Democratic Republic Of Congo, 2008

Whilst doing some research this week, I came across the image below, and immediately fell in love with it. The photographer behind the camera that captured this masterpiece is the brilliant Jim Goldberg.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. 2008.
His radio is the sole possession that he took with him while escaping a rebel attack in his village. He now lives in a refugee camp with 60,000 other people where poverty, disease, and crime run rampant.

Stunning right? The boy, though physically strong, is caught in a rare vulnerable moment. The image being in black and white, as apposed to colour, leaves the audience faced head on with the pure emotion he is showing, both in his closed stance, as well as his delicate expression. The rolling tents behind him, blending in to the hills on the horizon and the subtle greys of the sky, it's all just so gorgeous. It's no wonder this image won the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize last year. Each year, the award (organised by The Photographers' Gallery in association with Deutsche Börse) goes to a living photographer that has made "the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography in Europe" over the previous 12 months.

This image is just one from Goldberg's project Open See, which "documents the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations who travel from war torn, socially and economically devastated countries, such as Iraq, Bangladesh, China, The Balkans and Congo, to make new lives in Europe. Fusing Polaroids, video, written text, ephemera and large and medium format photographs, Goldberg reflects on issues of migration and the conditions for desiring escape."

Jim Goldberg has a wonderful way of co-creating his images, allowing the subject to tell their stories openly and without fear of prejudice or judgement. His innovative use of different media forms is a breath of fresh air on the mundane photo-stories of today, and helps the images become interesting as well as relatable. 

Needless to say, I'm a big fan. And this picture, in particular, is quickly becoming one of my favourites of all time. 

Anthony Luvera

Before I start gushing about Anthony Luvera, let me just quickly say...

Happy New Year!

I spent my night with some new friends, eating good food before drinking good wine and watching the fireworks over Bristol from Clifton Suspension Bridge. It was a wonderful way to see out 2012, and see in the new year! So excited for what might happen this year, so many ideas and plans coming up, which I promise to let you know about in due course! 


Back to business. Do you remember me mentioning a few months ago about a project I'm working on at the moment to do with community? Well, I still can't show any images from it yet (but promise they're coming very soon!), but I have been researching into other photographers for the essay side of this work who have also worked with various communities and people. One of those is Anthony Luvera.

Since 2002, Luvera has built an archive of over 10,000 images consisting of documentary photographs of London and Belfast as well as, more importantly, polaroids and assisted self-portraits of, and in collaboration with, homeless people. I was inspired by Anthony Luvera’s technique of becoming a part of the community in order to gain his subject’s faith.

“I wanted to develop relationships with people, to hear the stories that they told and to make those relationships a central part of my practice.”

Demonstrated in the above images, ‘Assisted Self-Portrait of Joe Murray’, Luvera gives his subjects cameras to document where they live and come from, their view of the world, as well as teaching them how to use the cameras that document them. This then results in a real sense of intimacy in Luvera’s portraits, a personal vulnerability. A mixture of learning and exploring how the subject thinks and feels. It forces the viewer to delve deeper into who the person is and reflect on how they react to the homeless they pass is the street. The gaze of the subject photographed is questioning, searching, and encouraging the audience to give them an answer. To what question remains unknown.

They are beautiful pictures in their simplicity. The normalness of them shines amongst the images we see so often nowadays that are too posed, trying too hard to make the viewer feel something. Luvera is clever in that by just letting the person express themselves, he helps them speak volumes on their own.