In the end of September 2023 I visited the exhibition of the world press photos ’23 in the viennese photo gallery Westlicht. I visited this exhibtion for the last 8 years because it combines two topics that I’m really interested in. On one hand whats going on the world, on the other hand reportage photography.
I think its very important as a designer to know in which kind of world or society we live in. What are the effects of climate change, dictatorship, certain illnesses, religion or cultural characteristics. I once got told in my product design bachelors that we as designers are the painters, and the world is our canvas somehow. Of course thats a very exaggerated point of view but at least a tiny bit is true about that approach. A lot of problems on our planet are caused because of the endless need of resources or products. Countries with less resources or products are poor countries or have boiling societies. Countries that are rich of resources (and money is probably the most important resource) are most likely to have social peace and stability. So resources or rather products that are made of resources or lead to gain value or else, are able to define where we as human beings are leading with the world we live in. Thats why its very important to not just through trashy not purpose driven products on the market. One important person once said that good design solves a problem and I think thats a good path to follow.
The world press photo exhibition always reminds me on how blessed I am to live in Europe and to be able to sit in a well tempered room, writing this blog post right now. Even if some of us in Europe don’t know, but we have the power to change the world. Not as individual but as society we do live in. So lets be careful what we are adding to this humanity. (This applies not only to designers but to virtually everyone)
