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Blog → March 20, 2019

The ethics of photographing refugees: what is our role?

Their Story Is Our Story Volunteer Videographer Christian Suhr Films A Rohingya Child In Bangladesh

Painful conversations. We’ve had many as a team here at Their Story is Our Story, and we’ll keep having them.

The Number One topic has been: what we are doing; what is the added value of sticking a lens in the face of a traumatized child, a raped woman, a beaten man?

We come from extreme privilege. We live in safety. We have not been forced to flee to save our lives and those of our children. So, what dynamic might we be perpetuating? Is it a moral obligation to tell these stories when refugees themselves cannot? Or is it an amoral exploitation?

Because listen to me closely (lean into your screen, even, and listen to me whisper): sometimes it feels a bit indecent. Sometimes we wonder if going on location and bringing back these stories might, in the end, not close the gap between the powerful and the powerless but expand it, thus perpetuating the whole problem.

Because there is something I’ve feared, and it makes me sick at heart and crazy in brain: I have feared folks admiring the people behind the lens and not the ones in front of it.

Capturing stories is sacred, gutting, and demanding. But, it is the refugees whom we should admire and not us. Their Story is Our Story aims to create virtual proximity between refugees and you, our audience. We don’t want you to think about us. We want you to think about them.

If we point a lens towards someone’s face, let them tell their story, and bring that story to the world for the world to then get stuck in admiring the beauty of the image, craft of the film, or depth of the writing, then we have not humanized them. But, we have, in a small way, dehumanized ourselves.

What do you think?


HOW YOU CAN HELP

Share refugee stories online and in life amongst your friends and colleagues to help challenge misconceptions and misunderstandings about refugees to aid integration and acculturation in communities.

Donate to Their Story is Our Story (TSOS) so that we can continue sharing refugees’ personal stories.

Donate to Hope Foundation for Women and Children of Bangladesh so that Hope Field Hospital for Women can continue to provide a safe haven for women and children inside the Refugee Camps.

Get involved with HumaniTerra by donating funds or volunteering to work on the ground to help rebuild the care system in a sustainable way.

Donate to Unicef or Save the Children to help build temporary safe spaces for Rohingya children to go to school.

Author: Melissa Dalton-Bradford

Image credit: Christophe Mortier

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What would you do if you had to leave everything behind?

By the end of 2024, more than 123.2 million people worldwide had been forcibly displaced from their homes due to war, persecution, or human rights abuses.

An increase of 7.2 million over 2023, that’s more than 19,619 people every day — roughly one person every 4.4 seconds.

They arrive in refugee camps and other countries, like the US, seeking the one thing they’ve lost: safety.

Fleeing political imprisonment, ethnic violence, religious persecution, gang threats, or war crimes, they come with what little they managed to carry:

Legal papers – if they’re lucky.

A single backpack.

Sometimes a child’s hand in theirs.

They also carry the weight of what they left behind: fractured families, homes they’ll never return to, professions they loved, friends and relatives they may never see again.

They carry loss most of us can’t imagine – but also the truth of what they’ve endured.

At TSOS, we believe stories are a form of justice. When someone shares their experience of forced displacement, they reclaim their voice. And when we amplify that voice – through film, photography, writing, and advocacy – the world listens. Hearts soften. Communities open. Policy begins to shift.

That shift matters. Because when neighbors understand instead of fear…

when lawmakers see people, not politics…

when a teacher knows what her student has survived…

Rebuilding life from the ashes becomes possible.

We’re fighting an uphill battle. In today’s political climate, refugee stories are often twisted or ignored. They’re reduced to statistics, portrayed as national threats, or used to score political points.

The truth – the human, nuanced truth – gets lost, and when it does, we lose compassion.

We are here to share their truth anyway.

At TSOS, we don’t answer to headlines or algorithms. We are guided by a simple conviction: every person deserves to be seen, heard, and welcomed.

Our work is powered by the people we meet — refugees and asylum seekers rebuilding after loss, allies offering sanctuary, and communities daring to extend belonging.

Your support helps us share their stories — and ensure they’re heard where they matter most.

“What ultimately persuaded the judge wasn’t a legal argument. It was her story.”

— Kristen Smith Dayley, Executive Director, TSOS

Will you help us keep telling the truth?

No donation is too small — and it only takes a minute of your time.

Why give monthly?

We value every gift, but recurring contributions allow us to plan ahead and invest more deeply in:

  • New refugee storytelling and advocacy projects
  • Resources to train and equip forcibly displaced people to share their own stories
  • Public education that challenges fear with empathy
  • Local efforts that help communities welcome and integrate newcomers

As our thank-you, monthly supporters receive fewer fundraising messages — and more stories of the impact they’re making possible.

You don’t have to be displaced to stand with those who are.

Can you give today — and help carry these stories forward?

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