Daily BrewObama’s Mandela memorial ‘selfie’ controversy overblown, photograph says
The memorial for departed South African champion Nelson Mandela was a historically significant moment that will be remembered by many for something as meaningless as an Instagram photo: Three world leaders caught taking a “selfie” of themselves.
The four-hour celebration held in Johannesburg earlier this week was a moving and celebratory tribute for the former president and activist who made it is life’s work to end apartheid in South Africa and work for equality around the world.
Leaders and dignitaries gathered from around the world to pay their respects and celebrate his life, including U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Midway through the memorial, a photographer for the Agence France Presse newswire snapped a photo of the three leaders posing for a photograph on Schmidt’s cellphone, with an apparently furious Michelle Obama sitting nearby.
The image took the world by storm, but the photographer who snapped the photo found nothing particularly extraordinary about the moment.
"I guess it’s a sign of our times that somehow this image seemed to get more attention than the event itself. Go figure," photographer Roberto Schmidt wrote in a blog post for AFP.
[ Related: Interpreter for deaf at Mandela memorial says he saw 'angels' ]
According to Schmidt, who works primarily out of Pakistan and India, the moment came about halfway through the four-hour Mandela memorial during a lighthearted moment of the celebration, in which South Africans and other dignitaries in attendance were singing and dancing.
Schmidt writes:
I took these photos totally spontaneously, without thinking about what impact they might have. At the time, I thought the world leaders were simply acting like human beings, like me and you. I doubt anyone could have remained totally stony faced for the duration of the ceremony, while tens of thousands of people were celebrating in the stadium. For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural.
Schmidt also took umbrage with the idea that his photo caught Michelle Obama in a bad mood. She has been portrayed as "furious", presumably over her husband's flirtatious attitude toward the Danish prime minister.
To that he wrote:
But photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.
[ Daily Buzz: Obama, Cameron and Thorning-Schmidt take selfie ]
But the real question is why this one photo managed to stir up so much controversy. There were presumably thousands of photos taken over the course of the memorial, capturing other moments of lightheartedness and celebration.
Was it the levity? Was seeing three heads of state in a genuine and unguarded moment so shocking? Was it because the simple age-old act of taking a self-portrait has become buzzworthy on its own right, thanks to its new "selfie" nickname (which Oxford Dictionary has crowned "the word of the year")?
Or is it simply that we can't have nice things; that we as a society have lost the ability to appreciate large, historical moments for what they are?
Too moving, too massive, and too disconnected are we from Mandela's death and life. We can only remember the celebrated statesman for so long before we crave distraction. By the time the memorial came to pass, we were ready to talk about something else.
Obama's selfie; his angry wife. The U.S. president's decision to shake hands with Cuba's Raul Castro. A sign language interpreter who apparently faked his way through the ceremony. Former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell dancing.
These moments we understand. We can reduce them to a tweet, a photograph or a gif.
Roberto Schmidt's work in South Asia brings him into contact with some truly horrible circumstances and truly inspiring moments. He would have photographed democracy in its infancy, the destructive powers of natural disasters.
And now he'll be remembered by a photo of three people taking a "selfie".
"The AFP team worked hard to display the reaction that South African people had for the passing of someone they consider as a father. We moved about 500 pictures, trying to portray their true feelings, and this seemingly trivial image seems to have eclipsed much of this collective work," Schmidt wrote.
"I confess too that it makes me a little sad we are so obsessed with day-to-day trivialities, instead of things of true importance."
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