Vandalizing in the Name of Self Expression

The Journalism and Mass Communication vandal strikes again, this time tearing up a photograph and hanging it the wrong way around.

Hidden in the business, economics and communication building at AUC, is a narrow hallway, which became home to students’ photographs, since Spring of 2012.

Associate Professor of Photography and Media Ronnie Close takes great pride in his students’ work. Displaying their projects in the Journalism and Mass Communication department is one of the ways he chooses to appreciate and bring attention to their work. 

The photographs on the walls are the final products of students’ projects that are worth 30 percent of their course grade. They are the result of several rejected drafts and numerous trails.

Students spend a large portion of their semester brainstorming concepts and attempting to execute them perfectly, until they fit Close’s standards.

However, almost every semester, an unknown vandal targets some of the displayed work and destroys them.

“I would say the first definite case I remember was in Spring 2015. This work by Ahmed [EL Sherbini] was drawn over,” Close said.

El Sherbini is a former student of Close’s whose final project was centered around tattoos. Each of the photographs he featured on his project included an individual showcasing their permanent ink.

“This is a form of the censorship that is taking place all over Egypt,” Close told The Caravan.

Whoever is behind the vandalism and destruction is targeting a specific kind of photographs.

“The vandalized pictures were mostly portraits of people, also the project that has been damaged the most was pictures of people with tattoos,” said Technical Specialist in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Sherif Azmy.

Azmy continued, “They got offended by the pictures for sure. Pictures were torn apart and there was a picture of a shirtless boy with a tattoo of a cross on his back where someone scribbled on the cross with a pen. ”

Close explained that he understands why the vandal did what they did.

“It is a form of self-expression, they are expressing their opinion, but they should not do that by vandalizing others’ work,” said Close.

He added that if someone wants to express an opinion or idea, they should do so through their own creations not through the destruction of others.

“I can’t remember exactly when, but it has  been going on for a while, and the latest incident happened last week, I think it was last Wednesday, I found a photograph a bit torn and hung the other way around,” said Azmy.

Photography like other forms of art, is not created to appeal to everyone. It is a form of expression. Students are reflecting their ideas and thoughts through their projects and even if someone does not agree with their beliefs, destruction is not the right response, reflected Communication and Media Arts Junior Nour Mostafa and one of Close’s students.

“My project is hung on the hallway and I cannot help but smile everytime I pass by and see it hanging proudly on the wall. I would be so heartbroken if someone decided to destroy it after all the time spend on it,” said Mostafa, who took the Photography Foundations One course in Spring 2018.