#PHOTOGRAPHY The online photography magazine
Europe Edition
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‘No Man is an Island’ No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne
europe edition
issue 18 Editors
Genea Bailey & Daisy Ware-Jarrett Design
Daisy Ware-Jarrett
Writers
Chloe Parker, Emily Valentine, Melissa Belton, Genea Bailey & Evan Merner
Social Media
Lisa Gillies & Genea Bailey
Cover Artist
Daniel Castro Garcia
inside this issue 6
Constantinos Karoulidis
14
Liam Ashley Clark
22
zine reviEW: B&B
28
Alice Marcelino
36
INTERVIEW: Emanuele Cremaschi
40
Harry Dowlen/ Jenny Whitworth
42
Sarah Amy Fishlock
48
Franco Dupuy
56
Tanya Houghton
60
Arpita Shah
68
Cathal Abberton
78
Photograd Presents: The Familiar
88
Davies Zambotti
92
interview: Daniel Castro Garcia
108
jc Candanedo
118
Benjamin SANDRI
126
Marco Sconocchia
136
Szymon Barylski
146
issue index
Constantinos Karoulidis Street session
6
I’m a pure product of the eighties. I’ve been interested graffiti since age 15. At first I only photographed my personal graffiti but little by little I’ve been photographing characters, moments of life on film. I’m not trained in photography so I work with feeling. I love the human race and I like to observe people in their habits, catching the best moments when they are most natural.
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Liam Ashley Clark EU Rally Photos
Fueled by years spent skateboarding and listening to an odd combination of punk rock, hip-hop and folk music my artwork takes inspiration from the urban environment and is created with a D.I.Y. attitude using a variety of disciplines, including drawing, painting, print making, photography and more. I explore many themes, from political and social messages, to recalling childhood memories, often with a hint of humour These images are snapshots of Norwich, post-brexit. Taken at two rallies to show support, firstly for the continued fight for the EU and secondly for solidarity with migrant workers. The final photo in the series is of a European shop, that just after the rallies, was fire bombed, but after the windows were boarded up locals covered it in paper hearts with messages of support, started a kickstarted campaign and helped with the clean up of the shop.
zine review
B&B by Chloe Parker
22
Documenting and defining our home has never been more important, and Marton Gosztonyi investigates both of his homes, Budapest and Bristol, in the well respected zine ‘B&B’. Photographer, Zine and photobook maker and founder of Black Van Publishing, Marton captures striking portraits trying to explore where and what his home is. Hey Marton! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and how your relationship with photography began?
squatting I started to feel sort of ‘homeless’ and during that period of time I shot the images, which a few years later became the ‘Coming Home’ project. The last image of the series is of my girlfriend, who I moved to Bristol with and now we have three children together. Ever since I have been inspired by my environment, everyday places and the things around me. For ‘B&B’, you choose to explore two places; Budapest and Bristol. Can you tell us why you chose those places and what your aims were for this project?
I think taking pictures in a country where I didn’t grow up has taught me to look at Yes, I have always been creative and after differently, as an outsider you spot high school I did a photography foundation. things interesting things in ordinary scenes and Couple of years later I moved to London objects. So, the idea was to see if the same where I worked in bars and music venues process of taking photographs would work for a few years. Then I met my girlfriend and if I went back to Budapest to shoot a prosoon moved to Bristol where she grew up. ject. I took up photography again, went to UWE It turned out I had been away long enough Bristol and graduated in Photography three to see my hometown with a ‘fresh eye’. The years ago. B&B has landed itself a good title as well because I realised that I am a visitor in both You focus many of your projects on the places. concept of home. Why is this important to you and why have you chosen to Where do you begin when you visit document it in so many different ways? your ‘homes’? Do you take the viewer to places that you go regularly with When I arrived in Camden ten years ago, I a distinct vision of what you want to thought, “Yes, I am home, I have arrived”, photograph, or do you spontaneously but it wasn’t the case. After a few years of discover new places for the first time?
My process is intuitive, I usually walk or cycle around places and take photos when I see something interesting. I am not sure why I am drawn to certain things but I think mostly for aesthetic reasons. What I discovered in Budapest was that some things I found nostalgic. Old communist cars for example, which used to be everywhere when I was a kid, today are really rare, but looking at the photographs you might get the feeling that Budapest is still full of old cars.
What influenced you, were there any artists, or was it purely the environment that was the biggest influence for you?
locations; do you personally feel like this is even perhaps a selfportrait of some kind? You also keep very distant from the viewer, with no text, we know very little about you and about each image, was this intentional? Yes, I think a photographic visual diary is a good way to put it and the more personal the project is, the more of a self-portrait it could become.
Also, I was always interested in the idea of how people shape their environment and how your surroundings affect your mood, how much it can tell about the people and life. The old saying goes something like this, Yes, I am really affected by my environment. “Show me your house or car, and I will tell Also, I am inspired by artists, musicians and who you are�. photographers whose work is spontaneous and imperfect like the work of Robert There are narratives behind the projects for Frank, William Eggleston, Daido Moriyama sure and I am really happy if people want and more along those lines, but even in to know more and there is something to music I like the raw sound, nice melodies talk about, but somehow I feel that telling a that seems effortless, natural, something story with images and with words are two that comes from the unconscious I guess. different things. It is good to leave a little space for the viewer and their imagination As viewer, these images resemble and as long as the pictures make the viewsome sort of intriguing scattered er interested and ask questions for me that diary of your experience in these means the images are successful.
You present the two countries in two different Zines, separating your homes, but why? I felt like they should have a life of their own as well as with the ‘twin’ edition where the viewer would see more of a parallel between the ‘old home new home’ scenario. After photographing both Budapest and Bristol, do you feel like you’ve documented your true home(s) or even that you have felt that you have found your home? Tough question. I feel like Budapest is my ‘old home.’ I was born there but left everything there when I moved, I have started from scratch in the UK. I have my own family now, new friends and the lifestyle really suits me but in the end I didn’t grow up here so I guess I could call Bristol my ‘new home’. You explore Zines in your work frequently, but can you tell us why you are drawn to them, and how you come up with creating a Zine once you are finished taking your images? I became interested in zine making during university. I like experimenting with layouts either on the walls or on pages. By putting images together or sequencing them whether to tell a story or just by looking at shapes and colours does bring something new and extra to the project. Also, editing is when the thought and some sort of order come into my working process. Your new project ‘Airlift to Berlin’ is out on the 22nd of November; can you tell us more about it? Sure, that’s another spontaneous project. I visited a friend in Berlin and stayed a bit longer to photograph. I didn’t know what it was going to be about or what I would find but I knew it would come together when I edited the images and put them in a book. I think the book itself became a very visual and colourful object in the end and I am very happy with it. Lots of things there reminded me of the old communist Budapest, such as buildings and streets but everything looked really cool at the same time so it felt a bit weird.
After the great interest in ‘B&B’ and now with ‘Airlift to Berlin’, we’d love to know if you have anything exciting planned next? Yes, I have just started my own publishing house, ‘Black Van Publishing’ set up to work on collaborative projects specialising in zines, photo-books and art publications. I am also about to start editing a long ongoing project set in a small village in Southern Greece where I spend some time every summer. In the meantime I have been photographing the kids and the everyday chaos and beauty of domestic life.
Thank you Marton, it’s been great chatting to you and good luck with your next adventures! Thanks, it’s been a pleasure!
www.martongosztonyi.com
Alice Marcelino Beyond
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I’m a photography graduate living in London. I’ve always been connected to a sort of creative area; I did theatre and dance at college, and by accident (and perhaps luck) after borrowing a friends camera to take photos on a beach in Portugal, I took up photography. I felt very comfortable with the medium from the start, and adopted it as my main form of expression. ‘BEYOND’ is a multimedia body of work, highlighting the migrants’, refugees and volunteers’ experiences during the greatest migrant crisis in Europe, since the WWII. The project reflects on the thin line that separates the migrant from the refugee and their perpetual mobility and statelessness.
It also shows the work of volunteers, who themselves voluntarily become migrants, in order to alleviate the crisis when official organisations are unable to provide support. Beyond focuses on the creation and organisation of communities with different cultural, historical and religious backgrounds within a space that is ‘permanently temporary’, as well as on the social mechanisms that various individuals adopt in order to establish an ordinary life.
Interview
Emanuele Cremaschi Fortress Europe
36
by Emily Valentine Calais (France) 24 October 2016; in the last 20 years thousands of refugees and economic migrants have gathered around the French port city of Calais, seeking to enter the United Kingdom by stowing away on ferries, lorries or trains traveling through the harbor or the Eurotunnel. Since 2002, migrants in Calais lived in squats, slums and makeshift camps known as “jungles� (from dzhangal, the Pashto word for forest) that were repeatedly raided and bulldozed. As of October 2016, the main jungle in Calais was located at a former landfill site; on October 24, the French Government began the operations to clear the refugee camp. After three days, 5.600 people - of which 1.200 minors - were relocated to some 160 reception and hospitality centers elsewhere in France.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what inspires you within your photography?
dusa, the southernmost point in Italy, only 160 km far from the African shores.
I’m an Italian photographer committed to document news and contemporary issues. Prior to completely devoting to photojournalism, I studied Law at the university in Milan; I believe that those studies concurred to form and shape my very own sensibility towards social and humanitarian questions.
I then decided to develop a project on migratory routes throughout Europe because I felt that it could help me to better understand both my past and our future.
What prompted you to tell the story of migration culture by traveling and documenting migratory routes? Why do you think photography is an effective medium to tell this story? It all started in 2011, when the revolutionary wave of protests known as the Arab Spring spread out; I followed the massive landings of Tunisian migrants in the island of Lampe-
Looking at the past, the Latin epic poem Aeneid tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled his homeland and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans: as Italian, my culture springs from a migration of war refugees. Moreover, the story of my family itself is strongly bound to a migration: my grandpa was born in Peru because his father left Italy during the Italian diaspora, a large-scale emigration - mainly towards the Americas - between 19th and 20th century.
As for the future, no doubt that such an unprecedented migratory flow is going to define a brand new European identity. Regarding photography as a medium, I don’t believe it is the most effective one to tell this story, since I think videography is still more powerful; but, ehy, it’s my medium and I tried to get the most out of it. From a personal perspective, how did you manage to adapt to each different experience and integrate with the people you were documenting? When working, I try to respect what my ethics suggests me. I strive to be as much as patient, empath, and communicative as possible. I’m not there just for the picture. We are all humans, before all.
Gyor (Hungary), 5 September 2015; between late August and early September, Hungary has experienced a strong migratory pressure on its territory. The Orban government has initially decided to block the transit of migrants, but on September 4 it has provided some assistance, allowing many refugees to reach Austria by train or bus, after thousands had begun a march from Budapest to get to Vienna on foot. In the picture: migrants’ journey on a train heading to the border with Austria.
Lampedusa (Italy), 7 March 2011; as a consequence of the turmoil caused by the so called Arab Spring, thousands of Northern African men are reaching the tiny island of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost point. In the picture: an overcrowded fishing boat is approaching the harbour of Lampedusa in the early morning.
What were the stand out encounters for you during the project as whole? Last year, in Idomeni, I met an Afghan family with a daughter of 5; they were queuing to cross the border between Greece and FYROM. When the Macedonian police let the migrants go through, the little girl gripped my leg because she wanted me to cross the border with her, but I was not allowed to, since it was an unofficial border crossing, open only to migrants. How has your work been received and what positive impact has it had? Fortress Europe is a project which has spanned through 11 countries since five years now. Thanks to the French daily newspaper La Croix I had the opportunity to produce part of the latest chapters of the work;
the French branch of the European Journalist Association also awarded the reportage done along the Balkan route. As Fortress Europe is an ongoing project do you have plans to travel any further routes? I would like to be anywhere at anytime, that’s my nature. If I could, yes, I would definitely tell the story of those migrants who try to make it to France... 8.000 km away from Paris. Mayotte is a French insular department in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique; it is also the destination of thousands of migrants from Comoros, an archipelago island nation located a few nautical miles from Mayotte. According to the French authorities, since 1995 almost 10.000 Comorians lost their life while at-
tempting to reach Mayotte, while last year 15.000 were repatriated back to Comoros. Europe far away from Europe, but still Fortress Europe.
www.emanuelecremaschi.com
Harry Dowlen / Jenny Whitworth Can’t Smile Without EU We are graphic designers studying at the University of Brighton in our final year. We wanted to express our opinion on the referendum so we created small transferable tattoos relating to Brexit including EU flags and political figures involved.
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EU Temporary Tattoo
Sarah Amy Fishlock Five Lands
42
I work mainly with lens-based media, found images and publications. My work explores the relationship between the individual and wider social, historical and political realities, the tension between national and familial identity, and the problematic nature of memory. My mother’s family came to Scotland in the first decades of the 20th century from the hill villages around La Spezia in north west Italy. Five Lands is an ongoing long term project documenting the region and exploring the strange, uncomfortable nostalgia of a third generation immigrant.
Franco Dupuy Grains of Europe
I hate when I’m not able to control the environment that surrounds me. That’s why I prefer shooting in studios. With models, with actors, with scenary, with huge and beautiful lenses. But can I do when I travel? I must do something. My job, crossing the studio’s door is to find the exact moment, the exact place, and just frame. Easy, right? What would I do during my trips without my analogue camera? Would I just stare at the monuments? At the churches? Grains of Europe is the result of a long trip around Europe. My first one to be honest. This weird feeling of being so far away from home, but at the same time free.
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Roman Guy
Il Bambino
Roman Gang
Mona Lisa
Trend
interview
Tanya Houghton A Migrant’s Tale
In conversation with social documentary photographer and winner of a 2015 British Journal of Photography Graduate award, Tanya Houghton. A member of the Urban Photographers Association, this year Tanya showcased her latest project A Migrant’s Tale at the annual Urban Photo Fest. We get to know her about inspirations, advice and the concept behind A Migrant’s Tale which challenges the notions of home, memory and food. By Evan Merner
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So firstly, I’d love to know a little bit about you. Why did you want to become an artist, and specifically a photographer? Artist is a definition I’m only just coming to terms with, I normally label myself as a photographerit is a field that my creative practice sits comfortably in. I studied fine art before specialising in photography. I then spent close to eight years working in fashion and advertising photography, before undertaking an M.A at Goldsmiths. This background is made evident in the way I layout or exhibit my work, often playing with the photograph as an object. Photography is calculated mathematics combined with a need for the instant. You can literally freeze moments in time as they unfold before you, that’s magic in itself. I was also trained in film, there was something about not knowing whether you had the shot or not, getting your negs back before rushing to the dark room to print. It’s this continuous need to get the shot, the need to be always be advancing my practice in a field that is continuously changing with technology that keeps challenging me and maintains my interest. A Migrant’s Tale is a collaborative piece of work. How do you meet these people whose stories you depict? It was an organic process; I was fortunate enough to meet most of my participants through word of mouth. A lot of people in my social circles work in food, are connected to food or are passionate about food. As I shared the concept of the project with colleague’s doors began to open, resulting in the ten wonderful people I was fortunate enough to work with.
The project itself challenges the concept of home being a fixed geographical point, and instead explores the notion of home as a combination of everyday routines and personal rituals. Are there certain practices in your own life that make you feel at home wherever you may be? Of course! Home is all about the rituals that we perform on a daily basis. For me it is all about the morning rituals. I often travel for work, so have gotten used to adapting routines to find comfort in unfamiliar spaces. I wake up, make a coffee, get back into bed for half an hour and catch up on the global news or read articles that I’ve book marked. I then get up do a morning yoga routine, jump in the shower and then get breakfast, tea fruit- something healthy to start the day. This is my routine regardless of where I am, I find comfort in starting my day in this familiar way. I’m really intrigued as to why food is the key focus of this link between where the participants were raised and where they now live. Why food? Where did this idea come from? The project came about through trying to make sense of the current refugee crisis. I wanted to reclaim the terminology and language around migrancy and at the same time humanize us again. I needed a common language with which to do this, a language that would enable me create seductive imagery that people could relate to quickly. That language was food. Food is everything, it shapes your day, it can be a reward or luxury, it can be used as form of self-control, benefit or affect our health, it can bring people together or divide them further. There are global and regional
differences in food, we all have significant memories tied to food from the homes and the areas in which we grew up in. The project uses food items, as signifiers of the homes we once knew and acts as everyday access points to memories of those past homes, be it local or global. I couldn’t talk about this project without of course asking for your own response. Are there certain dishes or ingredients that you’d create your own food shrine from? That’s an interesting question, a tough one as it would be a self-portrait and I think it’s always difficult to be subjective. Hmmm, based on my food memories, a small tin of Del Monte pineapple rings, a cup of tea in a child’s cup the one that has a lid on with a little hole for drinking out of, an Aperol spritz, fresh coriander and an avocado. I’d mix in some photographs of family sat at the dinner table at Christmas time and there is a Lurpak butter dish from the early 90’s that I inherited from a family member so I would have to sneak that in there…that’s interesting I had never thought about that, I think I’ll have to make that image now. A Migrant’s Tale is one of your most recent bodies of work. Is there one project that remains your favourite out of all of your endeavours so far? I am very fond of A Migrant’s Tale but I am only every satisfied with my work for a very short space of time before laying it to rest. I tend to always look forward and move onto the next project quite quickly. I have recently been producing a lot of work in the landscape mixing these images with still lifes
of objects from that landscape. I recently undertook a residency in Tallinn with the guys from Urbiquity. I explored the mythology of water within the city of Tallinn and hiked and collected objects on the island Naissaar. I did a lot of mapping and produced images that were more ambiguous. As this is my most recent body of work this would have to be my favourite, the work also contains no people and is very calming to look at…who knows though I might change my mind next week. What advice would you give to aspiring photographers who are just starting out in this industry? I often get asked this, my answer is always the same…be prepared to work hard, by hard I mean really hard, you have to really love it otherwise it wont be worth it. Being a photographer is
one of the hardest and most rewarding professions, it can give you access to people, places and stories that you might not otherwise experience first hand. Always respect the people who allow you to share their stories; with out them you have nothing. Maintain your integrity by not working for free and remember, you will have to shoot the stuff you don’t want to shoot to fund the projects and work you are passionate about, this is ok and everyone does it, just remember the end goal which is to take the pictures you love. And finally, is there already a new project in the works for the near future? With the New Year just round the corner, what are your plans for 2017? 2017 is all about making new work for me, there are a few projects in the pipeline. I am
currently applying for grants and residencies to help realize them. The main goal for next year is that I am hoping to begin a project in Australia, exploring the aboriginal mythology of Walkabout juxtaposing this against our species ability to create temporal homes within the landscape. I will be driving the east coast, photographing towns named after the landscape and the camp sights that reside in them. Its a project I have be been dreaming about for the last few years, hopefully 2017 will make that a reality. Thanks Tanya! We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future, and wish you all the best for your endeavours next year.
www.tanyahoughton.com
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Arpita Shah
I’m a photographic artist based in Scotland. I works between photography and film, exploring the fields where culture and identity meet. As an India-born artist, I spent an earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East before settling in the UK. This experience is reflected in my practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities.
My work tends to draw from Asian and Eastern mythology, using it both visually and conceptually to explore the issues of cultural displacement in the Asian Diaspora. I have completed residencies at Street Level Photoworks, Ankur Arts and Tramway in Scotland and exhibits internationally, most recently in India and the USA.
Cathal Abberton LONDON CALLING
The main focus of my work is to record the disenfranchised, those who are on the periphery of society. For the last five years the divide has only grown, more homeless, lower wages etc. The fear and hate generated has seen a rise of a venomous conversations based around migration and asylum ethics, I hope my work will go some way to change opinion. The theme for my project is to look at the issues of refugee migration within mainland Europe to the U.K. The concept is to show the landscape which has been affected, the security to maintain European borders, and the difference in conditions between “us” and the “other”.
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Port Entrance
Processing Centre
London Calling
Clandestine Children
The View to England
Photograd Presents
The Familiar
Origins, Representation and What it Means to be a European Artist Photograd is the new online platform encouraging the work of UK photography graduates that has caught our eye. We’ve invited Photograd founders Melissa Belton and Lauren Carter to showcase selected artists in this featured exploring “The Familiar”. In response to our theme of European unity, we shine a light on 5 photographers sharing bodies of work based on entity, origin and their personally unique definitions of home and also delve into what it means to be European in the current Brexit climate. Enjoy.
Curated by Melissa Belton See more from these artists and read the full interviews on... www.photograd.co.uk
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Hannah Killoh Amusement
This project focuses on the world unseen within the amusement park. Through the use of the photographic frame, the mundane and the hyper-real are juxtaposed. This creates a refreshed, ironic, if not slightly awkward, view of a space that we do not usually associate with day-to-day functionalities. How does your work represent the UK? Most people who have grown up in the UK have been to an amusement park or arcade. My images represent a 'classic' example of one of these fun, fantastic spaces, but with a dash of realism. I’ve combined the bright, fun, eye-catching aspects with the overlooked in an act to bring the true picture into light. Hinting that sometimes the shiny, loud outside isn't always the full story. Perhaps we should also look behind or underneath to fully understand what is going on. What does Brexit mean for your future as an artist? In my opinion Brexit was a mistake. A ridiculous xenophobic mistake. I was truly embarrassed to be associated with the UK when I heard the result. I didn't feel like I could happily recommend my country to anyone anymore. I really enjoy travelling and making work while I travel. So I immediately thought, "Will I still be able to travel around Europe without a visa after Brexit? What if I want to live in another country in Europe for a while, or for life? Can I still do that? What about all of my non UK friends? Can they still live here?" When I travel it changes my perspective not just on the world in general, but also my everyday surroundings. You have to get away from the day to day nostalgia to see it. • Has your practise encouraged you to travel in Europe? During my Photography BA I had the opportunity to live and study in Groningen, The Netherlands for 5 months on an ERASMUS exchange. This inspired my practice and opened up countless amounts of travel opportunities, cross cultural exchanges and a lot of new friendships. After that I travelled whenever I could, taking photographs and seeing friends along the way. Now I have a never ending list of places I want to see and things I want to do. Next on the list is Denmark. I just really want to go to Denmark.
GABRIELA GESHEVA Homeland
Homeland is a long term documentary photo essay that depicts the everyday life of the last generation of elderly people from Oreshak, a small village in the heart of Bulgaria. The series of photographs documents their closeness to the land and their manual labour as part of their everyday struggle for survival, which brings a new reality to our often idealised notion of self-sufficiency. Homeland reveals a way of life based on cultural old - traditional, rural values through photographs of goats’ milking and cheese making as well as, of a continuously changing landscape. This way of life is at times idyllic, yet often very harsh. How do you portray the familiar in your work? It’s my home, it’s the familiar for me. I want the viewer the see and feel what I do when they look at my series - I want them to think of their homeland. I want them to appreciate the simplicity of life, to understand the hard labour and to see people’s happiness living this way. We live in a world that is changing so fast and this project shows exactly the opposite; a village that is stuck in time. Is this such as bad thing after all? As I have said in my statement, I want this project to bring a new reality to our often idealised notion of selfsufficiency. Is your nationality and culture prominent in your work process? I came from a place that is culturally really different from the UK. I look at things differently. I believe because of this my work now is focused on how different people achieve life these days. I come from a place where manual labour is everything and I have already explored it in my project Homeland. Since I was little I have been engrossed by the way the villagers achieve life through hard manual labour. I find this fascinating and want to show the world the simplicity of their lives. The way they live is idyllic, but I know how hard it can actually be. I was influenced by the way they understand life and happiness but I also want to know more about other nationalities and how they achieve life. What do you think of Brexit and how will it effect your future? Brexit for me means closed borders, divided nationalities, hatred and racism. I think one way or another, because of my nationality, I might be influenced in the future when the UK leaves Europe. As a photographer I believe open borders are really important. I want to visit different countries and explore different nationalities. Staying here in England may put a barrier to this. I can only hope that this would not happen.
JOANNE COATES
I grew up in the heart of the Yorkshire Moors. The landscape was scattered with references of farming, of how we mine the land. Trips to the coast took place each week, Sunday was a sacred day by the sea. The sight of the sea was what I looked forward to each week. Lovingly anticipating that first glance of a hue of blue. It was throughout these days my connection with the sea grew. Always wanting to swim in it, to feel its cold embrace. Always wanting to smell the salt on the air, the sounds of the seaside were music to my ears.
We Live by the Water
I first travelled to Orkney in the spring of 2012, fascinated with the combination of traditional island life, and innovation. Orkney is the UK’s target site for renewable energy. Island life has a huge effect on me, seeping into my consciousness. The drastically changing weather conditions transporting one to another world entirely. Island life is changing drastically, more connected than ever due to the internet and social media. A documentation of the true stories behind the island idyllic. Islanders have always been on the edges, marginalised by their position, but what when they become the centre of the both the past and the future? I would get to know the island through stories, the tales that were weaved to me and through me are inherent to the series. Orkney waters are bluer than you can imagine, the light hits the seabed as the purity of the water creates a bounce of light. A strong sense of community is still a defining feature of the archipelago. Understanding life in Orkney and the unique relation to the sea is complex. Complex layers of stories make up the histories of the land. This series explores changes that are happening within our societies, whilst examining changes within the landscape and issues around ownership of the sea. My work looks at those on the margins of society forming a lyrical documentary approach to visual story telling. My motivations were to document a changing way of life, not only on Orkney, but to speak about the larger situation. All my works look at our unique connection and interaction with place. Looking at our connection with the natural world, and the socio-political concerns that are connected.
Orkney was no exception with no part of the island being 7 miles from the sea. A land of farming and fishing, slowly becoming the energy capital of the UK. What does Brexit mean to you and do you think it will influence your work in the future? Leaving the EU has brought many cultural injustices into question; they way in which entire sections of our ‘diverse’ country are represented and have no outlet or voice. How cities such as Hull were written about in cold ways that were opinion rather than fact by seemingly left wing journalists. Brexit is already influencing my work, I don’t think anyone working here could not be influenced by it. Has your practise given you any unique opportunities or encouraged you to travel into Europe? When I gradated in July last year I wanted to leave London and be somewhere new. An opportunity came up to work at Unseen Photo Fair so I just went for it, I was in Amsterdam for a few months so managed to start making work out there too. The hierarchy was vastly different from London and it struck me right away, it’s something I really enjoyed working there. I’ve travelled for various photo fairs such as Berlin’s month of Photography, Arles, and Paris Photo. My experiences of travelling in Europe have without a doubt always had a positive impact on me.
MATT MACPAKE
The A406 North Circular is a 27.5 mile stretch of carriageway forming the northern section of the ring road surrounding the UK’s capital. Considered by many to be one of the noisiest and environmentally damaging roads in Britain, the uncertainty of the road’s development since the 1970s has caused urban decay and criticism for lack of progress and a poor pollution record. Notwithstanding its reputation, the road represents a significant artery carrying a regular life-flow of people and goods through, around and out of the city. The road is an essential blight on neighbourhoods through which it passes, representing a significant issue for government and local communities.
The A406 North Circular
Is your nationality important to your working style? I do think there’s something intriguing about “Britishness”. Britain is obviously well documented throughout the history of photography, and some issues facing society seem to be perennial. I have always been interested in photographing the everyday life that surrounds me, and I will always take photographs of wherever I am. My practice is varied, and I am always working on new ideas and have new projects planned. My aim is to develop my practice and improve, as a documentary photographer, but certainly wandering, walking and taking pictures is a big part of my process. London features heavily as this is my home, but I also photograph other areas – I am from Carlisle and have been shooting some new work there again this summer, that has lead to new ideas and plans. What is your opinion on Brexit and will it influence your future work? I am devastated that Britain voted to leave, I was very much a remain supporter. Brexit is obviously a big area of discussion, and like a lot of people, I’ve experienced a difference in attitudes from friends and family across the country. As much of the commentary has pointed out, Brexit also highlighted a divide in attitude between London and much of the rest of the UK. Politics and society effects everything, so any photograph is going to make a statement and that will always be read as political, social or both. I’m working on a project that I started shooting in London from 2014 before the referendum, and which I’m still shooting now. I certainly want to do shoot more projects with political and social themes in the future so Brexit is certainly in my thoughts, you can’t really avoid it, even if you were trying too.
ANDY MELLOR Yesterdays
Exploring the intersection of place, identity and memory and the connection we feel toward our immediate physical surroundings, gives us a sense of place, a particular experience that occurred in a particular setting. These experiences can be feelings of joy or excitement, the feeling of stimulation, or they can be negative feelings of embarrassment, neglect or humiliation. Place identity is attachment in terms of emotional or symbolic meanings that are assigned by an individual. The physical landscape or place becomes part of a person’s self-identity.
From childhood to adult life we are exposed, through our upbringing, to many different things, the landscape being one of the core things. Be it through positive or negative associations, pieces of the places we leave become memories in our minds. Our attachment to these places in which we exist can be perennial. Yet, when we revisit those once-familiar places, we can sometimes return to a different reality. The leisure activities and past times we endure throughout our lives shape the people we become, through the experiences we have and the way we interact. How does your work represent the UK? Reflecting on personal identities this work not only portrays a typical urban area of the UK, but I have introduced aspects of my culture and views that influence the finished product. Those who view the photos can bring their own knowledge, experience and beliefs, and that can also influence their perception of the images, but these images can unmistakably be perceived as British in their content. Does nationality hold importance over your working style? I think subconsciously it does. The places we grew up and what we were exposed to will leave certain impressions. We may not fully realise the subtleties of our individual cultures but it will always be inherent in our actions. What does Brexit mean to you and do you think it will influence your work in the future? Brexit for me was a disaster. It was a campaign led by scaremongering and lies. I felt there wasn’t enough time spent doing research or thinking about the impact or what terms we could negotiate with Europe for our exit. We now face a lot of uncertainty until this negotiation takes place. It is unclear how this could affect my work as I would like to spend time in certain European countries producing work, but at this time the uncertainty of what rights we will retain for European travel etc has put a hold on my decisions.
Davies Zambotti Landa
Through my personal work, I research and analyze the “impossibility of human certainty”. Using the video and photography as a microscope/lens I observe the shadows between the interstices of everyday life. I think that, being my work mostly related to the self emotional and physical sphere, I would create a connection with the europeans as a population united first of all through the memory and the common historical background which mirrored itself into and through the blurred landscape of my very personal experience. In this way my “private” become relatively universal.
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by Emily Valentine
The Cover: Daniel Garcia Castro
Daniel Castro Garcia, the photographer behind ‘Foreigner’; has graced our cover pages with his long term project documenting the migrant crisis. A collaboration with his creative partner Thomas Saxby, this is a photo book which has turned heads, interspersing gritty realism with atmospheric portraits. We caught up with Daniel to discuss his motivation behind the project, significant moments and what’s next in his journey
Hi Daniel, so tell us, what was the catalyst which sparked your interest into telling the story of the migration crisis in Europe, and what did you hope the outcome would be in capturing this visually? I had been following the story for several years before starting the project and at the beginning of 2015 I started to discuss the possibilities of photographing the situation with my creative partner Thomas Saxby. The turning point came in April 2015 when two boats capsized in the space of one week and approximately 1,000 people lost their lives. The event itself was shocking, but what motivated Thomas and I to start working was the media reaction in the UK which we felt was unacceptable and it did not represent our views.
There were two main aspects we wanted to explore; primarily, as a photographer I felt convinced that there was a genuine alternative to the types of image being used by the media. Large, faceless crowds often seen in dramatic, dangerous or violent scenes could not be the only way to visually represent this story. Secondly, Thomas and I felt there was genuine opportunity to package the work in a different way and at a different speed. I don’t think either of us hoped to achieve anything in particular other than to offer the people we met some dignity in the way they were being photographed. We started by wanting to take a look for ourselves, but we soon realised that we would be able to create a slower and more extensive body of work that could serve as a deeper reflection on the situation rather than a hasty and emotional reaction.
As a photographer documenting a human crisis, where there any issues or boundaries that you felt were hard to navigate? I feel there are many boundaries in this type of work. From a photojournalistic point of view, photographers need to sell their images to earn a living and more often then not, what sells is something dramatic or harrowing. In places like Lesbos or Calais there is such a wide range of emotional situations to consider; people arriving to shore would breakdown and cry, boats would capsize and there would be scrambles in the water. In Calais, fights would break out between refugees/migrants and the police. All in all, drama and chaos. I feel that this humanitarian crisis has been a spring board for many photojournalists (myself included) however I would also criticise the approach of many that I saw working. I often feel that the voyeuristic nature of photojournalism often results in a “stealing of grief”. I don’t know anyone that would like a stranger coming up to them in the street let alone in a stressful situation and hold a camera to their faces, so why that kind of photographic practise is acceptable in the case of this situation I do not know. Each individual person has their own story and their own reasons for travelling to Europe. Equally I by no means wish to criticise photojournalists in general. There has been a plethora of fantastic work done on this subject, in reality I feel a greater concern for the quality of information and debate stimulated by the media and how they select and manipulate images to influence their audience. You describe one of your aims as approaching the issue of migration ‘from a calmer perspective’. How do you think your work achieves this? In a first instance, much of the approach for this project had little to do with photography and was in fact more about learning and interacting with people. Generally
I never had my camera hanging around my neck and would focus on meeting people and talking to them first and would try and establish a relationship. Once I had managed to explain why I was in any given place people would either be open to having their picture taken or not and either answer was always acceptable to me. I have always felt that portraiture is a collaboration between the photographer and the sitter and subsequently by establishing a bond I feel it allowed the people I met to present the version of themselves they wished to show. I wasn’t walking around sneaking images here and there. It was important to set a standard for the interaction, realising that even if there was no drama in the situation, one persons expression could tell the whole story and also
offer a strong human case for the situation, enabling a greater understanding and human connection for the audience. I think certain relationships allowed for deeper stories and emotions to be explored. In the case of Madia and Ali, for example, we worked together on creating images that explored the themes of witnessing, grief and time. In addition the decision to use medium format film photography required a greater degree of discipline and focus when taking the images. With digital photography you can snap to your hearts content and think about your edit later. With film you have ten shots to your roll and so you think a lot more before taking a picture. I think the landscape work in Foreigner emphasises this feeling, bringing a poetic and meditative feeling to the book.
How do you think your creative partnership with Thomas Saxby in publishing Foreigner as a photo book helped to enhance your project? Tom and I have known each other since birth and we have exchanged ideas and discussed projects for years prior to making Foreigner. I think we were both feeling unfulfilled by our day jobs, personally I had been spending a lot of time on commercial film sets and Tom had been working in-house at creative agencies, so we decided to take control over what work we were producing. Effectively investing our time and energy in work that interested us rather than trying to climb the career ladders of our respective industries. I am a self taught photographer and Tom in contrast has studied at some of the best design schools and academies in the world. He is an extremely skilled and gifted graphic designer and so for him everything has to have a reason. The most valuable question he asked me on a regular basis was “why?” Why this? Why that? When you can answer that question and justify your actions and decisions it might not necessarily give the work greater meaning, but it means you can justify and defend your work and give it coherence. I think that in many ways this is one of the problems with image making now. Where I am all for and fully support people making images I don’t feel satisfied or convinced by people saying, “well it looks cool”. Especially in the case of the migrant/refugee crisis an image has to provide more than a satisfactory aesthetic quality; people’s lives have been put at risk, they may have lost their families etc. and if you are going to the effort of going out to document them you have a responsibility to nurture the images and protect them. Tom and I worked hard at developing the concept of Foreigner and deciding how to present the story; chronologically, by country, by situation. Had Tom not have been a part of this then Foreigner might still not be made.
Foreigner has received significant press attention, is this something you set out to achieve, and what impact do you think this has had on your original vision for the project? After being shortlisted for the MACK Books First Book Award we managed to run a successful Kickstarter campaign which helped us self-publish 1,000 copies of the book. Seeking press was never our intention; at the early stages of our work we would make a pdf to send to magazines but we received very little interest and it was the book that spiked interest. In addition the connection to MACK Books meant that many organisations would come to us and ask for review copies and press packs and, slowly but surely, positive reviews came in and everything seemed to grow. This project very much took over our lives and we really took on the responsibility of getting the book into as many of the best bookshops and libraries we could. The day they arrived from the printer we were sat in a room surrounded by boxes from floor to ceiling and I guess where on the one hand making the book was a challenge, the real challenge lay in getting it into the hands of an audience. We had a document that we felt contained a body of evidence that deserved to be seen. We are both immensely grateful for every single organisation that has supported this project because it has never been about us. We have always felt that we are representing the people in the book and they are the people that matter here. We have managed to support some of the people in the book financially and ease their worries and any money we have made has gone back into the project.
“what motivated Thomasand I... was the media reaction in the UK which we felt was unacceptable and it did not represent our views”
If anything, the press has been welcome and opened doors for us to continue this project and think about how to advance. From a personal point of view I feel humbled that my images have been well received, I want to dedicate my life to this work and this subject and continue developing ideas about how we consume information in this world of 24/7 media.
Do you have any further plans to work on similar projects, and what else is on the cards for you as we move into 2017? Foreigner is a long term project for me and I have several ideas in development. There are a lot of people I need to catch up with and I’m certain I’ll be moving abroad for a while to make new
work. Nothing concrete yet. One of the most beautiful results of making Foreigner is that Tom and I have had the opportunity to lecture at universities all over the UK. It’s been a privilege to speak to students about the work and hopefully influence them in some way. We both really enjoy doing this so hopefully we can continue lecturing next year.
jc Candanedo Brexiters
I am a London based commercial photographer working in fashion and portraiture. I was born in Panama to a Catalan family but in my early twenties I decided to go back to my family roots and moved to Barcelona, where after a few years I started my photography career by shooting portraits of family and friends. Since then I have lived in New York, France, Sydney and more recently London where I am currently a full-time photographer. Brexiters is a personal project where I explore the image that British people have of those who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. Each sitter applied to an online ad where they were asked to impersonate someone who they thought had voted ‘leave’.
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‘The Anglo-maniac’
‘The Older Generation’
Issue index series title
‘The Hooligan’
‘The Conservative’
‘The Cultural Appropiator’
Friend of the Church, Brussels
Benjamin SANDRI 118
The Latter-day Saints of Belgium
Member of the Church, Brussels For me, photography is a means to show the world and open to other people. I try to talk about myself through my pictures, and also explore otherness, confronting myself with their differences. Mormonism is not a very well known church in Europe, but it is an integral part of the religious diversity of our continent. This American root regime finds a particular echo among young people.
Mormon painting of Jesus Christ, Namur The refusal to consume drugs (alcohol, coffee, tobacco, ...) and to remain virgins until marriage also represent a part of our European youth. The Mormon community counts more than 15 million members in the world, with about half of them in the United States. This religion stemming from Christianism was born in the New World during the XIXth century. This church is of course present on the Belgian soil and numbers around 5000 members coming from different countries and social backgrounds.
Mormons missionaries from USA, Charleroi Mormon parishes have similar, bare interior architectures, far from splendour and luxury. For them, it reflects their simplicity and modesty. These photographs have a documentary purpose. They are not concerned with making a positive or negative statement on this religion, which could give a sectarian vision because of certain antecedents and present practices. They attest of these standardised places of worship, adorned with religious images and faces that frequent the parishes of the Latter Day Saints.
Kids room’s, Brussels
Entrance of the Church, Brussels
Marco Sconocchia Babylon
I’m an Italian photographer based in London. Babylon is a dream from which you never wake. A dreadful nightmare you know is not real but your sleep is so heavy, so deep so delicious that you can’t just wake up. Babylon consists of double exposures about London’s nights. My purpose is to explore the “alienation’’ of the biggest city in U.K through the paradoxical influence between the new, busy, chaotic city that is growing up and the quiet desperate feeling you may feel during the night. Chaos, industrial, trafficked frames and the people around mixed together to express a distorted view that goes straight to the viewer as a punch.
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Szymon Barylski Fleeing Death
I’m a Polish Photographer born in 1984 based in Ireland. Photography is my passion, which I continually develop. I am involved in documentary photography and photo essays. For me, photographing is a tool for exploring and learning about the world. I try to tell a story and show it directly. In my opinion, people are an inexhaustible topic and a source of inspiration. The refugee camp in Idomeni on the Greek-Macedonian border, to which thousands of immigrants, mainly Syrians, are coming. It is occupied by people from different social strata. They are all found there fleeing the war, death and starvation.
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Issue index Cathal Abberton - cjabberton.com Szymon Barylski - szymonbarylski.com JC Candanedo - greypistachio.com Liam Ashley Clark - liamashleyclark.com Emanuele Cremaschi - emanuelecremaschi.com Harry Dowlen / Jenny Whitworth - hdowlen.tumblr.com Franco Dupuy - instagram.com/franco.dupuy Sarah Amy Fishlock - sarahamyfishlock.com Daniel Castro Garcia - danielcastrogarcia.com Marton Gosztonyi - martongosztonyi.com Tanya Houghton - tanyahoughton.com Constantinos Karoulidis - constantinoskaroulidis.tumblr.com Alice Marcelino - alicemarcelino.com Photograd - photograd.co.uk Benjamin Sandri - benjaminsandri.com Marco Sconocchia - marcosconocchia.com Arpita Shah - arpitashah.com Davies Zambotti - interstizi.weebly.com
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There is more power in unity than division. Emanuel Cleaver
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