VII Seminar in London

Back in London, after more than a month away… Felt familiar and strange at the same time. Well, from Monday, my second term commences…

More importantly, I went to the VII seminar today, which takes place here in London over two days. It is more or less a showcase for the work of the VII photographers with some discussions with panellists thrown in. The VII agency consists of some of the finest photojournalists around and in that alone makes for a truly inspiring two days seminar.

John Morris as the guest speaker held the opening speech and made some pretty unequivocal comments about the lack of justification of Bush’s war on terror, differentiating it only in scale with terrorism itself, suggesting that Iraq should be returned to its rightful owners – the Iraqi people. John made also clear that he is neither pro-Palestinian nor pro-Israeli but a conscientious opponent of war per se. He commented on the general failure of photojournalism to prevent wars, attributing it to the fact that while most photojournalist cover wars, they fail to document the aftermath properly.

In fact, the two most discussed and commented on topics were the power of - or lack thereof – images as change agents and the (regretful) state of the photojournalism industry and the dearth of (paid for) outlets for photojournalistic work. Ron Haviv made some interesting comments on the first subject, suggesting that while images might not have the power to change the plight of people and stop wars immediately, they create visual evidence for transgressions and crimes and can serve to hold people accountable.

Aidan Sullivan of Getty Images made some interesting comments on the topic of the ‘value’ of the image in saying that the visual image, in all of its forms, has never been so important or relevant in our society and culture, arguably replacing the written word as the primary vehicle of communication. The question today is one of delivery: traditional print media are drying out and new forms such as the internet, podcasts, billboards, etc. emerge.

Finally one of my favourite photographers, Eugene Richards, presented some of his old and new work, some of which – surprisingly for him – is in colour. I look forward to his book on his colour work on abandoned houses, which will come out next year. The preview he has given us today was startling. And, of course, I look very much forward to another day of inspiring presentations when the seminar continues tomorrow.