The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich & Joao Silva

I read The Bang Bang Club quite a few years ago, long before I became interested in photography, and found it utterly compelling although harrowing.  The fact that I had grown up in SA where most of it takes place, and that the photographers worked at The Star newspaper where my mother and step-father were journalists might have made the book fascinating in itself but it is also well written and extremely moving.

I read it again last year (while I was probably meant to be reading the dreaded Sontag book).  I am writing about it now because I think it raises several important points about ethics of, and voyeurism in, photography.

The Bang Bang Club is written by surviving members of a group of photographers who worked during the troubling and extremely violent years following Nelson Mandela's release from prison and before he became president.  We left SA in 1986 when I was 16 and Mandela hadn't yet been released; not until 1990. Those intervening four years and the ones after his release saw the violence escalate to barbaric levels. However, it had certainly started in force before we left.  I do remember hearing about the necklacing, where someone is put inside a tyre filled with fuel and burnt alive when I was a young teenager living in Jo'burg.  The violence was undoubtably one of the things that made us return to the UK.

Because of my mother's job, I knew in the years before we left that much was not reported fully or at all.  The Star and other centre and left wing papers got around restrictions imposed by the ruling National Party by leaving huge gaps across newspapers where column inches should have contained text and images, but instead contained just a few words along the lines of 'due to the State of Emergency we cannot print this story/photograph' or, simply, 'This article has been censored'.  The lack of information, the absence of print, said a great deal, not only about the violence but also about the government and what the editors of those newspapers thought about the censorship.

Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silver worked at a time in SA when the boundaries of a didactic and authoritarian state were being violently dismantled.  They witnessed and photographed some shocking things, young people murdered by angry mobs using machetes, necklacing as well as shootings.  They did not hold back from photographing the most disturbing scenes, and the book looks at the opposing tensions they all felt in their jobs.  They wanted to record what was going on, not only the sickening treatment of the black population but also the fighting between the Xhosa and Zulu factions.

In order to fulfil these assignments they all had to find ways of coping.  Emotional detachment, propped up with alcohol and drugs led to problems for each of them.  But the most tragic was Kevin Carter who shortly after receiving a Pulitzer prize for his photograph of a vulture sitting behind a starving child committed suicide.  I have to say when I look at photographs of him I imagine I see the frailty in his expression and gestures, and his eventual suicide does not seem surprising given the trauma photographing such scenes must have had on all of them.  Not only were they witness to truly shocking scenes, they each had to come to terms with the fact they had witnessed these things without intervening, choosing instead to take photographs.

The moral implications are are not clear cut.  It was of course imperative the world outside of Soweto and other townships were aware of what was going on and photography has the capacity to share stories at a very immediate and visceral level. There is something about images being pre-verbal, and maybe therefore capable of 'speaking' to our emotions in a very different way to words (sure there is a dissertation in that sentence but I'll have to expand another time).  And had anyone intervened they would very likely have been killed. As it was each of them risked their lives each time they ventured out, some were indeed shot and recovered, but Ken Oosterbroek was shot dead in a gun battle shortly before Carter's suicide.  So, although the moral implications might be difficult, there is no denying their immense bravery in telling stories about atrocities and telling them from as close to the centre of it all as you can be.

The authors explore this dilemma, about how complicit they were by the fact they were present at all, choosing to photograph what was going on.  I am not sure that even they are always a hundred percent convinced by their arguments. "I was one of the circle of killers, shooting with a wide-angle lens just an arm's length away, much too close", says Marinovich when describing one of his first encounters with gang murder close-up, and "I was as aware of what I was doing as a photographer as I was of the scent of fresh blood, and the stench of sweat from the men next to me."

But the authors also say that if the pictures of atrocities exist they should be seen. "To censor pictures that are too strong, indecent or obscene was to make decisions for the reader that was not theirs to make."

In the end photographers have to try to live with themselves, whatever they choose to shoot. Kevin Carter describes how the trauma affected him and the authors agree they all felt the same at times.

"I suffer depression from what I see and experience nightmares.  I feel alienated from 'normal' people, including my family.  I find myself unable to relate or engage in frivolous conversation.  The shutters come down and I recede into a dark place with dark images of blood and death in godforsaken dusty places."

Carter's image of the little girl and the vulture caused uproar as well as praise.  People wanted to know what happened to the child, why had he not helped, how could he have taken a photograph of a child suffering like that rather than dropped his camera and run to pick her up, did the vulture take the child.  He gave vague and contradictory answers.  The reality is he had been working, looking for a story, and Marinovitch describes a probable quotidian and emotionally detached scenario that took place.  All those questions by all accounts put an incredible amount of pressure on a man who had always struggled mentally.  The intense focus on him and his photograph, the emotional difficulties witnessing so much extreme violence must have caused him, cannabis (or daga as it is know in SA) and cocaine all contributed to eventual serious clinical depression.  After he lost some rolls of film for Time magazine he was found dead with a pipe leading from his exhaust to the inside of his car.

Ultimately the elections took place and the four journalists had documented, at enormous cost to themselves, an incredibly important process where human beings were as vile as they can possibly be to each other.  You can see some of the images Kevin Carter photographed here, including the first photograph of a necklace killing which is so shocking and utterly horrifying to think about.  It is of course critical that these actions by humans against other humans are recorded and shared.  Who does it though and how is another matter.

The book is really worth reading whether you're interested in photography, journalism, even South African history or not.  It is written with an admirable honesty and sense of humility, a retelling of a moment that must have been extraordinarily painful to revisit at times.

Quotes from The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich & Joao Silva Random House Books 2001

Exercise: Rain

Imagine a magazine cover on one subject: rain.  You have the entire cover space to work with and you should produce a single, attractive, strong photograph that leaves no one in doubt about the subject.

Rain (c)SarahJaneField 2015

This was taken on my iPhone 5c using Camera+ and then edited in Snapseed.  I darkened it and increased the contrast plus sharpened and increased the structure, then turned it upside down so the reflection of the building appeared the right way up.  I hope it leaves no one in any doubt about the subject.

Family Frames - Unconscious Optics, Seeing, Screens

I am still making my way through the book, Family Frames.  Its a very difficult book and I should no doubt have read a couple of other key texts before trying to tackle this one.  Although what it has done for me is made me very eager to go back and finish Sontag's On Photography which has sat languishing on my chest of draws for months abandoned a third of the way through.  I must also tackle Ways of Seeing,  I know.  Nevertheless, I am enjoying what I can in Family Frames and am intrigued and excited by unconscious optics.

Hirsh explains that we look at flat pictures which have the illusion of depth, that we see them through multi-layers of screens such as religion, culture, personal history, romantic illusions - but that photographs are a slice of an unconscious moment.  And being so offer up details we would otherwise not see.  I remember discussing how I am beginning to enjoy photography as it lets me know what is going on with me at an unconscious or semi-conscious level.  In the same way the minute physical details which can be seen in Muybridge's horses.  Photographs also show us the minute psychological details of our lives; thoughts, interests, moods.  Things that are wholly or partially hidden by consciousness.

Jung talks about becoming enlightened by making the unconscious conscious, and that includes becoming aware of the darkest aspects of ourselves.  Photography seems to offer a way of enabling that need.

I am also thrilled to read about screens.  When I started looking at different cultural childrearing practises I remember thinking it doesn't matter how many books are written about this methodology or that one - people will gravitate towards the ideologies that fit with their own personal outlook on life, be those outlooks conscious or otherwise.  Many of mine were not conscious when I first had a child.  I had a totally unrealistic view of who I am and was utterly uninformed and unaware about myself.  Having children unravelled and unearthed parts of me that I had no idea about, and I am happy to say I was pleasantly surprised by some of what came to the surface but also horrified later by other less easy to live with aspects of myself.  Photography is doing the same thing.  And I am reading how photography is also looked at by individuals and societies through ideologies that are conscious and unconscious; screens.

"Looking occurs in the interface between the imaginary and the symbolic.  It is mediated by complex cultural, historical, and social screens."

However, she goes on to say;

"Photographs may capture some of this process, but, as the opaque and masked images of Luthi, Meatyard, and Sherman illustrate, they alone do not allow us to read its many dimensions."

This second sentence is important for me to remember in all of this.  My family narrative photographs may on the one hand be revealing for me (perhaps others too...) but they may also be frustratingly opaque.  I think I have set out to explore something about my relationship with my mother in those photographs and am certain what I have discovered is something I knew intellectually but couldn't see as have been looking through daughter's eyes.  The photographs on the one hand do indeed show me what I knew but couldn't see - and that's what makes me cry when I look at them.  But I suspect there is also much I cannot read, stuff that is hidden regardless of the camera's helpful trick of suspending moments in a frame.

I continue to read...

Other books that have been recommended are The Imaginary Signifier by Christian Metz and Questions of Visual Pleasure by Laura Malvey, both of which look at Lacan's Mirror image and seeing ideas.  I am not sure whether to tackle these before I get that Sontag one digested!  However, I am keen to read her now which I wasn't before because it is dense, verbose and challenging in the extreme.

Quotes from Family Frames as before page 118.

Narrative A5 thoughts

I've been thinking quite a lot about this (obviously) and the idea of photographing my own family keeps coming back to me.  It seems an obvious progression from where I've come with all the self-reflective work.  I also started the course reading and learning about Sally Mann - she was the first person I wrote about and then Larry Sultan.  In addition I used a lot of photographs from my time in Italy last Easter holidays for A2 exercises, and I used my family in A1 too and so it will complete the circle and that appeals to me. It's simple, relevant and makes sense to me.  I know I need to ensure I show the progression from A1 which was a bit ropey - the idea was there, the execution not so much.

We are heading over to my mother's place in Italy soon and I think I will use this opportunity to play with this idea.  I've got time to ditch it if I'm not happy with the results.

I have also ordered Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory to read (bit of gentle holiday reading!)

At the moment I do most of my work on my Fuji x100s.  I like the restriction of the fixed lens and although it's not full frame the IQ is more than good enough (when I get it right!), so I will stick to just using that.  I think it's probably a good thing to do, and this was echoed by Jessie Alexander at the TV meet the other day.

I'm not sure how this fits in yet but here is a blog post from my other blog site about my own family which may or may not be relevant here. I feel like this is a project that has been bubbling away inside of me and A5 may the containment I need to do it.  I also quite like my family - they're pretty bloody great (and annoying and all the rest of it) and I think exploring that side of things will be good to do.

At this moment, today, this morning, this feels like the right thing.  Let's see what AC has to say about it.

Exercise: Juxtaposition

I have been procrastinating about this one for a while and then realised I had one which I took recently which would be perfect.

A still life or larger scale shot.  I have gone for the latter, in which I was asked to photograph someone with a possession of the result of their hobby or work.

Now, for someone who moaned an awful lot about how they didn't like the fact they were photographing themselves and who felt horribly narcissistic for doing so,  I am doing very well as including photographs of myself in here.  However, it continues the theme, the narrative of all my course work and it's a photograph I like. Plus it has lots of juxtaposition in it.

Technically I think that I have probably got too much black in this - It's something I have noticed recently, that I do, well I noticed it before but then just carried on regardless.  I might re-edit this and compare to see. I quite like blacks and dark shadows it's true, but I think I've gone overboard sometimes and this might benefit from having a little less; not sure though until I do it.  In fact, every time I look at it, I think - oooh, it's a bit garish!  Maybe that's just my mood today.

However, on the content side, I like this because it literally and metaphorically has lots of levels to it.
I am in it as I have been in so many of my photographs for this course.  But I'm not fully in.  I am doing what I love doing - my work and hobby, photography, and finding ways to express myself.  I am in a mirror - which is an obvious metaphor for self reflection, which is what all this work has been about, but I am obscured and I'm not sure if it is immediately obvious I am taking a photograph to anyone who is isn't a photography nut.  I'm in a car park with a bunch of discarded stuff and in a way all those boards could be suggestive of all the layers in me, or the layers through which I must get through before I get seen.  If I were to think of a title for this it might be "in the picture'.  Which ties in with what we were discussing at the TV meeting the other day, where it was suggested I try to inveigle my way into the family photographs I might take for A5 all the time - always trying to be seen.  Finally, the sign at the top could be about me or about the car park, could be about life - who knows?  Is that a bit pedestrian?  Not sure.  Anyway, I liked this photograph and thought it was heading in the direction of something distinctively 'me'.

Brief post-script to previous entry

Now that I have reached part 5 of this module I can look back and see what it is I have been doing on the course, since that was something I was unsure about when I began.

In many ways I feel that all the work I have done on the course is part of an ongoing narrative and the next section is simply an extension of that.  The assignments I have submitted have been part of a very personal journey -

a) one that shows me learning about photography
b) that shows me developing as a person post divorce
c) that looks at a kind of grieving process for the marriage and idea of a 'family' I lost -
i. a type of celebration, dance, but lacking in definition in A2, (denial, shock)
ii. entering into a very dark place with colour A3 (anger, depression)
iii. exploring adolescence with the frilly dress and infantile object relationships in A4 (depression, acceptance, & reconstruction)

The previous assignment feels really important as it may also have allowed me to visualise and make real some developmental 'misses' in my history - giving me a firmer internal core from which to move forward with this work

c) and if I go ahead with this family idea, then I am sure it will be some sort of personal search for a more substantial family than the one I feel I grew up with. (reconstruction, turning outwards, rebuilding, exploring).

As some will realise, I have loosely used the Kubler-Ross model of grief in my explanation here.

So, although I am just beginning the narrative section of the module, I now have a clearer idea about why I came on the course in the first place, or at least a happy happenstance aside from learning more about photography.  And that entire process has a very strong sense of narrative as far as I can tell. And being here has also given me a clear and sound structure from which to explore these things as well as develop as a photographer, or what ever it is that I'm developing into (if that makes any sense).  I don't think I would have done any of these things without that structure.  Having come from a very unstructured background I am am pleased to have it in place event though I tend to go off in directions that put some pressure on the structure provided.  I suspect that is a good thing but it's also helpful to have someone steering me back into the realms of reality when I need it.

Skype chat re Narrative project

Yesterday Andrew Conroy and I had a chat about my ideas for the narrative project.  I offered up my first idea, an abstract and somewhat intangible concept about walls, internal and external, which was met with a somewhat blank and then mildly puzzled response.  No! Sarah-Jane, something simpler and more accessible.  So, we went through some other ideas I had and the one that seemed more appropriate for me, given my interests, where I'm at, the need to expand on the sort of work I have so far submitted for the course is one that I had a while ago but have popped on the back burner for a while.  You can't do everything at once and I needed to get the other stuff out of my system first.

I have been thinking about hanging out with a family for a weekend or a series of weekends and recording family life, smiles, tears and all the stuff in between with any luck.

This idea stems from several places:

1. I have been doing family portraits anyway it's a natural extension of that.
2. Being able to spend more time with a family, as opposed to an hour or two, gives me an opportunity to try and capture something more substantial than usual.
3. In the long run this may be something I can offer to potential clients  - resulting in an album, and a bigger fee than I have so far charged for my work.
4. Alternatively it might grow into something else that is less about commercial photography and perhaps more interesting for me... we'll see.
5. I am fascinated by the way families work.  There are some universal traits that you find in families from all over the world and even across species and then there are others that are culturally specific, either on a macro or micro level.   
6. The sense of alienation or 'culture shock' one can feel when they spend time in someone else's family is interesting, and added to that - having a camera and trying to 'take' some of their lives gives another dimension worth exploring.  What is this for, is it art? Is it documentary?  Is it just an exercise to fulfil a course expectation?
7. Childhood memories I have of how I felt about other people's families in relation to my own are still very clear and vibrant in my head.  I spent a great deal of time trying to exist in other people's families during my teenage years, even bunking off school when my best friend who was at a private school was on holiday so I could inveigle my way into her family.  Some of us tend to find out own families very awkward and difficult. 
8. I wonder if that desire exists still in some other form and by embedding myself into another family for a few weekends I am continuing those earlier patterns of behaviour.
9. What is family?  What is kinship? Why does it matter so much?  Does it matter (yes of course, I would say, but there are those who cannot access that and are very dismissive, choosing to blank out ties to kinship, which seems weird and difficult for others to understand.  Why?)
10. I am absolutely interested in what is going beneath the surface within human relationships.  Whether or not I have the skill and experience to find any of that at this point is another matter - we will see.

Research:

Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh

Diane Arbus Matthaei Family shots and Westchester image

Jim Mortram Small Town Inertia

Tina Barney Family Album
Larry Sultan Pictures from Home

Most of these show quite extreme situations, apart from Larry Sultan's.  Which makes for interesting and dramatic images. However, I'm more interested in the mundane, the 'normal'.  Is there such a thing.... let's see.

Some books I have read that I know will come in handy:

What are Children for? Laurie Taylor and Matthew Taylor

Anthropology and Child Development Edited by Levine and New

Punished by Rewards Alfie Kohn

John Bowlby & Attachment Theory  Jeremy Holmes

Mother's and Others Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (Yup, no vowel in case you're wondering).

Finally, it was great to chat with AC.  I do wish OCA had the resource to offer more Skype (individual and group) tutorials. 

Narrative idea & progress

I think I will continue with my collection of walls which I have been building for a few weeks, or perhaps a couple of months for the narrative project.  This may seem a bit odd because what sort of story can you tell with a collection of wall images?

I am thinking I shall use an old Reader's Digest book that I remember from my childhood, and which thankfully my mother still owns, as a source of information to create a narrative about how to build walls.  I don't suppose I can quote directly from it the whole way through, but I would like to mention it as the source and obviously refer to pages etc for any direct quotes I do use.

I may want to interweave short parables (inspired by Louise Bourgeois' "He disappeared into complete silence") but I am not sure how that would work yet.  I am writing down ideas for these though as they come to me as it may be that I can find a way to do this.  I wonder if having two narratives would work: one with 'how to build walls', then turn the book over and with the same photographs have the other narrative, my parables, going the other way.   I have a while to think about it... it's an idea for now, although of course one that has been done plenty, I'm sure.


As for prisons:  I have had a very nice response from the media department saying that it is something that requires a lot of resource to organise and so would only be considered if the photographer could guarantee a lot of people seeing the work.  So I replied and I said I would get in touch again when I had built up a significant body of work.

I responded to a request to do some voluntary work with a charity so if that comes about then it might be the start of building up that work.  I know I have been taking photographs of people for a while now but I'm not sure I feel ready to take the sort of photographs I'm thinking about, which need to be sensitive, respectful and kind, and peer into something difficult that also feels dangerous.  Maybe I never will be - think that's a pretty hard thing to get right.

A realisation

I may have found a way to photograph a subject that interests me but it's not certain yet so I'm going to wait until it is before talking about it in full here.  But it may be a really good alternative to one of the impossible ideas I had earlier for narrative, although thinking about it, either of those ideas could and should probably take a lot longer than the time I have for the course work.

But what I have realised for certain is that I have not in any way yet earned the right to have access to virtually impossible places like prisons and/or places where vulnerable adults are cared for.  I do not have a body of work behind me and am a just a student, albeit one that also sometimes works professionally and commercially.  I have yet to build up any serious work though so why would anyone say, sure, come in and take photos of our secretive, sensitive places, places where no other photographers are allowed??? Hopefully the thing that may happen which I mentioned will happen and that will the beginning of building up some work and experience and then when I have built up a richer background of work, I might be able to tackle the very difficult things.

This week has a been a good week despite the frustrations because I have learnt things that are integral to going forward - it's OK to have ambitious ideas but it's important to be realistic too.  I often think maybe the thing to do is just go and get a job as soon as my youngest child starts school and just do photography as a hobby - which may well turn out to be what I should and will do. Nevertheless it's important to learn these things as of course I may keep persevering.

I have also been asked to do the stills on a short firm shoot in May which will be fun to do - and certainly worth doing for experience if nothing else.

I am still thinking about what to do for the narrative but I'm leaning towards the idea of abstract images related to inner fantasy coupled with quotidian details from my daily life.  Will have to chat about it when Skyping AC.

A5 ideas

So I have been told under no circumstances by Mind and by Wandsworth Prison - either I am overly ambitious or suffering from allusions of grandeur and need to set my sites a little lower.  I don't even know why I want to enter into these places which I must admit are fairly frightening but I do. So I have emailed people higher up the chain to see if I can get any inkling of possibility there - I am beginning to see though how difficult it is to get projects off the ground especially when wanting to do something a bit tricky.  And am beginning to understand just how much effort goes into these sorts of projects just to get them going in the first place.  Anyway, let's see what comes of my further emails.  Maybe I should just photograph the outside of all the places I have tried to gain access to and not be allowed!

In the meantime I have had other ideas for the final assignment which in any case may be more in keeping with the work I have done so far for this module.  I am interested in recording two things - a) the monotonous, mundane, quotidian details of everyday life and pairing it up with the inner fantasy world that most of us carry around - inspired I guess by Carl Jung's writings on inner fantasy and how integral that is to our lives.   For now I can't work out whether to photograph the fantasy and write the daily mundane details or the other way round, so photograph details through out the day and pair those images with a fantastical story.  I have written two of these sorts of stories already and could either use one of those or write a new one.  This is something I have more control over and can certainly achieve in time for the course whereas the other ideas are more reliant on circumstances outside my control.

I have thought I could aim to record the daily lives of people living and working in my area -but that really is a very long term project as I'd need to get to know quite a lot of people and then get them to allow me to photograph their daily existence.

Anyway, that is where I am at the moment.  Torn between several strands and ideas.

Reflection about Exercise 1&2

I spent time today taking photographs for the early exercises in the Narrative section of TAOP and came to a couple of conclusions at the end of it all.

Lighting - I have been reluctant to use my lights over the last few months preferring instead natural light.  I love natural light and there are often times when natural light works best.  But after some thought I think there are certainly times when lighting is useful and desirable.  I took some photographs today that really would have benefitted from some extra light for the type of photograph I was taking.  In the end the images were no good and I didn't use them because I just couldn't make them work.  Had these images been for the final assignment I would have needed to start again.  As it was I was able to make use of other images I took to complete the narrative essay.

The narrative I have created is very much open to interpretation.  To be honest I am probably still working out what might be going on in them.  What is true though is that the narrative works on two levels and is ostensibly about me taking photographs however, like most of the work I have been doing since staring this course, there are also other things going on which for me is what the narrative is really about.  I don't really like putting words with images but we were asked to and so I stated very clearly what the picture showed, but again the words are working on several levels.  I'm not sure how successful this is - and I guess that is something to think about.  I think I would rather have found an article and used words from that which was somehow linked to some of the underlying themes.

For Exercise 2 I think if I am honest, the image as it is is more an idea than a finished image.  Again I would need to think about lighting and if this sort of image were to be used in an advert for instance (although who knows what for  - but something to do with momentary fantasy, escapism, freedom) there would be a well considered set, rather than my messy cramped kitchen.  I'd also have the children sitting round the table looking up at their mum dancing on the table.

I'm thinking hard about the final assignment and am torn between two routes at the moment but will discuss this with AC (tutor) hopefully soon and see where to go from there.