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In 1937 photographer Margaret Bourke-White and Southern novelist Erskine Caldwell published the book ‘You Have Seen Their Faces‘ (Viking Press). It was a collaboration, she made the photographs and he wrote the text, about the rural American South and its troubles, the despair of a ”worn-out agricultural empire” (p.2).

Margaret Bourke-White had already established herself as a skilled industrial photographer, but in the 1930’s adapted to a photojournalistic style and worked in a more socially committed documentary photography.

Margaret and Caldwell received praising but also critical comments. Dorothea Lange who few years later published a similar book about the problems of share-croppers was critical to them for writing the captions themselves rather than quoting the words people actually said.

See for example the picture below. It was accompanied by the caption “McDaniel, Georgia, I get paid very well. A dollar a day when I’m working”

I find amazing that 70 years after the taking of this photograph the caption reveals that we have managed to export our immiserated working-classes abroad. The line still sounds too familiar, although we know that now it doesn’t come from our own national backyard, but some worker in South-East Asia or South America, or elsewhere in the ‘developing world’ whereby our big Western corporations have found fertile ground to produce cheap and cost-effective products.

Nevertheless, important questions about the photojournalistic practice are raised, which remain pertinent today as much as back then: Was their photographic work a type of propaganda and did they exploit their subjects? Ultimately, what is the nature of ‘documentary’ photography?

Is a document, and thus a photographic document, something that states objective facts, or could also be something that helps us understand a human situation emotionally?

Maybe it could help to know the following story, taking place during the making of the ‘You have seen their faces’ book. The story is published in Susan Goldman Rubin’s ‘Margaret Bourke-White‘ (1999, Abrams Inc.).

“Once [Margaret] took a picture of a woman combing her hair at a bureau made out of a wooden box. Before taking the portrait Margaret rearranged the objects on top of the bureau. Afterward, Caldwell scolded her. He told Margaret she should have left everything just the way she found it to reflect the woman’s taste and personality instead of her own. ‘This was a new point of view to me‘ Margaret wrote in her autobiography. ‘I was learning that to understand another human being you must gain some insight into the conditions which made him what he is’ (italics added).

Julie Fiala, a female performance artist, exchanges her favourite things for yours. This is Julie’s first major solo project in Leeds following her art studies and work in Leeds during the last three years.

Julie has been working in art projects which are relevant to local people, including among others: old people, who as she told me ‘they have so many important things to say’ (and so much I agree), with safety professionals -when she installed thirty red couches into Leeds’ Hyde Park in 2005, and a Dundonian hill-walker who is also a Marxist.

But this is her last and final project in Leeds! Apparently Julie (see photo above) has been wearing red during the last three years and now, just before she leaves Leeds for good, she has decided to exchange her favourite red things for your red things…

The whole project takes place at the ArtMarket in Merrion Centre in Leeds. A very interesting choice of place indeed, in the old and rather forgotten part of the Merrion Centre shopping centre, among stalls which sell stamps, second-hand clothes and a wide variety of exotic things, from Ethiopian sidama coffee to hidden from daylight vinyl records.

A mysterious and charming guest-artist (see photo above) has been collaborating with Julie in this project. Of course she wears red too. Try to guess where is from, you’ll never find it… Unfortunately, the project goes ahead for only three days, and you can catch up with both of them, and certainly ask ‘Why red?’ until tomorrow Saturday 22 September.

So, take your red things down to Julie’s place and exchange them for her red things. If you are lucky you may end up with some personally made jewelry or a cute red dress with matching shoes.. whereas at the same time fill up Julie’s suitcase with something exciting!

Oh, Julie also invites all visitors to a party in her house after the closing reception tomorrow at 5pm.

(All images by Christos Stavrou © 2007. All rights reserved. View them larger here)

I have moved to a new neighborhood. I use the train now. Train stations become the spaces of my little escapes.

A photograph of photographs of the train station near my home. Under a certain light its ceilings are transformed into a new sky.

Christos Stavrou © 2007 All rights reserved

Paul’s Place is a voluntary charity for physically and cognitively impaired adults, aged 18-59, that helps people in and around Bristol. “They had decided to do a nude calendar to raise awareness of their work. They had done all the work, they just needed a photographer to come in and shoot it for them and I feel very privileged they asked me..” writes portrait and PR photographer Theo Calmers (British Journal of Photography 12/09/2007, p.31)

A preview of all the photos for this calendar could be seen here (in Paul’s Place website) where can be purchased too, and here (in the artist’s website). Two of those photos are presented in this article, accompanied by Theo Calmer’s comments regarding the completion of this special project. The second picture (below) was also included in the AOP Open exhibition 2007.

“I used a large former TV studio, because it was easy for the models to access. Access isn’t something I ever really thought about before but doing this project really opened my eyes. The most important thing was making sure that the models were happy and comfortable. Getting naked was a big deal for many of them. They had complete control over who was around. If they wanted their carer or assistant it was fine, if not it was just me and my assistant. Each shoot took 10 minutes to an hour.

…I created the environment to fit the project. I used low watt lights - 100W or even 60W - with soft boxes plus a big bounce board to give the models a bit of privacy. I also had some music playing, and encouraged them to bring their own CDs. It was helpful for smoothing over what were sometimes awkward silences.

I used a Colorama backdrop called Snow White, which is a soft rather than brilliant white, but we achieved the colour in post production by adjusting the saturation and curves. I didn’t want it to be sentimental sepia, but at the same time I didn’t want it to be harsh. It was about achieving a balance.” (BJP)

The last comments introduce us to some of the artistic ideas behind the project. Although, Theo’s words that “they had done all the work, they just needed a photographer” leaves unclear who was the conceptual author for each of the particular photos dealing altogether with issues of disability representation.

Overall, it is so enjoyable to see such approaches dealing with and challenging contemporary social taboos.

One final thought that keeps a more critical stance, however, regards my observation that the picture at left, which was chosen for the AOP exhibition and was also published in the BJP relevant article, is probably the less challenging of all in the project and rather the more conforming one with today’s mainstream social norms of beauty, body and sexuality.

But this of course has to do not with the project itself, but with how ready or not a society is to embrace such new ideas.

I was in town. I had just read in a paper found in the train about this exhibition in a downtown Leeds church and decided to pay my respects.

Schizopolis consists of paintings, photographs and sculptures exploring the concept of the ideal and imagined modern city, comparing it to the reality of today’s urban environments. It was launched last week with an evening of art and music (see poster, left) and will go on until the 7th of October.

Entering the church I couldn’t fail to join the mood of spiritual awe and silent excitement, which follows the visual impact of falling ambient light in the wide-open and engulfing, as much as ordered, church space. The minimalist music in the background enhanced the experience. Whereas the tripods with their painted canvasses standing on top of the sitting benches, and the framed black & white photos with ominous and bleak captures of Leeds life, hanging off the huge round columns, added their peculiar and challenging element to the show.

I feel the marriage of art and churches is really promising; even if, as in this case, the installation may suffer from structural inconveniences which hinder viewing and the coherent flowing of meanings. The way the space and light was used often didn’t help and unfortunately, any ideas and subtleties sometimes appeared as stacked in chance. The lack of any detailed information about the artists and their concepts didn’t help my viewing either [edit: see full details in comments below, as provided by the organisers, thank you].

But overall, the exhibition was very interesting and how much liberty can be exercised in a church is debatable. I really don’t know.. but I could imagine a bolder similar exhibition in the future. If anything, I welcome the idea of a church transforming itself to a cultural refuge. A cultural space that is springing by, but in the end disassociates itself from its past dominant connotations.

It is a particular phenomenon I have found here in Leeds (and probably it’s happening elsewhere in England as well) that churches are used for other than their original intentions and religious meanings. For years I used to live near to a church that sells.. carpets and people keep inviting me to the trendy old-church night-club just by the Leeds University…

So, it was not so surprising, yet not less amazing, that this church was used for art and as I discovered it operates its own daily cafe as well (see photo above). It was busy, mostly with older people, it served no fancy coffee or food at all, and the strong yellow lights reflected on the shiny walls transfer someone into another era. But the smiles and the immediacy of the people there are not easily found in the main city streets and shops. This is for me real England.

Finally, I had the pleasure to meet one of the exhibiting painters, Rachel Savage (see above), and her ominous landscapes with tall and dark, leafless tree-trunks under a cold winter sun. We had a chat. Her metaphoric work was dealing with places so far and still so near to urban alienation. I discovered that she takes photographs of her themes as well, which intrigued me. I wanted to know what a different medium of expression offers to others: “Why do you need to paint them, then?” I asked, adding extra seriousness in my voice. She wasn’t sure, and so I insisted: “Is it painting just for the sake of painting?”

She shook her head, which blurred my photo… and simply replied “No, it’s not, but if I couldn’t paint I would have probably become insane.”

Photographs by Christos Stavrou © 2007 All rights reserved.

Photography for advertisements (reklamni fotografie) by Josef Sudek, taken from the book ‘Josef Sudek’ (by Anna Farova © 2002, Torst)

What do you think?
(maybe.. where is the cleavage to draw attention, or any personality promises to tempt the customers?…)

When in February 2003 Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, appeared at the United Nations to proclaim the start of war against Iraq, UN officials literally closed the curtains behind him to hide Guernica, Pablo Picasso’s widely known artistic interpretation of war.

Guernica represents the devastation of the town of Guernica, Spain, which was bombed by Nazi planes in April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. A tapestry copy has been placed in the UN building, at the entrance of the Security Council room to remind the horrors of war. “Mr. Powell can’t very well seduce the world into bombing Iraq surrounded on camera by shrieking and mutilated women, men, children, bulls and horses” wrote Maureen Dowd in New York Times (NYT, 05 Feb 2003)

If for Picasso the painting was part of fighting the reaction against the people and against freedom, the ‘new freedom‘ is to choose the right background. It is well known that the background will dramatically impact the focus and attention of your audience, but moreover could affect the intended meanings. What could be elevated into an art of itself, choosing the right background blurs the roles between subject matter and background, emphasises the external power outside the frame and creates a new, well-arranged and compact reality.

photo by Marco Jindrich - Varšava, 1947

The need for the choice of the right background reveals the increasing anxiety felt by those representing reality. In one way it attempts to manipulate the reflexive capacity of the audience, eliminating what is undesirable and promoting what is functional for the purposes of the creators of reality. In another way it is fueled by and feeds back the vanity of the subject. Even if sometimes we all aspire to the idea of escape, when life has surrounded us with its unbearable harshness…

The last picture above comes from a group of photos, portraits of Taliban soldiers, which were collected by Magnum photographer Dworzak during his coverage of Taliban’s fall in 2002. He bought them from local photographic shops, which were happy to give them to him. It is thought that these Taliban members left behind their more ‘creative’ photographic portraits as they were forced to flee the country. What was chosen as background for these portraits, such as western expensive villas with big gardens and other idyllic places, serves as another unwitting glimpse to our inherent contradictions.

For watching this very interesting photo-essay on Taliban by Thomas Dworzak (produced by MagnumInMotion), in a place where photography was semi-illegal, click this link here.

Talal Mohammed, Iraqi news reporter and photographer employed by the Associated Press, was kidnapped on 28 July near Baghdad. He was taken away by masked gunmen after he was stopped at an illegal checkpoint (AP, 7 Aug 2007 and RSF 8 Aug 2007) .

According to the Reporters Without Borders (RSF website, 10 September 2007) the number of journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003 has reached 201. Two more journalists are missing and 14 are kidnapped.

photo by Geert Van Kesteren, Magnum Photos © www.whymisterwhy.com

Journalists and media workers, whether foreigners or Iraqis, have become key targets in a climate of generalised impunity. The international organisation for press freedom reports some alarming news (RSF, 30 August 2007):

• No war has ever been as deadly for the press as this one since World War II.
  
• About three quarters of the victims (73%) were directly targeted, unlike any previous war, where media workers were usually victims of collateral damage or stray bullets.
• Most of the fatalities of journalists and media workers (88%) are Iraqis.
• These are singled out often because they work for foreign news media. (More than 70 such journalists have been murdered since the war began in 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, AP 7 Aug 2007).
• At the same time, they do not receive the same protection as the foreigner correspondents visiting the country.

photo by Geert Van Kesteren, Magnum Photos © www.whymisterwhy.com

A second Associated Press photographer, Bilal Hussein, is currently in detention in a US military facility, according to British Journal of Photography (22 Aug 2007, p.4). He was imprisoned on 12 April 2006, accused of being a security threat, and since then has not been charged or permitted a public hearing. AP president Tom Curley has been petitioning for his release.

Note here that Bilal Hussein had so far provided the AP and the world with extraordinary photographs, often reporting the viewpoint of the insurgents. However, in a rather dubious response, and despite the full support provided by the AP towards their stringer photojournalist, some public commentators had explicitly attacked him, because they either doubted the veracity of his work, or thought that it was serving ”terrorist propaganda”

One story which I have read by Bilal Hussein, contained shocking, different and critical aspects of the war contrasting the mainstream representation of the war given by the US forces. For example, in this report published by the AP after the US attack in Fellujah in 2004 (click here for full story) Hussein reports the death of civilians, “helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the river [...] a family of five was shot dead as they tried to cross.”

How am I to think what is photography, nonetheless good photography? I’m shown images every day, I turn my eyes to pictures everywhere, even if I close my eyes images do not disappear.

If I was to use a camera like an automatic machine producing blasts of pictures, indiscriminately capturing unique and single moments of light, time and viewpoints, would that be photography? If I combine these images and create new ones, (alas, they never remain static and fixed), would this qualify as photography?

Jon Austin polaroids © 2007 (www.jonstanleyaustin.com)

Is it about its formal characteristics, its representational qualities, its communicative capacities, that makes a photograph as such; it must be. But then is every image also a photograph… and if not, why?

“There is no such thing as silence!” shouts John Cage under a veil of constant sound, in the end of a short film called ‘Sound’ that I saw recently online. In this film, John Cage’s endless enigmatic questions about sound are juxtaposed with Raashan Roland Kirk’s musical jazz experiments in a shared exploration for music’s boundaries. And it strikes me how the same questions could be asked about photography within a symmetric and parallel framework challenging photography’s boundaries…

“Silence is not a question [...] There’s no such thing as no sound. It’s simply a question of what sounds we intend and what sounds we do not intend” says John Cage. And later on he asks again: “But is this music?”

And as long as darkness is also not a question, why isn’t every image a photograph? What more does it need? And in more pragmatic contemporary terms, why the vast majority of circulated images conform to a very restricted sense of what is a photograph, firmly tied to commercial norms and mainstream cultural ideals of beauty?

When Cage asks, why is it so difficult for so many people to listen, we could add: and to view as well. Is it possible that under the ubiquitous production of a certain kind of images we become less able to view?

Is it possible that we prefer and call ‘photography’ the images that look beautiful? And if we drop beauty, what are we left with, truth? But then again, would that be photography?…

Click at the video-picture above and you will be transfered to Ubu website to view that wonderful little gem video from 1966. Enjoy!

“I first saw him from across the street bending over screwing in a prosthetic forearm that had fallen off his upper arm onto the pavement. Before I could come to his aid, he had re-joined it and was off crossing the street toward me. The elderly gentleman represents the British character quality of making do and going on no matter what. Stiff upper lip…”

Bruce Davidson talking about his photograph above in London 1960. Taken from his book ‘England/Scotland 1960′

Sze Tsung Leong’s latest work, History Images, offers a photographic record of China’s architectural response to capitalism and urbanisation, the need to provide living and work space for its millions of people in the changing economic and social order. This is an ongoing process of massive scale, whereby Chinese urban planners enforce their own version of modernisation by erasing the past, its physical history, and by erecting from the start their own, urban dream of ‘beautiful city’ .

At one level, these photographs are poetic records of change and destruction, as Nigel Warburton writes in the latest issue of Portfolio (No.45 June 2007).

Sze Tsung Leong describes his photographs (in his statement) as images of histories, in the form of cities, which at this particular moment are either being destroyed or created. They are, the artist goes on, images of the absence of histories as well, since the erasure is so complete that the past would not be known in the future.

China’s relationship with history is changing as much as its urban landscapes, according to Sze Tsung Leong. From a stable reality during imperial China, and an entity in need of re-writing after the Communist Revolution, now in today’s China history -as urban form- has acquired two contradictory meanings: a “proof of China’s accomplishments” and an “inconvenience to urban modernization.”

History Images presents the destruction of the physical past and the rising of the new tower blocks as an ominous and threatening process. Only in the last photograph of the same-titled book, a picture of Tiananmen Square (see below), human beings become dominant subjects over architecture. Leong states that this square “its symbolic significance and history suggest that the greatest and most valued power of the state is the authority to erase.”

I would agree with N.Warburton’s final comments in Portfolio, that through Leong’s view China appears a place which George Orwell would have recognised. And a place which echoes the Big Brother’s party slogan in Nineteen-Eighty Four: “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Christos Stavrou © 2007 All rights reserved

What will be happening next? We need change and excitement.

The final lines from ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ a poem by greek poet Cavafy came to my mind:

“Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.“

[By Constantine Cavafy (1864-1933), translated by Edmund Keeley]