War
So, 2 things. A good friend of mine is a photographer and he's currently got a small exhibition at a "tin pot" gallery in London, the Tit, the Tale or Tate or summat like that and he's asked me to give it a shout out. Any road here's the advert:
O yeah? What? You don't think me and Simon are good friends do you not? Well I'll have you know we've been friends on Facebook for over 2 weeks now!!!!
On a serious note you can find a whole host of mentally awesome images on his website here at http://www.simonnorfolk.com/. He has an amazing talent of making beautiful images in truly horrific circumstances. I'm going to visit the exhibition next Monday.
Secondly, and on the subject of War, Dave gets another shout out on the Blog for highlighting the following to me. The Guardian published a little article this weekend in their magazine entitled "The shot that nearly killed me: War photographers – a special report". I've probably mentioned it before, I've been to War and it is in no way glamorous. It isn't like "First Blood" (the film that played a part in me joining the army), "Mash" or even "Good Morning Vietnam", it makes thinking men shudder. And that's the point, it doesn't do you much good to think deeply about what's going on, for me I simply had to keep my head down and get it over with. As a photographer I imagine the relationship you have with war is far different, it's about telling a very intimate and often horrific story whilst maintaining a necessary separation. (I always think of the tragic story of Kevin Carter when the subject of separation gets spoken about.) But all that said I personally think that some of the most powerful photographs ever taken have come out of conflicts.
"I really hate this shot. It's the worst face of humankind. I always ask myself, "Why do I do this job?' And the answer is: I want to show the best and worst face of humankind. Every time you go to a conflict, you see the worst. We need to see what we do to be able to show future generations the mistakes we make. The guy with the knife in his mouth is a human being like the rest of us. What's important is that we show what human beings are capable of. The day I don't do that with my photography is the day I'll give up and open a restaurant."
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| "Simon Norfolk - Photographs from the war in Afghanistan" |
On a serious note you can find a whole host of mentally awesome images on his website here at http://www.simonnorfolk.com/. He has an amazing talent of making beautiful images in truly horrific circumstances. I'm going to visit the exhibition next Monday.
Secondly, and on the subject of War, Dave gets another shout out on the Blog for highlighting the following to me. The Guardian published a little article this weekend in their magazine entitled "The shot that nearly killed me: War photographers – a special report". I've probably mentioned it before, I've been to War and it is in no way glamorous. It isn't like "First Blood" (the film that played a part in me joining the army), "Mash" or even "Good Morning Vietnam", it makes thinking men shudder. And that's the point, it doesn't do you much good to think deeply about what's going on, for me I simply had to keep my head down and get it over with. As a photographer I imagine the relationship you have with war is far different, it's about telling a very intimate and often horrific story whilst maintaining a necessary separation. (I always think of the tragic story of Kevin Carter when the subject of separation gets spoken about.) But all that said I personally think that some of the most powerful photographs ever taken have come out of conflicts.
The most shocking image from the Guardians collection was the following image taken by Alvaro Ybarra Zavala in Congo. No matter how shocking the image is there is no denying that it is a powerful image.
Alvaro explains it best in the following passage about the image:
"I really hate this shot. It's the worst face of humankind. I always ask myself, "Why do I do this job?' And the answer is: I want to show the best and worst face of humankind. Every time you go to a conflict, you see the worst. We need to see what we do to be able to show future generations the mistakes we make. The guy with the knife in his mouth is a human being like the rest of us. What's important is that we show what human beings are capable of. The day I don't do that with my photography is the day I'll give up and open a restaurant."
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