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Current show:POSITHIV+Pep Bonet23rd November—22nd December

1Honduras StreetLondonEC1Y 0TH

Telephone:020 7253 2770Email:[email protected]:hostgallery.co.uk

Free admission.Opening times: Monday—Friday 10am—6pm or by appointment at other times.

HondurasStreetGallery

HOST is a newvenue dedicatedto promotingphotojournalism, exhibitingphotography thatengages, inspiresand excites theviewer.

HOST believes inshowing andtelling stories thatare as profound in their message asthey are innovativein their approach.

HOST works withphotographersand photographythat are definingthe future ofphotojournalism.The gallery is thecreation of JonLevy, founder offoto8, and Adrian Evans, director ofPanos Pictures.

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CANON, NIKON, KODAK, FUJI, POLAROID, EPSON, OLYMPUS, MANFROTTO, LEXAR

08000 964396

www.calumetphoto.com

CALUMET SUPPORTS PHOTOJOURNALISM

CALUMET IS PROUD TO SUPPORT SABINE

A PHOTO STORY BY JACOB AUE SOBOL

p1-2_91-92_EI8HT_V4N3.cover 1/11/05 6:44 pm

As Good as it Looks

Four Magazine Design Award Nominations*

Winner: Best CoverFinalist: Best Use of PhotographyFinalist: Best Specialist MagazineFinalist: Best Redesign-Relaunch

EI8HT – The quarterly magazine of photojournalism published in London, read around the world.Telephone: (+44) 0207 253 8801— [email protected] — 1Honduras St. London EC1Y 0TH

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Balance. We all need a little balance in our lives, I certainly know that Icould use a bit more. Just a little something to help find that ultimate pointof equality between the personal and the political, family and work. Withso much happening at EI8HT – the launch of HOST gallery in London, anew issue in the making, four nominations for national magazine designawards and generally a busy and exciting time in photography – it is easy

to forget the other more important side of life. That’s the side depicted above, family. And so how,you may ask, do 88 pages of photojournalism help determine my balance or yours for that matter?

It would be simplistic, crass even, to reduce all the stories in this issue down toone theme just to fit my opening letter, so I won’t. If you look at the stories contained on these pageshowever, you will notice the pendulum swinging between extremes. Along the Essex coastline theenvironment is captured in apparent harmony, man’s imprint left on nature suggests a stasis of existence. Ina more decisive sense the photographs from Gaza represent a symmetry created by departure and arrival,where momentarily scores are settled. In this small area of land it is hard to tell from these events which waythings will go following such a pivotal moment. Out of the bleak but beautiful landscape of Greenland comesSabine, a cold and hard story of survival fuelled by desire and love. On other pages the postcards we havedesigned for this issue, “sent” to us from “tyrannical” regimes around the world, seem to reject fundamentaljournalistic traditions of balanced reporting.

I may wax lyrically about the underlying meaning in EI8HT’s images but there isno hiding from the brutal, the shameful and the tragic message in many of our stories. Nowhere is this moreevident than in the experience of the people as shown in Cruel Sea. If this is our society coping with equalitythen I am truly ashamed. The sheer ugliness of it overshadows our golden sunset. Depending on yourdisposition, photojournalists may or may not make a pretty picture, but the images are there for you todetermine your own level of acceptability. JL

Editor’s Letter

EditorJon Levy

Features EditorMax Houghton

Associate EditorLauren Heinz

Picture EditorFlora Bathurst

InternAnn-Kathrin KampmeyerLally Pearson

Contributing EditorsSophie Batterbury Colin Jacobson Ludivine Morel

ReviewersKen Grant, Bill Kouwenhoven, Gordon Miller, Sophie Wright

DesignRob Kester & Phil Evans

Special ThanksAlex Garcia, Maurice Geller, Sharon Raizada

ReprographicsJohn Doran at Wyndeham Graphics PrintStones the PrintersPaper Galerie Art Silk by MREAL cover 250gsm, text 130gsmDistributionSpecialist bookshops & galleries –Central Books 020 8986 4854Newstrade – Comag 01895 433800

ISSN1476-6817

PublisherJon Levy

Subscription/Back Issues8 issues, 2 yrs: £53-uk, £61-eu, £75-row4 issues, 1yr: £29-uk, £33-eu, £40-rowBack Issues from £8 (incl. p+p)[email protected] informationW: www.foto8.comT: +44 (0)20 7253 8801F: +44 (0)20 7253 2752 E: [email protected]

Story Submissionswww.foto8.com/drr/

Advertising rateswww.foto8.com/media/

DisclaimerThe views expressed in this magazineare not necessarily the views of EI8HTor foto8 Ltd. Copyright © 2005 foto8Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of thismagazine may be copied orreproduced without the prior writtenconsent of the publisher

EI8HT is published by foto8 Ltd1-5 Honduras StreetLondon EC1Y 0THUnited Kingdom

Contributor Links

Steve [email protected]

Nick [email protected] image will form part of theexhibition Surface Tension.www.greenpeace.org

Glenn Huntwww.glennhunt.com.auwww.oculi.com.au

Karim Ben [email protected]

Juan Medina/Reuterswww.reuterspictures.com

Karen [email protected]

Jason Orton/Ken [email protected] Miles is published by ExDRA.www.exdra.co.ukwww.worpole.net

Louie [email protected]

Ivor [email protected]

Jacob Aue SobolSabine is published by Politiken.www.politiken.dkwww.auesobol.dk

Andy [email protected]

Bruno [email protected]

p4-5_EI8HT_V4N3.contents 3/11/05 3:13 pm

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>Moments>06 Riding out the Storm Steve Catchpole escaped Hurricane Katrina but stillmanaged to capture its apocalyptic skies >44 Eye of the Beholder Glenn Hunt’slong term project on horses led him to Indonesia and one particularly stunning specimen>54 Moulin Blue Nick Cobbing’s bird’s-eye view of a lake amid the melting ice sheet

>Features>08 High Tide Bruno Stevens spent five days photographing the historic Israeli pulloutand subsequent Palestinian return in the Gaza strip >18 Wish you Were Here?Karim Ben Khelifa set out to investigate a damning US proclamation and sent us thesepostcards from his travels to the “outposts of tyranny” >26 Cruel Sea Exposing theoften tragic consequences of the wave of immigration to the Canary Islands, JuanMedina reports >38 Sabine Jacob Aue Sobol went to Greenland to experience itsharsh landscape, he found it but also discovered an intense love >46 Kablare:Poisoned Earth Student photographer Ivor Prickett revisits a Roma family in Kosovostruggling to survive after seven years dumped in a toxic environment >56 Living forToday Louie Palu unveils his personal project and examines how the demise of miningin Canada continues to break communities >62 350 Miles Not renown for its exoticcoastline, Essex reveals its charm to Jason Orton and Ken Worpole

>Essays>23 Rivington Place Mark Sealy of Autograph writes about his passion forpromoting culturally diverse visual arts and photography >34 Seeing and BelievingMax Houghton questions the use of imagery by NGOs and the subsequent effect theyhave on public conscience

>Inside>68 Marcus Bleasdale talks to EI8HT about his career move, from banker tophotojournalist, and how he uses his stories to lobby for corporate change

>Reviews>71 Things As They Are, A Time Before Crack, The Ongoing Moment, Dispatches fromScandinavia, Backlight 05, Money Power Respect, Intersections, Traces and Omens,You Love Life, Walking the Line, Land of Milk and Honey, Gianni Berengo Gardin,Kultakylä, Cape Town Fringe >79 Winter photography exhibitions and events

>Listings>80 Picture agencies, special notices and professional resources

>Scene>90 HOST gallery launched in London, where photojournalism thrives!

>CoverHigh Tide © Bruno Stevens

ContentsVol.4 No.3 December 2005

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Dear Flora Thank you for your correspondenceand I apologise in the delay in reply-ing, my bistro gets busy on a Thurslunchtime. I have attached the files wespoke about earlier and I hope youcan do something with them.

As I said I'm a bit of a technophobeand model nos and the like mean notmuch in my world. Ask me about KingPrawns in garlic liquor and I'm yourman. The camera was a Canon digitaland wasn't the most expensive modelon the shelf unfortunately, and I'mafraid it was lost in transit betweenLas Vegas and the UK so I can't giveyou any further info.

All the pictures you see were takenwhilst on route between Bourbon Stand Louis Armstrong Airport. I waslucky to get the images as they are asthe sky was continually changing.We were picked up in Downtown onSun 28th Aug and as the freewayswere gridlocked we thought that ourjourney was doomed to failure. Ourenterprising taxi driver had otherideas and after a bit of haggling overthe price he took us on a cross coun-try route to our destination.

I used the same method of bribery toget him to stop so I could take thephotos, there were others that I tookon the move but were blurry. Whenwe left Bourbon St the weather waswhat you could expect of a bad storm in the UK but after only 40 minsinto our journey the sky had started tochange and took on a scary very violent look. The sun was also chang-ing the skies appearance, moodylooking one minute and an on fire lookthe next.

There were many more pictures that Iwould have liked to have taken butthe clouds would, in one instance, begiving the appearance of touching theground and buildings and then wouldsort of implode and disappear asquickly as they appeared.

By the time we got to the airport thewind was up to tropical storm speed80-100mph and the rain was drivingand, despite the bedlam, the journeyof about 1hr 40mins (a journey thatunder normal circumstances wouldtake only 20mins) was worth it and wedid board a plane bound for Phoenixand then on to LA.

We all know what happened next to abeautiful city.

All the Best, Steve

This is the content of the email sentto our Picture Editor, in response toher search for further details aboutthese images which we had receivedfrom a number of sources via theinternet 8

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>MomentsRiding out the StormSteve Catchpole

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p6-7_EI8HT_V4N3.katrina 1/11/05 4:44 pm

There comes a point in all disputes, territorial, theocratic, domestic,where it is no longer about which side is “good” or “bad”. The onlysignificant factor becomes the dynamic balance between theopposing sides. To put it another way, in Gaza during August andSeptember 2005, people left and people came. The historical significance of Israeli settlers leaving the land they claimed

as their own after the Six Day War in 1967 is undisputed. The historical significance of the Palestiniansreturning to the Gaza strip after 38 years is, by the same token, undisputed. The scales of justice haveswung briefly towards the Palestinians in this long and crippling conflict but the pull in the oppositedirection remains as strong and urgent as the tide. Until a generation of Palestinians have experiencedfreedom in Gaza as their reality, any hope of balance can only be quixotic. At the same time, thousandsof Israeli Jews have lives to resurrect, homes to re-build, children to school.

In Bruno Stevens’ photographs from this high tide mark, if we see asymmetry in the prevailing mood between those leaving and those returning, this should not be sosurprising. The constant spectre of death has united the Israelis and the Palestinians every bit as muchas it has torn them apart. While some Israeli Jews calmly discussed the Torah as the soldiers arrived inShirat Ayam to enforce their departure, others tied themselves together on rooftops, praying andsinging. As the Palestinians arrived, thousands found gaps in the 8 metre high wall that separates the cityfrom Egypt, and surged through to be reunited with relatives they hadn’t seen in decades. Others went insearch of cheap Egyptian gasoline and cigarettes. The so-called Gaza Pullout, as the newspapersdubbed it in their first draft of history, will mean different things to different people. Ariel Sharon’s widermotives will continue to be called into question. The long-term security of Gaza under Palestinian rule willbe scrutinised. And everywhere people will love and hate and live and die.

In the words of the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam: “Both sides aredefeated and victorious at the same time” 8Max Houghton

8

HighTide

High TideBruno Stevens

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Shirat Ayam, Gaza strip, 18 August, 2005.A group of 38 people, mostly religious teenagers, led by Noam Arnon,a prominent settler leader from Hebron,tie themselves together on a roof,praying and singing. They were the lastsettlers to be evacuated from thisseaside settlement

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Shirat Ayam, August (far left).A settler watches the arrival of the army

Rafah, 14 September (left).Palestinians find gaps in the 8 metrehigh wall separating the Palestiniantown from Egypt. For the first time in 18years, thousands crossed the border inan incredible, chaotic rush to visitrelatives – or to bring back cheapEgyptian goods such as cigarettes orgasoline

Shirat Ayam, August (above).Just hours before the evacuation, asettler studies the Torah

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Shirat Ayam, in August (left) and on 12 September (above). Within hours ofthe Israelis leaving the area, thousandsof residents of the city of Khan Younesrush to the beach. For most of thechildren and teenagers it is the first time they have been able to enjoy thesea less than three kilometres from their homes

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Shirat Ayam, 18 August (top left andabove). Watched by Israeli soldiers,groups of settlers barricade themselveson roofs of their houses to resist theevacuation, including the teenagers led by Noam Arnon – the last to quit,after representatives of the Israeligovernment officially asked the settlers to leave

Former Moragsettlement,12 September.Palestinians from nearby Rafah (bottomleft) try to find anything still usable in therubble from the settlers’ houses,destroyed by the Israeli army

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Neve Dekalim, Gaza strip, 14 September(left). Thousands of Palestinians returnhome from the former Jewishsettlement, where a joint meeting tookplace by the main Palestinian resistancemovements such as Hamas, IslamicJihad, FPLP

Neve Dekalim, 12 September (above).Islamic Jihad militants wave their flagson the roof of the former Yeshiva(Talmudic school). Many thousands ofPalestinians from nearby Khan Youneshad entered Neve Dekalim at dawn tosee the settlement for the first time

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In setting out her foreign policy stall inthe days before she donned the mantleof Secretary of State, Condoleeza Ricedefined six “outposts of tyranny”. KarimBen Khelifa embarked on a trip around

this newly delineated axis of evil. He was intrigued by Rice’s use oflanguage – if these are the outposts, where is the epicentre?

Ben Khelifa found that the only way to gainentry to these countries was on a tourist visa. The decision to photographonly the superficial was, in a sense, made for him yet this approachseemed to mirror the analytical skills of the US administration. Havingpreviously documented the war in Iraq, he recognised the language ofterror invoked by the Bush regime. Throughout the first half of 2005,Karim Ben Khelifa travelled between his home in Paris and the six definedstates – Belarus, Cuba, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran –searching for visible evidence of tyranny. This is EI8HT’s edit of hisphotographs, depicting the countries in typical tourist postcard shots 8

Wish you Were Here?Karim Ben Khelifa

Wish You WereHere?

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Engaging in a dialogue about difference and diversitywithin the arts is a subject repeatedly ignored bypolicy makers and funding bodies. It’s a gap that hasnot been bridged for decades; institutions still tend tosee difference as being fundamentally about

geography alone. We are constantly invited to ‘Discover Africa’ or ‘DiscoverTurkey’; dialogue with difference is often very superficial. Black History Monthcomes to mind, as it absolves every institution of the need to engage seriouslywith difference and diversity. The prevailing attitude is ‘cram it all in one month –that’ll do nicely’. How have we let this ridiculous North American import penetrateour cultural institutions? Rivington Place, which will open its doors in 2007, aims toaddress this situation. It’s about continuing our work in making the invisible visible– about bringing recognition to artists who have been marginalised by themainstream.

It’s not unusual then to find that certain artists’ personalstories are much higher up the interest scale than others. It’s not difficult to guess why.Institutions more often than not simply reflect the concerns of people that run them. Soattendance to all things western, white and male is of course prolific, unless there is anobvious economic benefit, such as the rising interest in Chinese Culture, which reflectsthe growing corporate opportunities that China offers Europe and North America.

I keep on reading how wonderful it is that a few blackartists have been nominated for major prizes, and while that’s great, people don’tnecessarily see that situation is by no means representative in terms of what is happeningacross our national institutions.

Autograph has historically supported artists like YtoBarrada. Her photographs address the national melancholia evident in Morocco today.Likewise, Clement Cooper has always tried to speak directly through his work about thecondition of difference. Internationally acclaimed artist Santu Mofokeng has, from his veryearly photographic work, examined the complexity of issues relating to genocide andracial hatred. We will pay very close attention to keeping the dialogue open aboutplatforms for work; it’s not simply about celebrating success but rather about unpackingissues that impact on us all.

Identity politics and cultural diversity tend to getcompressed into issues of social inclusion and access. It makes institutions feel betterand makes great sound bites for politicians. Typically institutions employ artists to engagewith the local disenfranchised school groups, residents or community groups. As ifaccess to an artist alone is going to help people climb out of the socio-politicalenvironmental traps they are being held in. Another great art myth.

As agencies working towards showcasing work from allvoices of a community, much of what we have done for artists also easily becomesinvisible. Its amazing how quickly curatorial and advocacy work can disappear into theether of celebrity. In many instances we have developed projects over three or four yearperiods and the critical seed work is often negated once it arrives in the public realm. Theimpact of this means that production companies without a permanent building are oftenat a disadvantage when it comes to competing for funds, and that trusts and foundationsincreasingly support gallery programmes rather than projects.

The climate within the arts is changing all the time. If we areto grow in real terms we must be recognised for the role we have played historically insupporting artists. People can then make the connection to the means of production andthe means of delivery. This is very important for us, indeed, it’s why we are funded. It’show in the future we will secure new production partners and gain better distribution andprofile for the artists and issues we engage with.In

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History has taught us that we can't stand still as just‘agencies’. If you do, you simply lose momentum – stop, fade and die. After decadesof ‘agency’ it’s now time for us to take the steps towards becoming an actual‘institution’. It’s important to address the whole idea of what ‘institution’ means, bytaking on the challenge through not just naming it, but physically building it.

We have just broken ground and will be constructing alandmark building, Rivington House, designed by the architect David Adjaye. It issituated in Shoreditch, in the heart of East London and we are already showinginstallation work – such as our inaugral show The Invisible Man - on-site.

This project is not just about bricks and mortar; itrepresents a modest but important marker. It is a strategic shift towards greatercertainty and greater autonomy for Autograph and in IVA as organisations. It will be ahome for the work inIVA and Autograph ABP have been doing collectively for over 25years and will provide a sense of place for the artists and issues we champion.

Few arts organisations have attempted to build theirown buildings from scratch. Taking ownership is essential. One of the most importantaspects of the Rivington Place project is that it enables both inIVA and Autograph ABPto consolidate their different pasts and to build on their different futures. Partnershipshave been forged across arts organisations before and we are very aware of thepitfalls.

What both organisations share is a commitment to therelationship between art and social change and encouraging best possible practice.Rivington Place, I hope, will be a clear and distinctive sign of this commitment – aphysical foundation that we can literally build on and secure a very important legacy 8Mark Sealy is the director of Autograph ABPwww.autograph-abp.co.uk

Invisible Man installation (this page) atthe Rivington Place site, featuring theclassic literature of Ralph Ellison and a projection of Emerging Man,a photograph by Gordon Parks

Facing page: Yto Barrada – Hole in the Fence, Tangier2003, Vacant Plot, Tangier 2001

Joy Gregory – Auto-portrait,1989 -1990

Clement Cooper from Primary,published by Autograph, 2000


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Juan Medina, a Reuters photographer based in the Canary Islands, has been documentingthe arrival of African migrants to the island ofFuerteventura since 1999 – a phenomenon hedescribes as “one of the most horrific, cruel and most important immigration movements of our time”

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If you set sail at dusk from the coast of Western Sahara in a small boat, it ispossible that by morning you would reach the lighthouse at Fuerteventura, theclosest of the Canary Islands to Africa. More than 7,000 immigrants, mostly fromsub-Saharan Africa – drought-ridden places like Mali and Niger – but also fromsuch distant locations as Kashmir, attempted this desperate Atlantic passage in

2003, and the numbers show no signs of diminishing.For most immigrants, the Canary Islands are not their final destination, but rather the first

obstacle they need to overcome en route to other, bigger, richer European cities. Those who survive the dangerousvoyage are served with expulsion forms as they arrive, and charged with illegal entry. It is customary for the immigrantsto travel without papers – if no one knows where they came from, they cannot be repatriated. So instead, without anyofficial status, they commence a life at the very margins of society, working illegally for exploitative employers. Forwomen, this often means working in the sex trade as prostitutes.

Yet many do not ever set foot on Spanish shores; their overcrowded handmade boats nomatch for the powerful Atlantic currents. Barely a week passes without a report of a boat carrying immigrants smashedon the rocks, its occupants drowned, lost at sea or washed up on the beach of the Island of Eternal Spring thatrepresented so much hope. Those that are recovered by the Guardia Civil will be buried in cemeteries closest to thespot where they were found. Such deaths – such lives – will be commemorated by a numbered plaque 8

Cruel SeaJuan Medina


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A conversation is taking place at the moment. It’s aconversation that is long overdue and without whichthe prevailing paternalistic attitude towards people inthe developing world will be perpetuated and willcontinue to dominate our perception of “them”, those

overseas, less fortunate than “us”, whose stories we want to hear and whom webelieve need our help, via the complex politics of aid delivered by the burgeoningnon-governmental organisation (NGO) sector.

While the media are a sitting target for criticism, accusedfrequently – and rightfully – of oversimplification, reinforcing stereotypes, and generallyheld to be responsible for misrepresentation of “the other”, the fact is that an enormousamount of images that appear in the press, in newspaper features and magazines inparticular (this one included) were commissioned, or at least facilitated, in the firstinstance by NGOs. Even if the visiting journalists are there working independently or onbehalf of a newspaper, it is likely that NGOs act as the “fixers” on the ground, flying themout, chauffeuring them around in gleaming four-wheel drives and accommodating themin their secure compounds. Inevitably, to a degree, the journalists and photographers areviewing “the other” through the NGO prism.

Ever since the western world was moved to tears – and tomaking a financial contribution – by the images shot in Ethiopia by the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation, which formed the visual inspiration behind the original Live Aidcampaign in 1985 (to the soundtrack of the song “Drive” by The Cars), we have lookedwith pity on the starving, the dying and the helpless. A code of conduct was drawn up in1989 by a group of NGOs, giving structured thought for the first time to the way othersare perceived. Yet subsequent research has shown this code was not formally taken onboard, nor was there a mechanism in place to ensure that it ever would be.

In the light of the flak directed at the Make Poverty Historycampaigners for pedalling out the same images 20 years on for Live 8, it is not a momenttoo soon that the need for a new code has been picked up by the umbrella organisationfor Irish NGOs, Dochas, working in tandem with aid agency Concern. Their intention isthat the new code will be taken up by NGOs across the EU and will be implemented in2006. The consultation process is taking place now, and Lizzie Noone of Concern hasthis to say about their almighty task:

“The 1989 code needs to be revisited, and we need to dothis by talking to development agencies, to the media, to people living in the South, tocommunities within EU countries from the South, to fundraisers, to creatives, to thepublic. We know we’re opening a can of worms, but there’s been a lack of engagementfor so long. It will be an ongoing challenge but at least now the debate is open.”

While it is crucial that such a process begins with regard tovisual representation of those NGOs aim to help, they must first, individually andcollectively, turn the lens inwards on themselves. Although it is not fashionable to criticisethe practices of humanitarian effort trying to effect change in war-torn or disaster-strucklands, their methods and modus operandi must be subjected to as much scrutiny as theother power structures at play, be they the World Trade Organisation, the UN orsovereign states. As Michaela Wrong suggested in a recent New Statesman article, “theyshould be treated a little less like … Jesus.”

In a recent paper, Julian Reid, a lecturer in InternationalRelations at Sussex University, posited the idea that NGOs are complicit in facilitating theconditions that permit war. He claims that the Bush regime went to great lengths toensure the support of a range of non-governmental actors to preplan the reconstructioneffort in Iraq. It is precisely this kind of unquestioning approach on the part of NGOs that isa cause for concern. They must examine their own role within the structures of power in

>EssayMax HoughtonSeeing and Believing

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Every time we see a picture of a starving Africanon the pages of a magazine (including this one),we become complicit in their helplessness

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order to be capable of helping or representing others. There can be no will for change ifno one knows what needs to change, and without a deeper understanding of existingpower structures, the bald truth remains that when we as a society look at pictures ofpeople in the developing world, we may at best feel sympathy, at worst indifference. Ifsuch rigorous critique within the NGO sphere and in wider circles itself becomespossible, it would permit a new kind of thinking about how to utilise existing infrastructurein a more holistic way. Such solutions are clearly only workable in countries – like Iraq orBosnia – where any kind of infrastructure has existed in the first place.

Paul Lowe, photojournalist and lecturer at LCC believesNGOs should invest heavily in photography and distribute it through existing channels,thus creating a much needed pluralistic media in developing countries and forming a keystage in capacity building. In his work running seminars for World Press Photo, he helpstrain up indigenous photographers:

“It’s most significant to use indigenous photographers torepresent their own country when there is no local voice at all, so all we ever get is awestern point of view. Local news is essential to civic nation building yet in somecountries there is no concept of independent journalism or photography. Photographersare seen as the equivalent of car mechanics. A culture needs to be created in whichnewspaper editors begin to understand what photography can bring, and to nurture anintelligent activist photography.”

But in talking to people who work with photography inwhat is now usually termed “the South”, there is a concern that the very language ofphotojournalism is a white man’s language. Shahidul Alam of Drik agency in Bangladeshexpresses it thus: “Books that teach you how to be a successful photographer, the ones

Abebe Balete, 13 years old, top, wants tobe a driver when he grows up:

“It’s my dream to become a driver. I wantto drive a car. It’s a good profession and Ican earn money.”

Abebe lives with his two brothers, sisterand mother. They are a farming family.His parents are divorced and his fatherlives in another city so he never seeshim. Abebe lives one hour away from hisschool and walks there every day

Students run to school, right, for themorning lessons, through enthusiasm,not because they are late. In recentyears in Ethiopia, nearly five millionchildren have been brought into primaryeducation although 40% of children -some 7 million kids - still do not attendschool

©Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures

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that teach you the secrets of the trade, teach essentially how to become occidental.Since the person making the most important decisions regarding the usage of aphotograph is invariably the person most distant from the event itself, the photographer’s‘formula’ for producing acceptable pictures is to regurgitate editorial policy regardless ofwhat is observed. That is what the indigenous photographer must produce if he/she is toget ahead. That is what makes them begin to ‘exist’. The danger therefore, is ofbecoming a sheep in wolf’s clothing, and eventually of becoming a wolf.”

Adrian Evans, director of Panos Pictures in London, feelsthat NGOs have a responsibility to encourage the teaching of photojournalism as part ofa capacity-building effort:

“You can’t simply work with indigenous photographersbecause it’s ethically sound if they are not skilled up enough to do the work. Reportagephotography is a language and its grammar was established in the States and in Europeand in Russia in the first half of the 20th century. You can’t speak a language without thegrammar. Then you appropriate that language and put your own mark on it. The Africanphotographic tradition, for example, is studio-based, portrait-based and it has its ownaesthetic.”

A crop of bright new NGOs has appeared on the scene,concerned with using photography as a tool for cultural reconstruction. Aina Photo wasset up in Afghanistan in 2001after the Taliban deserted Kabul. A picture by Ainaphotographer Najibullah Musafer of Afghan women exercising their right to vote waswidely taken up by the international press, and has been cited as a symbol of renewal.Founder and photojournalist Reza Deghati explains why a new generation of NGOs isnecessary:

“In all countries during wartime, there are NGOs to helpthe casualties, to build schools, roads, bridges, but there is no organisation to look afterthe wounds of one’s soul. Physical reconstruction is not enough.”

Added to that, as Aina’s editor-in-chief Dimitri Beck pointsout, there is a gap that needs to be filled:

“The western media are not focused any longer onAfghanistan; it is not breaking news anymore. So it becomes essential thatphotographers and journalists continue to record the daily life of their country in anindependent way.”

London-based NGO Photovoice is also pioneeringparticipatory photography, and has set up long term projects in such diverse countries as Cameroon, Vietnam and Bangladesh, working variously with refugee group, streetchildren and women living with HIV.

Of course, established NGOs can and do use illuminating,sensitive, profound photography. Adrian Evans recently curated an exhibition “8 ways tochange the world” which via the photograph examined to what extent the UN’sMillennium goals have been achieved. Of all the work – all commissioned by NGOs – the photographs by Chris de Bode for VSO on the subject of education in Ethiopia (aresponse to the goal “to give all children a primary education”) were memorable,empowering and evoke not pity but understanding.

Within NGOs, photography is likely to be usedappropriately if the head of photography (or similar) has an intimate knowledge ofphotographer’s body of work and their individual strengths. Joseph Cabon, who hasbeen in that role at Christian Aid for “decades”, understands the importance of thisrelationship:

“We’re always looking for the right project that would really inspire and challenge the photographers, rather than having them come back withyet another set that could have been taken four or five years ago … maybe the people

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look a bit different, maybe not, but the only difference is that it’s a newer set.“There are too many people living under injustice – to use a

shorthand – and too many people whose lives are being blighted by controls which arefar beyond their own, so we have to be impatient for that change. We have to ensure thatit comes about as quickly as possible, knowing at the same time that we have very littleleverage as an aid agency.”

Cabon has worked successfully with overseasphotographers like Mahammadur Rahman and Orlando Barrio, but admits to beingmore cautious about using people he hasn’t met face-to-face.

“We’re always looking for the right photographer for eachproject. I’d like to think that the work we’re doing now, for example with Tim Hetheringtonin Indonesia, is much more dynamic, creative and convincing and much less passive andillustrative.”

The need for all NGOs to examine their own practice isurgent. It is to be hoped that outcome of the Dochas initiative will effect real change.Whilethe need to document inequality, even unchanging inequality, in the world isunquestionable, every time we see a picture of a starving African on the pages of amagazine (including this one), we become complicit in their helplessness. It would bejournalistically irresponsible to ignore the starving or the dying, but the way in which theresulting images are used needs searching and ongoing consideration.

A paradigm shift will really have occurred when societies inthe developing world are able to look at their own society and culture forensically andinspect the inner machinations of their own psyche to such a degree that they can thenlook away from themselves and look across the ocean to “us”. When we see aCongolese Stephen Gill or Paul Shambroom detailing with exquisite irony themachinations of a local council meeting or a rush hour crowd elbowing its way onto abendy bus, we will know the pendulum has swung. Maybe change can only come wheninstead of looking to Africa as a strange, dark continent, to the Arabic world as beinginhabited by veiled fundamentalists, to the Orient as an inscrutable mystery, the gaze isturned back the other way, and our own sometimes tragic, sometimes strange lives arereflected back at us 8

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Top: Rebuilding livelihoods after thetsunami, top, of 26 December 2004Christian Aid / Tim A. Hetherington

Below: “I saw this my friend playing inthe rain. He was a street child like me. Iwas so excited to take this picture, tocapture the expression of freedom”© Vo Cong Thang/ Street Vision/PhotoVoice

Right: © Najibullah Musafer/ Aina Photo

See the following websites for moreinformation:www.christian-aid.org.ukwww.dochas.iewww.concern.netwww.photovoice.orgwww.ainaphoto.org www.imaging-famine.org

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Sabine

Jacob Aue Sobol first visited Tiniteqilaaq, an Inuit settlement in Greenland, in 1999 for hisfirst major project after art school. Theexperience affected him deeply and the results,he decided, did not do it justice. He feltcompelled to return. And then he met Sabine

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“On my return to Tiniteqilaaq, I was staying with Hans, the priest of the settlement.He was teaching me Greenlandic and how to hunt. I took photographs for the firsttwo weeks, but after that I began to go hunting every day. Hans taught me somuch about the ice, how it moves, how dangerous it can be, and we huntedtogether for seals as well as trout and salmon.Sabine is Hans’s cousin, and she had been away at another settlement during my first

visit. She was 19 when we met and she was very wary of me at first. She had never talked to a white man before, but Ihad become friends with a few people she knew and she began to trust me. Tiniteqilaaq is just a mountain with houseson it, that’s all, but there is this place where young people meet, and we’d see each other there. We swapped words, inour own languages, then we became friends and then boyfriend and girlfriend.

It was very difficult in the beginning; people didn’t like this connection between us, so atfirst we always met at night, just us under the stars, in the snow. It sounds very romantic, but Sabine is a very practicalperson. Later, when we shared a house together, she would help me clean seal skins I had brought home and then wewould deliver them to Great Greenland, a company that pays £40 per skin.

As we began to fall in love, I stopped taking pictures altogether. I didn’t know what I wastaking them for anymore. It felt so natural to be there in Greenland, hunting, falling in love … Then, after four months, I wasexperiencing such strong feelings for Sabine that I realised I needed a way to show this to myself and maybe to others.Every picture of her is a snapshot, taken on a very small camera. She became very comfortable in front of the camera. Itbecame part of our life together; the camera was always with us. I wanted to photograph all the emotions we shared.Sabine blowing me a kiss in the morning as I left to go hunting, Sabine in the shower, Sabine laughing, Sabine sleeping.

I stayed in Tiniteqilaaq for two and half years, beginning to understand the Inuit way of life;that it’s nature alone that determines how things will be. We experienced many storms together. The most extremestorm in Greenland is the Piteraq, which hits when warm and cold winds are blowing at the same time, then escalates,like a hurricane. You can tell it’s coming by the shape of the clouds. I loved the hunting and it felt very natural the first time

SabineJacob Aue Sobol


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I killed a seal and took it home to Sabine and she felt proud too. The best day’s hunting was when Hans and I cameback with five seals. The other memorable day was when we caught a polar bear. Their skin fetches around £1,000, soit’s a big deal. They have a rule that the person who sees the bear first gets the skin. One of the oldest men had spottedthe bear at 6am in the morning, and he was yelling ‘Nanoq! Nanoq!’ – ‘Polar bear’. We all went out on a boat to catch it,and I remember thinking that if I’d got up earlier, I might have spotted it myself, but I had spent the night with Sabine.

I didn’t notice the connections between Sabine’s body and the physical environment as Iwas taking the pictures. Now when I look back, I can see so many emotions present. The landscape was so raw, yet sobeautiful, but it could also be lonely, quiet and sad. It’s actually a very rough life for the Inuit in Greenland. There’s a lot ofviolence there, alcohol problems, suicide. We lost three friends one spring; they killed themselves just as the light startedto return after the dark winter. One of them was a father of two young children; he always seemed happy, always joking.In a community of only 150, these events have a great effect on everyone. But they have no choice but to continue. Theygo out to hunt the next day, and if they catch something, it’s seen as a sign of life.

Sabine and I went to Denmark for three months, so she could meet my twin brother andmy family and friends. She was very excited to see trees and streets, but we both knew that if our relationship were tocontinue, it had to be in Greenland, and I was happy to be there. For a while, I believed I could become an Inuit too. But Iknew I could never really be like them, no matter how long I stayed. I see now that I was in love, but I was still lonely. Wewere living by this time in a small house on the edge of a fjord. We still loved each other very much, but it was becomingclear that it would be impossible to continue living together. I returned to Copenhagen in a bad state, very depressed. Ihadn’t developed any film in Greenland, so now I began to look at the pictures, so that I could keep Sabine close to me.

Gradually, I put together a dummy version of what is now a book, and sent it to her. Sheunderstood immediately that it was a statement of love. I was so dependent on her reaction; I would have stoppedeverything if she had said so. It’s funny – I had always intended to document the story of the settlement. But in the end ithad to be Sabine. Sabine is Greenland” 8Jacob Aue Sobol was talking to Max Houghton


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>MomentsEye of the BeholderGlenn Hunt

This photograph, one of a series onhorses Hunt has shot around the world,was taken in Sumba, Indonesia, on hissecond trip to document the Pasola.This warlike equestrian spectacle is heldeach year on the island to welcome thenyale, a multi-hued worm that arrives onWest Sumba’s shores during the monthsof February and March. Its arrival insignificant numbers is said to be aportent of a good rice harvest.

The horse is decorated with a head-dress attached to its bridle that is madefrom its cut mane. “When I saw thisanimal in the flesh it was stunninglybeautiful and I was so drawn to it,” hesays. “I shot it from every conceivableangle but looking at the negatives on myreturn this image stood out above therest and encapsulates for me whycultures around the world celebrate themarvel of this animal” 8

8 xtra:To view more images from Glenn Hunt’sextensive series on horses, visitfoto8.com/8xtra

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Kablare

When displaced Kosovan Roma weremoved to an abandoned – and toxic –army base it was intended to be for amatter of weeks. Seven years later, as Ivor Prickett discovered, they aredying there

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Vebbi Selimi died in the spring of 2005 of a braintumour, aged 27. A Kosovan Roma, he was buried 24hours after his death, according to local Muslimcustom. There was no autopsy, but his family arecertain that his premature death was linked to lead

poisoning from the contaminated slag heaps of the Trepca mines.The Selimis, like many other Roma families, were forced

out of their homes in Fabricka, Mitrovica’s established Roma quarter, in 1999 when oldethnic divisions started to ignite once more in Kosovo. Life in Fabricka had been settled,comfortable, even. The move to Kablare, a deserted former Yugoslav army base situatedbetween the railway and toxic slag heaps was only ever intended to be temporary – a matter of weeks not seven years. In the summer of 2004, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) categorised the situation in the camps as “a severe health crisis”,recommending the immediate evacuation of pregnant women and children under theage of six – yet dozens of families remain. Blood samples taken from the displacedpeople in the camps contained the highest lead levels ever recorded by WHO.

When photographer Ivor Prickett met the Selimi family inFebruary 2005, Vebbi, his wife, Isniga, and their three children, Nedmi, Sucreta andGreta, lived in sparse accommodation, the bright paintwork the only indicator ofhomeliness. That winter, they had finally got around to emptying out their ‘spare’ room, inwhich a good deal of rubbish had accumulated over the years. The children would spenda lot of time within the confines of one 5x6 metre ‘barrack’ room, especially during thewinter, when the temperature can drop to minus 25 at night. The smallest children areprone to bouts of illness, as the immune systems of infants born in the camps are barelydeveloped before they are four or five – another consequence of the lead poisoning fromthe water they drink and the food they grow and eat.

Vebbi was luckier than many of his contemporaries in thathe had a trade. A trained butcher, he had regular work from a Serb who employed him toslaughter the animals and paid him enough in meat to feed his family. But he wassurrounded by desperate unemployment; most fellow Roma rarely left the camp,becoming ever more marginalised. Alcohol was widely used as a tool of self-obliteration,with many Roma men resorting to physically abusing their wives in frustration. Vebbiturned his frustration in on himself, cutting himself either to self-harm or to create a home-made tattoo; the family names he carved into his own skin were proof of life.

Vebbi had no idea he was ill. When Ivor Prickett paid areturn visit to Kablare three months later, he was shocked to discover that the man whohad become his friend and confidant was dead.

Isniga Selimi is now working with the Kosovo RomaRefugee Foundation (KRRF) to try to get compensation from the UN for her husband’spremature death. Ivor Prickett found that Roma custom deemed it inappropriate tospend time with a recently bereaved woman, so he has not been able to continue todocument her life as a young widow, bringing up three children for whom the poisonedearth of Kablare provides their only nourishment. They have recently been tested for leadpoisoning themselves: their levels were found to be dangerously high 8Max Houghton

Kablare: Poisoned EarthIvor Prickett


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Vebbi Selimi (previous page) and his wifeIsniga haul a cart of rubbish through thesnow in mid-February when night-timetemperatures fall as low as -25C

Nedmi Selimi (top left) carries heryounger sister Greta. Children born inthe camps do not fully develop animmune system until the age of five as a result of lead poisoning from thecontaminated Trepca slag heaps

Vebbi’s mother Nedmi (right) and fatherEllis, live across the hallway from theirson’s family


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Isniga Selimi (top) sits with her twochildren, Greta and Sucreta aged twoand four. This room has been their homefor the past two years

Zyla and Ramadan (left) are neighboursof the Selimis. Zyla is 16 and already hastwo children with her husband


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The Roma people of Kablare andCesmin Lug camps (previous page) aresandwiched between the railway tracksand toxic slag heaps of Trepca mines

Vebbi’s homemade tattoos and self-harm scars (right) which he said he onlydid when he was drunk. Alcoholism isrife amongst the Roma men and is oftenthe cause of domestic violence

Vebbi (bottom) was a trained butcher.Helping a local Serb slaughter animalsprovided enough meat to feed his family


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The sparse interior (left) of one of therooms of Kablare camp, a formerYugoslav army base, that now housesmore than 50 Kosovan Roma

Vebbi died of a brain tumour at the ageof 27 caused by suspected leadpoisoning. Following local Muslimcustom his burial (below) was carriedout 24 hours after his death. No autopsywas ever conducted


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This is the shoreline of a melt lake inGreenland. A cluster of these lakes hasdeveloped on the vast ice sheet, formedby melt water filling indents in the ice.

Working alongside GreenpeaceInternational, gaining unprecedentedaccess to the wilderness of theGreenlandic ice cap, Nick Cobbingmade this photograph from a height of300 metres while a scientist workedbelow in a dinghy, recording depthsoundings from the cracked lake bed.He piloted his craft carefully, to avoid thecurrent pulling him to the other side,where he could be sucked into thegurgle of water, disappearing deep intoa crevasse.

These openings, called moulins,channel large quantities of melt waterthrough tunnels in the ice, to thebedrock 1.5 kilometres below. It is knownthat this melt water speeds up the flowof the ice sheet towards the Greenlandiccoast, by lubricating the surface onwhich the ice slides. The contribution toglobal sea level rise, if the Greenlandicice sheet were to melt, has beencalculated at 6.7 metres.

The lone scientist who bobbed up anddown on this strange lunar landscape, isnow calibrating the depths he recorded.Matching them with the varyingintensities of blue in a satellite image ofthis lake. He hopes to calculate thequantity of water in newly formed lakes,from high resolution satellitephotographs, in the comfort of his officein Ohio 8

>MomentsMoulin BlueNick Cobbing

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Canada’s mining giants, like other industrial sectors,are moving towards increasing economies of scale,which has in turn led to an ever-increasing exodus ofdevelopment capital to South America and the ThirdWorld. It has forced Canadian operations to compete

against overseas mines that benefit from lax environmental standards and lowwages. In such operations, mountains and jungles are stripped bare by giantshovels and massive pit trucks.

The original mining camps were forged by hard work, lowwages and isolation. On the barren soil of these company-dominated towns, ethnicassociations, sports rivalries and union activism defined the social agenda of thecommunity. But long gone are days when the mines depended on a large pool of cheaplabour. Today’s miners are highly paid specialists with wages unmatched by other bluecollar or service sector jobs, their pay perhaps double that of other industries.1

But mining continues to be defined by the same starkrealities understood by miners back in the days of the Western mineral rushes. Whatother job is there where a man spends his whole shift making his workplace safe only toblow it up at the end of the day?

No other industry illustrates so clearly the directrelationship between the physical costs paid by labour to the benefit of internationalmonetary empires. No other industry lives by the law of the mines. The good times neverlast. Every ton mined brings even the greatest mine one ton closer to its inevitable death.In many ways, a similar depletion of resources faces even the strongest of miners. “Weeat the mines and the mines eat us,” is an expression used by South American miners.

Every miner knows this. Enjoy it while it lasts. As the oldminers used to say, “Drink up Mike, tomorrow you’d might get killed.” 2

And so, when these men turn off their jackleg drills andcome up from the depths, in Timmins, Ontario or Schumacher or Sudbury, you’re liableto find them bombing around on the cold, deep waters of northern lakes.

Brothers. Comrades. Buddies. Blaring AC/DC tunes.Bagging fish. Not worried about the next cage call into the depths. Living for todaybecause tomorrow might be worse 8Charlie Angus

Living for TodayLouie Palu

Living forToday

1. In 1999, average weekly earnings in the Ontario mining industry were $1,143, compared to $516 for all industries combined.2. Quoted from a 1936 piece in the Union News entitled “From Cobalt to Noranda”, reprinted in Mine Mill: the International History ofthe Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union by Mike Solski.


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“Miners are a funny breed. Even the educated miners. You get a guy who comes out ofschool and gets put in a drift [development tunnel] where he's making two or threehundred bucks a day. He’s never seen that kind of money. He’s on top of the world. Hebuys all his toys, eats in restaurants every night. When the time comes where he can’tkeep up any more he’ll have nothing. No truck. Just an old car. I don't know if peopleare like that in other jobs, but miners know that even if it’s bad for them, they'll still do it.

A miner will try and beat his own record every day and work like a fucking dog knowingit’s doing him in, knowing he's getting slower. But it’s his pride. They eat their lunchrunning a machine with oil mist spraying on the sandwich. That’s how these guys getstomach cancer. I’d tell these guys, don’t waste your life for the overtime. But you knowwhat the guys say, [you can] go home sleep with my wife, drink my last beer but don’ttouch my bonus.”Rick Chopp, Timmins


“We all came to this town with nothing. We said we were going to stay two years andmake a fortune. And after 20 years we left with nothing. All we had left was the memoryof the good times – the dances, the bonspiels, the way we looked out for each other’schildren. It’s a sense of community that I don’t think we’ll see again.

The miners and their families did so much good work in that town. When you think ofthe miles that was walked for local charities, the money that was raised, the hospitalthat was built. The town now has a big Mining Museum and it tells the story of theowners. Who is going to tell the story of the miners?

It was a good town. Physically it was killing us but emotionally it was such a good,good town. We were privileged to be there.”Carrie Chenier, first woman underground miner, Elliot Lake

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8 extra:More images from this series by LouiePalu can be seen online atfoto8.com/8xtra


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350Miles

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As they worked on a study on the Thames Gateway,photographer Jason Orton and writer Ken Worpolediscovered a sharedfascination for the Essexcoastline, and for the interplay of landscape,memory and history

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In the early months of 2005, Jason Orton and I walked, cycled, andoccasionally drove, separately or together, much of the 350 miles ofthe Essex coastline, taking in the atmosphere, the landscape, andobserving the abiding relationship of the land to the sea. What wefound was not conventionally beautiful or picturesque. This is not

surprising, for what is considered attractive or beguiling in landscape to one generation – chalkstreams and thatched cottages, or moorland heather and upland lakes – is seen to lack historicalveracity to another. The more we walked it, in different weathers, and at different times of thetide, the more the Essex littoral yielded in terms of a sense of place and history.

The 20th century was a belligerent but also extraordinarily innovativeperiod in British social history, and the Essex landscape was in the frontline of these changes. With itsprofusion of beautiful but strategically vulnerable rivers and estuaries, this coastline has provided abulwark of English sea defences, with the foundations or ruins of many still visible. There are many layersof history to be discovered here, and each new tide brings, or reveals, something new.

It is the close attentiveness to the disruptive effects of the human effort tosubsist, or inhabit what are often marginal lands, that makes Jason Orton’s photographs seem imbuedwith life and history, though people are rarely evident. What is seen is the imprint they leave upon theland. This is particularly the case where the land meets water, and the landscape changes completelyaccording to the time of day and level of the tide. Only by recording these landscapes in such a closemanner, are we able to resist their homogenisation through poorly thought-out development, with asubsequent erasure of all historical traces.

Essex has often been regarded as the worst kind of suburban landscapewhere American strip development meets marginal farmland, to the detriment of both. Yet one does nothave to venture far from the main roads to come across lonely coastal paths, which from time to timepass a small houseboat community or boatyard. The soft marshlands and tidal reaches are oftencharacterised by extensive networks of wooden jetties, gangways and boardwalks, giving access to themoorings.

The shoreline is a Darwinian test-bed, a place where, if you are looking forsomething it will eventually be found, though not necessarily in the shape imagined. These coastallandscapes with their vast skies, uninterrupted horizons at the far edges, glistening mudflats andestuaries are distorting mirrors, but mirrors all the same. There are no distractions 8Ken Worpole

The combined photo-essay and literary narrative, ‘350 Miles’, grew out of a commission for ‘Thurrock: a Visionary Brief in the Thames Gateway’ forGeneral Public Agency. www.visionarythurrock.org.uk

350 MilesJason Orton

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EI8HT: You used to be a banker –yours is quite a change ofdirection, to say the least. Canyou talk about the thoughtprocess that fuelled the move?

MB: I had always been interestedin photography and used to shootquite regularly. As I was gettingmore and more disillusioned withbanking – I was concentratingmore and more on photographyand specifically photojournalism –I took some night classes in blackand white printing. It was at thattime a serious hobby but I had noidea I would make the leaptowards being a professional.One day, while I was working, acolleague asked me how aparticularly gruesome event in theBalkans would affect theexchange rate of the dollar-Deutschmark, I was so shockedby his thought process I got upand told my boss I was resigning.That was on the Wednesday; onthe Friday I was in Macedonia,trying to get into Kosovo.

8: Can you describe some of thepracticalities involved – for onething, presumably you went fromearning a decent wage to earningnothing at all. Did you factor thisaspect in?

MB: Money, unfortunately forphotographers, and specifically

photojournalists, is always goingto be a problem. To finance thischange I knew would be aproblem, so I sold my flat inLondon which had a little equityand put that in the bank. I startedsleeping in spare rooms of friendswhen I was in London, but mostlyI was travelling. Unfortunately thatmoney disappeared a long timeago and since I have been livingoff what I make fromphotography.

8: You have worked a lot inUganda and Congo … do youthink that the termsphotojournalism and conflict gohand in hand?

MB: No, not at all. Some of themost amazing work inphotojournalism has had nothingto do with conflict in the basicsense of the word. Going back toEugene Smith and the Spanishvillage, his work on the countrydoctor and the midwife, this wasat that time incredibly insightfulwork that still resonates with mostphotographers today. I have tolook at his stories a couple oftimes a month. I even take a littlebook with me on trips sometimesto browse through and thinkabout the images I am trying tocreate and those already shot.There are also some subjectssuch as famine or natural disaster

stories that don’t necessarily havea conflict edge to them althoughsome may be caused by theconflict going on in the region.

8: For your book One HundredYears of Darkness, you followed inthe footsteps through Congo ofJoseph Conrad’s creation Kurtzfrom Heart of Darkness. What ishis enduring appeal for you?

MB: What a question! Scholarshave written more words aboutConrad’s enduring appeal thanConrad has written himself, but Iwill try to answer it as best I can.Conrad and Kurtz, specifically inHeart of Darkness, demand thereader to look at their very souland ask questions aboutthemselves, just as Marlow (thenarrator) asked himself as he wastravelling up the river. Conrad’swork is all about the shadows andthe guilt that rests in our mind andhe challenges us to address thatby using the genocide in Congoto question our values and beliefs.With Heart of Darkness, Marlowwas asking himself about thehorrors of colonialism in King

Leopold’s Belgian Congo andhow the local population wasbeing systematically wiped out.Although it is a novel which doesnot forgive the inattentive reader, itis also a fundamental piece ofjournalism from that era. The booktranscends those boundariesbetween fact and fiction in a veryspecial way that now has becomecommon for novelists.

More importantly for me, hisuse of language is extremelyvisual. The pictures he createswith his writing rest in your mindand he allows you to play withthese images, slowly makingthem more vivid and more horrificas the book goes on.

His words have as muchvalidity today in Congo as they didback then. Conrad classified

>Inside>Reviews >Listings >SceneAs someone who once workedin banking, Marcus Bleasdalehas brought his photojournalismto a new audience – miningcompanies, bankers, traders –one that is actually in position toeffect change Interview by Max Houghton

The death of the eight month old child ofan artisinal goldminer in Mungwalu, ineastern Congo (above and page 70). Thechild died of anemia brought on bymalaria. Marcus Bleasdale spent timewith the family while producing a serieson the ultimate cost of mining in conflictzones. Most of the gold mined in thisregion leaves Congo illegally and is sentto Uganda. Sickness and disease arerife, malaria being the biggest killer

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Leopold’s work in Congo as “thevilest scramble for loot that everdisfigured the history of humanconscience”. That statement is asvalid today as it was when hewrote it; the colonists beingreplaced by international miningcompanies (which used to be theBelgian government in the 19thcentury), ineffective UNinvolvement (which used to be theinternational community, whostood by and watched between1870 and 1910) and the corruptleaders who one after the otherpersonally betray their country’speople (personified by Kurtz).

8: In the debate about whetheratrocities in Sudan should betermed genocide, you werereported as saying you had seenevidence of mass graves. It struckme that even though you hadseen and photographed theevidence, no one was reallylistening still. Do you agree at all?And if so, does that make you feelpowerless?

MB: Sudan and specifically Darfurwas a difficult subject to tackleprimarily because initially no onewas listening, including themedia. I tried to get a commissionto go there between October andDecember 2003 and no oneseemed remotely interested. So inJanuary 2004 I went on my own,hoping to sell the story when I gotback. It was on this trip that I sawand photographed a village withmass graves and semi-buriedbodies. There were also bodies ofyoung boys who had been left asa sign for other males todiscourage them from gettinginvolved in the conflict.

The photographs themselvesdo not prove genocide but theoverall systematic targeting of thepopulation in Darfur does, Ibelieve, constitute genocide.Unfortunately in today’sincreasingly political world, eventhe word genocide has becomepolitical. The responsibilities theUN has if they use that word todescribe a conflict are enormousand they are not prepared tostand up to those responsibilitiesin Sudan, for a number ofreasons. These vary from thedelicate balance between Arabnations and the West after Iraqand Afghanistan, to the financialcommitment they would needwhile enforcing change, to the

complex and long-winded conflictin the south that was goingthrough a positive, peacefulchange as a result of the oil that isto be found there.

Darfur has no attractiveresources, and so has been leftand forgotten, even now. It seemsthe world (UN) has played directlyinto the hands of the Khartoumgovernment, who have playedtheir game extremely well. TheDarfur population have beeneffectively removed from theirhomes and villages, and the vastmajority of them now live incamps either inside Sudan or on

the Chad border, and Darfur is leftfor the Khartoum government todo with it as they will. The UN hasleft the job of international policingto the African Union who areundermanned and under fundedand logistically impotent to reactto anything happening in Darfur.Khartoum has achieved itsobjective and it was not onlyallowed to happen under thenoses of the internationalcommunity, but they financed itand are still administering it. We asan international communityshould be ashamed that we haveallowed this to continue.

I think the media thought, toolate, that it was an important storyto focus on, and thought, tooearly, that it was covered andstopped focusing on it. I believethe media have a moralresponsibility to focus, andcontinue to focus, on these issuesforcing the internationalcommunity to react. If that doesnot happen, as in the case ofDarfur, we reach a deadly statusquo where the only sufferers arethose who are left to rot in thedeserts of Darfur.

Meanwhile, the reasons for notcontinuing the media coveragebecome financial and the onlyones who benefit are theshareholders of the companiescharged with showing the worldwhat is happening. They are

limiting the budgets of the foreignnews and concentrating on themore lucrative celebrity market.This, I feel, is shocking andshameful.

8: The images reproduced hereare from your Congo work forHuman Rights Watch (HRW),which has just been exhibited in aSwiss bank. Can you explain howthis came about and whatyou/HRW hope to achieve by thiskind of partnership?

MB: With the goldmines ineastern Congo and the conflict forthe control of those mines, I didhave some publications in the UKand Germany, but that was all. SoI started to work closely with HRWto try to target a more effectiveaudience: an audience comprisedof the people who were directly orindirectly responsible for themining in those regions. Theseorganisations consisted of miningcompanies, commodity traders,governments and banks – all ofwhom were responsible inallowing this mining in conflictzones to continue, yet wereturning a blind eye to the atrocitiesthat were being committed in theregion for the control of thesemines.

Anglo Gold Ashanti, MetalorIndustries, the Swiss government,the Ugandan government and theCongolese government all haveto bear some responsibility as domany international financecompanies – and the UN forfailing to effectively control regionsin the east of Congo. Togetherwith HRW we have helddiscussions at mining con-ventions, banks, governmentalbodies, and the UN. This not onlyraises awareness but helpsenforce responsibilitiy on them toreact and change. For example,Metalor Industries – which wasresponsible for purchasing mostof the gold from Ugandan traderswhen Uganda did not havesufficient gold resources tosupport that level of exports: thegold was coming from Congoillegally – has ceased trading inUganda; the gold is not beingpurchased at the moment. Thishas directly affected the financeavailable for the purchase ofweapons in Congo and thecontinuation of the conflict. AngloGold Ashanti has reviewed itsoperations and has started small

changes but still needs a littlepushing, yet the Congolesegovernment has also put inmotion the renegotiation of manyof their mining contracts with thecompanies involved. Thesecontracts were historically corruptand ministers received manypayments to allow favourablecontracts to be put in place.

8: Do you feel people in generalare able to “read” a picture, or aseries of pictures?

MB: I think people do understandindividual images and series ofpictures. If you think of DonMcCullin, Tom Stoddart andEugene Richards’ work, theseimages have had significantimpact, not just in thephotography world but on thepublic at large. I know Tom’s workhas been used to raise largeamounts of money for aidagencies just through the strengthof the single image. This is theattraction of the still image: theone moment of clarity or the onequestion raised by the work thattouches people. Whether thatthen motivates them to dosomething is another question.

8: Do you feel a conflict betweenwanting to represent the hardshipexperienced by the people youphotograph and wanting torepresent them with appropriatedignity?

MB: I think this is very much downto the photographer. I hope that Ido represent and honour thedignity of the people I work with,that is certainly what I try to dowhen I am shooting. But theimage you see on the page is asmall part of the relationship Ihave with the subject; I do hope Icapture that relationship. Yet weare photojournalists who work inareas where people have losteverything – and for some ofthem, that it includes their dignity.It is also important to show that.The way I work with my subjectsis another way I can treat themwith the respect and the dignitythey deserve. I spend a lot of timehelping as much as I canexpanding the relationship that Ihave as a photographer and ahuman being. That sometimesinvolves putting your cameradown for a few hours and helpingthem in their suffering.

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The series I took in Mongbwaluin eastern Congo of Sakura Lisi –the child who died of preventablemalaria – was also a dilemma forme, how to best represent theirsorrow but still allow the familyand Sakura their dignity. I met twomen walking down a hill eachcarrying a part of a child’s coffin.As I was doing a story about theultimate cost of mining in conflictzones it was vital to capture thesuffering. I spent hours withSakura’s family during theirmourning and throughout thefuneral. These images are a verysmall part of the interaction I hadwith that family, on that day andsubsequent days when I wentback to see how Sakura’s motherwas doing.

So, respect of the people wework with is paramount to thesuccess of the message you as aphotographer are trying to getacross, and that is where thedignity is respected while trying toportray an often hard-hittingsubject. The way we treat peopleas we travel around is the mostimportant part of our story

building. If your subjects haverespect for you and you for them,then I think this will be evident inthe final image.

8: Has the subject of a picture or astory ever asked you what you’redoing it for? What would you sayto them if they did?

MB: I get this question a lot inCongo and my answer is alwaysthe same. I am there to try toshow the world what ishappening here. They feelforgotten, lost, and helpless andthey want the world tounderstand and react.

8: Is there a risk that thephotographs you take perpetuatethe image of Africa as a helplesscontinent, rife with war, famineand disease?

MB: I do not wish to represent theidea that all Africa is like this, butwe cannot get away from the factthat a large percentage is. Meignoring that would also be amisrepresentation and neglecting

the responsibility that I have as ajournalist.

8: When you work with NGOs,how much scope are you given toshoot what you see as opposedto what fits the brief?

MB: I tend to shoot what I wantfor NGOs and edit towards theirbrief later on. I do prefer to travelon my own and shoot the way Iwant and then allow an edit thatworks for the NGO later.

8: You work was shown atPerpignan this year. Whose workmade an impact on you and why?

MB: Certainly the highlight of theweek there was Heidi Bradner’swork from Chechnya. Hercoverage of that story has beenamazing over the past 10 yearsand her approach to the subject isoften extremely sensitive in anarea where such sensitivitiescount for very little.

8: You’ve won lots of awardsrecently – congratulations! What

difference do they make to you,either practically or personally?

MB: It is always great to feel thatyour work is appreciated, andwith some of the financial awardssuch as the 3ps, AlexiaFoundation Grant and the SorosDistribution Award it really doesallow you to carry on with a topicyou would otherwise not be ableto afford to do. But I am finding itas difficult now to make it all work,even after winning MagazinePhotographer of the Year in POY,as I did when I was just starting.

8: Finally, which photograph, orseries of photographs, of yoursdo you feel best represents whatyou want to achieve as aphotojournalist?

MB: I think the series of images ofSakura Lisi is the one I feel bestportrays what I wanted to show inCongo. It was the most sensitiveof situations yet I hope I managedto get the desperation across withdignity 8


Things as They Are:Photojournalism in ContextSince 1955Published by Chris Bootwww.chrisboot.com£45.00(400pp Hardback)

In the months following theceasefire marking the end of theconflict in Vietnam which had costover two million lives, the rap poetGil Scott-Heron articulatedsomething of the “snowblindness” with whichsuperpowers manage, plunderand disenfranchise their worlds.“Whitey on the Moon” talkedanxiously of living in the ghetto, ofdestitution, malnutrition andinopportunity in an urban Americathat was invited to search forsomething in the stars rather thanin the world around them.

It was a clarity of vision shared byBruce Davidson, whose East100th Street photographs of 1968were made with anger and clearpurpose. They reappear, asimmediate and affecting as iffreshly made, in a new book that

marks the 50th anniversary of theWorld Press Organisation. Thingsas They Are shares much in stylewith Steidl’s tremendous Kioskbook of 2001. That book, byRobert Lebeck and Bodo vonDewitz gathered picturemagazine layouts from the earliest20th century magazines up to thelate Sixties, while Things as TheyAre takes the reins and draws onan overwhelming richness ofphotography from internationalpicture magazines since 1955.

It reappraises not only theformative European andAmerican markets, but also theinitiatives of key Japanesephotographers. Indeed ShomeiTomatsu’s work rips apart thepolite spacing and notations of1960s European layouts, starvingthe page of neutral space andcalling – through his ownphotography – for a new form ofreportage “that defied traditionaldesign and conventional formalsolutions”.

Daido Moriyama’s work, too, is allthe more arresting when seenbefore a June 1969 issue of Lifewhich breaks stylistic conventionto show, with awkward monotony,“One week’s dead from Vietnam”.Perhaps this dynamic exchangeepitomises the book’s ambition. Itkeeps at its core the world eventsthat saturate us, yet also works toexplore the more obliquestrategies employed byphotojournalists and theirpublications. The conceptualexperimentation of the Colors eraand Suddeutsche Zeitungmagazine engage urgent issueswith skill and singularity, andsuggest something of the diverse

tactics those commissioning andplacing contemporaryphotography on the printed pageare empowered to use.

Beyond the shell shock of themoon landings, the incredulityand madness of war, the bookalso highlights work made longafter the crowds are gone. Thekeynote stories in the careers ofAnders Petersen, Donna Ferratoand Ad van Denderen, to namejust three, are related in theiroriginal and compelling forms.The photographer’s work is oftenresolved by the vision of theeditor, and these spreads showsome of the most powerfulcollaborations. Gideon Mendel’sZimbabwe Aids Ward pictures sitbeautifully in the Independent in1993 while, in another world,Martin Parr’s work from Florida for W magazine hits the top notewith colour.

Essays by Mary Panzer andChristian Caujolle soberlycontextualise the terrain uponwhich photojournalists so often

have to work. Photographersnegotiate events that are carefullymanaged, restricting accesstowards a chosen narrative, orembrace the dangerousindependence of the freelancepursuing stories through will anddetermination. This book is atestimony to that strength, andalso to the designers and pictureeditors who make the work sing.The last time I went to see GilScott-Heron, the band showedup but he didn’t arrive. He waslost, living somewhere in his world(which isn’t easy) and, like thebest examples in this essentialbook, that told me somethingurgent about my own.

Ken Grant

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A Time Before Crack Jamel ShabazzPublished by PowerHouseBookswww.powerhousebooks.com£19.99(144pp Hardback)

Crack made its first appearance inMiami around 1981and over theensuing 10-15 years spread toLos Angeles, New York andcountless other US cities.Smoking rocks led to the rise ofthe terrifying violent drug gangs,crack whore mythology, “crackbabies” and desperately fracturedcommunities. Jamel Shabazzknew New York before thishappened and captured thescene with a joyful frankness thatis rarely seen today.

Shabazz has something of a cultstatus among the photographiccommunity of New York. A manwho’d served in the military andlater worked in a correctionalinstitute, he was the only man towork so hard yet with suchapparent ease to photographNew York’s boroughs through theeyes of a participant. This book,while ostensibly a documentrelating to New York black culture,actually has a huge amount to sayto all city communities. All theimages are taken between 1980and 1985, a time that for Shabazzthat was the end of era.

Shabbaz walked his haunts ofBrooklyn, Harlem, Flatbush andother traditionally black andHispanic neighbourhoods takingportraits of the people andanything that fell into the trap ofhis curiosity. Group shots, singleportraits, families, gang leaderswith their posses … all were seen

through his open and democraticlens. Technically the photographsare straightforward, his styleunaffected by a desire to make a statement about himself and his craft. In fact, as theaccompanying essay by CharlieAhearn suggests, Shabazzpositioned his work more with thePolaroid portraitists of TimesSquare than with the work ofLeonard Freed, which headmired.

The reason his work hasresonance is in part because ofthe reaction of the subjects toShabazz, who manages tophotograph them as they wouldwish to be seen. This methodmay have been for his own safety– photographing gangs and theirgenerals could be pretty hairy andno doubt they expected to beshot looking “fly”. But theopenness, happiness and lack ofsuspicion that comes from peoplewho are being photographed by afriend, by one of their own, is whatmakes this book out stand out.No value judgments are placedon them. His subjects are thePuma and Shelltop-wearinghiphoppers, double-dutchinggirls, shopkeepers, hairdressers,

restaurant owners, school kids –the individuals who togethermake a community.

Shabazz identifies with the senseof being lost in your own life as hewitnessed the catastrophic rise ofcrack in New York decimated thecity. The empty eyes of the crackaddict decaying in a den are notfeatured in this book – but as welook at these often joyous images,we wonder which of these peopleended up there. A Time BeforeCrack documents Shabazz’smemories of the people he’s lostto a hopeless addiction, hiscommunity, his friends, hischildren … it’s a New York thatShabazz loved that no longerexists. Mike Trow

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up the impression of his thoughtsrolling into each other like somany bowling balls across aperfectly manicured green, eachone graceful and perfectlyformed, but never quite hitting itstarget.

The book deals almost exclusivelywith American photography, barthe odd Atget reference. Hiscentral preoccupation seems tobe that photographerssometimes photograph eachother and that photographersrecreate each other’s picturesuntil it becomes hard to tell themapart. We also learn, by way ofgentle anecdote, quite a bit aboutthe inner lives and loves of theAmerican greats; Lange, Strand,

Stieglitz, Evans et al. There is asense of spending a weekendwith an elderly gentleman whohad known all the old photo-heroes, and is reminiscing over abottle of vintage cognac. In thesame way, I sensed a sadnessemanating from this book, butmaybe the photography/deathinterface is precisely the site of ourrelentless fascination with thesubject.

One final point; the title. Thephrase ‘the ongoing moment’with its obvious allusion to Cartier-Bresson’s famous phrase isembedded in Dyer’s series ofthoughts about photographersrecognising symbols in eachother’s pictures and thus making

the same images across thedecades. ‘Does a coincidencehave to be momentary?’ asksDyer. ‘How long is the moment,the ongoing moment?’ Puzzlinglyfor me, he appears to answer thisquestion a little later on: ‘Inphotography there is nomeantime. There was just thatmoment and now there’s thismoment and in between there isnothing.’

In one sweeping statement, Dyerartfully destroys his entire premisefor the book. MH

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The Ongoing MomentGeoff DyerPublished by Little, Brownwww.twbg.co.uk£20.00(320pp Hardback)

Geoff Dyer has been on the vergeof writing about photography forages. Despite the odd stylisticdisagreement (I’ve never feltcomfortable with Dyer’s assertionthat he is an intellectual, forexample. I’m not saying he isn’t,I’m just questioning the merits ofdeclaring his status so publicly),I’m an admirer of his work.

I’ve enjoyed his idiosyncraticvoyages towards understanding,whether he was writing about hebattle of the Somme, or jazz, orNietzsche, he usually foundsomething original to say andwould say it well. So when newsbroke that he was to be writingabout a subject close to my heart,the portents were good.

Until I started to read it. Dyerspends the first stretch (and I saystretch because there are nochapters, headings or any othersignposting device via which usmere mortals could use tonavigate such an unwieldydocument) explaining hismethodology. He is following theadvice of Dorothea Lange, whoonce said that it was fine to workcompletely without a plan, so asnot to limit oneself. As Dyer isaware, Lange was talking aboutthe organising principles ofphotography, not writing. Langemay have had dozens ofnegatives from a days work, butshe would only publish the goodbits.

It’s not as though the book is nogood; far from it. Dyer is incapableof writing anything other than aperfectly executed sentence. Andhe’s passionate aboutphotography. But the dilettanteapproach that has previouslyserved him so well has hinderedhim here. His desire to avoid thedry, the fusty, the well-troddenpath of a potted history ofphotography has resulted in theliterary equivalent of fusion food -it’s a nice enough idea butultimately unsatisfying. His vaguetheming by subject –photographs of hats, of the blind,of people from behind – conjure

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Dokument 054 – 8 October Oslo, Norwaywww.dokument05.comWorld Press Photo at 507 – 8 OctoberAmsterdam, Netherlandswww.worldpressphoto.nlNoorderlicht4 September – 9 OctoberGroningen, Netherlandswww.noorderlicht.comHelsinki PhotographyFestival7 October – 6 NovemberHelsinki, Finlandwww.helsinkiphotographyfestival.net

We live in a swim of images. Notmerely do the big agenciesreceive more than 12,000 imagesdaily, the photography schoolsproduce more and more goodphotographers andphotojournalists who compete forfewer places in print andcontribute to that flow. There arealso more non-traditional venuesto view pictures and to make animpact with photography, namelyphotography festivals.

A cluster of such festivals tookplace in Northern Europe recently.Dokument 05 is an annualmeeting and workshop of threetop Scandinavian photographyschools. World Press Photo heldits 50th anniversary celebrationand party, and the Dutchphotography festival,Noorderlicht, followed up lastyear’s wildly successful show ofphotography from the Arab world,“Nazar,” with the more enigmatictheme of “Traces and Omens.” Atthe same time, another looselythemed show, Backlight 05, washeld in Tampere, Finland, whichcelebrated its own photographyfestival, a more art-orientedventure co-sponsored by theBritish Council and GalleryHippolyte.

It is important to look atDokument 05 as an opportunityto bring young Scandinavianphotographers together withothers from around the world forworkshops and slideshows inorder to compare notes and tonetwork. The students areexposed to such heroes asAnders Petersen and Jan Grarup,Antonin Kratochvil, PaoloPellegrin, Heidi Bradner, Shahidul

Alam, KB Nøsterud, and PieterTen Hoopen. This year’s eventwas held in Oslo, Norway, underthe auspices of Per-AndersRosenkvist of the photojournalismprogramme, Oslo UniversityCollege. Each of the schoolsworks closely with local papersand magazines and hasinternational projects andoutreach programmes. In short,Dokument functions as aminiature version of World PressPhoto’s Joop Swart Masterclassand its travelling projects. Workpresented ranged from classicallyconceived imagery, beautifullyframed, by Petersen and Grarupto more experimental work byNøsterud, and Ten Hoopen.

Not surprisingly, many of thesestudents have gone on to winmay prizes including Erik Refner, agraduate of the Danish school inArhus, who won the World PressPhoto of the Year in 2001. Now inits 50th year, Amsterdam basedWorld Press Photo took theoccasion to stage both a birthdaybash and a colloquium on thestate of the industry. Journalists,editors and agency directorsbounced around ideasconcerning the demise ofopportunities for publication, theeffects of the consolidation of theagencies, the impact of digital onphotography and its implicationfor photojournalism. There were

many “graveyard speeches”, asAgence Vu’s Christian ̀ that’s sick,it’s the media.”

A commemorative photographyshow, Things As They Are,curated by Caujolle at FOAM, theFoto Museum Amsterdam, runsuntil 7 December and tracks thereduction in space available tophotojournalists in the majorweeklies, which shrank from eightor more spreads in 1950s and’60s to the two or three permittedtoday. As is obvious, journalistsare increasingly forced to seekother opportunities for their workto reach the public, whetherthrough gallery representation(albeit rather unlikely when subjectmatter may include images ofviolence or despair), books – a

trade-off from 2.5 million readersfor Paris Match versus 2,000copies of a monograph, and,increasingly web-baseddistribution outside of theagencies. The latter will becomeincreasingly important ascompetition gets tougher. Therewas also the presentation of astamp set commemorating 50years of World Press Photo prizewinners and an admonition,testifying to the strength ofimagery, by Jan Pronk, specialrepresentative of the UNSecretary General for Sudan,decrying late coverage of Darfur,for photographers to go out andtake pictures of situations beforethey get out of control and end upon CNN, the BBC, or Al-Jazeera.

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On a different note, this year’s12th incarnation of Noorderlicht,the Dutch photography festivalheld this year in Groningen,situated documentary and artphotography in a context thattested what could and could notbe seen, and invokedphotography’s claim to truth andits ability challenge theimagination. Under the rubric of“Traces and Omens” curator WimMelis presented a shaggy dog ofa programme that nonethelessbrought out the power ofdocumentary and reportagephotography. Works likeChristophe Agou’s post-9/11imagery from his birth region inFrance seemed to be acelebration of the simple things inlife whereas Pep Bonet’s searingwork from post-conflict SierraLeone was a testament to theeffects of man’s brutality to hisneighbors. Paula Luttringerreturned to the prisons ofArgentina where she was heldduring that country’s “Dirty War”of the 1970s and ’80s anddepicted the traces of things thatkept her and her fellow prisonersalive and sane during thoseterrible years. Paul Fusco’s returnto Chernobyl 20 years later was ahaunting reminder of the effects ofinvisible radiation made all toopainfully visible to the survivorsand their children. Australian TrentParke presented a dark body of

work that appeared to mirror thenewly doubtful and uncertain sideof “the lucky country” in the wakeof bombings in Bali, fires, anddroughts. Joakim Enerothportrayed Tibetan monks andnuns with the torture implementsthey faced in Chinese prisons. Healso presented an enigmatic,Sugimoto-like series ofseascapes, “Waiting”, thataddressed, on a metaphoricallevel at least, the implications ofthe earthquake and tsunami thatdevastated Indonesia andneighbouring countries.

If these works presented a moreor less directly metaphorical useof documentary photography,one that hinted or alluded tothings, two other bodies of worktook shots at the truth claims ofphotography. Larry Fink’sGerman Expressionist tablseau ofbody doubles representingGeorge W Bush, DonaldRumsfeld, and various corporatetitans and cronies, many now injail, amid a bevy of floozies, wasoriginally conceived as a fashionshoot for the New York Timesmagazine and scheduled to runon 16 September 2001. Killed inthe wake of 9/11, the “ForbiddenPictures” were unable to bepresented in the United States foryears. Michael Najjar’s project“Information and Apocalypse”from 2003 took potshots at a

more literal if sarcastic meaning of“embedded” in his depiction ofpolitical control during wartime inan age of video games.

The works on the wall inGroningen and elsewhere make itclear that photography is a veryslippery medium. Not allreportage tells a single story. Noimage can have a perfectly clearmessage. Sometimes the allusiveis more powerful than theconcrete. That master of images,Henri Cartier-Bresson, once re-titled his masterpiece, “TheDecisive Moment”, for a friendthus: “Some Decisive Moments(maybe).” It is a most realisticstatement to the power of imagesand the impossibility ofrepresenting truth faithfully. Toquote Lewis Hine: “Photographsdo not lie, but liars can makephotographs.” We should beaware of these words both whenwe make an image and when wepresent it to the world. BK

Backlight 052 September – 15 January Tampere, Finlandwww.backlight.fi

At a time when culturalglobalisation threatens tosmother indigenous culturalideas, a photography festivalsuch as Backlight 05, held everythree years since 1987 inTampere, Finland – an ex-textiletown known as “the Manchesterof Finland” – represents achallenge. By combining Finnishand international photographycurated by Finnish andinternational curators, Backlightboth highlights nationaldifferences and at the same timecollapses them onto the sameplane of photography. With 60international photographers and16 from Finland gathered into twomain, themed shows and twoparallel exhibitions, Backlightproved to be a mixed blessing.

Despite its emphasis ondocumentary photography, theproblem, in part, with Backlightlay in the ambiguity of the themeschosen by its artistic director,Ulrich Haas-Pursiainen,“Untouchable Things” at theMuseum Center Vapriikki and“Spells of Childhood” at theTampere Art Museum. The other

two shows, a Gerhard Richtershow at the Sara Hilden ArtMuseum and Frontal 7, anexhibition of Thomas Ruff’sstudents from the Düsseldorf ArtAcademy, enhanced by somepictures of those Düsseldorfers,par excellence, Bernd and HillaBecher, at the photographiccentre Nykyaika, had littlecoherence with the main event.The two main shows bothfeatured a variety of individualexhibitions based around thetheme of childhood. Thisdelineation appeared arbitrary. Asense of dreamy romanticismhung over the “UntouchableThings”shows by StratosKalafatis, Vesselina Nikolaeva,Maïder Fortuné, GiuseppeToscano, Margherita Verdi,Christina Zamagni, and AnniLeppälä—who won the Backlight05 Award. To be sure, theconcept is vague: spells areuntouchable. However, theiremphasis on childhood mighthave led them to be better placedin the museum rather than in theex-mill space of the Vapriikki.There were several hard hittingexhibitions that did touchsquarely on the notion of theuntouchable including: PeterGranser’s Alzheimers series, andHarri Pälviranta’s imagery fromold prison cells.

“Spells of Childhood,” on theother hand, did feature sometough work, notably SoodySharifi’s images of Iranianteenagers, a selection of LarryClark’s Tulsa work, and DonavanWylie’s “Losing Ground” series ofdown and out travellers. Thiswork is in sharp contradistinctionto classic imagery by LewisCarroll and August Sander whoseworks served as a mirror to theextremes of romantic anddocumentary aesthetics.

What Backlight 05 has to sayabout the state of photography isunclear. There was a lot ofinteresting work and some workthat was less compelling. Theopportunity, though, to see sucha wide range of internationalphotography is important. Thereal question is: for how muchlonger will that be possible? Afestival like Backlight lets us enjoythe differences while they last. BK

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Money Power RespectBrenda Ann KeneallyPublished by ChannelPhotographics www.channelphotographics.com$29.95(144pp Hardback)

Money Power Respect isKenneally’s very personal andpowerful survey of community lifein Bushwick, Brooklyn. It focuseson the complexities of familyrelationships and how women inthis environment can turn todrugs in the belief they will thusempower themselves andimprove their social status.

The 100 black and white images –traditional black and whitereportage – are accompanied bytext from journalist Adrian NicoleLeBlanc, who warns: “This isn’t astreet book. These aren’tphotographs of the extremes ofthe ghetto environmentobserved.” Rather this is an insidelook behind the blinds at the dailyroutines in an ordinary suburb.This book is divided into clearchapters and substories aboutwomen like Mari, Tata, Faye andMoya. The supplied biographiesare important, but the language ofKenneally’s images has a fargreater impact via her preciseframing.

The project began with theVelazquez family and Tata’schapter shows us a life governedby crack. Her story is tragic butthe images command respect.We follow her as she buys a dimerock of crack from a disusedbuilding, discusses crochet withfriends between hits, teaches heryoung son how to deal correctlyand climbs back in through abedroom window after sleeping ina hallway in order to avoid thechild welfare people. The book’slayout permits a lively pace: fullpage images followed by busygroups of quarter-page images,

serving to emphasise thedisjointed lives of the peoplewithin.

In the same way that EugeneRichards in 1994 communicatedthrough his images the transienceand anxieties of a drug-affectedsociety, Kenneally’s essay looksdeep into the psyche of a troubledcommunity. With over 10 yearsspent on this project (Le Blanc

calls it “immersion work”),Kenneally has gained unparalleledaccess, breaking down personalbarriers in ways that most editorialassignments can no longer do.Now is an important time to recallthe homegrown battles that arestill being fought in America’s ownbackyard. Rebecca McClelland

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IntersectionsDavid GoldblattPublished by Prestelwww.prestel.com£35.00(124pp Hardback)

David Goldblatt once spoke of hisrealisation that rather than controlthe South African light, it wasprobably wiser to work with it. Thehigh, bare sunlight that meets theJohannesburg haze is a recurringpresence in the first substantialcollection of Goldblatt’s colourphotographs. In presenting newwork that he has been makingsince the late Nineties,Intersections is something of areprise of the themes thephotographer has approachedwith a steady urgency for morethan half a century. Goldblatt’sphotographs themselves sharesuch longevity in their power.They reward scrutiny. They aregraceful yet spare, often holdinglayers of detail, tokens ofdomestic and municipal histories,fragments of cultivation, andbelongings.

Within all of this, there is theaching dignity of a populationchallenged by division, frayedopportunity and the lapping tideof HIV/Aids. Territories are markedsimply. They can be dry farmlandmarked with wire or sharplydrawn walled villages where thelight shines Tuscan. Goldblattacknowledges both, alongsidethe fallen mills and modest plotsthat sit low against the land.Workers construct mechanically,yet hardly challenge themonotonous landscapes andskies of the Veldt.

The dexterity of this photographershould progress the research ofthe writer David Campany, whoseidea of late photography (thereturn of the photographer to asite of significance with the luxuryof temporal distance) has been a

concise yet helpful evaluation ofrecently exhibited photography.With Goldblatt, there is nodistance and no manneristregularity of picture making. Hiswork has benefited from thedigital refinement with whichcolour can now be employed.These prints suggest a new keytowards our understanding of theSouth African experience andGolblatt’s relating of it.

Half way through the book, BlueAsbestos taints a former miningarea in Northern Cape. Adangerous, corrupted expanse, itspeaks of a land in a slow andtroubling transition. When lookingat it, I am reminded of AlanTrachtenberg, searching for adistinction between the work ofDorothea Lange and WalkerEvans. While Lange’s worksuggested an upheaval, atemporary disaffection, Evans’work was resonant, problematicand ultimately dealt with fate. Itseems clear to me that DavidGoldblatt’s best photographscarry a similar weight. KG

Traces and OmensPublished by Aurora Borealiswww.noorderlicht.com£35.00(236pp Hardback)

“Traces and Omens” was theelected theme and subsequentcatalogue title of this year’sNoorderlicht event in Groningen.Therefore, not imposing terriblystrict limits on the type of work onshow, around 70 photographerswere chosen to illustrate thisbroad theme and versatility of thedefinition of documentaryphotography all together.

The main issues and questionsput forth in the brief by the eventcurator Wim Meils deal with thevisualisation of time and the

complexities this entails. As aresult, the work ranges fromChristien Meindertsma’s collage ofcolourful, if harmless, itemsconfiscated at Schiphol airport,over the period of one week, toAdrienne van Eekelen’s intimatediary of a girl from childhoodthrough to puberty to Paul Fusco’srecent return to Chernobyl. Evenwith the less remarkable pieces ofwork – Mike Mike’s digital creationof universal faces come to mind –the theme continues to resonate.

The catalogue (although it feelsand reads more like a book)contains a brief glimpse of each ofthe photographers’ work that wasexhibited throughout the northernDutch city. Unlike countless otherphotography festivals of this scale,a genuine attempt has been madeto publish an attractive andvaluable correspondingcatalogue. In addition to thephotographs, we find threeessays theorising on the role ofmemory and history in themedium of photography therebycreating a solid context in which toplace these images, one whichwas largely absent from the actualexhibition.

What makes this piece all themore attractive are the unknownphotographers featured. We arenot bombarded with the usualsuspects, apart from a couple ofveterans, yet are presented withan even-handed selection ofphotographers from around theglobe. Perhaps, then, the mainintention driving Traces andOmens can be best summed upby Bas Heijne’s definition ofphotography in his essay TheEcstasy of Reality – ‘an inspiredsearch by the eye to see the worldanew’. LH

You Love Life Nick WaplingtonPublished by Trolleywww.trolleybooks.com£30.00(128pp Hardback)

You Love Life is an attempt toexpress a personal reaction to astatement attributed to al-Qa’idathat Nick Waplington read first onthe Internet: “You love life as muchas we love death." George Bushreferred to the statement(although the wording this time

was “You choose life while wechoose death”) in a White Houseaddress a couple of months later,in an attempt to justify andgalvanise Operation IraqiFreedom.

Waplington explains, “It was thisdichotomy and its many possibleinterpretations that provided mewith the inspiration to producethis work, a work about life andthe choices I have made and thechoices which have been madeon my behalf.” The result of this isexpressed here in You Love Life” alarge selection of snapshotsdepicting Waplington’s own life,from the 1980s to the present.

The work shown is even morepersonal than his earlier work.Sex, drugs, friendships andnightlife populate the pages.Despite some very strong,graphic images – a simple butbrutal shot of a couple having sexon a rock, a woman giving birth,the sea fence of a Mexican border– the book lacks a coherence andat times it is hard to even relate itssense to the original missionstatement. I can only grasp herefar too few fragments of the timewhere Waplington wasremarkably documenting theordinary, in such bodies of workas The Living Room andWeddings.

The design of the book works wellenough up to a point, but it is letdown by the lack of captions. Thephotographs published becomemuch more captivating andpowerful when accompanied byshort captions; unfortunatelythese are hidden at the back ofthe book and as the pages are notnumbered, the exercise isredundant.

Waplington’s attempt to link thepolitical statement to what isessentially a personal diary hasproved surprisingly, and mostdisappointingly, clumsy. LM


78

Walking the Line Richard LongPublished by Thames andHudson www.thamesandhudson.com£27.50(328pp Softback)

The most striking impression leftby this lavish monograph chartingthe career of Richard Long, thedistinguished British landscapeartist, is quite how “un-photographic” it is. Though manyof its 200-plus images conveyevocative, even haunting, sensesof time and place, few qualify asgreat photographs in terms ofcomposition. Yet, leafing throughthe book’s pages, it swiftlybecomes clear this almostcertainly isn’t the point. If, on theone hand, Walking the Line marksLong out as an indifferentphotographer, it also capturesbeautifully the sheer inventivenessand maverick spirit that haveearned him a reputation as ourmost singular of sculptors.

Billed as a record of Long’s worksince the early 1990s, theshowcase actually stretches backto the ’70s, when he first becamemesmerised by the formative andsymbolic possibilities of leavinglines as human imprints on thenatural order. In A Boot-heel Line(1970), he takes delight insketching a maze-like outline inthe dusty sands of Arizona.Elsewhere, lines are used asmetaphors for the act of walking,which Long transforms, via subtlemodifications of landscapesthrough which he passes – fromDartmoor to Japan’s ShirakamiMountains – into an art-form initself.

Some pictures focus on linessketched onto fields so faintly thatthey are all-but invisible – as if theirarchitect were some mischievoussprite, kissing the earth with theflimsiest trace of its passing.

Others depict stone circles,deviously laid out on barren plainsin the manner of our Neolithicancestors, or transplanted fromtheir natural environment to theanonymity of a modern art gallery.For a book whose professedpurpose is to catalogue Long’sart, it is ironic that some of thebest photographs are thoseportraying unaltered landscapes,rather than ones bearing traces of his subversive, “anti-archaeological” signature.Nowhere is this truer than in thesection focusing on his 1,030-miletrek from The Lizard to DunnetHead, the northernmost point ofScotland, in which the solitarymood pervading the rest of thebook is encapsulated in thesimple image of sheep shufflingacross an empty road.

James Morrison

Land of Milk and HoneyPaul KranzlerPublished by Fotohofwww.fotohof.atf29.00(126pp Hardback)

Paul Kranzler's “snapshot”images presented in Land of Milkand Honey display an intimacyborne of his familiarity with hiselderly subjects, next doorneighbours Toni and Aloisia.Documented over a two-yearperiod from 2001-2003 in Linz,Austria, the 100 or so b/w andcolour photographs pay homageto the Richard Billingham schoolof photography as evidenced inhis debut work Ray's A Laugh.

Kranzler's images are unguarded,intrusive: we are presented withthe decrepit Toni mid-spit, gobhanging from his mouth; later,expressionless Aloisia, in asnatched shot, is caught swiggingfrom a beer bottle in her darkenedbedroom. The effect renderedleaves one feeling like a voyeur to

another’s misery; a witness to theshooting of fish in a barrel. I am troubled by what I see. UnlikeBillingham, who photographs hisfamily, Kranzler’s subjects aresimply happenstance neighbours.I wonder does he have the moralright to photograph theircluttered, disordered andseemingly dysfunctional lives,how ever honest he may believehe is being in representing theirdaily existence? To what end is hedoing it? Ultimately, is heexploiting his subjects? I think not,in conclusion. The project hasintegrity. In context, the imagesare never gratuitous, or abusive ofthe subjects; raw and at timesnauseating and shocking, butnever, finally, manipulative.

In no way is Land of Milk andHoney an easy read in form orsubject matter. Its subjects’ livesare seemingly light on everythingthat makes life truly worth living -love, humour, purpose – butdespite this it is a life-affirmingwork, never more so than in itslast image. Toni – the book’srepellently charismatic centralcharacter – having cheated death(a fact of which he himself is all tooaware) appears like Old Nickhimself, standing, half his body inthe frame, the shade of a tree’sbranches fingering his face, hiseyes narrowed and with acigarette in his hand masking hismouth. If only we could see, Iswear there’s a smile as wide asthe Danube on his lips – and isn’tthat a snake coiled around thetree branch? If this old codger,with the life he’s led, is still goingstrong, one feels, well, anything’spossible ... GM

Gianni Berengo Gardin Published by Contrasto www.contrasto.itf65.00(464pp Hardback)

This substantial book offers aretrospective of the work of Italianphotographer Gianni BerengoGardin. Its size is representative ofGardin’s respected position in hisnative country, where it was firstpublished by his agencyContrasto. It also reflects hisprodigious output – 200 booksand exhibitions since the 1960s.The book contains two interviews,one general, introducing the work

and the photographer, the otheron his publications. The majorityof the book is given over to hisblack and white pictures arrangedin chapters serving loosely to mapout his interests and the essenceof his imagery – Venice (the citywhere he was brought up),Everyday Work, Women, Paris,Empathy, Landscape withFigures, Provincial Life.

A documentary photographer inthe traditional sense, Gardindescribes his approach thus: “forme photography is an account” –emphasising as much as possiblethe objective reality of a place. Hiswork is easily situated withinmodern photographic practice.His education: books byAmerican social documentaryphotographers, whose work wassent to the young photographyenthusiast by an American unclefriendly with Cornell Capa; hisother influences – Willy Ronis,Cartier-Bresson, the Family ofMan and Life. In the introductoryinterview, the portraitsreproduced further serve toindicate Gardin’s positionamongst peers – here he isalongside Bruno Barbey, ElliotErwitt, Leonard Freed … there heis again with Roberto Koch andFerdinando Scianna.

Yet Gardin remains relativelyunknown within the UK. Ironicallyperhaps it is his commercialsuccess that has stopped himfrom becoming so widelyacclaimed. Never having tostruggle to establish his chosencareer, Gardin published his firstbook on Venice in 1960 and hasnever looked back, finding itseems an unending stream ofcollaborators – publishers, writersand editors – to work with. He hasworked commercially for Olivetti,Alfa Romeo and Fiat and over along period with the publisher


Touring Club Italiano, producingportraits of destinations in Italyand beyond. Yet he also workedfor Il Mundo from 1954 to 1965and his work sits firmly within left-leaning concerned reportage ofthe real and everyday. Gardin’saim is to leave a record of hisepoch through his images of hisnative country. This book offers an interesting introduction to his photography – it won’t makewaves but is important in that itforms part of a global dialoguewith other documentarists of his generation. SW

Kultakylä Kati [email protected](131pp Hardback)

Rural life in isolated communitiesis difficult to comprehend for themajority of people who have neverbeen a part of one. Kati Koivikko’sGolden Village is a book ofphotography that redresses thecommon misconceptions andprejudices of the way of life insuch communities. Filled withbold imagery, it gives the viewer afresh perspective of life andpeople in Luhanka, a village deepwithin the Finnish countryside.

The photographs show thepeople of Luhanka in the midst oftheir daily activities: peelingpotatoes, tending their chickens,watering their gardens and caringfor their families. While Koivikko’s photographs cansimply be interpreted asdepictions of everyday life, at theroot of her work is a strong andthought-provoking criticism of cityliving. Through illustrating thiscommunity, she is highlightingwhat is missing from life for themajority of us. She portrays acommunity of people wherehierarchies do not exist; acommunity of people who talk to

each other as they pass in thestreet; a community of peoplewho live outside the realm ofmaterial obsessions.

This subtle book becomes morecompelling over time. Themodesty of the lives spent againstthe raw backdrop of Luhankainduces a sigh of relief asdisconnection from the stressesof modern, city life becomesabsolute. Looking through thedifferent images you can almostfeel the crisp, clean air on yourface. The space apparent in thesepeople’s lives, both physically andmentally, is liberating, challengingthe viewer to question what livingis really about. Lally Pearson

Cape Town Fringe David LuriePublished by Double StoreyBookswww.juta.co.za/doublestoreybooks/ £15(128pp Hardback)

Taking its sub-title “ManenbergAvenue is where it’s happening”from Abdullah Ebrahim’s jazzcomposition Manenberg, DavidLurie has created a lyrical recordof a discordant suburb on CapeTown’s outer limits. Located in thelong shadow of the city’s picturepostcard icon Table Mountain,Manenburg is a crime-riddenworld away from the genteel livesof the wealthy who reside on themountain’s slopes – the focus of afollow up work by Lurie to bepublished in 2006.

The second part in an undeclaredtrilogy (Life in the Libertated Zone,1994, being the first), Lurie spent18 months on and off between2001-2003 “hanging out,photographing in and aroundManenberg Avenue” to createCape Town Fringe. The result ofhis endeavours in published formis a remarkably intimate accountof the often violent, alcoholic, andinvariably poor lives of its blackresidents. (During the time heworked on the book 12 peoplehe’d photographed died violentlyor were critically injured.)

We are introduced to a worldwhere rival gangs’ tags adorn thewalls: Thug Life on one; West Sideon another, in front of which

young boys play with tin cans. Inother images children areprominent, often playing,noticeably smiling as yetunaffected by their surroundings,unlike the adults, whose smiles, incontrast, seem rarely inducedother than by drink or drugs. Theadults’ tension is almost tangible;aggression in the form of physicalviolence, intimidation andposturing is commonplace –never more so than in thetattooed bodies of gangmembers, their allegiance literallyimprinted on their skin. Shot inblack/white and superbly printed,Cape Town Fringe beautifullydocuments a harsh existence onSouth Africa’s margins with greatintegrity. GM

79

Exhibitions and Events

American Life1December – 13 JanuaryThis show at the Michael HoppenGallery marks the first UK exhibitionpresenting the archives of LifeMagazine from New York.www.michaelhoppengallery.com

Coalfield Stories25 November – 21JanuaryTo coincide with the twentiethanniversary of the end of the nationalminers strike and the demise of thepits, Photopfusion presents the workof John Davies, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinenand Simon Norfolk, who havedocumented the post-industriallandscape of the Durham Coalfieldarea where the last pit closed in 1993.www.photofusion.org

Diane Arbus, RevelationsUntil 15 JanuaryA retrospective of this legendary NewYork photographer covers her life’sworth of photography, includingcontact sheets, cameras, notebooksand letters. On show at the Victoriaand Albert Museum.www.vam.ac.uk

“Every Time I see the Sea.” Tsunami –Living in the Aftermath8 December – 3 JanuaryThis multi-media exhibition launchedby Christian Aid featuresphotographer Tim Hetherington andsculptress Emma Summers, whocapture both the remarkable stories ofhope that have emerged from thedisaster as well as the magnitude ofthe challenge. This work will beexhibited at the Dray Walk Gallery, 91Brick Lane, London E16QL.www.christianaid.org.uk

Photo Month Lecture: Martin Parr 21NovemberOne of the UK's most notedcontemporary photographers willspeak about the evolution of hispractice and his current interests andprojects at the Whitechapel Gallery ineast London.www.whitechapel.org

POSITHIV+23 November – 22 DecemberPep Bonet unveils his latest workexamining the HIV pandemic in Africa,and how anti-retroviral drug treatmentcan transform the lives of those livingwith the disease.www.hostgallery.co.uk

Things As They Are: Photojournalismin Context since 1955Until 7 DecemberFOAM in Amsterdam hosts anexhibition to coincide with the releaseof the book, charting the history of thepublication of photojournalism.www.foam.nl

FOTO8 BOOKSHOPSave up to 30%.Find exclusive offers onpre-released books, aswell as signed or limitededitions. Buy direct from theworld’s leading special-ist photography book publishers.

This month foto8 ishappy to be able tooffer our readers ninequality books priced atjust £10 each!

Shop online at:foto8.com/bookshop/

Read reviews online:foto8.com/reviews/


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Professional Resources


These are the shots which capture the evening HOST Gallery opened itsdoors to the world. The launch party for Host – a joint venture betweenFoto8 and Panos Pictures – saw a new London exhibition space forphotojournalism unveiled in Honduras Street, EC1. Cocktails from Brazil,images from North Korea and very English weather combined to ensure that

art, or more accurately photojournalism, is always going to be the party 8

HOSTAndy SteelKaren Mirzoyan

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HOST is a newvenue dedicatedto promotingphotojournalism, exhibitingphotography thatengages, inspiresand excites theviewer.

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