WILLIAMS / TINAG FESTIVAL 2013

I am looking forward to seeing Henrietta Williams latest work at the new TINAG festival.
Following our last conversation I can say that Williams has kept those materials on hold for a few months as she was also reporting for a national newspaper undercover. Today she can display freely those rare and somehow recent documents. It will certainly engage criticism and broad discussions in the most progressive and intelligent festival available in London. We will hopefully discuss its content soon in an interview.
If you want to know more about the festival go to http://www.thisisnotagateway.net/
This year the festival is taking place at the Bishopsgate Institute EC2M 4QH Liverpool St.

The Olympic Games held in London in the summer of 2012 marked a shift – a rubicon in the way our city operates. The army patrolled the streets, missiles were placed on rooftops, battleships were moored on the River Thames, surveillance blimps monitored us from the sky above, protests were banned and 30,000 new CCTV cameras were installed.
Within this State controlled environment companies specializing in security and defence reported a massive increase in profits. None more so than G4S, the largest private security company in the world, employing 657,000 people in 125 countries. G4S were awarded the £284 million contract to deliver security for London 2012, with chaotic consequences.
Henrietta Williams interviewed with G4S in January and, after training in March and July, ended up working as a security guard and x-ray screener based at the Olympic Park in Stratford for the duration of the Games in July and August 2012. Alongside fulfilling her duties for G4S she also worked as an undercover reporter for the Guardian writing a column called ‘The Secret Security Guard’.
Henrietta also consistently photographed her shifts covertly on her iPhone. Exhibited alongside artifacts from the job, this body of photographs shows a world of mundane chaos behind the scenes of the Olympics: recruits being trained in methods of restraint; deployment alongside the army at the Olympics; the monotony of guarding and working the x-ray screening machines; images of the fortification of the Olympic site; and the haunting emptiness of the park on night shifts. These are images of people dressed in G4S uniforms playing at being security guards – a moment in time when hyper-security became normal.

JANUARY RESIDENCY

Workshop Coffee & Co. has kindly accepted to offer our collective a rotational residency for the next 10 months at least. Each artist is being asked to use the same frame format and to re-visit their works to tell a new story. This project is titled SHORT STORIES FROM AN AUTONOMOUS SPACE and the first photographer to invest the space is Dominik Gigler with The River Lea from source to mouth.

"This photographic project follows the River Lea from its origins in Leagraves, Luton (51.910338°N 0.461233°W) to when it meets with the River Thames in London (51.507113°N 0.009184°E). On its 68kms journey it keeps changing its face from rough to romantic and back. Many stories are told about the people who live along it and the industries that shape the look of the environment. Two years before I started this journey London had been announced host City for the 2012 Olympic games. In 2007 the main area of development, which is now the Olympic Park, was cordoned off. The day before, I went in and photographed the river which runs through  the area. The Games are now over, the River Lea keeps changing its face. It’s an ongoing project... "

Directions:
Workshop Coffee Marylebone
75 Wigmore Street
London W1U 1QD
nearest tube Bond Street
open until 5pm daily

Great little experimental project, stunning prints and divine coffee. Enjoy!

KAJSA JOHANSSON part1

Kajsa Johansson is a young Swedish photographer who has completed her Photography degree at Middlesex University and now teaches fellow students C-Type darkroom printing. Her latest work  Considering Corners captures the mood of the East-end where she has been living for the last 2 years. She uses colour film and Mamiya 7 rangefinder. She submitted her work after reading my article in the latest Uncertain States issue 12.

Many aspects of the Considering Corners drawn my attention and I am going to explain why her work is relevant and unique. First, Kajsa decided to use film to capture her daily life. It comes today a bit as a surprise when a young artist decides to use film because it feels like incompatible with younger practices. Nevertheless after meeting with Kajsa it all makes sense. She is a timid, reflective and sensitive person who requires time to let the impressions come to her. She is not attracted to produce many bodies of work to sharpen the versatility of her medium but she rather discovers the world around her with at a slower pace, harmony and doubts. Kajsa walks her Hackney streets every day and senses the rawness or reality of the present. To her, as she realises, Hackney is the only and perfect place for her to feel and live that sentiment, because its constant unpredictability makes it very appealing. Reading the title one might expect to observe a succession of corners that would depict something very literal but instead Kajsa frames mundane scenes that transcend their banal state. Her photographs are never truly frontal neither using tricks or repetitions. Most pictures are produced with low light conditions and her film absorbs the ghostly presence of the moment chosen.

Those images have been taken in the last year and half whilst the East-End was bursting with the  Olympian momentum and all that follows. But again, there is no reference at all to that recent episode. Instead, Johansson walks and photographs with no attention to the vast rejuvenation or sporting event nearby. Her eye is attracted to the sense of space that emerges from the East-End and Hackney especially. This part of the world is her new life, something she might have expected for a while maybe, without knowing it. She tells me: "Hackney is a place where things can happen, a community that shares and where its marginality enables me to believe that things can be done out of nothing". Well, maybe it is me who is saying that on her behalf, but I understand what she means because I have felt the same whilst living for years in the borough. And things happened then, a lot of good things. Maybe not all good as we might expect but this is Life at its best, a place where your senses and moods are extremely sensitive. It is a place that does not allow rest, it is a place bursting with vigor and exchange.

So Kajsa Johansson isn't showing corners as dead-ends, final destinations, remains or alienation. She is capturing beautifully a reality that most people do not question or reject. Her photographs reveal in fact a lot of subtle touches that she should analyze deeper to understand many factors as much historical as emotional. She is obviously very attracted to walls (and I am too) The walls framed not only reveal patterns but most importantly a finish and layers of time as if you were to cut a tree to read its rings. The East-End, as most East parts of capitals, attracts the foreigner because it is more affordable, there is a sense of solidarity and because customs of various communities merge better. This is the place where many have lived, settled, made business and got back or moved on. This is a land of experiment where you start from scratch and you make your best to leave your mark or to get noticed. That need for imprint is essential and unique in the East-End. This is a statement of labor, determination, belief or despair that can be found the multi-layering of painted walls or fences. Before we envisaged the new term Graffiti there were signs of life, passages and attempts which are relevant in this part of London. And maybe that is what Kajsa's corners are about, about delivering those instinctive and almost paranormal messages that make the urban landscape of Hackney so special. In fact her "non-characters" images are full of presences. As I always say, London isn't so much about beautiful architecture but it is about people. And I think Kajsa feels the same. Even by avoiding photographing people she succeeds in portraying the essence of a place by focusing on details left by its inhabitants.

Kajsa Johansson's photographs do appeal to me a lot too because they are humble. They are shot at human scale and strictly show what she sees. There is no radicalism or structured method in her approach and she leaves room to improvisation, surprise and introspection. She alternates distances and subject matters that will create a coherent and justified ensemble. She can be photographing from across the street where the sky will appear, but she can also isolate one detail from the pavement and be read more strict of minimalist. She can photograph the nearby and frame one unique element, or can can play with geometries of the urban ever-changing resurfacing and produce some laughter. Her series could be read as dull or depressing for many, but for me there are full of humanity and anecdotes. Works that are often perceived as not strong enough and often much more revolutionary, progressive and playful that one might think.

Finally I would like to quote Walker Evans on a lecture he gave at Harvard University in 1975, two days before he died: "I haven't  got a rational structure and the expressible, critical opinion of what the subject in front of me means on second thought. I do these things pretty much by instinct, and I have learned to trust that instinct. It took me a long time to feel sure of what I was doing. Now I know that when something appeals to me, I don't have to think about it; I just go right to it and do it"

We shall never doubt the irresistible power of intuition. To recognise it and live by it is a sign of wisdom, to condemn it and reject it is an act of dehumanisation. Johansson's work has this freshness of the newcomer and the sensibility of photographing something vibrant. She captures beauty and tells stories of what the East-end is in relation to her own new experience. She proves to be very mature in the understanding of the medium as much as her methodology despite confessing she struggles putting words into her actions. I am delighted to introduce her to our collective and to make her work accessible to our followers.

HACKNEY MUSEUM BOOK PUBLICATION

Hackney Museum has just released a book of the Mapping the Change project that records the changes in East London towards the 2012 Games. Inside you will find quite a few images from Arnau Oriol Sanchez for being commissioned by the borough. The cover photograph is also his. This book costs £4.50 and is primarily available from the Museum.

CONFERENCE DAY 4/12/12

MIKE SEABORNE part1

Today I feel very privileged to announce Mike Seaborne as one of our collaborative photographers. His recent exhibition London: Landscapes in Transition at the Host gallery was a little gem. The Thames Estuary series used the whole ground and the London Facades were shown downstairs. I didn't know Mike's work until I received a newsletter from Foto8. I was very surprised to experience such great quality prints where the finish, framing and sizes have been thought carefully to transmit the right effect and message. Mike's landscapes take us to those grey areas of the urban that I personally cherish. Places of non-apparent function or derelict that reveal a raw left over merging with the flow of the natural process and create consequently something unique and industrially bucolic. The Thames Estuary pictures simply revealed an harmony through the layers of time just outside the megalopolis. Difficult to access and mostly ignored they take suddenly a new dimension as they reflect our disdain for the non-profiting and non-entertaining. In fact thanks to Seaborne's eye we rediscover the nearby and start thinking further.

Mike Seaborne's body of work around the End End is rich and vast. The images selected for our collective project come from the London Docklands series shot in the 80's. I strongly recommend you pay a visit to his website. This post will focus on people and their involvement in the community and dates from between 1982 and 1984.
What struck me first is the dedication with which Mike documented the area. Similar understanding with Peter Marshall in documenting a different aspect of London full of significance and stories. Looking at them now we can question why those pictures didn't become more widespread. They tell much more about the real London in its beautiful raw complexity and constant experimental process. What Seaborne captures in those black and white images is the end of an era of heavy industries where the sticky past struggles and holds its last days. A doubt is found in the characters' gazes who question the future. Not sadden nor bitter those people are now living a life that doesn't suit or reflect the environment anymore. Those images are vacant but full of life and emotional conflicts. Something will change eventually but when will it start and what will it mean to them? You can also find this duality in the way Seaborne photographed with his 35mm camera. The compositions are beautifully balanced, almost too composed, but he introduces an extra layer which is psychological. His images suddenly take a new direction, more human and more ambitious. As if the technicality of the medium is slowly being put aside to concentrate on the sensitivity and the ineffable. The subjects gain more space and control over the compositions. His visual language adapts and joggles between capturing body language and mind interpretations of the critical moment.

Seaborne's photographs become more vivid and active. He finds a way to capture the time duality of the void left behind and the modern aspirations that are taking shape. The transitional state helps consequently in emphasizing the human dimension and reveals it as being at the heart of his concerns. It proves that a landscape doesn't exist without the human perspective. Seaborne nurtured that land long before it becomes an Olympic icon and shows that the East End is a area of real human dimension without facade. Somehow the East End carries that truth that the City belongs to the people first and that they are the agents of change, and not necessarily the way the outsiders would understand it. This very same question is being addressed today after our Olympic Summer.

Once again we find in those pictures a genuine charm where we can all recognize our doubts, absences and private joys. The East End was, and still is I hope, that source of inspiration, humility and respect. Seaborne's images manage to show us a glimpse of the long past turned obsolete and its merging into the unknown where the people suddenly have more to reveal than they working identity. Seaborne, like all the photographers of the collective, had the audacity and talent to collect those moments that very few would have found interesting back in the 80's. To be a great photographer you don't need to travel the world and feed the news. To be a great photographer you need to be visionary and care for your subject. Mike Seaborne is a great example to follow.

HENRIETTA WILLIAMS part1

I first saw Williams' work in the Art of Dissent book (bottom image). Only one image was published and I wanted to know more about the artist, I was quite intrigued by it. I knew that very awkward corridor outside the Olympic village she photographed. It would take someone special to capture that oddity. That small piece of land showed the past, the rejected. This portion represented like the ultimate and highly concentrated amount of energy that was about to be obliterated by the new landscape. I took few shots myself of this vanishing entity but Henrietta managed to capture it in blossom. That open but inverted non-space was the perfect symbol of what the rejuvenation intended to make disappear, the commonly called wasteland. Henrietta reveals its hidden beauty where the anarchy and the organic make suddenly more sense than the modern background arising. That one shot stayed in the back of my mind and I wanted to see more. Eventually we met and I then discovered a broader spectrum that convinced me that Henrietta was someone really talented and dedicated.

It appears then that her work is, again, as most of us in this collective, very rich, versatile and local. That last point is highly relevant as it makes us as much artists as responsible citizens by being involved in our communities. This is the desire to transmit a true information to a wider audience often put aside from the mass medias. Williams' work deals as much with the landscape as with its inhabitants. She not only frames the views independently but also includes its protagonist in a reflective mood. As when she concentrates on the land only she succeeds in capturing an almost human quality to it that I have rarely experienced. As if visages unconsciously emerge from the surface of the concrete. The emotion produced by the colours are quite warm and welcoming. Her  landscapes in re-invention do not intend to collide with the politics by straight opposition but they emphasize on the true inner beauty and peculiar identity associated with the East transformed. Like an archeologist she digs and presents an emotional state of the land that is a result of the various communities throughout its original past.

As when she portrays locals, despite presenting them in a classic fashion, they all show a personal dignity and reflection on the landscape. They question their own background, the actuality of the situation they are in in order to manage their near move. That is this dialogue between land and people that makes Williams' work so powerful and intelligent. The complexity and inter-relation of those two parts are the best described in her profound and caring investigations.

Henrietta Williams is a photographer and writer based in London. Her work has been widely exhibited and published in the UK and been featured in the Guardian, the Evening Standard, Open Democracy, on the BBC and in the architectural press. Her work about security in the UK led her to a project documenting evictions and exclusions in East London in preparation for the Olympic Games.
Henrietta is continuing this work and is now working closely with the Carpenter's Against Regeneration Plan, a group of residents who are contesting the demolition of the Carpenter's Estate in Stratford, East London. 

You can see more of her works by clicking on her link above.