Tag: photojournalism

The Art of Getting By – an exhibition

 

I’m delighted to announce that my exhibition – The Art of Getting By – will open the 8th Jersey Amnesty International Human Rights Festival where I’ll be doing some teaching and workshops.

 

India – Delhi – A mentally ill man kisses his wife who visits him in the secure ward at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences

 

The French, as always have a word for it. Débrouillardise. The art of getting by – resourcefulness – surviving and laughing. I heard it first in French Africa in the ‘90s and I realised that I have been trying over the last two decades (even before I really knew the word) to make it a motif in the reportage that I made in even the most difficult circumstances. It is no less than the human condition – why shouldn’t the poor, the maimed, the brutalised somehow steal a smile, fall in love? A determination to live. To be normal. To be just like us.

These images are not romantic – although I hope that some are beautiful – rather they reflect the everyday struggles of common people. They also aren’t meant as rosy depictions of poverty from an outsider and they aren’t meant to patronise. I have worked consistently in the Developing World for most of my career and that was a choice made from the low horizons of my own childhood and the desire to escape the grey landscape of a Hackney past.

I consciously sought difference but found similarity and common ground.

These images are taken from stories from many countries. They show people touched by war and poverty living as best they can. They are small stories from larger narratives and by and large show small lives but they are no less important for that.

For me, this is a kind of retrospective: photographs of what I have tried to see – sometimes forced myself to see – to remember that the world is not dark, dangerous and other, but that it is beautiful and full of life.

You just have to know where to look.

 

My enormous thanks to Stuart Smith for curating and Metro for printing

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography, Writing

Aleppo

It’s with great sadness that I read of the destruction of parts of Aleppo in the fighting that has engulfed Syria. Tragically, the Souk, a World Heritage site, has been badly damaged. It is almost ten years to the day that I photographed Aleppo on assignment for British Airways Highlife Magazine. I liked Aleppo – and indeed Syria – very much. The Baron Hotel was then a decaying but beautiful nod to a more glamourous and decadent past while the Souk was dark, mysterious and wonderful. I still have a bar of olive oil soap from a stall there and as I smell it now, Aleppo comes back to me.

 

 

Syria – Aleppo – The view into Aleppo from the Citadel

 

Syria – Aleppo – Men walk though the ancient Souk in Aleppo

 

Syria – Aleppo – A woman in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – A boy working on a stall in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – Two men in a hammam in the Souk

 

Syria – Aleppo – The Citadel reflected in a shop window

 

Syria – Aleppo – A man walks the narrow alleyways behind the Souk, darkness bisected by pools of brilliant sunlight

 

Syria – Aleppo – A waiter carries drinks into the bar of the Baron Hotel, a favourite haunt of stars and politicians of the early twentieth century

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

Growing Old in India

 

I have, for a long time been photographing around aspects of a changing India. These images, currently being syndicated, show a gentle side of a huge demographic change in that country. It is estimated that by 2020, the elderly population in India will nearly double to 150 million people. Better medical care and low fertility rates have made the elderly the fastest growing section of society. New wealth and urbanisation are starting to erode the foundations of traditional values and kinship. Today fewer than 40 percent of Indians live in so-called “joint families” where brothers share the family home with their parents even after they are married. In a country where only 10 per cent has any form of pension, “old people have to work till they die” says Mathew Cherian, Help Age India’s chief executive. Even specialised medical care is rare, as India has only two medical colleges in the entire country teaching geriatric care. After the Asian Tsunami, HelpAge India set up a pioneering experimental scheme called the Tamaraikulam Elders’ Village (TEV) in Tamil Nadu that initially cared for elderly people displaced by the tragedy. Today, the village is a self-sustaining community providing a family environment where more able-bodied residents assist the less able-bodied. The village provides 100 older people with a safe place to live, free healthcare, emotional security, a good diet and professional support.

I was fortunate enough to visit for a few days and make some work there. Work that for personal reasons has an enormous resonance for me.

Despite great effort (especially on the part of Jon Jones at the Sunday Times Magazine) they remain unpublished. Of all the stories that I have shot over the last few years, I really want to see this run somewhere: not because my images are so wonderful but rather because of what they show and the issue that they address.

My agency, Panos is syndicating a 35 image set that can be viewed here.

Here are seven of my favourites.

 

 

India – Tamil Nadu – Meena, 65 pretends to hit a male nurse with a crutch after he teased Janagi, 76 who is always cleaning around the village. Tamaraikulum Elders village, Tamil Nadu, India

 

India – Tamil Nadu – Manjani, 75 inside his room.

 

India – Tamil Nadu – An elderly resident shares a joke with her social worker in her room.

 

India – Tamil Nadu – Ganapadi and his wife, Khrisaveni residents in their room.

 

India – Tamil Nadu – A daily exercise class for residents.

 

India – Tamil Nadu – An elderly resident stretches and takes the morning air at dawn by the lake at the Tamaraikulam Elders’ Village

 

India – Tamil Nadu – Meena, 65, an elderly resident, makes a fuss of one of the villages two dogs

 

Categories Blog, photography

Burundi – slipping back

I read with great regret a small piece from the Economist that tells of a ‘souring mood’ in the tiny African country, Burundi. It seems that opposition forces have again taken to the hills after around three hundred of their number have been killed since July and dozens arrested. Much of this goes back to the 2010 election which, despite the International community declaring reasonably fair was greeted by anger from the forces opposing President Nkurunziza. I worked several times in Burundi during the last twelve years – assignments ranged from looking at the so-called Regroupment camps where the Tutsi government corralled Hutu peasants ‘for their own safety’ in appalling conditions (as part of a global series called The Politics of Hunger) to looking at the steps to reconciliation with the Bashingantahe councils. I also photographed and wrote about the extraordinary Marguerite Barankitse, The Angel of Burundi who adopted children of all tribes amidst the terrible violence of the Civil War. I fear that her heroism and devotion will be called on again.

On Monday, The Forces for National Liberation (FNL) leader Agathon Rwasa, whom Burundian authorities believe is hiding along with fellow combatants in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, called on Nkurunziza to step down. Reuters are reporting this as a declaration of war. I sincerely hope that they are wrong.

 

 

Burundi – Bujambura – President Buyoya speaks at May Day rally

 

Burundi – Buhonga – A Hutu child carries water in a tin up a steep hill in Buhonga Regroupment camp

 

Burundi – Buhonga – A malnourished Hutu peasant woman receives treatment at a medical centre. She is part of the ethnic Hutu population that has been internally exiled from their land by the Tutsi military in order to cut aid to Hutu rebels.

 

Burundi – Buhonga – A peasant cultivates land in Buhonga Regroupment Camp watched by a soldier. He is part of the ethnic Hutu population that has been internally exiled from their land by the Tutsi military in order to cut aid to Hutu rebels.

 

Burundi – Buhonga – Hutu peasant family cultivates a small patch of land within their regroupment camp

 

Burundi – Ruyigi – A counsel of the Bashingantahe (roughly meaning ‘wisemen’) meet to settle a dispute in their commune. The Bashingantahe, a traditional court system, have been successfully resolving disputes concerning the civil war and issues of forgiveness and acceptance.
Categories Blog, photography

Smithsonian Magazine – Cycle Opera

Earlier this year, I was commissioned by Smithsonian Magazine to photograph a really interesting story – an opera based on the life of Albert ‘Lal’ White an Olympic cycling champion in the 1920s.

Because of the magazine’s schedule the rehearsals were photographed long before costumes or props were really ready and unfortunately, none of these images (some of my favourites) were included in the final spread.

I work vary rarely in England and have never been to Scunthorpe (or Hull for that matter) but had a wonderful time largely due to James Beale‘s great company, Sue Hollingsworth‘s boundless enthusiasm and Kirsty Halliday‘s great organisational skills. Lastly, I should thank Smithsonian’s Associate Photo Editor, Jeff Campagna for sticking with me when I expressed disbelief that they actually wanted to send me to Scunthorpe… (which was pretty nice to be fair) when I was convinced he must have meant Sri Lanka…

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Jamie Beale, director of Cycle Song an opera about Albert ‘Lal’ White a champion cyclist photographed in front of the town’s steelworks

 

UK – Hull – Director Jamie Beale rehearses drama students from Hull University for their parts in the forthcoming production of Cycle Song in the Gulbenkian Theatre

 

UK – Hull – Drama students from Hull University rehearse for their parts in the forthcoming production of Cycle Song in the Gulbenkian Theatre

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Sue Hollingsworth, head of the Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir leads a rehearsal for a production of Cycle Opera at Henderson Avenue Primary School

 

UK – Scunthorpe – A young girl forgets her lines at an audition for the production of Cycle Opera at Henderson Avenue Primary School

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Andrew Garbutt, Head of Music at the John Leggot Centre conducts members of the Youth Concert Band during rehearsals of Cycle Song. John Leggot Centre

 

UK – Scunthorpe – A young musician, part of the Youth Concert Band pulls faces during rehearsals of Cycle Song at the John Leggot College

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Erica Hardy leader of the Second Concert Band of the Youth Concert Band leads rehearsals of Cycle Song at the John Leggot College

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Two schoolgirls laugh and chat after gaining choir parts during auditions for a production of Cycle Opera at Henderson Avenue Primary School

 

UK – Scunthorpe – Schoolgirls chosen for the choir as part of the production of Cycle Opera practice for the first time in costume in the playground at Henderson Avenue Primary School after a thunderstorm

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

The future of the rag-pickers

 

According to a piece in the Guardian, it seems that authorities in Delhi are piloting a project to tackle the city’s enormous waste problem but the solution may affect those whose livelihood depends on it. Currently, waste is sorted manually by an informal army of men, women and children and then passed on to middle-men to sell or recycle. Three new plants (one at Ghazipur) will, it is hoped, sort the 8000 tonnes of Delhi’s daily waste automatically. It is estimated that more than 50,000 people work in this informal sector (known as ‘rag-pickers’) in and around the capital. The work is terrible and dangerous but for a significant section of the transient population of one of the world’s fastest growing cities, it is at least a living.

Over the years, I’ve photographed and written about many of the city’s rag pickers who exist in a twilight, Dickensian world ignored by almost everyone, quietly making the city function in a most human but terrible way.

 

 

India – New Delhi – Buddhi Lal, 30, a rag-picker, works before dawn collecting refuse to recycle and resell. On a good day he can make perhaps Rs150-200

 

India – New Delhi – Buddhi Lal, 30, a rag-picker with his small children playing behind him on the pavement, sorts the refuse that he has collected during his dawn round to sell

 

India – New Delhi – A child rag-picker collecting plastic bottles (and anything else he can scavenge) from the carriage of a train at New Delhi Railway station

 

India – Delhi – A child rag-picker cleans his fingernail with an old razor blade at a rubbish depot in Old Delhi

 

India – Delhi – A boy scavenger on the Yamuna River on a home-made raft of sacking and polystyrene. By dragging a magnet through the filthy water he collects scrap metal to sell

 

 

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

London sees a rise in rough sleepers

UK – London – Friends, Claire, 36 and Edwin, 61, both homeless, talk after a soup run organised by a Christian Charity on the Strand

 

The Broadway Homeless charity have just reported that London has seen a 43% increase on people sleeping rough in the capital from last year. The only glimmer of home in this figure is that 70% of those aren’t sleeping out for the second night due largely to the actions of charities like Broadway and increased work from outreach teams. This, despite Boris Johnson’s pre-election pledge to ‘end rough sleeping by 2012’. According to a Guardian report in April this year, £5m – underwritten by central government – was diverted from the Mayor’s budget for rough sleepers, to ‘other purposes’. Expect worse to come if proposals to remove housing benefit for under 25’s come to fruition.

There is a clear link between London’s rents becoming more and more unaffordable for large sections of the population and these figures. London is often referred to as a divided city. It isn’t. It is now many cities. Extraordinarily wealth in the centre, guarded and cosseted by technology and private security (tested and honed on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan) swimming in an ocean of increasing poverty – material and aspirational – that finds its dreams impossible. All of this underwritten by a facetious, poisonous narrative of unfulfilled personal responsibility and fecklessness.

According to Stuart Hall, cities of the nineteenth century and twentieth centuries were monuments to Imperial power: motors of industrial production and trade. Globalisation has significantly reshaped London and the people sleeping on its streets (or the thousands a breath away from it) as inconvenient dislocations from an industrial to a service economy dictated to by modern day robber barons fixated on personal wealth and profit. I write so much about the Developing World, Delhi in particular (and recently Athens) that it is easy to neglect what is literally under my feet.

 

 

Categories Blog, photography

Alhambra

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of the hammam in the Palace of the Alhambra

 

Spain – Grenada – Architectural detail of the Palace at the Alhambra

 

Spain – Grenada – Details of Arabesque columns inside the Alhambra Palace

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of a stone path

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of an arch in the Court of the Lions, Alhambra Palace

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of Arabesque arch, Alhambra Palace

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of Arabesque arch, Alhambra Palace

 

Spain – Grenada – Detail of the pool of the Partal in the Alta Alhambra

 

Spain – Grenada – Shadow of roof tiles on a wall at the Alhambra Palace
Categories Blog, photography

Delhi’s water mafia

As Delhi labours under relentless 45 degree heat, the availability of water is as ever, a battleground. According to India Today (quoting an investigation by The Mail) reporters have uncovered a nexus of corrupt Delhi Jal Board (the local authority that looks after water in the city) employees and private tanker operators offering water for sale at inflated prices. Delhi, like many Developing World cities has a particularly rickety infrastructure when in comes to water supply. Illegal drilling of underground aquifers and horrendous pollution mean that at the best of times water supply is erratic. Add in seemingly endless low-level corruption and you have a perfect storm. I made a film about Delhi’s water wars a couple of years ago for Channel 4. You can see it here. As I said at the time, for the middle classes, access to water is an expensive and miserable inconvenience but to the poor and the slum dwellers, it is literally a daily fight. As my images show…

 

India – New Delhi – Slum dwellers scramble for water in Jai Hind Camp. The camp is home to perhaps 3000-4000 migrant workers from all over India. It has no water supplies at all so once a day, the Municipal JAL Board truck delivers some water. There is never enough for the expanding population to go around and some are left with nothing.

 

India – New Delhi – Women at the Kusumpur Pahari slum fight for water after a tanker delivery. Built more than thirty years ago the slum has no running water or sewage facilities. The only water supply come from the Municipal JAL Board water trucks that visit several times a day. The deliveries are supposed to be free but in reality, residents must pay bribes to have the water delivered.

 

India – New Delhi – A woman pushes her bike home after filling many cans from a water tanker in Kusumpur Pahari.

 

India – New Delhi – Middle class housewives in the Vasant Kunj area wait for water to be pumped into their water tanks from a JAL Board tanker. Vasant Kunj is one of many places in New Delhi that has frequent loss of mains water and relies on such infrequent tanker deliveries

 

Categories Blog, photography

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