What's in a name?

Ethics hit home last week when I became personally involved in a case of artistic freedom vs. social responsibility, professional integrity, and branding."East End Stories" is a photo essay about people who live or work in the east end of Newburgh, NY. I was inspired to create the series after reading about a mother who lost her son to gang violence when he was only 16. The criteria for those interviewed and photographed was that they have a connection to the location where the FBI had a major gang takedown in May 2010. Everyone interviewed knew my intentions and everyone was asked about how gang violence has affected them. Throughout the project its name was "Living in Gangland."When I completed the work and the exhibit was announced with the title "Living in Gangland" there was an uproar on a community blog. Mudslinging, name calling, personal attacks ensued - it got ugly. With my professional background in branding, I was accused of intentionally marketing Newburgh as "gangland." Since I don't live in Newburgh, I was accused of being a carpetbagger. I also had supporters who urged me to keep the title in the name of truth and artistic freedom and not cave in to censorship.I sifted through this onslaught of feedback—mean, nasty, and irrelevant, along with some that was intelligent and valid. I debated the ethics of the situation; was I just being honest, or could it be seen as exploitative? Was I unintentionally branding the city negatively, or was I being socially responsible in directing attention to people that might otherwise go unnoticed?The old name certainly passed the "Design ROI" test—it was relevant, original, and interesting. In fact when I changed the name and needed help transferring files to the new website, two separate tech people at GoDaddy were quite interested in "Living in Gangland." They immediately wanted to know what the site was about; that's never happened to me when calling for tech help, ever. Even though "East End Stories" passed the "Design ROI" test for relevant and original—it wasn't quite interesting as "Living in Gangland." I had to weigh whether or not the power and irony of the name was integral to the work, or whether it might be unethical to ignore the community's claim that it would be branding their homes with a powerfully negative label and subsequently lower their real estate values.In the end I decided to change the name. It was a matter of respect—respect for the people I photographed—they don't need the added burden of what a negative label might bring. The new name may not be the attention-getter that the old one was, but the new name is equally truthful, even if it's not quite as interesting.