Photographers | >Re-PHOTO

2009 Deutsche Börse Show

There were I’m afraid no surprises at tonight’s opening of the show of the four shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse photography prize at the London Photographers’ Gallery, except that the wine ran out before I had got a second glass.

Tod Papageorge‘s work from Central Park afflicted me with the same ennui it had generated on its previous viewing at the Michael Hoppen Gallery, where the main interest had been that one print was shown upside down (this time they all seemed the right way up.)

His pictures of the park taken over twenty-two years, although very highly praised by some, have to me the air of an amateur, little slices of life, observations of little consequence. Immaculately presented, they are printed with a curious tonality that renders flesh more as cold porcelain than living flesh or anything with warmth or humanity. It looks somewhat better on the web than on the wall partly because the tones are more normal there, but also because the large prints seem to to emphasize the vacuity of some of the images.

Papageorge has produced some interesting books, notably that showing the similarities in the major works of Walker Evans and Robert Frank, American Photographs and The Americans, arguably the two most important American photography books of the twentieth century.

The selection of images on show here did nothing to improve my view of his photography. Papageorge is highly regarded as a teacher, and definitely is a great promoter of his students and former students, but as a photographer he has always seemed an also-ran.

Paul Graham‘s work from the book a shimmer of possibility, described somewhere on the wall as ‘haikus’, lacked any photographic coherence so far as I was concerned. A haiku is perhaps a form that creates an instant flash of recognition, a seventeen mora that create an image, a single moment. Here we had stilted, repetitive and poorly exposed frames that to me resembled more the stuttering of a partially sighted person with severe learning difficulties. The programme notes describe them as photographic short stories, but I don’t feel they had a story. Frankly I could see no value at all in these works, although some of Graham’s earlier work – such as his Beyond Caring (1984-85) still appeal.

The work of Emily Jacir is interesting but seemed to me to have no place in a photographic gallery – as the gallery notes clearly state, hers is the work of an archivist, activist and poet. Not a photographer. On display were the notes and the artifacts collected by her in a study of the assassinaion of Wael Zualter, a Palestinian intellectual assassinated by Israeli secret service agents in ROme in 1972. These include a letter written by Alberto Moravia recommending him to to Jean-Paul Sartre, and another handwritten list of the Mossad agents involved in his assassination. Is it’s inclusion here a suggestion that we should all abandon photography entirely? Like those Camera Clubs that turned over to bicycling when the photographic craze abated?

For me the outstanding work of the four finalists came from Taryn Simon, whose ‘An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar‘ gained the 2008 Infinity Award for publishing from the ICP, and was one of the few decent shows to grace the Photographers Gallery in recent times.

In the unlikely event that I was a member of the panel deciding on the winner of the DB prize, a short walk around the gallery would have convinced me to sidestep the four shortlisted choices and award it instead to Guy Tillim, not actually for the few of his large prints on the wall but for the book of them, Avenue Patrice Lumumba. This work is currently also on show at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris and will also be shown at Foam Photography Museum in Amsterdam and the Serralves Museum in Porto, Portugal, and looks a very likely candidate for next year’s Deutsche Börse prize – assuming the bank stays solvent.

But I hesitate to make predictions as to who will win, given the fate of those I’ve tipped in previous years. If the prize was to be awarded on the basis of the photography on show, for me Simon would be the only choice. But Jacir has politics, and the Palestinian situation very much on her side – despite the fact she isn’t a photographer. Papageorge is undoubtedly the biggest name in the world of photography among the four, even if not largely known for his pictures. Graham seems too dark a horse to even consider. But I won’t be making any bets.

I’m A Photographer… not a Terrorist

Photographers increasingly feel threatened when they take pictures on the public street. Sometimes they are actually threatened, both by vigilantes and by the police – and like most others who work on the streets, its happened to me. The police have even run a poster campaign against photographers – and in March last year NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear staged a one-man protest at New Scotland Yard to defend press freedom and the rights of photographers. Previously the NUJ and other journalistic bodies had agreed guidelines with the police about how police and press should work together, but these seldom seem to respected by the police. You can read more about the issues and the event in the >Re:PHOTO blog post ‘Photographers by the Yard.

Previously much of the legal friction between police and photographers had been over the wide-ranging powers of police under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act of 2000, which allows them to stop and search anyone within a designated area. The whole of London is one such area, and the powers, intended to be in force for a maximum of 28 days, are renewed indefinitely.

Monday’s demonstration – or rather ‘media event’, since it took place in the SOCPA designated area – was a rather larger event, with an estimated 400 professional and amateur photographers, and was organised by a small group of photographers to mark the introduction that day of Section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. It is now an offence to photograph any policeman, serviceman or intelligence agent in a way that is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” or to publish such a picture – for example on a web site such as this.

You don’t have to be a terrorist or to make use of your picture for any terrorist purpose. If a court can be persuaded your picture might be of use to a terrorist, you can get 10 years in jail. It is the kind of law that a few years ago we would have shrunk with horror at as clear evidence of a police state.

At the moment although we are lurching dramatically in that direction, our courts do usually provide some protection, and the law does give them some power in it’s statement: “It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action.” It is perhaps hard to imagine – at the moment – a court convicting a journalist covering a demonstration for photographing the police. But rather easier to imagine it being used – as with Section 44 – by police to harass photographers and prevent them from getting on with their job. Being held and searched for 40 minutes while on the way to cover an event can be a pretty clear interference with the freedom of the press to report.

More about the event and more pictures on My London Diary.

Peter Goldfield

It was with great regret that I heard this morning of the death of Peter Goldfield who gave so much to many photographers through the workshops he ran at Duckspool as well as his own photography and teaching at various universities over the years. He was a clever and kind man who was always a pleasure to meet and although I’ve seen him only infrequently over the years I’ll miss him; it is a great loss for photography in the UK, and of course much more so for his family and close friends to who I extend my sympathies.

I first came across Peter, like me a Londoner born in 1945, in the room above his pharmacy in Muswell Hill in the early 1970s. Goldfinger Photographic was for many of us an introduction to ideas of fine printing particularly with the publication of the Goldfinger Manual, and perhaps more importantly was the source of that Holy Grail for fine printing, Agfa Record Rapid, imported specially by Goldfinger and not otherwise available in the UK.

A couple of years later I met him briefly at his home nearby and was introduced to his family before being driven by him to a workshop – I think it was with Lewis Balz – at Paul Hill‘s Photographers’ Place in Bradbourne, Derbyshire.

It wasn’t the first visit there for either of us, and it was a place that played a vital role in both of our lives, particularly pivotal for Peter. It was perhaps surprising we hadn’t met there before, but we found we knew many of the same people and similar ideas, as well as appreciating many of the same photographers. For him the forming experience had been a workshop with Charles Harbutt, while for me a series of meetings with Raymond Moore made a lasting impression.

You can see and read much more about him on his web site (he started on the web in 1995, the same year that I wrote my first web site.)

I went to two workshops at Duckspool, where Peter and his wife Sue were splendid hosts, and have happy memories of both. One was with Charles Harbutt, and it was indeed a memorable and thought-provoking experience; perhaps had I met him 20 years earlier it would have changed my life too. The second, in 1998, was with Leonard Freed who I warmed too rather less, but it was great to be at Duckspool again.

I wrote an article about the experience for a small magazine I was editing at the time, London Independent Photography’s LIPService, and I’ll reproduce here most of the text from that, as well as the pictures from the workshop I used to illustrate it. I hope it will bring back some fond memories to some of my readers as it does to me.

Duckspool

Readers who have yet to make it to Duckspool are missing one of the more rewarding and intensive experiences available to the photographer. The chance to work with one of many well-known photographers (including John Blakemore, Mark Power, Martin Parr, Homer Sykes, Fay Godwin, John Davies, John Goto from this country and distinguished visitors such as Judy Dater, Susan Meisalas and Charles Harbutt) as well as the other keen and often very talented photographers who are your fellow travellers.

Sidmouth, 1998 © Peter Marshall

Your only difficulty is in chosing which workshop to attend. Probably the best advice is to read the workshop descriptions very carefully and to talk to as many people who have already The best-known photographers are not always the best teachers so you may get better value from some of the less familiar names. One workshop I’d recommend from personal experience – and I know has changed some people’s lives radically – is Charles Harbutt’s. (Peter Goldfield went to it at the Photographers’ Place and decided to sell up his business and found Duckspool!) One of the first photo books I bought was Harbutt’s Travelog published by MIT in 1973.

Sidmouth, 1998 © Peter Marshall

Since 1986, Peter and Sue Goldfield have opened the doors of their rural Somerset home to photographers with some 25 workshops this year – and you really are made to feel at home. The accommodation in shared rooms is comfortable and the food was even better than when I last visited some five years ago, which takes some doing. However possibly not every workshop will have a meal cooked by a visiting French chef and enjoy one of the best pub meals I’ve had, but the Goldfield standard is in any case a hard one to beat.

Sidmouth, 1998 © Peter Marshall

I’m told the darkroom is much improved since my last visit, although I didn’t use it, with developing and contact printing being done expertly by the artist in residence (thanks again Julia!), leaving us more time to talk photography and take pictures (we photographed Sidmouth, then in the throes of its annual Folk Festival – reducing the average age on its streets by a factor of at least three – which climaxed with a torchlit procession to the sea).Some people also made use of Peter’s expertise in the digital darkroom, with interesting results. My only regret was having to leave Duckspool at the end of the workshop (worse, a little before the end, as I had a train to catch) as there was so much more I would have liked to have done and said. And the food!

Suau and more

On the World Press Photo site you can see and hear jury chair MaryAnne Golon talking about the winning photo by Anthony Suau (and I also learnt that she at least pronounces his name An-thony with a “th” rather than in the normal British English fashion, and his second name as “swore”, so I shall have to learn to stop thinking of him as Antony Sow.) She doesn’t talk about the way the figure with a gun is so clearly shown and dramatically in front of a white wall between two doorways, or that curious head he thrusts forwards behind the arm and gun makes him appear almost a cartoon figure projected on the scene, or how the simplicity of the upper half of the image and the chaos in the lower, but she does make some points about the image.

It’s well worth seeing the picture in the context of Suau’s essay on the site which got him a second prize for stories in the Daily Life section. Overall I think this is perhaps the most interesting story on the site, and one reason for this is the diversity of the ideas in this Time essay covering the crisis in the US economy (of course also something the rest of the world can thank America for.)

You can see his work Beyond the Fall on his web site and also on Time, (at least I think you can, though I’ve not managed to get beyond the opening sequence), with a work from a number of projects at Photoshelter and also on the Bill Charles site.

Elsewhere there is perhaps less of interest than in some years and there are a number of pictures and stories I find it hard to understand either why they are there or why they deserved their rather peculiar treatments by the photographers concerned. Sometimes competitions like this place too high a value on novelty without perhaps considering whether an artsy effect is anything more than that. But there is – as always – a considerable amount of work worth looking at.

Among work that particular caught my eye was the work by Davide Monteleone (Italy, Contrasto) taken in Abkhazia in September-October that won him first prize for General News stories, Polish photographer Tomasz Gudzowaty‘s Child jockey, Mongolia (3rd prize sports singles in Sport Features), and a story on where homeless people sleep in São Paulo, Brazil by Carlos Cazalis (Mexico, Corbis) which gained first prize in Contemporary Issues.

Interestingly the 3rd prize in Spot News stories went to Wojciech Grzedzinski, (Poland, Napo Images for Dziennik) for a set of images from the conflict in Georgia which included images of the same two men that became the subject of controversy on the Internet over photographs by Gleb Garanich and David Mdzinarishvili of Reuters which I covered in my post Byzantine Photographs last August. Although I found that the pictures showed no evidence that would make me in any way doubt their veracity, despite the comments of conspiracy theory obsessed bloggers, it does go to suggest that the world which is covered by news photography is perhaps a rather smaller place than we might hope.

Photo Forum, Futures & World Press Photo

Yesterday evening I was standing in a packed Photoforum meeting in central London with other photographers listening to two photographers talking about and showing their work. Ray Tang of Rex Features presented some of his stories on sex trafficking and drugs in Eastern Europe, and Carl de Souza showed us what it was like to cover the Olympics for a major agency (AFP) – if I remember correctly he was one of over 70 photographers they had covering the event – as well as the month or so he took off in China after that event.

De Souza had a fast-moving slide show of his work with some very graphic images, particularly from the various cycling events which was one major area he was assigned to. It was a shame that through some technical mis-match his whole presentation was shown with the images at a noticeably incorrect aspect ratio which made his horizontal images almost square and turned verticals into upright pillar-box slits.

One of the more amazing of many facts and figures was that AFP had pictures from the 100m final on the wire in just over a minute after the end of the event – from memory 1 minute 14 seconds. These first pictures came from a remote camera linked by fibre cable to the AFP editing suite where they were selected and dropped into waiting templates with captions etc for immediate transmission.

After the end of the Olympics de Souza got AFP to change his ticket home to give him a month in China and set off on his own to travel around one of the outlying provinces. He had to pay his own expenses, but with hotels at 20p a night and an enormous hospitality from the people he met this wasn’t a great problem, but he had to find his way and make himself understood purely by sign language and pointing at symbols in a guide book, as absolutely no English was spoken.

One question that came up was whether he had sold any of this work from China, and he told us that we were the first people except his family and friends to see it – and were asked if we had any ideas on how it could be market or published.

Most of the discussion over Tang’s work was about his paying for the drugs used by one of his subjects to set up a photographic session. As well as raising moral issues around drugs, some suggested it was an interference with the subject that was unacceptable in a documentary project. But there were also some useful practical questions about how you get to find and work with people on sensitive issues such as prostitution and the victims of sex trafficking. Tang used the Internet to make contacts with local people, mainly students who he employed cheaply on a daily basis to find people and places, make phone calls and go round with him, as well as working with various NGOs involved with the problems.

As with De Souza’s pictures of China, this work by Tang was self-financed and little has been sold. Both work for agencies and get a living from what the agencies want, but also spend a considerable amount of time and money on personal work.

I thought while listening to this about a piece that Simon Norfolk wrote in December for World Press Photo (and it was a big day for them yesterday when the results of the 2008 contest were announced – you can now see all the winning pictures including the winning image black and white image by Anthony Suau, which I think may be less controversial than some other recent winners.)

Norfolk’s piece comes in the on-line magazine from WPP, Enter, and in a section called ‘ask the experts‘ under marketing, which I think is intended to give advice to people coming in to photography. It’s worth reading in full (and isn’t very long) but early on in the piece he writes “I gave up trying to make a living from editorial a few years ago…”

Magazine commissions still get him to places – as they took de Souza to China – and he then stays on and makes work that he can sell as fine art prints. Or used to be able to sell – since much of that market was fuelled by those obscene bonuses that gave bankers more money than they knew what to do with.

Norfolk sees hard times ahead and suggests photographers learn other trades to keep them going: “soon we’ll all be amateur photographers with real-money making jobs on the side..”

Actually this isn’t a new thing. Many of those great names that fill the history books were never able to make a living from photography. And on a much humbler personal note, I took a serious look at the business in the 1970s and decided (despite the encouragement of some whose opinions I respected) that I couldn’t afford to be a full-time photographer – unless I was prepared to do weddings. My situation is different now mainly because I need less money to live – just as well as fees are now plummeting back to those 1970 levels.

This is War & The Subject of War

A Dear John letter by John Benton-Harris to a colleague about:

This is War & The Subject of War

at the Barbican Art Gallery (16 October – 25 January 2009)

Dear John,

It was nice running into you at the Barbican, and good to see that you are keeping well. It was also good that the Barbican has retained something of my improved thinking on exhibition design and traffic flow in that very peculiar and difficult space. For as you I am sure have noticed, this gallery resembles something more akin to the dining room of the TITANIC, then any appropriate space for hanging art. It was also swell to socialize with some of the artists who make up the gallerys hanging crew. I must tell you however that I was very disappointed with both the upstairs presentation – Robert Capas This is War (AKA – Endre Erno Friedmann) and a much smaller presentation by his non-notable girlfriend Gerda Taro (also previously named – Gerda Pohorylle). Anyway, looking around this presentation, I would be forgiven for thinking that these small, toneless, grubby un-spotted prints came out of that same long lost valise, which housed those negatives. It may have been sufficient to represent Gerda’s contribution to photography, but not Roberts, for this staging reveals more of the weaknesses of his seeing then its strengths. So if I were forced to come to a decision about Roberts ability based on this presentation of his work, he would fail spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. And about any question of him being an artist, he would fail there as well.

I realize these are harsh words, but looking at these repetitive rows of small, shapeless and thoughtless moments (although beautifully over matted, framed, lit, and presented) this poor limited selection tells me he was only physically present. And that, in my book, denies him the title of the greatest anything, for greatness is a privilege reserved for those who consistently find themselves in the right place at the right time, just for starters. These images for the most part have no real clear readable central drama, and no edge concern either, and both are required to make a message taut, to maximize viewer response, and to clarify ones intent, to go beyond showing that one was merely present. The majority of these out-takes from time suggest that most likely he was holding the camera away from his eye and possibly even above his head, while running. The bottom line, from this credible reading of them is that Robert failed to adhere to his first principal of seeing, which is, in his own words – “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.

This selection of weak, loose and wanting moments, taken from wherever Robert was, rather then from where he should have been, along with their tortuous repetition and unimaginative juxtapositionings further diminished by slow shutter speeds which resulted in camera shake. All taken together tells us looking at what we got away from the written blurb, that Robert was simply a very nervous adventurer, with poor technical skills, there for the buzz – and didnt even have the sense to keep his bit of skirt out of harms way.

So in order to reassure myself about him and his dedication, I needed to revisit my library to remind myself afresh that there was more to him then met my eye at the Barbican. Although there were those few classic historical moments in this poor portrait, such as Death of A Loyalist Soldier 1936 and D-Day Normandy Beachhead -1944, their shock was considerably lessened, indeed almost lost, among so many “SO WHAT” images, denying us his humanity or his reason for being a man at war.

This show also attempted to prove that Gerda Taro was Capa’s equal, or possible his superior, simply because her two rooms worth of shaky out-of-focus snaps that filled her viewfinder slightly better than those of Roberts on display. Hence Gerdas importance to photography (as seen by the Barbican and possibly ICP – the New York International Center of Photography – originator of this show) has more to do positive discrimination and a feminist agenda then it does with any sighted humanism or commitment to minded seeing.

I do hate it when market forces and distortions of this or any other kind, work to devalue this history. Its simply much too high a price to pay for her inclusion.

Returning to that Omaha Beach image of a soldier seeking protection behind tank traps from the onslaught of bullets and mortars ricocheting and exploding all around him in on that Normandy shoreline, littered with the floating dead, in the cold early morning light of the 6th of June 1944. This D-Day image was the image that started my modest print collection, back in 1961 although I had to part with it when hard times struck 33 years later. On a more pertinent and optimistic note, my print of this moment was given extended significance by it’s new custodian – Steven Spielberg, and its influence on him helped to create the opening sequences to his film “Saving Private Ryan”, so giving the world a greater dramatized reflection of the events of that horrific morning. To my mind, this was a price worth paying for my personal loss of this historic moment.

The title of this show was lifted from Davis Douglas Duncans Korean book, of the same name, published in the early 1950s. And unlike this show this was a presentation about several things, firstly one mans dedication to fallen colleagues, secondly about a clearly defined subject and chapter structure, delivered in three parts (1) The Hill, (2) The City and (3) Retreat Hell. As such it had a planned and executed focus, unlike this show, which was plainly based on the contents of a long lost suitcase. So lets not delude ourselves, into thinking this Barbican offering was about WAR or Robert Capa, its simply a cheap, off the peg merchandising opportunity of a known name.

If the Barbican truly wanted to show us war, they would have commissioned someone with the knowledge, commitment and overall sensitivity they lack, so the public could experience the best by those that described its horrors. Someone who would know it needed to include people like – Bernard, Brady, Brandt, Burrows, Capa, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Duncan, Eisenstaedt, Engel, Fenton, Frith, Gardner, Jones-Griffiths, Jackson, Nicholls, Mc Cullin, Robertson, Rodger, Sander, Smith and Steichen. And if they wanted to do a show about Capa, almost any other published or exhibited view of Robert would have given us a more complete, accurate and complementary view of this man who successfully invented himself.

Now moving on briefly to the downstairs show The Subject of War, it was immediately better in several ways. To start with new advances in camera technology make it almost impossible to take an un-sharp image, unless it’s ones intent, as todays new advances in camera technology have given us light, easy to use, cameras with fast zoom lenses and anti shake devices to reach out and get closer to the subject, without getting closer to the action. We also have the ability to alter our ASA (ISO) up and down, and from shot to shot, to guarantee the sharpness and the depth of field needed to tailor a moment to ones intent. This show amply illustrates that so much can now be done in the camera (and or ones lap-top)

So we can produce, or more correctly have others produce for us (as with Capa and these photographers), clearer grit free moments that are more complete and compelling to the eye, emotionally, aesthetically and technically, while now also possibly eliminating what isnt wanted. And all of this technical excellence is present in abundance in this larger gallery space, which also has the added genuflections to current gallery installation thinking. In the case of this presentation this included introducing video screens, positioned (bumper to bumper) to tell two separate stories simultaneously, neither of which were digestible, and both seemingly influenced by morning soap-opera TV. One enormously large wall at the back the gallery has the appearance of a chequer-board, viewed from above, with a multitude of large images running down and across it, without giving us clue as to how to decipher its message.

However, at the opening the staircase between both these offerings seemed to offer me some momentary sanctuary from the past that valued the presence of a camera, more then the mind of the person behind it, and from the now, that seems to value the originality of the observer, more then the content of the message. Maybe Im being super-sensitive hear, but I kind of feel the designers of this poor donation to photographic understanding also felt that the base of this staircase was an ideal place to offer alcoholic refreshment, for it served as a kind of Oasis Point in this desert of deprived expression.

John Benton-Harris

This review is also published on John Benton-Harris’s own blog, The Photo Pundit

New York Times

Thanks to Mikko Takkunen of Photojournalism Links for drawing attention to a nice series of stories on The New York Times, One in 8 Million, stories of New Yorkers (though treated rather differently from Weegee!). The latest, photographed by Todd Heisler, tells the story of Georgiana DePalma Tedone, a remarkable 90 year old who still gets up around 2.30am to make mozzarella for sale in her Brooklyn shop. Just a shame its such a long way for me to go to buy some (along with her Saturday roast beef, though you need to get there early to catch that.)

And there are some other great links on the page, including another New York Times feature, Great Performers by Paolo Pellegrin of Magnum, behind the scense images of eight of the current biggest names in film, including Kate Winslet and Bradd Pitt. Its a set of pictures I first heard about on the often interesting APhotoEditor site.

Frankly I can’t say all 48 of the images in the slide show excite me greatly – many without star names attached would not rate a second glance, but there are perhaps a dozen or so outstanding images, not a bad average, and its all a very welcome change from the standard views, although some of the success of the work perhaps owes a lot to the post-processing by Picturehouse in NYC.

Sweet Nothings – Vanessa Winship

I don’t know why so few of my friends go to openings at HOST gallery in Honduras Street, (perhaps the guys from Hackney dropped by later or it didn’t seem political enough) but on reflection many of the rest are south Londoners, and Photofusion closer to their natural habitat, with anything north of the Photographers’ Gallery perhaps seeming like another country. But it would be really worth their while jumping as I did on a number 243 and making the trip in the next few weeks, because Vanessa Winship‘s ‘Sweet Nothings‘, continuing until 5 March 2009, is really London’s outstanding show at the moment and one not to miss.

Posed portraits in large format may not seem state of the art, and Winship has deliberately pared her approach to a minimum, and it is perhaps this and her remarkable young Anatolian schoolgirls that give her work its strength and a resonance from almost the entire history of photography.

There is definitely something there of the daguerreotype portrait, perhaps in the way her subjects stand facing the camera and the photographer. For these young Anatolian girls from the rural east of Turkey – as for those early subjects – the act of being photographed, delightful though Ms Winship is, is still a considerable ordeal, not to be taken lightly and one for which at times, again as in the early days, they cannot stand still long for their images to render sharply.

Particularly when photographing in school interiors (some pictures are in school yards and other outdoor locations) with a 4×5 camera and using only available light, exposures may sometimes run into appreciable fractions of a second rather than the instantaneity we take for granted with high ISO cameras, fast apertures, and small formats. Of course the times concerned do not approach the minutes needed for the early processes.

Turkey is a country with significant ethnic minorities, the largest of which is the Kurds who live in the east of the country and across the border in neighbouring states. Since its inception the modern Turkish state has attempted to minimise ethnic differences – at first by force, when in the early years of the twentieth century literally millions of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians were killed to create “a Turkey for the Turks”, but more recently largely by repressive laws and policing.

The Kurds make up perhaps a fifth of the population of Turkey, mainly speaking Kurdish rather than Turkish. For many years until 1991 speaking Kurdish was an offence in Turkey, and it is still discriminated against. Government over the years have referred to them as ‘Mountain Turks’ or ‘Eastern Turks’ rather than recognise their existence as a separate ethnic group, and there are no reliable figures for their numbers. Resistance to forced assimilation has led to a violent armed rebellion with Kurds calling for a separate state of Kurdistan and government repression.

Education is utilised by the government as an important means for the assimilation of ethnic groups and great efforts have been made to increase attendance at schools, particularly by girls, who had traditionally often remained in the home and without formal education. One important aspect of the education system is the use of Turkish as the first (and possibly only) language and the language of instruction.

Going to school is a part of a process of socialisation and of indoctrination into Turkishness. The adoption of a common blue uniform is part of this and its basic form appears to be a kind of smock; to English eyes it resembles something that might have been designed as a coverall at the time of the Arts and Crafts movement for girls engaged in cookery or domestic science.

But what is important for these images is the way that it is individualised with various embroidery and trimmings. Often these seem to included traditional motifs such as flowers although the photographs also show some evidence of a more twentieth century globalised culture.

Although looking at a single image from this series one might see parallels with the portraits of August Sander, this really brings out the virtually orthogonal nature of their intentions. While Sander was interested in establishing a typology, this work is almost entirely about individuality and how it springs out at us from the sameness of the situation, the uniform and the technical approach.

Several other photographers are mentioned in a foreword to the book ‘Sweet Nothings’ containing 45 of these images , published in the UK by Foto8 and available from HOST. Although there are some visual similarities, for example between Winship’s pictures and a few of the images of Diane Arbus, I think the resemblance ends there – Arbus had quite a different agenda (and the same could be said for the others mentioned.) The images in the book are finely printed and I think the more intimate scale perhaps suits the work better than the exhibition wall, although it was good to see the work large.

The exhibition prints, fine inkjet prints on Canson paper made from the large format negatives are superb, but also have a vintage feel, perhaps reminding me in some ways of the best photo-mechanical reproduction of the mid-twentieth century, although with a sharpness not then achievable. But there is something about both the sharpness and tonality which is a little different to modern silver prints whether from film or digital.

But in the end what makes these images memorable for me is the faces and body language of the girls as they face the camera, usually posing with a friend or sister, occasionally alone or in a threesome. Although few of them are in any conventional sense beautiful (and some decidedly not) they have a powerful and highly individual presence in these fine photographs.

Fairey or Not?

I don’t know I have a great deal to contribute to the controversy of the use of a photograph by Shepard Fairey as a basis for his Obama posters, other than to be rather clear that this is definitively not a case of plagiarism. It may well however be a matter of copyright abuse.

Frankly I think it shows a certain stupidity or at least a lack of forethought on Fairey’s part (although seeing what some other artists have got away with – Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince being prime examples – in my book appropriation is clearly an offence rather than valid art – perhaps he felt no need to bother about the legality of what he was doing.)

You can read a thorough examination of the US legal issues as would be expected by Carolyn E. Wright on her Photo Attorney blog, where she makes clear that although it is a case for the court to decide, she would be happy to take on for the copyright owner.

As well as a very useful Checklist for Fair Use, she also links to a blog post by John Harrington on Photo Business News that looks at the question of whether the photographer, Mannie Garcia or the AP owns the copyright. Garcia reproduces both the photograph and two posters by Fairey on his web site (and I wonder if he has Fairey’s permission to show his work and if otherwise this constitutes fair use.)

Funnily enough, at the top of the post where you might expect the Photo Business News blog to have run either the poster or Garcia’s photograph – either could I think have been justified in the US as fair use – we instead have an ugly rectangle with the two letters ‘AP’. (Fair use is mch more restricted here in the UK, although my policy not to use images without permission is because I’d like people to ask me before using my work rather than for any legal reasons; you will need to click on links elsewhere – such as that to Garcia’s site above – to see the photograph and poster in this case.)

In the past my own work has been used as a basis for work by various artists which has been sold or published. In at least one case I’ve received a standard licence fee for supplying a print or file for this use, but in most cases I’ve simply granted permission, knowing that the work produced will both be very different from my original both in appearance and usage.

But although it seems clear to me that a licence should have been sought in this case, Fairey’s real offence seems to me to be laziness. There are many thousands of images of Obama that have been published in print and on the web, several of which were actually identified in the press as sources for the poster before Mannie Garcia’s image was located. It’s a good photograph, but not outstanding, the kind of head shot that any of us would take and be happy to have taken at an event where a well-known figure was speaking. What for me makes it a little more than most is actually the way the flag behind frames his head, at a similar angle to the tilt of Obama’s head, something Fairey has not copied. But I actually thing there are some considerably better pictures (of other people) on Garcia’s site.

Had Fairey not chosen to have simply traced from this particular image, including its basic lines and some of its tonal structure (though in a much simplified form) but followed good practice in using a number of similar images as source material for his poster there would I think have been no claim to answer.

But he should be accused of laziness or sloppy practice and cetainly not plagiarism. The poster is quite obviously a powerful work that although based on a photographic image has created something new and quite different (and frankly considerably more iconic), not any attempt to pass off Garcia’s photograph as his own.

My final thought:

Digital Journalist – Dispatches from Gaza

The Digital Journalist has long been one of my favourite on-line photo magazines, published by a real pro, Dirck Halstead (who shot his first war for LIFE when he was 17) and running some of the best features on photojournalism, if just occasionally the perspective does seem a little too aggressively USAmerican. So although the latest February issue is dominated by a recent event in Washington (about which I’d like to keep decently silent), I was pleased to find that Dispatches contains four essays from Gaza, with a note about them by Marianne Fulton, who curated many fine exhibitions in her 27 years at George Eastman House in Rochester and edits this section.

Jim Hollander has worked as a photographer since the 1970s, covering Israel since 1983; chief photographer in the area for Reuters from 1985, he now holds a similar position in EPA. His contribution deals with the total lack of cooperation – almost at times amounting to open conflict – that photographers received from the IDF. He finishes by saying that in the “23 days of misgivings and misturst we were not allowed to get even close to a soldier to see how this war was waged.” You can see more of his phtoography on the Hollander artists family web site.

Unable to get into Gaza, Israeli freelance Ilan Mizrahi photographed the effects of the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. It’s a story that should be told, and although of course on a different magnitude compared to what was happening in Gaza, traumatic for those closely affected. More of his work on his own site.

Ahmad Khateib lives and works in Gaza and his four pictures, two of funerals, one of a young boy in the rubble and another of homes destroyed by Israeli bombing have a greater immediacy. He was not just there and close enough, but as he says an actual target: “I am not lying about the Israeli army when I say that they know where journalists live and work and they hit the housing and offices of the international news agencies and Arabic ones.”

Greek photographer Stefania Mizara has worked with many NGOs and she managed to get into Gaza with a group of doctors on Jan 12. Her pictures too capture something of what was happening; relatives waiting desperately at the hospital, relief supplies in the UN building in Gaza City burning after being bombarded with white phosphorus bombs, a child whose house has been destroyed and graffiti left by Israeli soldiers. You can see some of her pictures from Kosovo here and a more varied selection of work on Lightstalkers.