You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November, 2007.
Part One
‘Beware of trains’ by Christos Stavrou © 2007
I have received a comment about this picture: “It’s very interesting how you make all these pretty colours seem strange and threatening. Combined with a cryptic message like this the effect is even more striking.”
Sometimes, I wonder loudly about the meanings of a photograph. Here, I recognise the muted primary colours which enhance uncomfortable feelings and a vantage point that sets the viewer in a precarious position. But was it really that, the psychological state described in the comment above, what I have tried to communicate? Maybe, but yet, is it only or exactly that which lies beneath and above the making of this image, before and after its showing? It seems futile this effort to pinpoint a unique and accurate meaning. It’s unnecessary. After all, and so often, people come with comments about my photos which surprise me, which without being foreign to what I have already sensed, they do express a reality even richer than my own initial comprehension.
So, if all is about various interpretations in the minds of the viewers, I need to ask: Is what really matters - in the end - to find the right people to show your pictures.. those who can, and would, read and decode your images, and even invest new meanings upon them?
And something else, what kind of consequences do we face now, all of us making what is called documentary photography? What about those old debates and struggles between self-expression and objectivity?
Part Two
“Fish Story” Koreatown, Los Angeles by Allan Sekula © 1992
“I should not have to argue” writes Allan Sekula in his essay Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (1976/78) “that photographic meaning is relatively indeterminate; the same picture can convey a variety of messages under different presentational circumstances. Consider the evidence offered by bank holdup cameras. Taken automatically, these pictures could be said to be unpolluted by sensibility, an extreme form of documentary. If the surveillance engineers who developed these cameras have an esthetic, it is one of raw, technological instrumentality. ‘Just the facts ma’am.’ But a courtroom is a battleground of fictions. What is it that a photograph points to?
A young white woman holds a submachine gun. The gun is handled confidently, aggressively. The gun is almost dropped out of fear. A fugitive heiress. A kidnap victim. An urban guerrilla. A willing participant. A case of brainwashing. A case of rebellion. A case of schizophrenia. The outcome, based on the ‘true’ reading of the evidence, is a function less of ‘objectivity’ than of political maneuvering. Reproduced in the mass media, the picture might attest to the omniscience of the state within a glamorized and mystifying spectacle of revolution and counter-revolution. But any police photography that is publicly displayed is both a specific attempt at identification and a reminder of police power over ‘criminal elements’. The only ‘objective’ truth that photographs offer is the assertion that somebody or something -in this case, an automated camera - was somewhere and took a picture. Everything else, everything beyond the imprinting of a trace, is up for grabs.”
Part three
“The Magnum and Newsweek photographer Luc Delahaye recently declared publicly that he was no longer a photojournalist. He was an artist.” (fromThe Guardian, 31 January 2004)
Who is Luc Delahaye? As implied in this interview, a photographer influenced by the financial and artistic crisis that photojournalism is currently going through. And he searched for control and his own answers, through a range of experiments, tests and self-made questions (which even brought him in opposition with the grand Cartier-Bresson tradition).
“History” Jenin Refugee Camp by Luc Delahaye © 2002
Luc Delahaye first became known for covering wars. However, in 2001 he began the series History, which deals with issues of documentary photography. The latter is all about context; the place it is shown, the way of presentation, the surrounding information. The transmitted message is heavily influenced by such factors. In History, Delahaye intentionally presents traditional themes of documentary photography out of its normal context, thereby questioning their meaning as documents and generally the meaning of photography.
His photographs are enormously enlarged panoramic images of various war zones (see above) and staged historical events -such as conferences and events organised by the communication industries, which are hung in art galleries. Representation and truth become a constant question, although the viewer recognises these photographs as having a historical nature.
Delahaye’s work points out the artifice of photography -even news photography, which is as fictional as painting. It allows us even to think that contemporary historical events may be constructed and run not only for profit but for the media as well. War itself can be seen as such an event in a massive and immoral scale.
Almscliff Crag is a popular destination for walkers, learner rock climbers and short day-trip travellers in Yorkshire. It’s less than half hour drive from Leeds and so gets quite busy. A strange and impressive, and certainly challenging, rock formation on top of a short hill…
From the top of the crag someone has a superb view over the Yorkshire Moores, green valleys and lush fields, spotted with black and white cows, small box-houses, or even long smokey chimneys of power stations. But to take a photograph from up there is not so easy… unless you know how to talk to the winds… like Tom, who is seen below (the same Tom who has created this blog’s photo header) .
The rock stands through history. It almost freezes time. A remain of natural history, a continuous part of human history. Someone could see several inscriptions of names and years upon its surface, from visitors of the past, not alive now. What did these people feel and think? Was the landscape view the same for them? How free and optimistic did that couple feel, who wrote their names here just one year before the start of the bloodiest World War?
[All photographs by Christos Stavrou © 2007. All rights reserved]
The New Model Army keeps touring and recording constantly for over 26 years. I remember very well their first albums. I played them so often in my turntable, back in my old home when I was collecting vinyl records and used to work in record shops. And there was a track, Side A - track 3 from the Ghost of Cain LP, which people played too many times and then had to search for a new copy all the time…
NMA is a music band not easily classified. Punk, folk, indie, gothic, even acoustic or metal forms and influences surface in their music… As this article writes, they should be recognised as “a very versatile underground cult rock band with many different musical roots.” But what makes NMA more special is their poetic lyrics, often with political and humanitarian messages. This is Here comes the war (1993):
Today, as you listen to this song
Another 394,000 children were born into this world
They break like waves of hunger and desire upon these eroded shores
Carrying the curses of history and a history yet unwritten
The oil burns in thick black columns, the buzz saws echo through the forest floor
They shout give us our fair share, give us justice
Here comes the war [..] You screamed give us Liberty or give us Death
Now you’ve got both, what do you want next ?
Here comes the war - put out the lights on the Age of Reason.
The band was recently refused entry to US and had to cancel their arranged tour. “We have been informed that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has taken precisely 20 weeks (instead of the usual 8 or 9) to DENY our I-129 Non Immigrant Visa Applications,” NMA manager Tommy Tee said in a statement. “I can only apologize on behalf of the band, as I know how much work has gone into all these shows. For our part, having spent the past four years trying to rebuild the fan base and reputation of the band in North America after a long absence, we are bitterly disappointed. “
“We’re really puzzled by this refusal to issue visas,” frontman Justin Sullivan added. “Over the last few years, we’ve worked a lot in America, building up to this tour with a well-received album, good press and good ticket sales. And during this time we’ve encountered no problems with the authorities and have been received with courtesy and hospitality throughout the country.”
NMA has managed to sound contemporary all this time along. Take for example, the song Spirit of the Falklands from 1982. Back then, war became a useful card in the political game. Thatcher in Britain and Galtieri in Argentina send their countries to war and invested on patriotism shifting the focus from their deep internal social and economical problems. And the winner of course not only manipulated the social agenda but reversed their unpopularity…
It seems that NMA’s meaningful stance may bring to them occasional troubles, like those sudden visa problems. O tempora o mores! But it also ties together a strong and faithful audience beyond material national borders.
Yesterday, NMA played in Leeds Metropolitan University. I found a place in the front line to take photos. A brave decision!… I literally squeezed myself against the metal bars, was pushed and shoved in the rhythms of the dancing waves and the body frenzy behind me, struggled to capture some stable moments and protect my gear!
The interaction between the band and the people was very warm and alive. Justin Sullivan’s energy and body language was reflected back by almost messianic reactions of faith and joy by people in the crowd climbing on top of others to sing along.
Photographs from a friend travelling in Japan right now. Painted images on walls, roller shutter doors, laptops and facades. Cultural artifacts of popular imagination and kitsch commercialism.
I keep adding new photos and discovering new words. ‘Kawaiii‘ is apparently a word of creative design, cuteness and fun.
Culture is everywhere in these pictures. And as kawaii almost harmly penetrates and revitalises experience. From statues of dogs dressed with clothes - to keep them warm in winter, to anthropomorphic products of extreme and apolitical cuteness. From ordered and well-designed cemeteries to ordered and well-designed food displays, sign fonts, and corporate identities. From imitations of VW camper vans to commemorative artifacts; such as of the frieze of a dog, who walked to work with his master on his way to the train station everyday and continued to do so even when his owner died…
Cuteness, order, consumption. Where market meets kawaiii… and vise versa. Or, where a cup of noodles promises freedom.
Photographs by Faye T © 2007 (Design & post-processing by Chr.S.)
One of my favourite passages in film history, yet not a very well known.
Charles’s dialogue with his psychiatrist from Robert Bresson’s Le Diable Probablement (The Devil, Probably, 1977) reads like a poem of disillusionment.
In Charles’s life education, physical love, religion, psychanalysis, one by one, are rejected. Politics too.
“Governments are short sighted…” announces a bus passenger. Another says not to blame governments, “it’s the masses who determine events”. Someone then asks, “So, who is it that makes a mockery of humanity? Who’s leading us by the nose?” And the first man replies with subtle irony “The Devil, probably…”
Few years ago, a series of my photos (see an example below) were inspired by this film.
Photo by Christos Stavrou © 2007 All rights reserved (Click on image for full view)
The University of Leeds expands through the north of the city. But, what do we see? A major educational institution is perhaps the answer… but what else?… Can we see the layers of reality unfolding over, the same way as an amalgam of different buildings from separate epochs compete for space?
Do we see a leading force in teaching and research? Yes, but what are its aims? Knowledge of what and for what? Is it there for supplying skilled labour to local and international businesses? Is it imagined as a kind of garden for individuals to flourish, or a well thought and managed sausage-factory?
Consider coldly, and rather impartially, who takes the decisions and who influences its strategies and plans? What is its role in the society; is it part of a process serving social needs -and who defines those of course, or elitist aspirations and stakeholders’ interests? Is it part of a wider movement toward the democratisation of education and well-being, or reproduces the existing structures of social power and control? Maybe we should start from the simple question, who has access to this institution, and who hasn’t…
Photo by Christos Stavrou © 2007 All rights reserved (Click on image for full view)
In 1896, the first female student began a course here, who, according to Wikipedia, studied Modern Literature and Education - itself quite a feminised subject as we may comment now. So, have things changed? Considering of course that we want social change and inclusion, rather than just rhetoric. Is social class, and gender and ethnicity and dis-ability and all the other social barriers finally entities of the past, or are they still reproduced? What about young people with a history of mental health difficulties or with a criminal record, do have they access?… What about the millions of international students whose parents can not afford the £25,000 approximate fee (without counting other costs) for a three years degree?…
Maybe it is not a question of ‘either/or‘, maybe it’s a question of ‘both/and‘. And it remains for the viewer to make sense of some form of reality through the pragmatic and modernised new rhetoric. So, can we see through?
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