rupert beagle: January 2007

Azzam Tamimi at the Frontline Club

This evening I went to the Frontline Club to attend a discussion with Azzam Tamimi who has recently written a book about Hamas (“Hamas – Unwritten Chapters”). Tamimi has recently appeared on BBC’s Hard Talk and had made quite controversial comments about the legitimacy of suicide bombings. Given the fresh suicide bombings in Eilat just a few days ago, the discussion with Tamimi should prove quite topical.

Gabrielle Riffkind who interviewed Tamimi praised his book as a well-balanced book which if read by EU and US officials might change the official policy towards Hamas. Tamimi struck a conciliatory tone at first, mainly discussing the historical roots of Hamas and explaining the concept of the “hudnah”, i.e. a truce with Israel on three pre-conditions: Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders, the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the removal of all illegal settlements.

He also put the controversial Hamas Charter in context, which he claims serves more as a reference point for opponents of Hamas than a document that Hamas lives by. He also mentioned that it is in the process of being re-written.

Tamimi, however, failed to distance himself from suicide bombings and portrayed them as a legitimate Palestinian response to Israel’s asymmetrical violence inflicted on Palestinians. He saw no difference between an attack by Israeli military planes on Palestinian civil persons and the bombing of civilians in an Israeli bakery by a Palestinian suicide bomber. He also made quite clear that Hamas would never recognize Israel’s right to exist.

I will be reading his book….

The Throne Sessions

I had my birthday party on Sunday night/Monday morning and I asked a few of my friends to pose for me on my special chair. Here is a selection of the "throne sessions":

Tommy Støckel at Frankfurter Kunstverein

This afternoon, I went to an exhibition by Danish artist Tommy Støckel at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. His work entitled “Isn’t life beautiful?” includes sculptures and collages and deals with impermanence and longevity. Most of the sculptures are made of paper and cardboard and some of them show some decay and wear and tear to symbolise ruins and the doubts about the sustainability of progress.

Indeed looking at the sculptures they had a certain vulnerability, not least because of the fact that they were simply made of cardboard and glue. There was also an undeniable feeling of being inside a computer or looking at crystals up close. Unquestionably an interesting exhibition, which provides a fresh perspective on a well-known and often-discussed subject.

Interview in AziaCity.com

By far the best thing I read over the last few days on the web (or otherwise for that matter) was an interview with James Nachtwey by Gregoire Glachant and Daniel Cutbert.

For me, most relevant were Nachtwey’s comments on the question on what you are “allowed” to photograph and on the aesthetics of images used in photojournalism. I am quoting James Nachtwey’s answers:

“I don't censor myself. I don't believe in censorship, including self-censorship. I work from instinct and intuition. The way I work is very improvisational, subjective. I don't try to limit myself by establishing a preconceived notion of what I can or cannot photograph. I can photograph anything. It's the way in which you photograph that matters.”

“There's no need to apologize for using the language of photography, the formal elements of my medium. That's the reality I'm faced with: there's a rectangular frame, there's a foreground, middle ground and background, there's a right, left, top, bottom. These are the tools I have to work with. I try to use them in an eloquent way. I don't use the formal elements of photography for their own sake. I don't use what's happening in the world to make statements about photography, I use photography to make statements about what's happening in the world. I'm a witness and I want my testimony to be eloquent.”

The full interview can be read following this link:

Interview with James Nachtwey

Evening at the Student Bar...

Tonight’s blog entry is going to be quite light-hearted. After our individual tutorials and an evening lecture, most of us shared a pint of beer or glass of wine at the student bar. I cannot claim that I have taken all of these images since my camera attracted quite a bit of attention and some of my esteemed co-students grabbed the camera and took some of the pictures below. But I can say that most of my fellow students fell in love with the M8.

So Steven K. Lee (CEO of Leica), if you are reading this, please come to the LCC and splash out on a few M8s, you’d find a few happy takers and would be doing a great service to the future of photojournalism :-)

But before you indulge in a few “silly” images, I cannot help (since at the end of the day there is quite a relevance to an evening like this) to cite the great Magnum photojournalist Leonard Freed, who sadly has recently deceased:

“Ultimately photography is about who you are. It’s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself. And seeking truth becomes a habit.”

More street photography...

Battersea - Brighton

Stripping down layers

In an interview with the British Journal of Photography, Paolo Pellegrin mentioned that when he started his career as a photojournalist, he added layers and complexity to his images. But as he progressed in his career and in finding his photographic voice, he “…started taking away, removing layers. It’s a desire to take away the superfluous, to see if with one gesture you can go to the essence…” He goes on to say that “…my photography has become simpler, more straight.”

This view was echoed this week by Tim Hetherington at the Host gallery. He said that over time he became less interested in the aesthetic representation of the image and more and more considers the story the most important element, regardless of the media with which it is being told.

Today in Brighton, I was still adding layers…

Street photography II

Another thought crossed my mind as I was roaming the streets today on the hunt for a good photograph: street photography is actually the discipline in photography where the deliberate capture and “conservation” of time and space is most evident. In other words, a street photographer makes a conscious decision of what exactly of a particular space and which (split) second to include in a frame of a random situation, which proceeds before his/her eyes. What happens outside the immediate frame and what happened or happens a fraction of a second before or after the event that was captured on the chip/negative is lost forever.

Street photography

For one of my next assignments I need to shoot street images and capture the “moment”. In itself one of the more difficult assignments because one has no control over events or the fact that someone interesting will pass by or something interesting will happen at all.

But only one or two hours into the assignment – I was taking pictures around Soho – I was already verbally abused twice for attempting to take a picture of someone. I am shooting with a 35mm lens so I have to get close and people notice when I am taking a picture. I am also generally not sneaking up to people. Well, I guess it is true what my professor said the other day: “Photography is not for the faint-hearted”.

But still: Why are some people so paranoid about having their picture taken in public places while going on about their daily lives?

Contemporary Art Auction at Christie's

Christie's will auction off a few gemstones of contemporary art on February 8th. Far from being a communist, but I had very strange feelings when I passed by their shop window today and saw this wonderful Francis Bacon painting. The thought crossed my mind that this magnificent painting will soon disappear off and be hidden away from the public eye in a London, Arab or Russian home very soon. Maybe this will be one of the last photographs of it for a long, long time.

By the way, price is on application but the guide price for the Warhols and Liechtensteins in the shop windows adjacent to the Bacon is around 1 – 1.5 million pounds…

Today's lectures...

I attended a really inspiring lecture by Judah Passow today. Apart from showing us a few of his own very impressive photo essays, the main discussions during the lecture centred on the future of photojournalism and the form of delivery of media content and (photo) stories in the future. Judah shared the pessimistic view with many in the industry about the demise of the current photo essay due to the lack of publishing opportunities in traditional media. He advocates a “digital” way of telling a story, which apart from still images may include sound, music, moving images, voice-overs and maybe other forms. The snag is that there is currently no viable business model for the delivery of this kind of (photo)-journalism (many online magazines and newspapers have yet to turn in a profit). The current buzzword in the community seems to become the concept of “videography” where the story is told in the form of moving images and editors “grab” (“video grab”) either stills from it for newspaper features or other printed stories and use the streaming content for websites and other forms of digital delivery (e.g. podcasts).

Judah also had strong views on the digital vs. film debate: film is essentially dead, he says. In two years, he maintains, there will be hardly any 35mm film left to be found. “Film cannot give you anything that digital could not give you either. Film has hit a brick wall, we can see the end of it, whereas with digital it is the opposite: the opportunities appear endless and infinite.”

The discussions continued in a similar vein over a few cups of coffee…

Some of the views were also echoed during the HOST gallery talks this evening with Tim Hetherington and Kadir van Lohuizen. In particular, Tim had strong views about the primacy of the content of the story regardless of delivery. Form and style seems to become less and less important. Tim cited the example of the camera phone images that were taken by commuters in the 7/7 bombings in London and which got published in newspapers and websites.

Of course, these discussions raised more questions than those that were answered: Does this mean the end of the photographer/photojournalist? How is authenticity and credibility of a story ensured in an age of prevalent digital content and imagery? Is this the end of the aesthetic representation of the image to get a message and story across? Do we lose meaning if we are bombarded by sound/imagery/movies at the same time?