are still scarce in times of corona. There are reports about nice music and artificial flowers at the RAI in Amsterdam. From New York came photos of jugglers and performers brightening up the hallway to a shooting location. From Germany, which has started vaccinating young children, photos came from a garage that serves as a puncture site where the little ones travel by pedal car to their vaccination.
In anticipation of a hopefully imminent upgrade of the vaccination centers, can Kilic’s billboard-sized photo be printed in multiples and hung at the entrance of every party tent, company hall and sports center? As a tribute to the first responders. And as a counterbalance to the antivaxers who even manage to give the concept ‘love’ a bad aftertaste at demonstrations.