Uncategorized – Digital Image & Culture

Assignment 6: Pre Assessment Tutorial

The purpose of this final assignment is to help you review your work and decide how you’re going to submit it for assessment. Even if you’re studying for personal development alone, it could still be helpful to take stock of the work you’ve made during this course and think about how you might develop it further. Although this sounds like a relatively straightforward and quick exercise, students generally find it takes much longer than they anticipated! Tackle this task methodically and allow yourself plenty of time to do justice to the effort you’ve made throughout the course.

Following my feedback discussion with my tutor I agreed a set of headings for this assignment. The advice was that I had completed A5 as far as I needed to take it. The Internet is a vast subject but the fact that I had decided to do a 20 year snapshot meant that I could close the project here for the moment. Hence A6 will become a concluding phase to the entire Digital Image & Culture level 2 programme.

Course content:

When I started Digital Image and Culture I was enthusiastic after having completed Landscape. I wanted to push my practise further. I wanted to expand my technological knowledge. I felt on the cusp of something. After the first assignment, which I thoroughly enjoyed making, I embarked on assignment 2. Very soon I felt weighed down with research work. Although I am very accustomed to researching, I did not enjoy the research that was being asked of me. I felt I had seen much of it before. I found the work recommended to be repetitious of previous research. I missed new and exciting photographers like JR, here in France, true African photographers like Malik Sidebe and wonderful old Japanese photographers like Daido Moryama. I wanted to blow the dust off the research articles before I read them…… As I progressed on the course I began to loose momentum. My work was suffering. I tried to make personal work but could not work up any enthusiasm.

I feel it would have been more advantageous if we were asked to create work by looking at, and studying the work of other photographers, Hannah Hoch being a typical example, rather than write 500 words about their work. Students at Level2 can be trusted to do the research and the end product will give a clear indication of how well the student has studied the recommended work. I am sure most students read, listen or look at the links recommended by their tutors as these are always relevant.

I could not see the point of assignment 4. Why not suggest a face to face contact with the tutor to discuss the A5 project?

Once I got to working on my A5 project my motivation returned and I loved the whole exercise.

Assessing my own Assignments for Digital Image & Culture:

I started A1 by learning how to divide up a circular image. I finally got around to making political satirical circular images. This was real fun. The fourth image I made of the Russian Presidents eyes was not successful but my dissatisfaction with it and the changing political scene in the UK lead to the ‘Boric Johnings‘ idea.

A2 started as a total disaster. No one liked my idea to study the Chilean mining situation. I had to rethink the whole project and it all took a long time. Once I had settled on making it about my great grandmother I was happy and was able to proceed with the work. The object of the work was to tell Letitia Millet’s story to my children and grandchildren. Hence it had to be in commercially printed book form. But the material was so tactile I felt a handmade book was required as well. This was the highlight of the course for me. Being in the presence of a reputed bookbinder as we worked alongside one another, to produce my book, was a real privilege.

Writing essays is not difficult for me. I found A3 extremely useful in that I studied the digital self and used the opportunity to analyse my own digital self. This too is a huge topic and worthy of greater in depth study.

I will discuss A4 and A5 together as, for me, they are one and the same assignment. I so wanted to do this project. My husband never makes any issue of his participation in the beginnings of the Internet, nor do any of his colleagues. But these were the people who made it possible for Tim Berners-Lee to write his front end page which became the World Wide Web. Those who came before Berners-Lee are the forgotten people. They are all in or coming up to their eighties and their story needed to be told and heard. The subject is very technical and this posed a real challenge for me. I wanted the end result to be comprehensible to the least technical person I know. My tutor claims to be untechnical and she assured me the video held her interest until the end. I am very grateful to her for this reassurance.

My grandchildren have no idea their Grandpa played such a pivitol role in the beginning of the Internet. To them he is “Silly Goose”. So I wanted him to tell the story with his own voice.

Personal Technical Development:

I feel I advanced my technical skill very little in the early sections of this course. However the making of the video was a wonderful way to return to something I had scratched the surface of in Landscape. My technical skills were abysmal when I started, with iMovie, to make videos. I was advised during Landscape to move to Premier Pro. I was totally lost and had to climb a steep technical mountain. I feel this project helped me to hone my skills a little more. I have so much more to learn but I feel sufficiently confident now to take this further. I used a DSLR with an external mic but my cinematographer friend asked why I wanted to make a video with a stills camera when I would never use a video camera ot make a still image! Because I had no choice was my reply. I am saving for a video camera which I hope to be able to put to good use in Level 3.

The making of the book for assignment 5 required patience, a commodity in short supply with me. This was because the dot matrix paper was so lightweight and the print was much heavier. The length of the print, 2.4m also posed problems. I had to fold it first and then add the glue to sections and then attach it to the lightweight dot matrix paper. Then this had to be attached front and back to the covers. The reaction I got from fellow students, friends and my tutor would indicate that the end result justified the decisions made along the way.

I also enjoyed making layered images for one of the exercises.

Outcome

I have completed this level despite having lost momentum along the way. My completion is due, in great part, to my fellow students and tutor, Clive White, who gave me such helpful advice and encouragement during our Side Wide hangouts.

The outcome is that I am ready to present the work for assessment. I am relieved that I have managed to get this far. I am reasonably satisfied with the end result but I do not feel that I have found my own voice yet. I feel that I have ‘created’ a voice which does not sit very well on my shoulders. This is a documentary type voice when inside my head I am not a documentarist but want to produce more original creative work. I appreciate that I have stories to tell but I am still struggling with how to tell these stories.

Where to from here?

Onward and upward. I am impatient to get on with Level 3 but am terrified at the same time. I discussed with my tutor if it was odd that I want to work on something, at Level 3, that I have not even touched on so far in my studies. She assured me that this was not unusual. In the HE6 Hangout Ariadne outlined the process for deciding on a subject for our Body of Work at level 3. She advised that we must be passionate about what we want to work on. My tutor seconded this.

I have always been passionate about the environment. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful garden on my island home. I work biologically and recycle everything possible. My compost heap is the story of my life. It contains all my shredded paper, all my cardboard cartons, the contents of my hoover, my cats hair, my own hair and all the vegetable waste in the household and garden.

When I leave my own controlled environment I am shocked and appalled to find all sorts of rubbish and litter. I am especially upset by the indestructible plastic that washes up on our shores. Most of us, with some notable exceptions, are aware that we need to do more to protect our fragile world. I would like to increase awareness of the problems of plastic pollution by getting my local community involved in finding creative solutions. I am also interested, as a qualified chemist, in exploring replacement materials for plastic. A third line of interest is using recyclable plastics to create sculptures.

TUTOR REPORT

OCA Mahon 2DIC06 29 Nov 19

Project 5 Sexualised images

As Joan Fontcuberta discusses in his essay ‘Ode to a King’s Legs’ (Fontcuberta, 2014, pp.113–25), the Photoshopped image crosses into political imagery and domestic photography

The title of this project is sexualised images but I am interested in the whole topic of image manipulation.

I believe that very few of us are duped by manipulation of images today. It is taken as said that almost every image is digitally altered. Hence we can no longer rely on a photograph to ‘tell the truth’ about some event or about somebody. Fontcuberta’s essay is about the whole topic of image manipulation and not jsut about manipulation of images to accentuate sexualisation. He discusses the Spanish royal family portrait. The image was badly Photoshopped by the queen herself. I found this hilarious and fail to understand the public outcry. So Granny ‘created’ a happy family image, so what. She could have painted the family portrait if she had been a painter, and no one would have raised an eyebrow if she had done so using photographs. I think we need to get over this idea of the ‘veracity’ of a photograph. Photographs are no long telling the truth, in this they resemble paintings. Artists always accentuated the positive points of their sitters.

Manipulation of information has existed for ever. My husband witnessed an accident in Dublin when he was a young man. He was home in Ireland on holidays and went to the police station and made a written statement and left his name and address as a witness. He confirmed that he would be available if required. On his return to Ireland he called by the police station to find out what had happened. Although the police officer had taken down his written statement on the first occasion, there was no record of this. Someone had ‘manipulated’ or disappeared his witness statement.

Was the Thrump phone call to the Farrage interview a hoax – I cannot even remember whether this turned out to be fact or fiction. Does it matter? For me it does not as I do not believe anything either of these two men say or do. Unlike the Spanish hoax phone call to the Bolivian President Morales the Thrump phone call barely raised eyebrows. We have got used to being ‘duped’ with the actions of those in power. But we do need to remain vigilant and try to decipher whether those standing for office are honest people. This is becoming increasingly difficult because of the manipulation of those standing for office, by their media handlers.

The Spanish Royal family’s christmas card ‘hoax’ seems so innocent compared to what has and is happening on social media every day. Compromising images of young men and women are been put up, photoshopped and distributed every moment of every day. Some of this online manipulation and distribution of images is causing young people to take their own lives. Within a ten week period in Ireland, in 2017, ten young people took their lives due to online bullying.

The increase of the apparent need of young people to expose themselves on social media in a sexualised manner is disquieting. I am not sure if parents can control this. I have grandchildren just reaching the age of puberty and I worry for them. But I have very tech savvy children and I trust them to give their children enough self assurance to be able to avoid exposing themselves in these types of images.

It is hard to say where this image manipulation is going. I do not believe ti will go away but I can only hope that people become less gullible and do not take it so seriously.

Book Binding Methodology

Had a wonderful half day with Barbara Hubert, the bookbinding expert in Cork. She was a wonderful teacher, very patient. She worked on a model the same size and shape as mine. I have listed the steps below:

Make sure pages are lined up as well as possible
Punch holes (5) along the spine
Thread needle with waxed thread and make both sides equal in length. Make a knot in the bottom
Start at the top and stitch up and down and then back up the spine holes.
Glue spine with a small amount of PVA glue
Glue the backing material along the spine but not to front and back of book
Cut end pages to size
Cut front and back cover from card and a strip for down the spine.
Choose material for cover. I chose a cloth material for front. This material had to be glued to brown craft paper before it could be used. Then it was left to dry.
Glue ‘end’ pages to front and back of book by gluing the book side, making sure the glue goes under the backing material and then over it.
Cut backing and front material (if different leaving about 3mm extra at top, bottom and sides.
Cut the corners across at an angle. then fold these over. pinch the corners so that they will fit neatly.
Glue the backing, spine and front material to cardboard.
Place a small piece of headband at top and bottom.
Then place the book with its end pieces glued on the cover.
Glue the book to the back and front.

Book Binding at Bantry Literary Festival

16th July 2019

I participated at a book binding course facilitated by Eilis Murphy. This was part of the Bantry Literary festival.

Eilis, the instructor, qualified as a printer. During her course she participated in a week long book making programme. She was immediately smitten and turned to book making. She has furthered her studies in many countries.

Eilis demonstrated how to make each book design and then we made our own. We started the afternoon making a small concertina book.

We made a cover for our small book. We then moved on to making two books starting with an A3 sheet. We received the instruction sheet above which we could follow. Eilish then invited us to make a cover for our second book. We glued this on to the book.

All three books we made were very simple.

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A Modern Eye: Helen Hooker O’Malley

Helen Hooker was born into a wealthy family in Connecticut, USA.

As a young girl she travelled widely with one of her sisters. She studied and made photographs throughout her travels. In 1933 she met and fell in love with the Irish writer and revolutionary Ernie O’Malley. her family strongly disapproved of the relationship. But they married in a registery office in London. The family did finance the purchase of a grand house Burrishoole Lodge in Co Mayo. The couple became gentleman and gentlewoman farmers. But the bright lights drew them back to Dublin. The couple had three children.

An exhibition of her work is being held at The Gallery of Photography of Ireland entitled A Modern Eye. The work being shown is from the National Archive of photography.

O’Malley brought Helen all over Ireland showing her the old monastic buildings and ancient monuments which she photographed beautifully.

She was also interested in people and their way of life. Life in Ireland the 1930s must have seemed so simple to this sophisticated American woman. But her images of turf cutters and people of the villages never appear voyeuristic. She produced really sensitive images.

But as almost always with the Gallery of Photography in Dublin I felt short changed. The space appears to be enormous but the number of images that can be shown is limited because of the architectural design of the building.

The exhibition started with images of her travels while she was a young woman. I felt this was the story of a separate exhibition. Apparently she left an enormous archive. I hope that there will be a bigger exhibition in Ireland a later stage.

The exhibition runs until the end of September.

Wikipedia. 2019. Helen Hooker – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hooker. [Accessed 05 July 2019].

Project 4.4: The selfie revisited: testimony or trophy?

- Read Susan Sontag’s essay ‘Regarding the Torture of Others’ at Link 7  
- Read Alise Tifentale’s essay ‘Making Sense of the “Masturbation of Self-Image” and the  “Virtual Mini-Me” ’ at Link 8 This is published by a research group based in New York called Selfie City. See Link 9

The title of this project is interesting. A ‘selfie’ can be both testimony and trophy. “I was here” being the usual testimony ‘selfie’ which appears on Instagram and trophy when one makes an image of oneself with the ‘victim’ of ones actions.

Susan Sontag’s article (1) discusses the Abu Ghraib images of the Iraqi prisoners being tortured by the young American soldiers. These images are not strictly ‘selfies’ according to the Oxford Dictionary definition. The images were made by a third party of the person being humiliated or tortured. But the images were made to be distributed so they do fulfil this part of the definition. It is not relevant to discuss here neither whether the American authorities were complicit in the actions photographed nor whether the actions contravened the Geneva Conventions against torture. We are only considering the ‘why’ this form of image making has become so prevalent and what was the soldiers’ reason for making and distributing them.

Sontag puts forward the thesis that the sexual content of these ‘trophy’ images could have been influenced by the amount of pornography the soldiers have at their disposal on the Internet. Does continual viewing of pornography increase the possibility of normalising it. Sonntag offers no proof that this is the case. I would tend to agree with her that continual viewing of pornography would desensitize a person, which leads to a need to perform similar acts in ones own life. Then the desire to share this performance with others on social media follows.

The percentage of self-images on Instagram is not as high as is sometimes assumed. In the study of five cities, Bangkok, Moscow, Berlin, Sao Paolo and New York the percentage was found to be between 3-5% of the overall number of images studied (3200) (2). Other statistics in this study were not surprising. Selfies are made mostly by people between the ages of 20 and 23. Women post more images of themselves than men. The study was carried out to try

to see beyond the individual agendas (such as the notorious celebrity selfies) and instead notice larger patterns, which sometimes can contradict popular assumptions (2)

Alise Tifentale explores a little further the ‘why’ of self-images. Is it to present an image of ourselves to the world which will encourage people to ‘like’ us or at least ‘like’ the image of ourselves we have circulated. Are we creating a brand #me? The brand #me, when shared, becomes part of brand#us. WE become part of a tribe. Financial and geographical limitations means that the Brand #us is limited to a predefined group of people with the means and the equipment to belong to this group brand #us. I find this scary a somewhat reminiscent of the novel 1984.

But the making and sharing of self images can also be driven by modern technological advances. We can make and post images of ourselves with ease. Everyone is now a photographer and even an artist.The camera is ever present in everyone’s lives. Not all vernacular images will be considered as art but some will. Or some will be made into art in a myriad of ways. I see no problem with that. Campbell’s Soup tins are not very aesthetic to look at but in the right hands…..

As frequently happens in society the practice is ahead of the research. New computerized tools will need to be invented to analyse what and why people continue to post images of themselves on social media. Researchers will continue to analyse and debate if self images are or coudl become art. One way or the other a percentage of smart phone users will continue to make and post images of themselves. it is our choice to look at them and to comment on whether we find them attractive.

Susan Sontag. 2019. Regarding The Torture Of Others – The New York Times. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/magazine/regarding-the-torture-of-others.html. [Accessed 05 July 2019].
selfiecity. 2019. selfiecity. [ONLINE] Available at: http://selfiecity.net. [Accessed 05 July 2019].

Festival of Writing & Ideas

This was my second visit although the festival has been in existence for eight years. It is held in the Duke of Leinster’s magnificent house grounds in Borris Co Kilkenny. This year the crowd had tripled since my last visit four years ago. But it is still Ireland’s best kept secret.

The festival is run over three days starting on Friday and running through to Sunday afternoon. There are five different locations each one hosting at least one writer and an interviewer, often another writer. The writers come from every genre of writing including historians, novel writers, crime writers, journalists and some journalists turned novel writers. I have never been present at a disappointing session.

My only complaint would be that I would like the power to be in four places at the same time.

I decided to attend the interview between Kit deWall and Sinead Gleeson. I did not know the work of deWaal but I thought she was related to Edmund deWaal. She was most certainly not. She is the child of an Irish Catholic mother and a West Indian father who found love in East London in the sixties. She describes her upbringing as very working class. He mother left the Catholic church because of her treatment and joined the Jehovah Witnesses. There were no books in her childhood home. But there was plenty of love. I bought deWaal’s book The Trick to Time.

I next attended a session with Alex Clerk and Donal Ryan. I was interested to hear him as I had read The Spinning Heart. I found it very lightweight and not well written. Despite my opinion he was the recipient of some big book prize and has become quite celebrated in Ireland. He is a very honest and down to earth guy and I quite liked him. But I would not spend my precious free time or money reading his work.

Next was Hisham Matar discussing his book about the disappearance of his father in Libya under Gadaffi’s reign. His discussion was with Lara Marlow, the Irish Times Paris correspondent It was an interesting discussion but not overly so.

After lunch, in fairly cold outdoor conditions, I was very seriously torn between hearing Lindsey Hilsum and Ben Anderson talking about Marie Colvin. But I decided instead to hear four authors give fifteen minute presentations on a subject that interested them. Ann Enright spoke about Flann O’Brien, Lucy Siegle talked about sustainable fashion, William Dalrymple talked about the coptic influence on the Celtic church, and a young poet, whose name I missed, read her super, very modern poem.

William Dalrymple

Lucy Siegle

Ann Enright

Finally I listened to An Enright talk to Sinead Gleeson about her book Constellations. I would not buy this book but I found the discussion very stimulating.

Visit to Barbara Hepworth Gallery

The second St Ives trip was to the Barbara Hepworth Studio and garden. As an avid gardener this was one of the highlights of the whole weekend.

The Barbara Hepworth story can be read here

After her divorce from John Skeaping, with whom she had had a son Paul, she and Ben Nicholson, with whom sh had set up home in London. moved to to St Ives. They had triplets together. They remained in St Ives during World War II. Nicholson’s abstract painting seemed to have a strong influence on Hepworth’s sculptures. They were in contact with many of the great contemporary artists of their time. They had triplets together but their marriage was dissolved in 1951. Her son, Paul, was killed in a plane crash in 1953.

In 1949 Hepworth bought a house and studio in St Ives. Here work became very influenced by nature and her surroundings. I was completely amazed by the size of some of her works which we saw at the Tate St Ives.

The sensitivity of her work was extremely moving.

Having seen this work at the Tate I was really keen to see her studio and garden.

It was eerie to see her tools and working apparel just there.

It must have been a wonderful place to work. In the middle of the bustle of St Ives her garden space was tranquility.

It makes her work more meaningful to me as i can imagine her taking inspiration from her surroundings.

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Original Assignment 2

This is my original work on Assignment 2

PREPARATION FOR ASSIGNMENT:

The topic I am researching for this assignment is Water and its presence on Social Media. I have chosen this topic because I love water. I am the granddaughter of a fisherman. I can trace seven generations of fishermen in my maternal family. I live half the year on a very small island in the south west of Ireland. We have had our house there for forty years and I never get tired of the sea. I love being on and in the water. I would like to see how popular it is with other users of social media. I want to see whether it is seen more as an aesthetic subject or is it the social or life giving aspect which generates the most images. I would like to see how my images compare to those already posted on the social media sites which I use.

I am somewhat unsure about the copyright laws for re-use of images on finds on social media.

THE BOOK

I may take different aspects of water and discover how many and what way other photographers have treated these subjects. I may also concentrate on one issue. I also want to use my own archival images of water to compliment and contrast with what is out there on Social Media.

Best social media sites for photographers:(1)

For Engagement: Instagram
For Community Building: Facebook
For Portfolio Development: Behance
For Portfolio Expansion: Freelancer
For Brand Building: Pinterest
For Search Engine Optimization: Google+
For the Subtle All-in-one presence: 500px
For the “everything” in your trunk!: Tumblr
For the Photo-management: Flickr
For the Inspiration & Innovation: Stumble Upon
For the Artist in You: Deviant Art
For the Curious Photographer: Howcast
For the Spirited Photographer in you: Photofie

Social Media and Stock sites: Putting just the word ‘water’ into the following sites:

Facebook: Difficult to get a figure even for a date
Pinterest: Dont have statistical numbers but have subheadings e.g water photography and under each of these there are further subheadings:
- ocean, nature, girl in, calm, portraits, ideas, underwater, reflection, dark, drinking, glass of, movement, ink in, shower, pour, flowers in, sparkling, detox, ice, flowing, boiling, splash, flowing, tumblr, beach, blue, clear, beach, pure, pond, clean, sparkling, abstract, model, unique, people in. pool. art, creative, lake, black & white, moving, mineral, milky, waterfall, tumblr, bottle, blue, river, deep, running, women, still, tips, cup of, beach, sea, inspiration, drop, landscape, bath, couples lemon. men, clear, fashion, waves, people in, beauty, tap, dress, fresh, bubble, kids, hands, high speed, macro, summer, face, product, senior, studio, quotes, boy, settings, products.
Flickr comes up with 3.541,164 images.
Alamy comes up with: Stock Photos and Images (10,372,630)
Shutterstock comes up with: 230,934
#water in Instagram gives 64,307,903 posts. Many of these have very tenuous connections with water.
Google comes up with the following subheadings:
- drinking. bottle, cartoon, wallpaper, ocean, ice, grill, tap, ice, spring, pool, well, solution, drawing, painting, splash, transparent,.

GENERAL TOPICS ON WATER

World Water Day: 22 March 2019 Theme: Leave No one behind
Availability of Water worldwide:
Water scarcity – Wikipedia. 2019. Water scarcity – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_scarcity. [Accessed 27 January 2019].
Poems about water which I might use:

My general archive of Water in all its forms:

POSSIBLE TOPICS TO BE COVERED:

world shortage of drinking water
- bottled/tap
melting ice/glaciers
water usages
water projects
- #waterwells Instagram:5327, Alamy: water wells Nepal 22
water pollution
- sewage
- ocean plastics

POSSIBLE WATER QUOTES for pages:

drinking water:

1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases, including 90 % of children under 5. This situation is no longer bearable.(3)

melting ice:

By the end of the century, nearby Fox Glacier will have retreated up to five kilometres and lost nearly 40 per cent of its mass.(4)

Contact made with Instagram and web image makers:

James Balog, Iuna Tinta, Bergrisinn, Matador, Simone + Dan wanderlusters, Arctic Adventures Iceland, torazzagazzone, Laali Berthelsen

You have all the permission to use the photo. Good luck with your project, I would love to see it when it´s finished.

All the best,

Boris van der Spek

TOP POSTS on INSTAGRAM:

Essentially the ‘Top Posts’ on Instagram are a picked out by an algorithm that attempts to rank posts within that hashtag. Unlike the ‘Explore’ page that is user-specific, every viewer sees exactly the same ‘Top Posts’ for a given hashtag.(5)

The LAW on appropriating other artists images:

In order to understand the law it is necessary to first understand what is appropriation. Richard Prince is an artist who has used other people’s images (6) with very little changes. He was successfully sued by a French photographer but the decision was reversed on appeal. Following a later exhibition “New Portraits” he was again sued. (7). The court decision is still pending.

Sherrie Levine is another artist that has used older photographer’s work. (8)

her work asks many questions but supplies few definitive answers.

So what exactly is ‘fair use’ – I think the jury is still out on that.

Preliminary feedback from Tutor:

Running my original ideas by my tutor she offered the following advice

There is a lot happening with the word ‘water’ and the project could go in so many ways

… your family story and the poetry. It is probably finding a way to bridge the way between these two strands and I would suggest trying to tell some kind of story – whether that is purely visual or with text.

So my task was then to find a story related to my attachment to water.

I looked for photographers workig with water and found the following:

Mustafah Abdülaziz (9, 10). He showed, in his beautiful images, how difficult it is for some people to access this basic right. Below is a YouTube video of him

Abdülaziz was the only photographer I could find making images of water to tell the story of the importance of this commodity that we all take for granted in the developed world.

I decided to do my book using images from our first visit to Chile in 2013. I have about 2,500 images which I made in Chile on my first visit.

I chose Chile first because I have travelled the whole 5000 kms from north to south. Secondly because it has such a varied climate from north to south and thirdly because water in Chile is a hot political topic. It is somewhat of an enigma that in the south of the country there is an excess of water and in the north a dearth.

The mining industries in the north use vast quantities of water which they draw out from the aquifers under the Atacama desert. This reduces the supply to the towns a villages causing anger and frustration to local people. As one travels south agriculture is the main activity. There are many vineyards, cereal, fruit, vegetable as well as animal farms. All are heavy users of water. In Central Chile there is still a sufficiency. But with the growth of the capital city Santiago water needs are increasing. Moving further south the climate becomes cold and wet. The Andes Mountains form the border with Argentina and are covered with snow all year round. With the increase of temperature, as a result of climate change, the glaciers carrying the snow down from the mountains into the lakes and rivers are melting and receding. Some scientists predict a 40% decrease in rainfall in southern Chile over the next decades. This is leading to a deficit of water supply over usage.

Not many people seem to be taking any notice, least of all the Chilean politicians who give licences to private companies to exploit the water resources.

Chile_Thumbnails

I have maintained an interest in life and politics in Chile and returned there in 2015 to travel from east to west and on into Argentina. On both occasions I made a lot of images. I have always wanted to create a book of this work so this archive project seemed the ideal way to get my work into book form.

This is the first draft and I will wait for feedback from my peer group and tutor to see how I can develop the work.

http://online.fliphtml5.com/zsdc/tabo/

FEEDBACK ON FIRST VERSIONS:

Sandi, Graphic designer

Critique:

The Book is great, the photography of course is top notch. I think the only improvements could be in the typesetting. I feel that your trying to fill the area that you are putting in type with the type. Is it possible to reduce the font size ever so slightly, maybe reduce the space between sentences, you can still have a good space between paragraphs. Careful not to have type to close to either side. I hope this makes sense!

Deirdre: Designer, printer

It really looks great, you have a clean book, with strong images, large images and great impact on your double page spreads.

I think there are three main things that strike me as I go through the book, and they are finicky bits that my eye sees, that many won’t.

1 – White space around text.

This is about visually balancing the text as a secondary element to the images and I think you have it spot on for the last spread ‘No_10’ and I would consider how to create the same sense of white space and balance throughout the other pages.

For example I have changed the visual space of text on ‘No_9’ and it ties in better with ‘No_10’ and gives the images more impact. I think the same applies to all pages with text and imagery.

‘No_8’ is another similar layout, where more text can be included where there is only one image and balanced whote space around the text.

2 – Text over images

This is always a bit tricky and when successful it’s really effective. The rule of thumb is if the box is going to the edge of the image, only go to one edge. Eg ‘ No_5’ and ‘No_6’. Also be very careful with a white box as it can look like a technical error. I think ‘No_7’ is one of these, and would work better with a coloured box. You can use a black box, transparency set to 70% and then white text over it also.

3 – The map on ‘No_4’ I prefer it with a clean edge rather than blurred, but that could be just my taste!

I would balance the white space left and right, make it bigger and line the text up with either left or right – see what you think yourself.

4 – One more! The title page, I think the “#” is too strong with the title as is. Maybe add capitals eg #Chile_Water or make the hashtag smaller #chile_water

Jo: Fine artist

I am no judge of these things, so I think that it looks amazing: fabulous photos.

My only comments ( in my ignorance) would be:

– I think that you need to be clear if all the actual photos are yours ( maybe you wrote it somewhere and I missed it)

– I am not keen on text cutting into images…. could they superimpose in some way? I say this, but have no idea how you did what you have already done.

– the ending seemed a bit abrupt – it needs more closing cadence.

Side-Wide Hangout 17th February 2019

Basically is was trashed very politely. It deserved it totally. My peer group saw it for what it was – a text book or a travel book on Chile and having little to do with Instagram or the plight of water in Chile. As always the suggestions were really helpful:

Shorten it
Use social media input more
The image I had ‘borrowed does not fit in (Too photoshopped)
Size of text made it look like a children’s book
bring map to page 1
Introduce the subject and use subheading to augment the argument
Use Coca Cola image as cover
Bring in other voices with captions as quotes
Bring last page to front

http://online.fliphtml5.com/zsdc/zljq/

REFLECTION ON THE PROJECT:

This has been an interesting exercise on so many fronts. It has encouraged me to go back and review my travel image archives. I realise I have thousands, some still in their original RAW form. With the distance of time I found that I could look at my archive much more objectively than just after my return from Chile. I realise. looking at images immediately after returning from a trip, that I am influenced more my my immediate memory of what happened in that place and whether it was experienced alone or with others. With the distance of time my view is more objective and less critical.

One regret is that the images I chose for this project had to be tied to the story rather than having been made with this story in mind. Because of this I felt obliged to add text rather than letting the images tell the story as Mustafah Abdulaziz did. I am not sure if this detracted from the project. I also lacked some images I felt the project needed and used an image that I found online on the CT Chile Times site, The photographer very graciously agreed to its use. I am still awaiting permission to purchase and use a Getty image.

REWORKED PROJECT AND MORE REFLECTIONS:

With the input from my collage peer group I have re-worked the project.

Artist Statement

My interest in Chile was sparked by reading Isabel Allende’s books. I wanted to visit the country she had fled after her father was killed. I started this journey in 2013 in Arica in the north of Chile and travelled the 5,000 kilometers south to Punta Arenas taking six weeks for the journey.

I used public transport and most of the images I made were from the inside of moving buses. At the time I was unaware of the water crisis which was arising in Chile. I kept in touch with the information coming from Chile after my return. It was then that I learned that the distribution of water licences are in the gift of the government and hence very politically charged.

Since social media is used to highlight many social injustices in the world today I decided to investigate whether this was the case in Chile. I was not greatly surprised that this is not the case as it was my distinct impression while talking to Chileans, during my visits, that they were still in great fear of the regime.

I have tried to highlight in a small way both the problem and the lack of social media coverage.

http://online.fliphtml5.com/zsdc/bkng/

I wanted to make this work reflect how superficial the images are, that the majority of people, including myself on occasions, post on Instagram. The image of a picture perfect planet, peopled by happy self confident people making images of themselves, seems to be what is portrayed. Meanwhile we are destroying our world and its resources by greed and over-exploitation. Most of us are not exposing this in our work.

TUTOR FEEDBACK:

On the whole because of the bad connection on Skype the feedback discussion was completely unsatisfactory. I was hoping for some pointers as to how I could improve on the assignment but Andrea suggested I just leave it for a while and maybe come back to it. I may do this or I may present it at the next DI&C hangout and try to get some input. A further email suggested I might eat to rethink the whole project.

SIDE-WIDE HANGOUT 17th March 2019

I presented the revised work to the group to get feedback on whether I really should rework this project or if it could be submitted. The general consensus was that it was a great improvement on the first presentation. A number of comments/suggestions were made:

the Instagram screen shot of Petroca with the red circles needs an explanation
there needs to be some explanation about the # which exist and those I invented #leaching
the messages are a bit muddled
needs more consistency

Clive White’s comment is that it was different and therefore had merit. He suggested creating a storyboard of what I want to say.

More research on mining from its origins following email from Marcos Zegers, a Chilean photographer.

13 BEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER | Photofie Photographer Facebook Flickr Tumblr Pinterest Behance Instagram Freelancer Google+ 500Px Howcast Deviantart Photofie . 2019. 13 BEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER | Photofie Photographer Facebook Flickr Tumblr Pinterest Behance Instagram Freelancer Google+ 500Px Howcast Deviantart Photofie . [ONLINE] Available at: https://photofie.com/blog/13-best-social-platforms-for-a-photographer. [Accessed 29 January 2019].
Water tap Free vector in Adobe Illustrator ai ( .AI ), Encapsulated PostScript eps ( .EPS ) format for free download 944.06KB. 2019. Water tap Free vector in Adobe Illustrator ai ( .AI ), Encapsulated PostScript eps ( .EPS ) format for free download 944.06KB. [ONLINE] Available at: https://all-free-download.com/free-vector/download/water_tap_312721_download.html. [Accessed 30 January 2019].
Water Supply & Sanitation | World Water Council. 2019. Water Supply & Sanitation | World Water Council. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation. [Accessed 31 January 2019].
Stuff. 2019. Quick retreat of New Zealand’s glaciers an issue for tourism | Stuff.co.nz. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/82972910/quick-retreat-of-new-zealands-glaciers-an-issue-for-tourism. [Accessed 02 February 2019].
Business 2 Community. 2019. How to Get Into Instagram’s ‘Top Posts’ for a Hashtag. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/instagram/get-instagrams-top-posts-hashtag-01920608. [Accessed 04 February 2019]
Telegraph.co.uk. 2019. Artist sells other people’s Instagram photos for $90,000 each – Telegraph. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11631402/Artist-sells-other-peoples-Instagram-photos-for-90000-each.html. [Accessed 01 February 2019]
Artsy. 2019. Richard Prince Argues Fair Use in Lawsuit Stemming from Instagram Portraits – Artsy News. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-richard-prince-fighting-appropriation-accusations-leveled-lawsuit-instagram-portraits. [Accessed 01 February 2019
The Art Story. 2019. Sherrie Levine Paintings, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-levine-sherrie.htm. [Accessed 01 February 2019
Gobe Blog. 2019. Water: The Important Photography Project from Mustafah Abdulaziz. [ONLINE] Available at: https://mygobe.com/explore/water-mustafah-abdulaziz/. [Accessed 13 February 2019].
WWF UK.. 2019. ‘Water Stories’ from the Yangtze – with photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz – WWF UK Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: https://blogs.wwf.org.uk/blog/habitats/rivers-freshwater/water-stories-from-the-yangtze-with-photographer-mustafah-abdulaziz/. [Accessed 13 February 2019].

Assignment 3: Diary

10 march 2019

Imagine this is the first time I have written in my assignment 3 diary. This is because I have little to say on the subject. I am not enjoying this whole part of the course. Yes I think digital imagery is vitally interesting as we are living in the modern world. But somehow it has been presented in a very boring way for me.

I have just been reading and reading. I find the topics cross over so writing about each project and or exercise cannot really be separated in my head.

12 march 2019

So yesterday was feedback day. With the wind howling in both UK and France the connection was very unstable. This lead to a very disjointed communication. In the end I was left with no new ideas as to how I could or should improve this assignment. I am unsatisfied with it, I don’t know how to turn it into a more interesting story. So what to do now. Present it again at a side wide hangout or present it at the next DI&C hangout in April. Perhaps the time lapse between now and then might give me some perspective on it.

I feel this module is killing my creativity. I had a friend come by this morning who gave me his old analogue camera. I am determined to buy some rolls of film and to take at least one shot every day in my garden and around the island. I hope to be able to develop these in my new studio when it gets sorted.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. I heard Tim Berners Lee on the BBC this morning talking about how he does not like how it developed. My husband was one of those involved in the beginnings of the www. He and a friend and colleague discussed how this www could be distributed in Europe if they could get the PPTs to work together. The Irish government sent him to Luxembourg to work on this and he and his colleagues finally succeeded. He knew Berners Lee. My husband too is disgusted at how it developed. He has almost no social media presence. For him this was a research tool but global business has destroyed their great ideas.

13 March 2019

‘Compassion fatigue‘ interesting for me to analyse where i stand in relation to this. Read David Cambell and wrote it up. Last night was the Cafe Philo which was held, exceptionally last night, here in the local cinema. The title “what Film has taught us”. It was presented by the chair of our local cinema. He is a good speaker and traced the development of film from still images to films created to be viewed on small screens like Roma. He used clips to illustrate his talk and it was amusing and interesting.

After some light snacks we watched “La Nuit américaine” by Francois Truffaut. A hilarious movie about making a movie.

14 March 2019

Just watched the Tim Hetherington film of Restapo in Afghanistan. Need to give this a rest for now as I am feeling frustrated and almost ill at what I saw. I hate war films but when it is for real it is even worse. What is the purpose?

15 March 2019

What sad news to wake up to – the slaughter in the two Mosques in Christchurch. New Zealand has always appeared to be the safest place on earth. Having spent a Winter travelling around south island in a camper van I never had one instants disquiet. We marvelled at the honesty of people in general – vegetable and fruit sellers who left their produce in a cooler outside their homes with an honesty box for payment.

Just texted our great NZ friend and she is at a Gambian concert of kora player with djemba drum accompaniment, in Wellington. Just sent me a video – the world is becoming ever smaller. We worked together in West Africa, travelled together in New Zealand and Chile see one another whenever possible.

17 March 2019

St Patrick’s day – Happy St Patrick’s day to me!!!! So happy to read this morning that Daido Moriyama has won the Hasselblad Foundation Award;

https://www.bjp-online.com/2019/03/daido-moriyama-wins-2019-hasselblad-award/?

18 March 2019

The morning after the night before!!! I presented the upgraded version of my #chile-water project. There was general consensus that it was a vast improvement on the first. I asked if it needed to be scrapped and a new idea put in place. Everyone, including Clive, were against this idea. Clive went as far as to say he liked it because it was different and I was trying to say something. There were a number of helpful suggestions as to how its clarity and consistency could be improved. So I will stick with it for the moment and work further on it.

Having trouble with hearing aids. Had to go to audiologist this morning. Big lump of wax removed from ear but that did not solve the whistle. She has put another layer of varnish on the mould and we will see if that helps. If not I will have to get another mould made in a rush which is never the best way to do these things.

19 March 2019

Loved John Snow’s interview with David Baily on C4 News last night. He says it like it is. Then watched Religeuse Abusees, l’autre Scandale de l’Eglise on Arte. Not brilliantly filmed but a truly shocking account of the abuse of nuns by priests worldwide.

20 March 2019

Well today was an interesting French experience. We celebrated St Patrick here with 16 friends. A row broke out and it was unbelievable. The French are just like the Irish….. I couldn’t work afterwards I was too traumatised!!!!! I also learned a load of VERY bad french words.

22 March 2019

Calm has been restored in the Mahon household with many apologies by those involved in the fracas. Life is a living drama.

Finished Camera Lucida yesterday and loved it. Hope to write a review although that seems presumptuous as I am sure there as many reviews as there are hairs on my head.

Went to the cinema to take my pre booked place for the film from the Paris National Opera of the ballet Le Lac des Cignes (Swan Lake). What a journey of joy. Will write a review.

28 March 2019

It’s been a very busy week moving ourselves from our adopted country back to our home country – a luxury problem as my son insists -and indeed it is. I spend several days cleaning before I leave so that I can return to a clean house at the end of the Summer.

The trip back took two days as we stopped off to see grandchildren on our arrival in Ireland. We set off for our final part of the trip, yesterday morning. We had heard that there had been an accident on the road which could cause delays… First bus journey went smoothly. Second bus arrived ten minutes late. The driver seemed in no rush – welcome back to Ireland. No information about accident, no information on the bus as to it’s destination, questions to driver about accident gave no clear indication as to whether we would be delayed or not. Arrived at a roundabout and the Garda sign indicating that a deviation was in place. Off the main road on to country lanes in a bus with trucks coming in the opposite direction meant serious delays. Missed the next bus but this is rural Ireland so standing on the side of the road surrounded by our luggage a car stopped and it was one of our island neighbours. She was doing her mainland shopping. Tiny car but we managed with luggage balanced on knees. Beautiful sunshine meant we lingered on mainland waiting for next ferry so that we could sit and enjoy the scenery while sipping a G&T. Life is good.

Next ferry, island bus to house gate – our cat in the driveway like we had never been away. She knows when we are due home… She freaks out the neighbours by returning to our door the day before we are due. No problems in the house, heating fired up, cat snuggled on her chair and broadband working.

We start our next six months…

30 March 2019

Settled in and the garden merry go round starts again for another season. Took most of the morning yesterday to get the machinery up and running. Having someone using your machinery always causes problems but I have no choice. The lovely guy who was mowing for me this Winter came to an impasse with the mower and could not get it to run. My husband spent all morning cleaning it, changing plugs and doing whatever it is one needs to do to keep complicated machines running. Island living necessitates that one has to be a plumber, a mechanic, a roofer as well as all the other normal things mainlanders get workmen to do.

Finished first draft of essay yesterday gave it to son, an IT specialist, and daughter, an executive with an American company, to read and critique, Not sure if they will have time. Will also give it to my neighbour here who is an IT whizz and very knowledgeable Internet guy. Hope they all have time. Very difficult for young people today as their lives are so busy… Son in Edinburgh for rugby match, daughter in Ghent with favourite cousin for a girls weekend!!!!! Neighbour, at least, is too poor to go anywhere so might have time.

Started reading Part 4. Am amazed at the things I don’t know. I never heard of the Second Life market or movement. Am fascinated by it. Will have to research it. Can’t find the Werner carte de visite book. Have asked my librarian friend here to see if she can get a copy. It is too expensive to buy.

1 April 2019

April Fools day – let’s hope I will not be anyone’s fool today. Am deeply saddened by the death , at the age of 90, of Agnes Varda. Such a wonderful free spirit. I loved her last film Visages, Villages with JR.

Am reading into Second Life – weird stuff. Decided to call up to my neighbour, as he is a very experienced techie, to say “hello” on our return and to see if he was familiar with Second Life. Of course he is and gave me lots of information. Apparently, John O’Connor, the head of DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) who run a Visual Arts degree course here on Sherkin Island, gives lectures on Second Life, to his students. I’ll follow this up. I also brought it up on last night’s hangout and Kate gave me a link to another student, Catherine Banks, work on the subject.

Reading how Second life works here:

https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/second-life3.htm

2 April 2019

Thinking about what I would like to do for A4/A5. I am tempted towards Second Life but I see another student has already done this. i would have to find a different angle. Could look at who and why so many ‘members/residents’ have abandoned the site. But I would like to join and see what I could ‘make’ there. I find it a bit creepy and it would appear that most people there are over 40 and many are handicapped. That’s great if they feel liberated in their virtual bodies but for able bodied members what are they getting out of it? Might be an interesting project to see the numbers on different categories there. I think I am fairly shock proof at this stage but I would probably have to purchase some sort of advanced membership to look at stuff which would probably repulse me. As I said at the hangout it both attracts and repulses me. Wonder if there is a more up to date site like it with easier possibilities.

Another idea is to investigate hubby’s involvement in the beginnings of the Internet as the Irish representative on the European Communities Euronet Diane project which joined up the European PTTs thus facilitating intranets and eventually the Internet.

Looks like a wet day ahead so garden may have to be left for the day. I am trying to get it sorted to reduce work later on. My studio also awaits fitting out so a wet day might advance this. Access is still a problem but hope son may come at Easter and advise.

4 april 2019

I ordered a copy of Robbie Cooper’s Alter Ego photograph book. I like the idea of this book. It might give me some ideas. for A4 & 5 projects. I like it because it involves making images.

My hubby was asked to contribute to a research site about the origins of the Internet. here is his summary of his involvement.

Barry Mahon

If I chose this topic I could research original computers and old technologies as well as interview those who are still around.

6 April 2019

Woke up this morning to hear a short talk on BBC World Service about a teen video streaming social media site called Tic Tok. So many social media sites I know nothing about. Would hate to be a parent of young teens. I do have grandchildren of that age. Wondered about interviewing teens about their social media usage as project. Don’t know too many teens – only about six on our island here and they are all first cousins so if one wouldn’t talk then none would. As a family they tend to be super private….

Sometimes I feel I am living in a parallel world! But this seems like a sensible site to help parents navigate social media:

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/social-media-social-life-2018

This Tic Tok site seems to have many men commenting on the young peoples video encouraging them to be more sexually explicit. Requests to remove these comments sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. Wonder also would Google and or Facebook, who have their headquarters in Dublin give me any time if I studied them as project. They are very protectionist. Mark Zuckerberg was here this week and said ‘nothing’. He is like an automaton.

Emerged from my mental block about getting back to making images. Decided to set up a pin hole project for myself. Made several images with pin hole cap on D800. have not looked at them yet but happy to be out there again. I was so demotivated after the Chile project I couldn’t get out there. Also my studio is as it was at the end of last summer – no shelves, no safe access. We have been too busy bringing garden back to life to get in there. Hubby trying to regulate dehumidifier so it is not using too much electricity. Humidify on an island is the main problem…

All this will get sorted. I am sure but a bit frustrating on top of my lack of motivation re course. Had feedback from son re essay – I don’t think he really has time to read thoroughly… Gave it to retired head of department, English teacher, but she is very busy at the moment on project work. Hope she gets round to it. Might ask my IT neighbour to have a look but need to get in some beers for him!!!!

7 April 2019

After torrential rain early morning the sun came out so garden clearing continued. The north facing rockery did not get properly put to bed last autumn so it is very weedy.

Watched a BBC4 programme about Sean Scully. I never really liked his work but he was born very near where I was born so I have known him all my life (not personally but by reputation). As he says not many people make it out of Inchicore to stardom!!!! I can’t decide if he is a charlatan or a great abstract artist. I like or even love some of his work but these tend to be variations on his squares. He talks a lot of psycho babble about his work. My neighbour here on the island is a very well know Danish artist who went through a period of painting rectangles and squares. I own one of these. But when i asked Claus what it meant he replied “It is just a painting it is not ‘about’ anything”. me thinks Scully protests too much!

Reading about ‘the gaze”. very relevant in the time of #me2.

8 – 10 April 2019

Am in contact with Marcos Zegers, the Chilean photographer, about his mining images of Northern Chile. he kindly looked at my work and gave me some ideas. I need to think about these and rework my A2. I have to await printer ink before I print out my thumbnail images and do a storyboard as Clive suggested. Am delighted Clive likes my pin hole images on “Just Because” forum.

Re-reading my work here before submission. Have my essay out to two friends to read for me and see if they have any suggestions.

12 April 2019

Watched the Paul Hill video which Fitz posted on the OCA forums. It was one of the best hours I have spent in a long time. The man is so straight forward. Couldn’t work in the garden as I strained a muscle in my gammy leg…. The hubby pulled a muscle in his back while fitting out my studio. We are getting too old for all this activity!!!! Both frustrated as hell. However this has given me time to research the history of mining in Chile. I am churning over ideas of how to reconstruct A2 since I have had communication with Marcos Zegers the Chilean photographer. I must pay special attention to the choice of images and how they hang together for this project after the comments on my assessment feedback. Have sent a mail to Wolfgang Griems, a Chilean mining historian about using old images. let’s hope he responds.

Sent results to Russell who thought I should have got a higher mark. This was nice to hear but I. in fact, thought it was spot on. It is hard to know when one does not see what work gets what results.

14 April 2019

In Cork city today. We had to come yesterday for a hospital appointment tomorrow!!! This was because there was a storm predicted and the ferry man could not guarantee boats till Tuesday morning!!! This is the joy of living on an island. Normally this does not worry us if we have not to be off the island.

But ever cloud, even storm ones, have a silver lining. Our visit to Cork meant we got to visit the Crawford Gallery where there is a Mary Swanzy Exhibition. I intended to come up to see it anyway but this unexpected few days meant we could have a really leisurely visit. Will write it up.

16 April 2019

Finally made it home this morning after a couple of days in the big city. Happy to be back. The sun is shining and no trace of the storm other than a shelf fell on the cats bed and frightened her out of her wits…. So she got royally spoiled this morning on our arrival…

Have spent the morning reviewing the essay and incorporating the suggestions made by friend and family. I believe ti is ready now to send for feedback.

7 May 2019

Had my Skype feedback – very satisfactory. My tutor was happy with my essay but offered a few suggestions which I am working on at the moment.

She gave me some links to follow up. We had discussed our mutual horror of war. She suggested I look at the work of Giles Duley. I am reading through the stories. The following quote moved me greatly:

A trip in March 2017 that left bereft of hope, and questioning the validity of the work I do. For a month after returning, I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone, just hid from the world. When faced with such darkness and violence, what value can a photograph have? Does it become just voyeuristic to capture and share those moments? Against such horror a camera seems impotent, its use almost perverse. [http://legacyofwar.com/camp-pj-harvey-ramy-essam-images-legacy-war/}

So much my own sentiments about photographing both war and poverty. I am reading through the stories. I understand why Duley continued to men these images and to tell the storied. But I ask who is photographing the people who carry out these atrocities. Or those who start and or finance war.

8 May 2019

Duley’s images are emblazoned on my brain. Am I wrong that images are not powerful at moving people to contribute to these projects – maybe I am but I still would never contribute to anything like this without direct involvement. I would go on protests about war and I would canvas to stop the production of machines of war. But I am still adverse to using images of mutilated people to raise money – just me….