Jan Babnik1
Eyes on the Ground and Eyes in the Sky.
Satellite and Participatory
Surveillance: Photography in Sudan 
Abstract: The paper analyses the project of participatory surveil-
lance (Ears and Eyes of God, 2009–ongoing) and on the satellite
surveillance project (The Satellite Sentinel Project, 2010–2015) in
the border area between South and North Sudan. Both projects try
to raise awareness of atrocities being committed in this region by
various belligerent parties fighting for control over the region and
both advocate for the benefit of the civilian communities affected.
The paper addresses and analyses the power of photography to
deter, advocate, and provide evidence. It analyses the difference be-
tween explicit, first-hand visualisation and implied, indicative vi-
sualisation of the two projects. It argues that understanding the role
of photography in contemporaneity in general (and in these two
cases in particular) the investigation should turn away from the
questions of re-presentation and focus more closely on the logic of
the photographing itself (the act of photography) and its possibility
of structuring the reality. 
Keywords: satellite surveillance photography, participatory pho-
tography, documentary photography, photography of atrocities,
Sudan
UDK: 77.044(624)
113
Moni tor  ISH (2017), XIX/2, 113–133
Izvirni znanstveni članek
Original scientific article
1 Jan Babnik is a PhD candidate in the Philosophy and Theory of Visual
Culture course at the Faculty of Humanities, University of  Primorska. He
is director of the Membrana Institute. E-mail: jan@membrana.org.
06 - JanBabnik  24. 11. 2017  08:57  Page 113
Gledati od blizu in od daleč: satelitska in participatorna fotografija
v Sudanu
Izvleček: Članek analizira projekt participatornega nadzora (Oči in
ušesa Boga, 2009– še traja) in projekt satelitskega nadzora (The Sa-
tellite Sentinel Project, 2010–2015)  na območju meje med Severnim
in Južnim Sudanom. Oba projekta se trudita ozaveščati o grozodej-
stvih, posledicah boja med različnimi frakcijami za prevlado v regiji
in oba se zavzemata za skupnosti civilistov, ki jih ta boj najbolj pri-
zadeva. Članek se posveča in analizira moč fotografije za pridobiva-
nje dokazov, zavzemanje za druge in odvračanje od nasilja. Analizira
tudi razliko med eksplicitno vizualizacijo iz prve roke in implicitno,
indikativno vizualizacijo kot razvidna iz teh dveh projektov. Članek
zagovarja tezo, da je za razumevanje vloge fotografije v sodobnosti
nasploh (in v teh dveh primerih še posebej) potrebno usmeriti po-
zornost stran od vprašanj reprezentacije in se posvetiti bolj logiki
samega fotografiranja (fotografskega dejanja) in njegove zmožnosti
strukturiranja realnosti.
Ključne besede: satelitsko nadzorna fotografija, participatorna fo-
tografija, dokumentarna fotografija, fotografija grozot, Sudan
0     0     0
Forensic Paradigm
InThe Crime Scene Photographer by Gail B. Stewart one of the pho-
tographers is quoted as saying: “You don’t know why you photo-
graph  everything  –  but  the  detail  is  the  key  to  crime  scene
photography.”2 The point being that the detail mentioned by the
photographer is not the detail that interests the photographer but
Jan Babnik
114
2 Von Brauchitsch, 2012, 71.
06 - JanBabnik  24. 11. 2017  08:57  Page 114
rather the detail that can be revealed, found later on in the investi-
gation process. The imperative is to photograph everything not just
the objects of interest but also the empty space – which is “an equiv-
alent motif,  a pictorial  subject  that  should be acknowledged as
such”.3 To put it figuratively: to deplete the reality of the scene and
transform it into pictorial representation as a whole in view of turn-
ing “a temporary scene into a permanent record”.4 The only way to
achieve such an objective ideal of complete record is to act in the
manner of the camera, the machine – a crime scene photographer
is required to “to switch of thinking and document thoroughly”5, to
be both emotionally and rationally disinterested in their subject
matter. To see the world, the object as the ideal omniscient eye of
the camera sees it – in its totality, as a complete pictorial entirety
from every possible angle. 
An example of crime scene photography will be used as a point
of reference to discuss notions such as disinterestedness, distance,
proximity, involvement and transparency and power in relation to
photography’s revealing potential. We will more specifically ad-
dress two projects in Sudan: participatory photography (The Eyes
and Ears of God) and satellite surveillance photography (Satellite
Sentinel Project). We will analyse these projects through concepts
of objective representation and active engagement taken as specific
modes of structuring the reality and the events. We will focus on
the documentary ideology of visually structuring the world to make
possible the emergence of the truth – the incriminating detail. 
It is imperative for the crime scene photographer to write down
detailed impressions of each photograph (what is to be seen in them
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EYES ON THE GROUND AND EYES IN THE SKY.  Satellite and Participatory Surveillance
3 Ibid., 73.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 71.
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what the photographer sees and lastly even what should be seen in
them) – all the information which might or might not reveal some-
thing later on in the investigative process. 
“The crime scene evidence must be accurately documented at
the scene by sketch, measurement, photography, and notes for a re-
construction to be attempted. A misallocated item may lead to a
wrong interpretation.”6
Thus creating a multi-layered, multi-sensorial, interdisciplinary
“reconstructive  image” of  the crime scene. A similar process of
struggle against photography’s reductivism potential was a subject
of Geoffrey Batchen’s insightful book Forget me not: Photography
and Remembrance where he deals with the relationship between
memory and the image on the vernacular photo-memorabilia ob-
ject. He observes “the efforts of ordinary people to overcome – or
at least reduce – the power of photography to replace living, emo-
tive memories with static and historical images.”7 These efforts are
based on “enriching” the photographs with ornaments – creating
memorabilia objects (photographs combined with locks of hair, ob-
jects  belonging  to  loved  ones,  inscriptions,  quotations  and  of
course, the titles with the date and location). All this as if in an at-
tempt to “anchor” the photography in words, tactile objects – thus
creating complex linguistic-visual-haptic photo-collages or com-
plex “photo-objects” as Batchen terms them. Complex objects that
would function as emotive memory triggers – as opposed to pure
photographs that provide just factual data or rather more to the
point – static, historical, barren, formal facts. Isn’t every forensic re-
construction surprisingly similar to such a complex photo-object?
Evoking the truth, reconstructing it from past – as is it would a long-
Jan Babnik
116
6Mozayani, Noziglia, 2011, 121.
7 Batchen, 2004, 94.
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lost memory that only contiguity and similarity would resurrect
from oblivion. Another way to describe this would be to resort to
Roland Barthes and see this as an attempt to tame the “semiotic”
madness of photography. In a similar way memorabilia photo-ob-
jects are structured with desire to facilitate future memory (future
recollection of persons, events) the forensic imagery is based on a
model of structuring the visual so as to make possible the “future”
emergence of the truth – the incriminating detail – for future in-
crimination (future use of the images as evidence in the court of
law). The truth of the forensic mode is deeply tied to incrimination.
And as such it must be transparent – it is imperative to know how
it was made, who made it, where, in what context, and how it was
perceived by the photographer. This entire context in accordance
with the complex production procedures functions as a basis for
knowledge – or rather as a model for particular knowledge – for the
supposed forensic truth of the event. 
In The Burden of Representation John Tagg’s view is that what
is omitted (i.e. not seen) from this forensic realistic representative
system is the process of production itself. 
“In realism, the process of production of a signified through the
action of a signifying chain is not seen. It is the product that is
stressed, and production that is repressed.”8
But forensic realism does not rest solely on the simplified belief
of “eternal, consciousness-independent reality” which is “out there”.
It rather lies precisely in the belief in the de-subjectification process
itself. In the belief that procedures, instruction, careful following of
forensic methodology will at the end reveal the reality precisely
through the transparency of its procedures. Tagg stresses that in
forensic photography there is “an unshaken belief in the photo-
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EYES ON THE GROUND AND EYES IN THE SKY.  Satellite and Participatory Surveillance
8 Tagg, 1993, 99.
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graph as a direct transcription of the real.”9 But this realism does
not lie in the pictorial aspect of photography but rather in its wider
social institutional apparatus – in the filing cabinet. There are strict
rules that qualify one or the other photograph as being a “direct
transcription” of the real – as being a piece of evidence in forensics.
There is a difference between the time of “mechanical objectivism”
of the middle of the nineteenth century where the burden of repre-
sentation lay on the image and today where the burden of repre-
sentation lies in highly evolved interpretive apparatus.10
But even in the early days of photography it was never taken for
granted  because  of  its  likeness  to  the  reality;  it  was  taken  for
granted because the process was perceived to be completely natu-
ral: chemical, optical, and mechanical. Similarity is more or less a
cultural “side effect” of a particular era and its particular pictorial
conventions. One just needs to take into account non-western tra-
ditions of photography to come to the conclusion that photogra-
phy’s  naturalism  is  not  to  be  confused with  particular western
realism.11 To perceive something as being “a copy of” cannot be re-
duced on perceiving something as “being similar to” in pictorial re-
alistic terms. Photography verism is a specific cultural construct.
There is no better example of this notion than the writing of French
realism film critic André Bazin in The Ontology of the Photographic
Image. Photography “shares, by the virtue of the very process of its
becoming, the being of the model of which it is the reproduction; it
is the model.”12 This is usually termed an indexical nature of pho-
tography (that rests on the belief in mechanical reproduction that
excludes human agency). What is usually forgotten while quoting
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118
9 Ibid., 98.
10 See for example: Daston, Galison, 2007.
11 See for example: Pinney, 2011; Pinney, Peterson, 2003. 
12 Bazin, [1948] 2010, 51.
06 - JanBabnik  24. 11. 2017  08:57  Page 118
Bazin’s “photography as a death mask” syntagm is precisely the so-
cial nature of the death mask – the power of which lies in the magic
of contact (contagious magic) and is deeply connected to the par-
ticular  social,  cultural uses. One needs  to question – when and
where does this “law of contact” come into effect – what are the rit-
uals that enforce it? The rituals of the death in the case of that mask.
The death mask performs a certain “need” in the ritual of the death.
In modern day forensics, the power of photography is measured
against its constitutive ritual – the legal system that structures the
legally specific “photography realism”. 
The regime of forensic photography itself it is nothing less than
a purely visual regime of exclusion – exclusion of the human factor
– the photographer from the picture (in a figurative sense) as an at-
tempt  at  complete  delineation  of  a  photographer’s  influence
(artistry) from the process in such a way that the reality, the event,
the crime will “shine through” the process unimpeded. And by that
John Tagg’s notion of the unshaken belief in the realism of photog-
raphy reaches its proper meaning. It is not a simplified, naïve belief
in photography realism but rather deeply structured (scientific) re-
lation to reality – for the purpose of this article, we are terming it “a
forensic paradigm of reality”.
The “forensic real” itself as presented in this paradigm is some-
thing infinitely reproducible. Walter Benjamin in his The Work of
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction states while reflecting
on emerging techniques of mass reproduction (photography and
film) that there is a strange new “desire of the present-day masses
to ‘get closer’ to things, and their equally passionate concern for
overcoming each thing’s uniqueness [Oberwindung des Einmaligen
jeder Gegebenheit] by assimilating it as a reproduction.”13 Or to re-
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13 Benjamin, 2005, 105.
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peat from the beginning of our elaboration: to deplete the reality of
the scene and transform it into pictorial representation as a whole
in view of turning “a temporary scene into a permanent record”. But
as such forensic realism is far removed from photographic natural-
ism – the forensic photographer actually works “against” the very
nature of photography or at least “nature” as perceived in the tradi-
tion of western thought on photography. It  tries to minimise its
“openness”, its strange time-meaning rapture, the effect of what Wal-
ter Benjamin termed optical unconsciousness and Roland Barthes,
although on slightly different grounds – punctum. 
In the book Photographic Evidence: The Preparation and Use of
Photography in Civil and Criminal Cases it states:
“[T]here are instances in which counsel must use photographs
of amateurish appearance simply because they are the best, or
the only, pictures available. Furthermore counsel should avoid
obtaining photographs that appear to slickly made or too ex-
pensive, lest the jurors come to believe that the presentation is
being overdone. Legal photographs should be rich in informa-
tion but not expansive in appearance”14
Amateur photography is admissible in a court of law – it is ac-
tually even preferable for the forensic imagery itself to look similar
to amateur, vernacular non-artistic images. The forensic paradigm
rests on the notion of excluding the modernistic “artistic” author-
ship of the image, emphasising the realistic artistry of the image
making. In addition, realistic artistry encompasses both – the ob-
jectified, scientific forensic photography and vernacular, subjective
photography. It goes almost without saying that both can be used
in a legal model only insofar as the intentions of the photographer
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14 Ehrilch in Tagg, 1993, 98.
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– the author – can be delineated clearly and what remains is deemed
a pure document of the reality. 
The intentions of the forensic photographer can be rather easily
deciphered (since it is based on and strives for uniform, repeatable
procedures) whereas it might seem that the intentions of a vernac-
ular photographer are not that easily decipherable. But of course,
sometimes the vernacular images are “the only pictures available”
and furthermore their mode of production is supposedly quite clear
and transparent since the vernacular author is perceived as being
basically a naive, quotidian snap-shooter. In his Towards a Philoso-
phy of Photography Vilém Flusser said much  the same about a
snap-shooter. He merely functions – he is just a functionary in the
representative regime. There is a beautiful metaphorical descrip-
tion that Flusser gives us describing the vernacular, quotidian pho-
tographer: “Viewing the motion of a man with his camera (or a
camera with its man), we are looking at the movements of hunt-
ing.”15 The camera of a vernacular photographer is not the exten-
sion of the photographer – but rather the opposite holds true – the
photographer is an extension of the camera apparatus. What unites
the two practices of amateur and forensic would be the syntagm:
“Photographing without thinking.”
Through the forensic paradigm, the photographer as an opera-
tor and the operational side of the images that is revealed – and as
such a photography is, in the words of John Tagg “no longer a mon-
ument for future memory, but a document for possible use”.16 The
operational aspect of this type of documentary photography needs
to be emphasised – in contrast to the misconception of a document
as being a factual description (or inscription) of the real, of being a
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15 Flusser, 2010, 37.
16 Tagg, 1993, 90.
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transformation  of  reality  to  discursive  (written  or  visual)  form,
being a mere objective “snapshot” out of an event, process or a state
of things – a document has its meaning only in relation to certain
use – to certain operation that is to be performed. Therefore, docu-
mentary images are operational, performative from the very begin-
ning. Eugene Atget described his works as  “documents”  in  the
following context that Molly Nesbit so poignantly explains:
“ [...] the photograph was a good document because it could be
applied to art as well as to science, providing a ‘document vu’
to accompany the ‘document écrit.’ It would tell the truth about,
say, a leaf, a doorway, an animal in motion, an earlobe, or an hys-
teric. So an architectural photograph would be called a docu-
ment, as would a chronophotograph, a police i.d., or an X ray.
They had one thing in common: all of them were pictures that
went to work.” (our italics)17
Eyes and Ears of God
The project Ears and Eyes of God (EEG in short) was instigated and
started by Slovenian documentary filmmaker, human rights ac-
tivist, and journalist Tomo Križnar in 2009 in the border region be-
tween North and South Sudan where the ongoing conflict between
the various belligerent parties and the central Khartoum regime is
taking a heavy toll on civilian population. The conflict can be most
aptly described as a pre-planned and organised genocide by the
Khartoum government against the indigenous communities living
in the regions of South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur. In 2009,
through  the  humanitarian  foundation  H.O.P.E.,  Tomo  Križnar
started disseminating small cameras to the affected communities
and teaching the volunteers to use the cameras and to upload the
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17 Nesbit in Hutchings, 1997, 237–238. 
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images to the world wide web via a satellite connection. The idea
behind the project is threefold. The presence of the cameras should
function as a deterrent to the perpetrators, the images (created on
a large scale by the victims themselves) could be used later on as
evidence, and importantly – the online availability of the images
themselves  should  stir  the  worldwide  community  into  action. 
Such an ambitious grass-roots surveillance project is made pos-
sible only by advancements in technology and then by the system
that enables quick and easy dissemination of images as well as
quick production of them. What we are observing is the develop-
ment of a new kind of “engaged” photography approach – grass
roots documentary or its even more engaged, “militant” variant –
activist participatory photography. Let us observe closely the logic
of the project – and how images and the production of imagery are
embedded in it. The knowledge of the production of photographs
and the means to produce them is passed on to the “participants”
of the project. To a lesser extent even the means and knowledge of
dissemination (access to distribution channels) is passed on. The
emphasis on the role of an author – the photographer, so prevalent
in the tradition of documentary, is missing. Importantly, the partic-
ipants are at the same time the authors of the images and the tar-
geted, selected unprivileged group in focus – in need of help. They
produce the images that aim to empower them. This approach is
nothing new in the tradition of documentary photography although
it was largely repressed by its more canonical, photojournalistic,
and art-oriented tradition. Such grass roots, self-representation tra-
dition  of  documentary  can most  notably  be  traced back  to  the
Worker’s Film and Photo Leagues of the twenties and thirties of the
last century and community photography movement in the seven-
ties. It is a belief that the only real representation of the other is the
one that is made by the other – thus enabling self-representation of
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the other – as the only proper way of empowering the unprivileged.
But in the EEG project, of course, the purpose is more focused, the
images more operational. 
It seems that aesthetical mode is absent from the project. How
could one even think about the mode of representation, the manner
in which  the  images were made under  such horrendous  condi-
tions, by the ones exposed to the harshness and atrocities? Never-
theless it is there – it is a mode of vernacular, amateur, snapshot
photography. One can hardly imagine aesthetically pleasing, for-
mally perfect imagery to pass as a point-of-fact, down-to-earth re-
ality, presented to us (the global public) through the eyes of real
people living through atrocities as they are happening right now.
It seems that the aesthetics of press imagery is actually less pow-
erful; the style of press photography (that is readably recognized
globally as having a uniform pictorial structure) carries nowadays
a strong burden of scepticism. Poignantly – in contemporaneity the
objectiveness (the perception of authenticity, realism) can be most
effectively achieved through imagery that is distinctly de-subjecti-
fied from the point of view of the production – it is almost necessary
for the images to be made in such a way as to be recognised as
being able to have been made by anybody in order for their index-
ical value (i.e. representative ambition over the real) to take effect.
As an observer one can relate to images if one perceives him or her-
self as being a possible author of the images. Interestingly there is
some new “vernacular realism” at play here – we perceive things to
be real only insofar we perceive ourselves as being in the position
of an author – and at the same time recognising that it is so pre-
cisely because this position is inherently interchangeable – every-
body could be an author. The partial aim of the EEG project is to
influence (structure) the events themselves by the mere presence
of  the cameras. The deterrent effect  through the perceived om-
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nipresence of the cameras seems to work (at least so it seems for
now) even without the sanctions. It is reported by the EEG project
that since the presence of the cameras in Darfur sexual assaults on
women in the region have gone dramatically down.18
The EEG project is all about making the reality visible by provid-
ing for incessant photographing and that in turn means completely
depleting the reality and transforming it (or should we say) – dissolv-
ing it into an image. Making the “ground zero” of horrific events com-
pletely transparent. In this we can clearly sense the “forensic” logic
of transforming the reality in a pictorial plane – so that the truth, “the
incriminating” detail might appear. But there is one important dif-
ference – whereas the forensic, crime scene photography structures
the closed, secluded, controlled space in a pictorial representation
where the truth of the event might appear, the EEG project structures
the ongoing actuality, the event itself, for the “pictorial” truth to ap-
pear –  in order  for  the  truth of  the event  to disappear. The  logic
closely follows the logic of a classic, liberal documentary (although
as we have seen the EEG project enriches it with the participatory di-
mension). By making the truth (the horrors, the genocide) visible,
thus pictured, the truth should disappear from reality (through a
global campaign and by addressing policy makers).
However,  EEG tries  to  structure  the  reality  itself,  not  just
through  the  process  of  participatory  image  making  but  also
through the mere presence of the cameras. The observing subject
is missing from this logic; the photography has become instrumen-
talised. There is almost no need for the visual representation, no
need for an observer, for a subjective eye that sees the images. The
photography has the ability to structure the reality by its mere
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18 Eyes and Ears of God. Available at: http://www.tomokriznar.com/ang/
index.php?li=novice [11.9.2013].
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presence – by its very logic, which is deeply imbedded in our con-
ception of reality. 
The aim of EEG images is to function as an objective record, a
valid testimony; the goal of this project is the future incrimination
and at the same time real time deterrence against atrocities. We
have seen how the logic of real time deterrence works – but we have
neglected the future incrimination aspect. Since most of the images
are done by volunteers whose names and identities are not dis-
closed for obvious reasons, sometimes images lack the interpreta-
tive context (the how, who, where, for what purpose ...) which would
in a manner quite similar to the forensic one be able to function in
the court of law. It is precisely that which gives credibility to these
images – the “vernacular realism”, the logic of author-lessness of
images that could prove problematic in the court of law. 
Satellite Sentinel Project
The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP in short) was launched on 29
of December as a private and NGO-run satellite surveillance over
the border region of South and North Sudan. John Prendergast
(co-founder of the Enough Project) and actor George Clooney in-
stigated it. It is hiring DigitalGlobe’s satellites to take satellite
imagery of the region, provide expert analysis of the images (dis-
cerning from the images the threats to civilians, traces of military
activities, traces of bombings, grave dig outs etc.), get as much
confirmation  as  possible  from  the  ground  and  then  alert  the
media, policy makers, the public, and publish the findings. On
the first page of their web page, there is a telling description of
the project: 
“From 300 miles in the sky, the imagery seems indecipherable.
But up close, the Satellite Sentinel Project, or SSP, is looking for
clues. Researchers on the ground ask questions to try to get
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closer. SSP finds out the facts, and monitors what’s really going
on in Sudan. Satellite  imagery uncovers evidence of alleged
atrocities. Stories that alleged war criminals don’t want told.
Then SSP sounds the alarm. The world is watching because you
are watching.”19
The images taken from afar by satellite are intended to function
as an objective record of events taking place on the ground – war
zones. Similar to Eyes and Ears of God, the Satellite Sentinel Project
has several objectives:
“What do you get when you combine cutting edge imagery and
data analysis? You get a game-changing project that uses tech-
nological innovations to document, deter, and seek accounta-
bility for war criminals and mass atrocities.”20 
To document, deter, and seek accountability – to paraphrase: to
record, to structure the reality on the ground, and to incriminate.
Because of the use of the satellite still imagery one has an idea that
every image is a crime scene image waiting to be deciphered, ex-
plained, clarified – to discern the truth of event from the picture, the
event that has already taken place. But there is another side to the
project – a pre-emptive side, which is lacking in the EEG project.
The aim of the SSP project is also to warn about atrocities before
they actually happen – much in the manner of war reconnaissance
images – through the assumption of future actions from the tell-tell
signs of military activities (building roads, fortification, building
artillery positions, moving convoys etc.)
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19 The Satellite Sentinel Project. Available at: http://www.satsentinel.org/
[11.9.2013].
20 Ibid.
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“SSP seeks to hold perpetrators of alleged mass atrocities ac-
countable by documenting human rights crimes as they develop
and unfold.”21
The role of the author in this project is ultimately reduced to
that of the operator of the “machine”. The production is perceived
as done by the machine – the satellite camera (and an image-mak-
ing program); images are made from a distance. The truth claim of
SSP would be that objectivity is achieved by removing the subjec-
tive, human factor from the production – as if the images were pro-
duced by themselves. The aesthetics factor is perceived as a burden
for the reality of the representation. The indexical value of photog-
raphy is preserved or valued through distance objectification. The
logic of this project falls neatly into the forensic model – or rather
into the forensic paradigm. 
The truth of the images is hidden in the small granular pixels,
in strange pictorial structures in shapes and contours that to the
nonprofessional’s  eye  tell  nothing.  The  truth must  be  revealed
through the pointers, diagrams, graphs, cursors, drawn areas, de-
tailed descriptions (a tank, burned house, recently dug out defen-
sive trenches etc …) even time-lapse imagery (comparison between
before and after). It is through the mathematical schemata, through
the aesthetics of the objective, the scientific that these images talk
to the nonprofessional observer. Not surprisingly, the images lack
any emphatic potential, any identification markers with the victims.
Between the satellite images and the final recipient there is an in-
terpretative corpus, represented by an expert, one who knows how
to interpret the images, one that possess the knowledge of satellite
image production – as the general public is perceived as lacking
the ability to discern the reality from these images. 
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128
21 Ibid.
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The  images of SSP are  intended  to  function as an objective
record, a valid testimony; they will “perform” in a court of law in the
future – where events will finally be reconstructed in legal, veristic,
objective way. Of course – one of the most important goals of SSP
is precisely the future incrimination and a real time deterrent effect
against atrocities only second. SSP addresses foremost and even
specifically the policy makers (as opposed to the EEG project; they
have presented their findings to selected senators of the USA Con-
gress). SSP exposes the war machinery, the “invisible” structure of
the war happening right now and the war that is about to happen. 
Up Close and From Afar
Even though both projects still rely on the classic, liberal documen-
tary paradigm, they are in contrast with the tradition of classical doc-
umentary photography, more or less unorthodox. They both foster
a certain reluctance towards the function of the author in a classical
sense. Authorship is deemed more or less a burden for the correct
representation. In these two projects the author functions more as a
facilitator for the production of the images made by the others – in
the EEG the participants themselves, in SSP the camera machine –
the “Cyclops eye” of the satellite. EEG wants to explore every possi-
ble viewpoint from every possible angle by as many as possible par-
ticipants photographers in the field itself – relying on the impact of
reality style vernacular photographs taken from close-up in the ut-
most proximity – in the ground zero of atrocities. The EEG includes
a multitude of subjective cameras – achieving objectiveness through
the numbers. The SSP relies on the exclusion of the author through
distance – through the logic of “viewing from afar”, through objec-
tive, automated, programmed production of the images. 
But there are further developments to the projects. At some level
both projects tend to gravitate slowly towards the other in terms of
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their representative regimes. The SSP uses a combination of satel-
lite images and images taken on the ground in a collage manner.
And some of the images are actually taken by the participants of
EEG project. On the other hand the EEG project has recently started
an action of another kind of surveillance – aerial drone reconnais-
sance – aimed to capture events while they are taking place, from
above. Capturing the horrific reality at the very moment of its un-
folding, not just recording the aftermath of events, which takes the
old photographic logic of “getting closer” to the event to the ex-
treme. Only if we can capture the unfolding of reality at its utmost
presence will the international community finally “really see” (as
Tomo  Križnar  so  convincingly  and  emphatically  says  in  the
fundraising video for the purchase of drones) and the perpetrators
be exposed.
The images that are the result of these two projects cannot be
further apart from each other – on the one hand, we have highly
technical, to the naked eye completely vague satellite imagery, on
the other vernacular snapshots of bomb holes, injured civilians, and
dead, burnt bodies. Whereas the first can be believed only through
trust in the interpretive apparatus (pointers, diagrams, close-ups,
before-after images of the changing landscape), the second can be
believed on the grounds of their vernacular aesthetics. Similar to
the  way we  have  discovered  in  forensic  photography,  both  ap-
proaches follow the representational paradigm of what can consti-
tute “a document” in contemporary legal ideology. 
The impact of these two projects is still, after so many years,
under question. The international community has been stirred to
action, but to limited effect, since there is no political will to seri-
ously act upon the results from these two projects – there are no im-
mediate sanctions against the Khartoum regime (being blocked
mostly by China and Russia, but silently also by the EU and USA).
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Even more, the culprit is not only North Sudan – it seems that even
the South Sudanese political elites are profiting from the conflicts.
It is of no surprise that from 2015 onwards the SSP ceased its activ-
ities. Its “founding fathers” created a new NGO – The Sentry: 
“The Sentry is a team of policy analysts, regional experts, and
financial forensic investigators that follows the money in order
to create consequences for those funding and profiting from
genocide or other mass atrocities in Africa, and to build leverage
for peace.” 
Following the money, The Sentry found culpability on five con-
tinents of the earth: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Aus-
tralia. At the end,  it must be admitted that the representational
strategies employed in these two projects and their efforts to com-
bat the atrocities in Sudan are simply no match for the political and
corporate power unleashed on people in 21st century. Consequently,
it seems that representational strategies in general (art and docu-
mentary) and their theoretical analysis are even less a match for
the global powers. And it is only on the grounds of such an insight
that any socially engaged theory and practice can staggeringly
move forward, especially so if the aim is not a grand global change
but small-scale local one. It is then that the power of the camera to
structure reality by its mere presence could be harnessed to its full
(yet still limited) potential. It is on this power of photography (pro-
photographic) – to directly engage and change the events accruing
– that maybe we should theoretically, if not even more practically,
focus a bit more attention. On the photographic act, on the process
of photographing itself. 
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