Today I returned to see some friends I hadn’t seen for awhile.  I say friends because they have treated so well ever since our paths first crossed in August and of course because I enjoy their company. 

The nature of the relationship between the photographer and their ‘subjects’ has historically been an uneven one.  The photographer cast in the role of the owner of the means of production – the controller of representation.  And the subject cast as the victim…used and abused by the photographer and their shadowy intentions…before they are cruelly dumped as the photographer casts them aside before finding another set of ‘friends’ to photograph.

Indeed some of this may bear a strange resemblance to the truth.  But perhaps it is like any relationship based around work.  Think about the ‘friends’ you have in your work place.  For the years you work there you share a bond but as soon as you leave – and the shared experience and communality that bound you all has gone – the immediacy and charge of the relationship changes and diffuses.  You do not like them any less - it’s just that the bind between all has loosened and the reason to be together is no longer there.

But of course there is also the added factor of the distance that the photographer intentionally decides to put between themselves and the subject.  There has to be a distance…a viewing distance at least…you have to give yourself a space between you and them to be able to see what is happening.  Whilst Capa cited that if your images are not good enough it’s because you’re not close enough sometimes a close relationship gets in the way of the image but of course sometimes it makes it. 

I am hoping that this will be a collaborative work with friends but ultimately, as in the past, this project will end.  As of course in time the binding between us all will lessen and the frayed edges be worn away as the  growing distance between us all makes it impossible to see beyond the representation that the owner of the means of production has crafted and left as an artefact of a passing moment in time.

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My new website is now live check it out here.  I’ll be adding new work over the next few weeks..Turkey and booze overload permitting.

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Via the Gallery Hopper blog I came across the NY Post’s multi media retrospective of Robert Frank’s The Americans.

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After much wailing and gnashing of teeth…and the passing of days that became a year or more…oh and three complete site rebuilds…my new website is finished.  Well the design is finished – I just now have to upload images onto it.  Which perhaps means the site won’t go live for a few days…as the process of uploading images feels at times like taking part in a Richard Simmons workout…it feels so wrong but it’ll pay off in the long run.

To mark this auspicious occasion Twelve Twenty Design pulled out all the stops and splashed out on a packet of £1 Mince Pies….and the next day to my eternal gratitude an Hawaiian Pizza (although no documentary evidence exists of this).  As a tear welled up in my eye….as I forced the last slice of pizza down and slumped in a chair in their office…I was finally glad to get a website back.  

I’d like to thank Matt and Darren - they’ve done me proud – cheers guys.  The site will finally go live in a few days.

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I was given a copy of Jason Eskenazi’s Wonderland recently by a friend, it’s just a wonderful collection of fractured moments that have been stitched together by a talented photographer. Although on first glance, the book also appears to have been stitched together by Eskenazi as well.  With that said and done, it’s just a book that feels right and perhaps apt for its subject matter. The 5B4 link will tell you about the book more eloquently than I ever could.

I’m currently looking forward to taking a look also at Zoe Strauss’ America and Mikhael Subotzky’s Beaufort West  - it’s great to see a young talented photographer doing well - I’m not bitter…nope…not at all.

Not bitter at all.

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I’ve been reading with interest the recent Magnum blog where many of its members have given forth words of wisdom to young photographers on, well, ‘how to make it’ in the industry.  In recent weeks I have to admit that I’ve enjoyed reading the Magnum blog…I haven’t really been an avid reader of it in the past but since Alec Soth has taken over the stewardship – it’s been a more interesting ride.  There is actually an air of debate that has risen above the nosegay of sycophancy that usually hangs heavy over many blogs associated with the great and the good of photography.

The recent debate (advice to young photographers) has seemed to meander onto the question of whether it’s easier for the ‘Trustafarian’ photographer to make it than their ‘Brukpocket…or poorer peers.  Now, I’m no Columbo…but I think that I might have the answer.

Many have shouted forth that if you’re good enough you’ll make it…regardless of one’s economic background….I once heard Martin Parr say that in a lecture…something about the cream always rising to the top.   Do people really believe that money – or lack of it - isn’t a barrier?  That if you’re poor and you work hard that it won’t be a problem for you to reach the top? Really though - being poor isn’t a barrier to making it?

Without doubt poor photographers have historically ‘made it’.  Robert Capa was cited in the Magnum blog and a friend of mine the photographer Fanie Jason overcame Apartheid and the poverty of the South African Townships to make it…but how many other Fanie’s didn’t…how many other Fanie’s ended up as maids or gardeners – not because they were lazy – but because they were denied opportunity?

Many of the Magnum photographers passing on their comments in the blog have ‘made it’ photographing the poor and disenfranchised of the world - those without hope, without opportunity and without a future. If, of course, you are to impose the same rationale upon these people, as many of the Magnum blog commentators have – that all it takes is hard work – then shouldn’t we then all be blaming these people for not working hard enough – that their plight is all of their making?

I am of course not inciting a Reaganomics or Thatcherite like mantra taken from the greed is good era of the 80’s (although the latest banking crisis has proven that the Gordon Gecko’s of the world are still alive and kicking) ….there will be no talk of Welfare Queens here…and I’m not a Class Warrior waging war on the trust fund photographers… but surely one’s economic and in turn social background has to be a determinant on their ability to make it within the industry?

It has to be at least a ‘tweeny weeny’ bit more difficult for the financially challenged young photographer to make it than the richer one?  If statistically poorer people – in the West – have poorer health, lower life expectancy, lower academic attainment and lower paid jobs - is it really such a surprise that it might be easier for the trust fund photographer - who can concentrate solely on the construction of a career and the development of their eye…without having to take up part time employment…or make that difficult decision as whether to buy film or pay the rent.

Without doubt hard work, ability and ‘stamina’ are important factors but so too are access to opportunities – and more obviously access to equipment!

There is not a level playing field out there for those entering the industry but there isn’t a level playing field in life…one simply has to play the cards that they are dealt – and to take any and every opportunity that may arise.  Money isn’t the only factor of course and not every budding photographer from a financially secure background makes it.  But surely having a trust fund to dip into won’t hurt…and having the pressures of ‘finding the rent’ just might.

As Gordon Gecko said, “It’s all about the bucks kid…the rest is conversation”.

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