Congratulations to my good friends Barbara Walker and Stuart Whipps in their selections for this year’s prestigious East International Biennial.

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The history of photography has been underscored by the premise, that in the main, one dominant class (with access to the means of production) has invariably used the camera to observe and construct the representations of another less dominant and powerful class.

A statement perhaps manifest in the words of one juror at the recent World Press Photo Award that “90% of the pictures are about 10% of the world.” But who are being tasked to take these photographs?

The following extract is by Stephen Mayes on the Notes from Nowhere blog:

“Every year, the jury is astonished by the repetition of subjects and the lack of variety in the coverage. From the infinity of human experience the list of subjects covered by the entrants would fill a single page, and (excluding sports as a specialist area) could be reduced even to three lines:

- The disposed and the powerless
- The exotic
- Anywhere but home…

- Over represented: commercial sex, suffering black folk, Muslim women in veils, same sex couples kissing, holding hands
- Under represented: middle class, affluent drug users, real sex, personal sex, black culture and expanded vision of black life outside Africa.

[…] What is journalism if it doesn’t inform but merely repeats and affirms what we already know?”

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Questions of representation involve of course the paradox that to represent an object – and have this representation accepted - we have to show it to the audience in ways that they already presume it to exist so who is being tasked to repeat and affirm what ‘we’ already know?

Photography is expensive….people will tell you it isn’t the camera it’s the eye behind it…this might be true but if you want to work editorially I read somewhere that your minimum freelance equipment outlay…will be around £20K plus.

This doesn’t include of course the years you have spent in education and the thousands of pounds spent learning your craft and this will lead onto the central point that the people tasked to repeat and affirm what ‘we’ know are invariably white and middle class. These expenses without doubt are a barrier that exclude many from ‘making it’ let alone attempting to pursue a career in photography and so it cannot be a surprise that within the rarified atmosphere of the profession it is dominated - in the main - by those whose background is white and middle class.

And as the recent PDN ‘row’ discovered it is no surprise that the gatekeepers – or judges -of the profession, or in this case, their competition, are also all white and middle class. White middle classed photographers being judged by white middle class gatekeepers.

On one hand they might cite the under representation of ideas and the continued over representation (let’s call them dominant fictions) of the traditional and familiar tropes of “suffering black folk” but when they do receive the alternate observations – are they really willing to see them as valid…do they even understand this unfamiliar representation if they aren’t told within the ‘familiar’ ways that they are used to seeing?

The following is taken from the excellent Dodge and Burn blog by Qiana Mestrich (Qiana kindly interviewed me for her blog earlier this year): -

“Mayes later goes on to say that what is lacking in photojournalism is work that “is really intimate and truly personal”. When listing what it takes to win a competition like the World Press Photo Awards, Mayes jokingly quotes another juror saying that it helps if you are “American, male, white and shooting black and white - so there are some standards.” Right after he says “I’m just kidding”, but I’m a firm believer that there’s some truth to every joke.

Kidding or not, as a juror Mayes has probably seen a lack of diversity in the makeup of applicants. So the lesson here is clear:

1. We need more photographers of colour to authentically document their communities

2. If they’re already out there working, these photographers should be encouraged to enter and qualify for such prestigious awards

I found Mayes’ comments to be very enlightening and credible as someone who has seen/judged almost half a million images as a juror. This is truly a call to action.”

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As a “person of colour” I agree with Qiana, but perhaps ultimately what will change the lack of diversity within the ‘representation’ business is not the ‘charity’ of the gatekeepers to support and let other voices in, but contrastingly, the very same technology that kept many people out.

Traditional print journalism…and in fact journalism full stop - is in flux and in its place the concept of the citizen journalist is evolving. Perhaps it will be the more accessible tools of the citizen journalist – a cheap camera, a laptop, a blog and internet connection - that will perhaps give a plurality of representation?

Photography will always be dominated by those with power observing those without; but perhaps now, more than ever, the gap in-between will be seen to narrow and more less privileged observers will be able to get their voices heard……this of course I know may only be the smoky thoughts that come from a pipe dream.

A pipe dream that dissolves in time to reveal the all too familiar status quo.

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Between June 20th and August 31st in Birmingham, UK, there will be held a unique outside public exhibition of archive images that celebrate the industrial legacy of a city that was once cited as the ‘city of a thousand trades’.

Extract taken from Birmingham City Council website:

“The Made in Birmingham exhibition celebrates one of the most important public demonstrations of Birmingham’s commercial and industrial prowess: The Exhibition of Local Manufactures and Natural History held at the Bingley Hall in 1886. This exhibition of photographs and related material, drawn from the collections of Birmingham Library and Archive Services, provides a unique opportunity to explore the spectacular shop window which the 1886 show provided for the huge variety of goods – ranging from heavy engineering and machinery to furniture, to decorative and domestic wares – made and sold in Birmingham during the late 19th century.”

The exhibition, organised by Pete James, encompasses over 50 photographs from the 19th Century Birmingham photographer John Collier and I look forward to attending the launch ceremony on Friday 26th at the Birmingham Rep.

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Many years ago now, as a student, I discovered the work of Don McCullin…in the hallowed halls of the Dudley Technical College library. Currently, a retrospective of his work, In England, is being exhibited in Bradford at the National Media Museum until September 27th.

This is accompanied by a fantastic 70 min audio interview with McCullin where he discusses his journey from the slums of Finsbury Park onwards and upwards.

Shell shocked soldier, 1968. Copyright Don McCullin

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This is just a beautiful piece of music and for no other reason than that enjoy….

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I’ve just found out that I’ve received funding to produce a work for the London School of Economics Arts that examines the impacts on the individual of economic migration. I would like to thank Richard Hylton for all of his help.

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The Black Watch Regiment, in Afghanistan yesterday, took part in one of British forces largest ever air assaults to take place since the start off the 2001 conflict, as part of what has been named as Operation Panther’s Claw.

With the recent American troop surge bolstering coalition forces, they have gone on the offensive to secure areas of the country, areas where coalition forces have yet to tread in nearly eight years of war. They hope to secure these areas in time for the coming elections.

I mention this only because I remember meeting a Veteran who had served in the Black Watch Regiment during the days following the D-day landings in Normandy, which co-incidentally are sixty-five years ago this month.

He told me a story of being on patrol one day, walking slowly through an orchard; his body charged and electrified with the thought that each step would be his last he marched ever forwards into a breeze that blew steadily against him.

At his feet, he noticed a solitary photograph that was carried by him on the wind. He looked down and momentarily froze in his mind the image of a smiling face that flashed by as he looked up once more and carried on up further into the orchard, and into danger.

Slowly another photograph passed by, then another and another until they reached the source of this stream.

Tied to trees were the corpses of Polish Paratroopers who had been tortured and butchered. Their mouths cut open and gold teeth pulled out of their heads, and fingers cut off to remove their rings. As the contents of their wallets, with their letters and photographs from homes they would never see again, lay strewn in their Polish blood and the French soil that had claimed them.

He and his fellow comrades stood and watched as the wind took the small square cut images of love and of hope down past them upon a journey through an orchard far from home.

He began to cry, as he spoke, and then asked me what it was all for….what was it all for?

I hope that in another sixty-five years time that the soldiers in Operation Panther’s Claw are not asking themselves the same question.

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We’ve all been there…a little time on your hands…and access to the internet. No…wait…I’m talking about Googling yourself…no, wait..hold on - I mean typing your name into Google…or in this case, the name of my blog. Anyway, when I did recently I was surprised to see my exhibition booklet from my Unit 2 exhibition last January come up. I found it on the great Issuu website…I really thought it was a great piece of design - what you can’t see below is that it also opened up to reveal a larger image inside.

It was designed by a great designer called Sarah Newitt…I never had the opportunity to thank her personally but I really thought that she did a fantastic job but I guess working for Fraser Muggeridge Studio that is to be expected. Other examples of her work are viewable via the link below.

Take a look.

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A crouched figure moved slowly in the light from beyond the door, instinctively I raised the rifle and squeezed the trigger and bullets thudded into and through its frame. As it fell I watched the blood splatter left against the wall and revelled in a momentary sense of exhilaration before I collected my senses and remebered to change magazines whist taking cover in the corner of the darkened room.

And as a consequence, I’d killed an on-line player and received 20 points.

I’ve seen the aftermath, in a hospital, of someone who had been shot. In the real world I’ve watched them screaming in pain as their legs thrashed around in the blood that poured from them and yet here I am taking great joy in shooting this animated figure. Why is this?

It seems at times that our society is based on consuming and revelling in images of violence and enjoying the pain of others….Britain’s’ Got Talent and the treatment of Susan Boyle is perhaps evidence of our bear baiting society.

Billions are spent and made in the computer games industry and in Hollywood to produce images of violence for us all to pay to readily consume. And we have all watched skateboarders almost killing themselves on You tube and watched too those home made video shows of people falling off roofs and down stairs. And we laugh as we look at their misfortune…but why? Why do we find this funny?

Violence is entertainment - it is our culture (take a look at the videos below). And as such, it is no surprise that video games and films grow increasingly ‘realistic’ in terms of their ability to portray the horrors of war and yet news programmes choose to protect our sheltered sensibilities by not showing us the true horrors of war. For example, the recent bombing of Gaza and other wars - at the risk of upsetting us.

But we don’t want reality…..reality is anxiety…and anxiety is pain.

We have not been allowed to see the real face of our occupation of Iraq, we have not seen the real face of its consequences, but why should we when instead, we have “gritty BBC dramas” such as Occupation to tell us about war…anyway perhaps in the future we’ll all just use Twitter.

Several months ago on the way to watch a football match I watched a grown man hit a much younger man in the eye and stared at his bloodied face as he stood there shocked by the experience. He was punched for the simple reason that he wore a Claret and Blue football shirt. No-one, including myself came to his aid. Some laughed and some looked away as he looked back at us before walking mournfully from the crowded train platform. I know that if he had been stabbed the reaction would have been the same….I know this as I’ve seen someone stabbed in public - and no-one battered an eyelid.

It is almost as if we are not sensitive to the ‘real world’ any more it is as if our senses no longer work here…they are only touched and made real by the mediated form of technology.

If he was a character in a film, or a cast member from Big Brother 10…thousands of people…including those who witnessed the attack…would be outraged or at least would feel something. Instead we all looked away and pretended he wasn’t there.

Umberto Eco has long since discussed the concept of hyper reality and the blurring between fact and fiction. But I don’t believe that fact has been blurred…it has been superseded or replaced by our ability to use the mediated forms technology to construct our own facts…our own realities…and deny other one’s which do not suit us or perhaps cause us pain.

Is this is why there is such a reliance upon ’social networks’ to make contact with people who you bond with, share stories and experiences with - but never meet? The “real” world is a scary place, full of scary strangers who judge us…on the internet we can be whoever we please…and nothing or no-one can touch us.

Well nothing except the reality that we have chosen to let in.

The real one:

The computer game:

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This was one of the first Magnum in motion presentations that I came across - it seems a few years ago now - but perhaps is less. I have it on my ipod and still watch it - mainly on the long journey that is Moor Street to Marlyebone or other forays into the realms of forced intergration…more commonly known as public transport. It’s the compelling tone of Jonas Bendiksen’s narration coupled with the music, and of course images, that makes this presentation for me.

I would have added my all time favourite Magnum in motion presetation - Alec - “….In the velvet night in Mirana Motel (Mirana!) I kissed the yellowish soles of her long-toed feet, I imolated myself…” Soth’s Niagara….but I couldn’t find it….

….so enjoy Satellites below.

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I found this short trailer on the Sacha Phlog Blog. It’s from a longer work found on the Mediastorm website and is entitled “Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier.

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You know that feeling…that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you see work that you wish that you had done…or been able to do?  Well that’s how I felt looking at Andrew Cutaro’s website.  Firstly, the website itself is fantastic but the range of his work and his talent is amazing.  I became aware of Cutraro’s work from the Battlespace website - which included the haunting image below which was taken from his series ‘Marines’.

Copyright Andrew Cutraro 2009

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June 20th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments