the PHC blog » Projects

The ‘New Direction’ bears fruit

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:50:05 +0000

So, just realised it’s almost 3 months since that last post, proclaiming to the world my grand New Direction, so I though it’s probably about time I showed you some results:

You can see a few here but you’ll have to log-in to see more.

A new direction

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:47:18 +0000

I’ve always been unsure of which photographic pigeonhole I inhabit. I know what I’m not – photojournalist, conceptualist, digital manipulator – but sometimes I have a lot of difficulty trying to figure out what I am. The best I can say is that my style is reportage.

That style means that I am inevitably drawn in the direction of documentary photography. This is fine, and I find such work rewarding, but it really doesn’t satisfy the more artistic parts of my nature. For the last few years I’ve been working more and more on the documentary aspect – I think partly through the mistaken belief that I would be able to make money out of this kind of thing, fool that I am.

It’s time for a change.

I’m going to move back into more artistic work. For me that means portraits, and figure nudes. I’m planning a few shoots over the next few months and I’ll post some samples of work here as I go along.

Seems like such a small thing, but believe me – it’s taken a lot of soul searching to decide on this change of direction!

Tangier pictures now public

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:31:10 +0000

I’ve made the pictures I took in Tangier last month publicly accessible in the Client Area of the website here.

A girl learns French at the DARNA charity in Tangier.

The pictures were taken as part of a project on child migration from north Africa to Spain. The project is now, sadly, dead in the water. Lack of funding. Same old story.

I’m clearly hoping the project will continue in some form, and I will keep pursuing possible avenues of funding, but in the meantime please have a look at the pics. I’d like to hear what you think.

Theresienstadt

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:43:42 +0000

I’ve finally got around to scanning some more pictures from the Theresienstadt story.

Administration office in the military prison used by the Gestapo during the Nazi era to hold political prisoners. Small Fortress, Terezin, Czech Republic. November 2003.

It really was an extraordinary day that I spent there in 2003, and quite unexpected. Have a look at more pictures here, or download the PDF, in which you can also read my thoughts on the place.

That day sparked a long term project about the prisons used by repressive regimes to suppress opposition. I’m hoping to do some more work on this over the next year.

Pictures of the bulls

Paul — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:01:27 +0000

I realised hardly anybody has seen these pictures, and this feels like a pretty good home for them – for the time being, at any rate. Hope you enjoy.

The pictures were taken in eastern Spain in over the last two summers where, in an echo of ancient festivals, cows and bulls form an integral part of summer celebrations in the towns and villages. Bulls run through streets in the hot afternoon sun – and in the middle of the night – calves chase children around the village square, and young men can live their torero dreams.

This is not the corrida, with it’s formalised structure and celebrity matadors. The aim is not to kill or maim the animals – indeed inflicting any harm on the beasts is condemed. These are fiestas organised and enjoyed by the people.

If you let it play to the end of the bulls gallery, you’ll get some more pictures.

San Antoni Abad

Paul — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:59:18 +0000

I’m used to St Francis being the patron saint of animals, but around here it’s St Antony. For the last two days most towns have been carrying out blessings of animals. The animals in question are largely pets, dogs being the most frequent recipients of the scared sprinkle, but all manner of little critters are offered up.
Yesterday I was in Alcoy and this morning in Benissa taking pictures. Horse, rabbit, donkey, tortoise, budgerigar, cat, you name it – I’ve knelt or trodden in just about every type of excrement imaginable in the last two days.
I’m hoping the resulting pictures will become part of an ongoing project, or perhaps ‘theme’ would be a better way of putting it, about the relationship between people and animals.

Zimbabwe

Paul — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:18:10 +0000

I’ve been working on a long term project – one of those that doesn’t have an end in sight yet – about political prisons. This covers places of detention, and often torture and execution, where the victims were not criminals but had simply upset their government. Or, in some cases, another government.

Small Fortress, Terezin, Czech Republic. November 2003. Solitary confinement block.

The problem with continuing this project is that such places are quite hard to find – at any rate those that haven’t been turned into Theme Parks. If they’re still functioning the operators don’t want anyone to know – they know what they are doing is shameful and try to hide it – and when they cease to be of use the operators destroy them if they can, for the same reason. Do you think Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo will be allowed to stand around as a reminder?

The prisons that remain to be seen are those that were extant when the regime that built them fell, such as the Orwellian German Democratic Republic, or was defeated, such as the Third Reich.

I visited the old STASI prison at Hohenschönhausen in Berlin last month – a memorable location and well worth a visit (pictures soon). The surprise of this place was the mundanity of it. The patterned vinyl flooring (the same as the kitchen of a flat I used to live in!), the striped wallpaper. It was like a Cold War era East-Block hotel, but with heavy steel doors and a highly effective alarm system. As if someone had decided, back in the 70s, to “cheer the place up a bit”.

The Small Fortess, Terezin, Czech Republic. November 2003. One of the small prison cells. The Gestapo held up to seventy men in each of these rooms.

Sadly such places are by no means history – which brings me to the point of this post! I can’t see even a contrite new US administration allowing me to see the facilities at Guantanamo when they are closed, but the regime of Robert Mugabe surely cannot last more than a few months, and the thousands of people he has held illegally will be released. There will be an opportunity to record the conditions under which they were held. I hope it happens soon, and I can get to Zimbabwe to document it.

The people who suffer in these places deserve at least that much.