Power - Prix Pictet

I attended the OCA Study Trip today to the Prix Pictet exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London.  

For more information on what the Prix Pictet is all about, and to view the images discussed below, go to: http://www.prixpictet.com/

Attending an exhibtion with fellow students and tutors was altogether a completely different experience to going along with some friends.  Being around people who view photography in an analytical way. and participating in those conversations, provoked deeper thought and stronger reactions than I was expecting.  And it was great to meet people studying photography with OCA for the first time :-)

OCA people

The exhibition showed a selection of work by the photographers who made it to the short list for the Prix Pictet.  It's difficult to know where to start a commentary, so probably with the winner is the best place, followed the other contenders (in no particular order).

Luc Delahaye

Three images by Delahaye were on display in the exhibition; larger than life with absolute clarity, the works showed are:

• House to House
• Ambush, Ramadi
• 132nd Meeting of the Ordinary Conference

House to House (with Clark and Sternfield panels behind)

Viewing the images online as I had done prior to attending the exhibition hadn't prepared me for seeing these enormous works of art.  House to House (an excellent example of colour accent - pink in orange) was striking the fact that the subject was carrying a gun made it emotional; 132nd Meeting is a busy image making the eye travel around the frame trying to take all the information in; Ambush, Ramadi was my favourite - I loved the subdued tones and lighting, the haziness and the sense that all was lost.

I'm not sure though that Delahaye was my favourite of the shortlist candidates.  The photos were slightly let down by the fact that the exhibition had not used non-reflective glass, so it was particularly hard to see 132nd Meeting due to the reflections.

Daniel Beltra

For me, these were the most striking images of the whole exhibition and the ones I was most anxious to see (having researched previously); I loved the the bright colours but limited pallettes, the very simple compositons used, and the overall striking and compelling, and almost abstract, beauty of the images.  One of the tutors asked me if I had an issue with the fact that something so awful (the BP oil spill) had been depicted as something so beautiful.  I'm ashamed to say that I don't have an issue with it.  The world is a constant cycle of disasters, some man-made, others natural, but I think that to find beauty in something awful is comforting in a weird way.  And I don't think that Beltra meant to condone the oil industry and associated risk, I think he was trying to capture compelling images that struck a chord, and for me that worked.  Oil spill # 17 reminded me of slices of Agate that you see in museums and mineral shops in Dorset!  The four images displayed were:

• Oil Spill # 1
• Oil Spill # 4
• Oil Spill # 9
• Oil Spill # 17

I have absolutely no object to photographers saturating the colour in images in processing (I do it constantly because I am drawn to vivid colour) but in this collection it seemed slightly obvious as the elements that you would expect to be weathered, i.e. the oil rig and the boat were very brightly coloured.  But for me this enhanced the images, which I thought were stunning.

I also heard that Beltra has previously submitted entries into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition of birds caked in oil (highlighting the damage and destruction), so I don't feel that he can be criticised for taking the wrong view on this dreadful incident.

Beltra's Panel

Edmund Clark

I was particularly captivated by the images by Edmund Clark and found these the most alarming of all the photography I saw today.  The exhibition included four images from the series entitled "Guantanamo: If the Light Goes Out":

• Camp One, Exercise Cage
• Camp Six, Shackles
• Camp Six, Emergency Response Four Equipment
• Camp Six, Unused Communal Area

All four images were based on a very simple colour pallette and simple composition yet were very compelling.  Clark managed to convey a sense of fear, expected violence, and continuity: these images depict a sense of endlessness and loneliness.  You can image the larger than life cages, shackles, barriers, enclosures, continuing beyond the frames of the photos, and as a result of which, the endless fear...which for me is an unbearable concept and far worse than an oil slick, which although devasting, the world will eventually recover from.

Carl De Keyzer

De Keyzer's sequence "Moments Before the Flood", which exhibited:

• Isola di Capo Rizzuto, Italy
• England
• Dublin, Ireland
• Store Heddinge, Denmark

was a series of aesthetically pleasing images, despite the grim message they conveyed (as in Beltra's sequence).   Again, a simple colour scheme and compositon in all four; I particularly enjoyed looking at the structures shown in the image shot in England and having searched Google and found De Keyzer's website , I found a description:

"The Maunsell forts were built during the second world war to protect London from the attacks of the German planes.  This one was said to be sold to a Russian millionaire who plans to turn it into a hotel.
During the sixties these forts housed pirate radio stations". 

I tried hard to think why I like this image in particular: sombre tones (blue/grey), sloping horizon, uncorrected wide-angle distortion, the fact that I had to think about what the structures might be, and then what must it have been like to be on such a structure defending England from attack, or in the future surviving rising sea levels. Beautiful!

De Keyzer's Panel

 Mohamed Bourouissa

Mohamed Bourouissa's series entitled "Peripherique" made me think.  The images displayed were:

• La Republique
• Le Reflet
• Le Miroir
• Le Cercle Imaginaire

Initially I found them very striking.  Also large format, I particularly liked Le Cercle Imaginaire and Le Reflet for the almost surrealist elements, but then somebody mentioned that these were shot from reconstructions, which ruined it a bit.  I'm not a great fan of constructed images - preferring life to be shot as it is, however grim.  Nonetheless, the image of somebody dressed as a skeleton standing in a ring of fire is disturbing sight.

An-My Le

Several of the attending students remarked that they were not too impressed with Le's images; I loved them.  I loved the pale tones, particularly against the white wall with white framing, the delicated shadows and the strong sense of light.  Reading about Le's background I initially thought these were genuine war photos, being surprised to learn that they were shot in training camps - which makes them constructed and which contradicts what I said previously about not liking contstructed images.  I found with Le's images, I wasn't interested in what she was trying to convey, or what the message was, I just appreciated the aesthetic qualities of the photos and in particular liked the shadow pattern on Infantry Platoon, Alpha Company and the composition of Mechanised Assault (can I apply this to my Lake District landscapes?).

The images included in Le's exhibits were:

• Infantry Platoon, Alpha Company
• Mechanised Assault
• Night Operations III
• Embassy Medevac

Robert Adams

Unfortunately I don't remember which of Adams' images were shown; it may have been the lot.  I usually like monochrome images, but in small size and surrounded by large frame colour (wide-screen TV size photos) - he didn't stand a chance of keeping my attention.  For me this exhibit was a non-event.  I know he was conveying a message about deforestation, an incredibly important issue, but he failed to grab my attention.

Philippe Chancel

I liked Chancel's images depicting the devastation of the Tsunami affecting Japan in 2011.  I liked the images from Google earth placing the photo in context and distance from the shoreline.  The image I particularly liked was Higashimaecho_GPS_39°16’23’’N 141°53’36’’E - 2011-06-1 4 _ 07 :59: 36 G.M.T because of the scale of the boat against the house, the colours of the boat against the sombre tones of the background and the fact that despite the damage to the boat (making it obviously unseaworthy) the boat is still standing.  I think though that had this been my image, I would have been tempated to have cropped it into square format (and possibly extending the vertical scale of the boat) removing the bulk of the building on the left-hand side: I don't think we need that much information about a white building.  But, I image that Chancel is more experienced in composition than I am and knows what he is doing.... The six images displayed by Chancel were:

• Higashimaecho_GPS_39°16’23’’N 141°53’36’’E - 2011-06-1 4 _ 07 :59: 36 G.M.T
• Rikusentakata_GPS_39° 1’ 14’’ N 141° 37’23‘’E-2011-06-13_03 :48 :35 G.M.T
• Sendai _GPS_38°2’20’’N 140°55’10’’ E - 2011-06-12 _04 :04 :44 G.M.T
• Minamisanriku _GPS_38°54’20’’N 141 34’ 22’’ E -2011-06-13 _04 : 52 :47 G.M.T
• Minatoguchi _GPS_37°43’22’’N 141°0’29’’E - 2011-06-07 _ 05 :10 :39 G.M.T
• Kitashita_GPS_38° 0’ 5’’ N 140° 54’ 20’’ E -2011-06-08 _ 02 :44 :56 G.M.T

Rena Effendi

One of the tutors commented that for him this was the most compelling collection and reminded him of his own work (tutor - please email me a weblink!!).  I found Effendi's images both disturbing and comforting.  Disturbing on the basis that surely no one wants to eat contaminated food or grow crops on contaminated soil, yet comforted by the fact that, as previously commented, life goes on - nature recovers from disasters.  The images displayed were intriguing - 6 out of 7 were square format but not centrally composed (I often use square format for symmetrical subjects that look better within a central composition) so this has now left me wondering about composition in general and in particular within a square frame.  The pig's head in the snow aside, these are not disturbing images until you understand the commentary and get the fact that although the food looks like normal food - it's not - it is contaminated.  I particularly liked the image of tree though growing in the abandoned gym - that has to be a symbol of hope for the region?  The images exhibited in this panel were:

• Gas masks scattered on the floor of a school lobby in the abandoned city of Prypiat. As a result of the nuclear accident and the subsequent... (OK - this one is disturbing and echoes a war photo)
• Birch tree growing through the floor of an abandoned gym in the ghost town of Pripyat. Following the radioactive fallout after the nuclear accident...
• Hanna Zavarotnya's trophy falcon.  
• Hanna Zavarotnya's pig, butchered for the New Year holidays in Kapavati village. 79-year-old Hanna Zavarotnya survived WWII Nazi occupation and the...
• Nadejda Gorbachenko's wine and corn from the orchard. Farming is forbidden in the Zone due to high levels of radiation in the soil..
• Deer horns in the shed of Galina Konyushok's house. Hunting is strictly forbidden in the Zone, due to high levels of radioactive contamination.
• Galina Konyushok’s chicken broth. The food chain is contaminated with radiation, especially animals that consume local grain and vegetation.

Jacqueline Hassink

I think this photographer sparked more debate than any of the others and particularly from the perspective that feminism is now outdated.  Is it really breaking news that women run companies and boards now?  It obviously is, even in Europe, as the newspapers still comment on the disproportionate gender mix in business.  However, Hassink depicted a panel of images of pairs of board rooms and dinning rooms.  What struck me was the symmetry in each pair: the dinning rooms resembled the boardrooms - not only in numbers of chairs, but also in orderliness, geometric shapes, neat and tidiness - each pair seemed sterile.  I wondered whether the photographer was trying to show that in rising to the top, and presumably sacrificing family time in the process, the women had traded their identities and had stopped investing emotionally in their homes.  Had these dinning rooms been purchased for them?  The dining rooms looked like they'd been put together for show homes - there was no real evidence of family life and the disorderliness that comes with it.  Traditionally, in Europe and in Arabia, the dining room is a place of nuture.  Mealtimes are ritualistic and bring families together.  In making the room where nuture is supposed to happen resemble board rooms, had the women traded their families for power?  Interesting concepts!  I actually didn't like these images, but they certainly made me think, making the photography successful in itself.  I believe that all ten pairs shown on the website were displayed in the exhibition.  As a panel they worked, but I don't recall reactions to individual images.

Joel Sternfeld

One of the tutors commented that these images would work as part of a news magazine, but not on their own as individual photos.  I agree with him - they are portraits, and possibly very good portraits, but without the context of the narrative, they are also meaningless.  The idea behind the panel of four, was to display the moment when the subjects realised that the full extent of the horror of what they were hearing about ecological collapse and when it was most visible on their faces.  I don't think that Sternfeld achieved that.  The four portraits on display were:

• Anandi Sharan Meili, Managing Director, Velcan Energy, India
• Stephan Singer, Head of European Climate and Energy Policy Unit, World Wildlife Fund, Belgium
• Robert Kofi Bamfo, Corporate Manager, Forestry Commission, Ghana
• William J. Clinton, Former President, United States

I think Bamfo definitely looked worried if not devastated, but the others look concerned at best.  Clinton, perhaps also looks a little shocked, but Meili and Singer, just look cross but not horrified.  This  panel did not work for me as well as the other collections.

Guy Tillim

I don't have much to say about Tillim's images.  There were not as compelling as the others in the exhibition.  I liked "Residents of the town of Goma in eastern DRC salute Laurent Kabila after his army took control, displacing the Mobutu forces" as I think that this does convey the concept of power, but I didn't really notice much about the others.  On display were:

•  Residents of the town of Goma in eastern DRC salute Laurent Kabila after his army took control, displacing the Mobutu forces.
• The statue of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley which overlooked Kinshasa in colonial times. It rests on a steamboat that belonged to the African...
• Presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba enters a stadium in central Kinshasa flanked by his bodyguards during an election rally.
• A traditional dancer and crowd salute Jean-Pierre Bemba as he walks to a rally from the airport, Kinshasa, July 2006.
• The looted remains of Mobutu Sese Seko's residence at Gbadolite.

As far as the OCA Study Trip experience goes - thank you!  I really enjoyed this afternoon, it was great to meet like-minded people, and I will definitely attend more in the future.