Perpignan Now #7

Day Five: 9p.m 3 September. Perpignan, France

So.. The Wolves…

Looking back at this journal.... This diary, we realize we may have been a bit harsh on these fellow pilgrims…

Yes, they hounded us at the Café de la Poste, but that’s because we have access to a portal... We have white walls, and blank pages... And they are hungry for all of that, and frankly, that’s just fair enough…. Today we sat ourselves in the burning sun of the Hotel de Pams, sweating not just from the sun but from the endless espresso’s that kept us going as we met photographer after photographer, one story teller after another…

A few things struck us as we sat there: yes, it may be true that many of the stories we saw today have been told previously….
But, nevertheless, we saw a lot of work that took us to places and introduced us to characters we hadn’t met before….

Paul Jeffers took us to Bangor Airport in the U.S State of Maine. Bangor is often the first or last port of call for U.S troops on American Soil before they head out to the war zones of Iraq or Afghanistan.
Paul’s photographs focus on a small non – profit organisation called The Maine Troop Greeters, who are based at Bangor Airport. These greeters’ role is to act almost as family to the troops that pass through the airport (whose real family, more often than not can’t be with them) offering phones, food, a shoulder to cry on and a cheerful face.

Vissarion is the title of a body of work by Russian Photographer Sergey Kozmin. Vissarion is also the self given name of an ex traffic cop formerly known as Sergey Torop, who after being made unemployed decided he was definitely the second coming of Christ….
Jeez! We thought, now here’s a story! Vissarion and his Church Of The Last Testament lies deep in the Siberian Mountains and he currently has over 5000 followers, many of whom gave up their lives and apartments in Russia’s big cities to live as disciples in the villages that populate what Vissarion calls The Promised Land.

Moving on. We know many a photographer has visited and documented the utter devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused to both the landscape and people of New Orleans on August 29th 2005. One of them being photographer Jason Andrew , whose project Jazzland is a study of a specific place in New Orleans; a place that used to deliver happiness and sunny days out to families that have probably long moved on…This Place is Jazzland, New Orleans Six Flags Amusement Park.
Shot on square format film Jason Andrew captures this place of fun slowly becoming prey to the ever-growing swamp. Although there are no people in these pictures, there is poignancy in fact that one can almost hear the laughter that emanated from this site up until that fateful day.

So even after a long day, we feel refreshed, awakened…and it wasn’t just the espresso, we have seen some great work, some great stories by photographers, young and old…
And the above is only a small selection.

There is something new though: Multi Media…Sure it’s only another way of showing work but that is just it, it’s another outlet, and possibly an empowering one for photographers in this day and age….

But sadly the question remains… There is this great work, but who is it for? Who is going to publish and exhibit it?

We have no doubt that the general public, the civilians want to see these stories, but as the saying goes:
"If a tree fall in a forest and there is no one their to hear it, does it make a sound?"...
As we rest back at base this question stays in our thoughts, the taste of something unresolved…

The wolves are hungry but the hands that can feed them are tied…

To be continued...

Perpignan Now #6

Day Five: 3 September.10 a.m Perpignan, France

Yesterday afternoon was spent searching and then grilling the inhabitants of the Palais Des Congres. We mentioned earlier that, in terms of agencies, many friends and acquaintances are missing, or are, sadly, dead….
The last ten years have been tough for many of them, and we just hope, some day, this war is going to end…

But we stayed positive and happily met some old vets of the field, albeit that their role here, down in Perpignan, has somewhat changed…
A lady now working for L’agence Vu, told us that in previous years they were here to be told the stories, to see photographers work….
But now their presence is just for their clients, to sell the stories of their signed photographers, to meet new costumers and to meet the faces behind the emails….

Click here to see some footage we took along the way...

An Aside: When we headed south we were expecting change in Perpignan, but that change is proving hard to find. The Walls that surround us, enclose us even, in the numerous exhibition spaces look and feel exactly the same, the frames… Those endless frames…the same.
Back home there are ongoing discussions on where photojournalism meets documentary meets art photography, and these discussions take place on the pages of magazines, limited edition books, on blogs, on the walls of galleries and even in the decisions of photographers on how to show their work…
And all this because of the sad death of the extended photo story in newspapers…
Photographers back home have to re-invent what and whom their photographs are for…
And yet here, in Perpignan, the walls are unchanged. There are no conceptually crafted installations, there are no handmade fibre prints in beautifully constructed frames, varying in sizes to make ones gaze glide across a body of work…

There is just uniformity…but that is the point…
Visa Pour L’image do this on purpose, and in some ways it makes sense, maybe Visa isn’t trying to be part of that discussion, they do what they want to do…and what they have always done…
And lets not forget that uniformity brings equality and makes one look under the skin…to search beyond the frame…(and price)…
And that brings us back to that old, established friend Magnum. Maybe Magnum isn’t here in this Catalan town, deep down South, because Magnum is busy exploring the different avenues mentioned above and discussing and arguing where they now belong?
Maybe Magnums haunts are now the exclusive galleries of New York, Paris and London, and on the bookshelves of art collectors…. Maybe they just didn’t fit into their Visa Pour L’Image uniform anymore….
To be continued...

Perpignan Now #5

Day Four: 12a.m. Perpignan, France

This morning, at the Couvent Saint Claire, we were offered a very close insight into the life of Ian Fisher, the young American GI, by Craig F. Walker. The intimacy of this project is touching, and makes one think about the informative and educational nature of such a simple, yet thorough body of work, similar to Sinclair’s.It reminds us of the great words of Henry Luce, when he founded LIFE Magazine:
“…To see man’s work – his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed.”
But then one has to remember that those great words were written quite some time ago…

As we continue with our mission, it strikes me personally that nothing much has changed since ten years ago.

It’s still alive, for sure…
But thinking about it that worries us, surely it should have changed? Matured? Evolved even?
But then again it’s only day four…
This afternoon we continue our search, our investigation. One thing that strikes us is that someone seems to be absent. An old friend, drinking partner and even neighbour back in London: Magnum, you probably know him too…

With this in mind and the worries mentioned above, this afternoon we scale the Palais Des Congres to corner and question the Getty’s, the Corbis’s, the VII’s,…
The Dream Makers’…
The Shamans…

To Be Continued…

Perpignan Now #4

Day Three: 6p.m., Perpignan, France.
We have spent the day wandering the streets, seeing the many exhibitions, which take us temporarily out of Perpignan into other territories and cultures. Tomas van Houtryve's Behind the Curtains: Stories from the Last Communist Holdouts investigates the contradictions of Marxist ideology across the globe from Cuba to Moldova and from Laos to China...

But from these more exotic countries we turn to what can be a more familiar place, although often stranger than fiction, the USA with a photo story on the plight of the Californian redwoods by Michael Nichols. What’s staggering about this work is the one, immense composite photograph of a 300 ft redwood that’s over 1500 years old. After closer investigation we learn this work was shot for, and published by, our old friend, The National Geographic... Although physically walking across town to the Couvent Des Minimes, our minds and attention stay in the U.S. We see Stephanie Sinclaire's study of Polygamy in America, a body of work she has obviously spent a lot of time on, and also the access she has been given is astonishing considering the subject. In terms of looking "Behind the Curtain" this ripped the damn blinds down...

Next we are in the Bronx with a set of pictures by Antonio Bolfo. One can't help thinking of the T.V series "The Wire" when looking at Bolfo's photographs of young and discontented cops of the NYPD's Operation IMPACT. These officers are sent into the most dangerous and violent areas of New York, the Bronx, at the earliest stages of their careers, talk about Trial by Fire...
We have seen a lot today but it's too early to draw any conclusions. We also must remember what we saw and heard last night tells us that Perpignan is not just about the photographs, there is more... Something that brings people back…
There certainly is something that is alive here, but what it is we have yet to pin down, yet to fully understand...
It's familiar but let’s not forget we are on foreign ground...

But as mentioned already, it’s late, and there seems to be a place where our questions may be answered. The city is now dark and we are about to head into the heart of the town,.. One could almost call it The Heart of Darkness...The Cafe de la Poste...

To Be Continued…

Perpignan Now #3

Day Two Update: 1a.m, Perignan , France...
Having just returned from the Bar De La Poste, The memories are flooding back fast. The characters; the pioneers and the figures that can make a photographers dream come true. And then these wolves. The wolves that surround them...

That part of this war is still raging...

Strangely many people seem to be here for the same reasons we are, hunting, or rather searching, albeit each for their individual reasons...

We met a young photographer who was told Perpignan can be a lonely place if you don't know what your here for. You have to find your targets, research them and hunt them down.... She mentions her need for a mentor, she mentions a name, a prominent agency director but insists that they are not ready yet. What worries us is that she was referring to the director rather then herself...

We leave early as for some reason we don't feel part of the gang, the pack, almost like right now we don't have the right accreditation. But I'm sure the morning, and a new day, will change all that...

We digress, but what we can report is that there is definitely still a hunger here, and a thirst... A Thirst of the kind that I don't believe the Bar De La Poste can ever quench...

To Be Continued...

Perpignan Now #2

Day Two: Monday 31 August 2010, London, Stansted:
"Today we leave... We board a Boeing 737 chartered by Ryanair, the last time I flew with that outfit I swore I never would again, yet here I am.....
Waiting at the airport and watching all the people returning home as I prepare to leave gives me time to think.....:
There is a character in a novel by David Mitchell who runs a film shop and he muses that the quality of any movie in directionally in-proportional to the number of helicopters in that movie… So gets me thinking of how this could relate to photographs.....
But they just called the flight, so for now, that will just have to wait….."
To be continued..

Perpignan Now

Day One: Thursday 26th August 2010, London:

"As I lie here listening to the rain, I think back to the past 10 years... To the last time I was there.. ..

The heat, those hot sweet nights, the crowded bars, and dark lonely alleys.... and then the images, images everywhere, in convents and on buildings..

I never thought I would return.... But I saw it there, alive, definitely alive...

But then I hear a rumour going around. Whispers, and murmurs, spoken out there on the web, that its died, yes,it's is truly dead…. Dead….

So I realize as I lie here, that I have to return. To go south once again... To see for myself if its true and it really is dead, maybe it’s just in hiding, retired or simply in disguise.

I cant believe its dead, I know that in my bones....

So I know I have to return, to head back again..

South......

To Perpignan"

To be continued...
(Disclaimer: If you have not seen the film Apocalypse Now, or not seen it recently, then the following diary will probably make me sound like a bit of a fool, on the other hand if you have not seen, or not seen recently the film Apocalypse Now I cant recommend it enough..)

Zuzana Salajkova

Zuzana now has a new website with more images to be added soon......
I'm a fan of just how subtle she can be...
Well worth a look here...."After more than seven years living in a different country I started to question myself about where my real home is. Each time I go back to see my homeland I start to feel more and more like a stranger...."
Zuzana Salajkova

Bad Backs and Death....

Firstly I need to apologize for not posting of late, and I'm not going to moan but its because I have had real bad back problems...... But as the saying goes " It could always be worse!" and damn right it could be!..
Which brings me onto a new book by Canadian Photographer Jack Burman's new book " The Dead" and yep as you can see my back problems pale in significance to some of the subjects of this fine book..."The Dead" published by the amazing Canadian Magenta Foundation, is basically a study of long deceased but painstakingly preserved bodies, or bits of bodies.....
Its well worth a look and the special edition comes in a beautiful wooden box ( coffin!)...
Its available from Magenta here....
and there is a good article here....

It's been a blast I must say ... Jason Royce

Now here is a story from Jason Royce, I saw this work at one of our carousel evenings, I wont say much as I think Jason says it just fine:

"These colour photos are from a series shot on Fuji Velvia & black & white film back in 1994.

they depict the Environmentalist Non Violent Direct Action scene that burst into existance just a coulple of years earlier. I had just finished A one year photography course at the St. James The Less School In Pimlico. And someone I met In the Samuel Peyps pub in Hackney suggested I get my arse down there.
Well That was It - The first time I saw that street I was Hooked. I decided straight away that I was going to photograph the Undergound Environmental Movement properly . That Is to say becoming an Activist as well as a Photographer & ignoring the press .

So after a couple of visits of photographing the street & 1 day pulling nails out of bits of wood. I was prepared for the Final Eviction of Claremount Rd . I was on the roofs & In a cargo Net strung between treehouses & the victorian terraced houses before I knew It . And It was the best day of my life. I was published In the Crusty press & that was it - I met the Underground.Where I was asked ' What I wanted to do next " ? And my reply was photograph the tree camps " Fairmile & Trollheilm " In Devon .

That was It - next come Reclaim The Streets - The 1st proper big one was In Camden Town In the Early 90's - And no one has seen those pictures ( apart from the Police who raided me about 5 years ago ) false allegations were made against me - relating to another Photographer. My first proper audience who sitting on my bed going through my photo's exclaimed " This Is Another World " . Oh And there was A section back In 1999 the Underground scene got pretty hectic with the squat scene back in the day - there was a lot of drugs & lot of Pisstakers In the end. And a lot of pressure was put upon me to publish. Everyone saying " When are you going to Do Something with your Photo's " at the same time not really offering any help or advice.
So after being " Jacked Up " & then released from the Funny Farm I went travelling around the world - my thinking being " If I'm going to be miserable anywhere it might as well be abroad. So I went travelling ( without a proffesional camera ) to many different countries & got into all sorts of scrapes & adventures , but that's another story.

So returning home After my 3rd trip abroad I put an Exhibition on at the " Foundry " entitled " Demand The Impossible " & printed up 1000 flyers and leafleted various places ( lot's of pubs in the East End , The Guardian Newspaper & areas in Hackney where I knew A lot of the Underground would be - very low key .

The Exhibition was a wild success and I got a rave review in Focus - Fine Art Magazine by Bill Troop & The rest they say is history as they say. Well apart from me continuing " Shooting " & Training both at Climate Camp & over In Eire' more recently.
It's been a blast I must say .
And I must give A Big Shout Out to Alll those selfless Eco Warriors & Worriers out there. With paticular attention to those whove passed on . Namely Dolly The 93 year old " Protester who was born in Claremont Rd " And to whom there was a 100 foot scaffold tower erected in her honour - That was 1 Hell Of A Climbing Frame .

And of course I must not forget The Police & MI5 / MI6 who have been monitering us for years and lastly of course - The Press & All those Paps.
Tou You I can only say Feck You .

Thankyou everone else ...."
Jason Royce

Joachim Schmid / Ed Ruscha / Joachim Schmid

OK so this is not the most recent title, but I only became aware of it when Joachim Schmid showed the book at the photobook publishing seminar we held at the gallery last weekend. Its in part a homage to Ed Ruscha..
Its titled:
Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Thirtyfour Parking Lots, Nine Swimming Pools, A Few Palm Trees, No Small Fires
Being a big fan of the books of both Ed Ruscha and Joachim, it was good to see....

And here is what Joachim has to say about it:
Between 1963 and 1972, Edward Ruscha published fifteen artist's books, his first being "Twentysix Gasoline Stations"; a book which is considered to be the first modern artist's book, and has become the iconic precursor and a major influence on the emerging international artists' books culture.
"Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Thirtyfour Parking Lots, Nine Swimming Pools, A Few Palm Trees, No Small Fires" is a modern remake of some of Ruscha's famous books, all grouped in one volume. Unlike the original books it relates to, this work was made entirely at my Berlin studio. I didn't visit Los Angeles to make the book and I didn't use a camera either. The camera is out there.

The picture above is of one of Rucsha's originals, and will set you back quite a bit, but thankfully as with many of Joachim's books its available through Blurb on demand here...

Reality World cup

Marking the end of the Wordlcup, I thought I would mention Alan Powdrill's show that's on at the Printspace, London until the 20th July....
Powddrill photographed over three seasons in the Sunday Leagues across seven UK cities, this is a humanistic focus on the unsung heroes and dreamers who week-in week-out live out Match of the Day fantasies for nothing but love.

Teabaggers' Ball

Here is some work by Dennis Yermoshin, who lives and works in Houston Texas.
Dennis was born in Baku, but his family came to the US as refugees in 1991. He has done some fantastic work on his family in America, which was featured on Foto8 some time ago, see more of it on Dennis' site here.
But the work shown here is from the new series Teabaggers' Ball
"In preparation for the 2010 November elections, Tea Party members from eight surrounding Houston, Texas counties, gathered at Discovery Green Park in Houston on America’s Tax Day – Thursday, April 15th as a conservative whole, uniting in liberal perspective to share and promote their ideas of progressive reform as well as their undeniable opposition to the Obama administration and their policies."
"The evening was filled with speeches given by Tea Party leaders from each of the participating counties as well as some other members. Proclaiming a need for a “change” in American health care and their desire for bigger tax cuts while strongly criticizing President Obama's efforts, the “Teabaggers” also supported local candidates for upcoming state elections. Each Tea Party had tables and booths set up in a smaller field near the entrance for promotional purposes, distributing handouts about themselves, collecting emails, and selling various political merchandise - t-shirts, buttons, etc."
"The diversity in age groups ranged from toddlers to elders, all united under one wing in their devotion to political activism and their patriotism for America."
Dennis Yermoshin

Qi Lihe and a Sin City

Here is some work by British photographer Stephen Kelly, currently working in China, the first images below are from his series Qi Lihe:The series explores the district of Qi Lihe, which sits on the outskirts of Lanzhou city in Gansu Province, north western China.
It is home to thousands of Muslim migrant families who have left their homeland within the Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture and arrived into the city searching for job opportunities and ultimately, a better life. For hundreds of years the Hui and Dongxiang Muslim minorities have farmed the arid land surrounding their ancestral villages.
In recent years though, desertification has forced this once workable landscape to begin a dramatic change, impelling many modern day farmers and their families to migrate to the provincial capital in order to survive.

The photographs below are from Stephens Sin City:
The Sin City series documents life in China’s self-styled ‘city of dreams’. Situated on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, this semi-autonomous region of China is the sole territory within the People’s Republic that permits gambling.
In 2009, Macau’s thirty two casinos are reported to have made US $14.875 billion in gambling revenue, doubling that of Las Vegas.

See more of Stephens work here...

Between Make Up Your MInd and Making No Sense..

Recently I was a judge for the Rhubarb Rhubarb " Hungry" bursary, which was an interesting day, the judges and I were lucky enough to see a lot of good work, and excitingly the majority of the really interesting photography was by the photographers who were either students or very recent graduates.....
Anyway, two things struck me quite early on in the day, and these were:

1)Some of the photographer’s statements were SO bad! And (to me) made little or no sense whatsoever, completely whimsical and solely about themselves!... For example there was a very interesting set of pictures of strange man-made structures, photographed at night in a stylised way. It was obvious these strange buildings were inhabited, and I for one wanted to know more, so we were given the photographer’s statement, which we read, and it went on about how his or her work was really dealing with concepts of the spaces between dreams and reality and so on, and not once did it mention what these structures were, or where they were! So in a sense the work became futile! There was too much "I" this and "My work" that.... Sometimes I just want to know what I am looking at, surely that’s not too much to ask?

2) It is probably a huge exaggeration but it seemed the majority the titles of the bodies of work I saw had the word “between" in them. Things like "Between Dreams and Daylight", " Between Waking and Darkness", "Between reality and illusion" and so on..... Is this a linguistic game? Am I to work out that ”Between Dreams and Daylight” could be called "Nightime"? The other "Daytime"? And the third, God knows what?
What I’m getting at is that sometimes I wish photographers would just say what they mean.

So this got me thinking about how many titles of photo books have the word “between” in them, a quick advanced search on Amazon brings up 3,762! Some of which are:

Between Art and Revolution: Tina Modotti
In Between: Guy Bourdin
China Between by Polly Braden
Between the Eyes
Some Points in Between... Up Till Now: Robert Polidori
Between Sky and Earth
Between Dogs and Wolves: Growing Up with South Africa by Jodi Bieber
IRAQ: The Space Between by Christoph Bangert
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China
Between the Dark and Light by Jay Blakesberg
Between the Two by Todd Hido
Between Sea and Sky by R.S. Thomas and Peter Hope Jones
Between Dreams and Reality: Tracey Moffatt
The Space Between: Michal Rovner
Between Past and Future: New German Photography
Between Worlds: Contemporary Mexican Photography
Water: Worlds Between Heaven and Earth by Art Wolfe
Tibet: The Roof of the World Between Past and Present by Maria Antonia Sironi Diemberger
Between Visible by Tomoko Yoneda
The Space Between: Gordon Matta-Clark
Between Dog and Wolf by Nick Haymes
Between Dark and Dark by Thomas Joshua Cooper
Between Dog and Wolf: Chrystel Lebas

Obviously of those 3, 762 books I found with 'Between' in the title, I grant many should have a clear right to use the word, a good example being:
Different Strokes: The Difference Between Cats & Dogs by Gandee Vasan
I haven’t actually got that book so I cant vouch for its titles validity, but I assume it does exactly what it says it does, and currently at £3.61 for a used copy, it may actually be worth a look….

There you go, Thursday morning rant over.....