we produce beautifully crafted multimedia » portraits

Images of Sexual Violence (1): Saying Things Kept Silent, Showing Things Kept Hidden

Madeleine Corcoran — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:16:04 +0000

Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is a story about a young black girl in 1960s America who is sexually abused by her father. It’s beautifully written and painful to read – speaking fearlessly about the realities of poverty, race and gender. It unearths the causes of victimhood and the silence which surrounds and supports the on-going occurrence of sexual violence. How to word something that is kept silent? How to show something that is kept hidden? Morrison writes:

“The novelty, I thought, would be in having this story of female violation revealed from the vantage point of the victims or could-be-victims of rape – the persons no one inquired of (certainly not in 1965); the girls themselves. And since the victim does not have the vocabulary to understand the violence or its context, gullible, vulnerable girlfriends, looking back as the knowing adults they pretended to be in the beginning, would have to do that for her, and would have to fill those silences with their own reflective lives. Thus, the opening provides the stroke that announces something more than a secret shared, but a silence broken, a void filled, an unspeakable thing spoken at last.”

Two things strike me as important here and may prove important in regards to other stories of sexual violence in other mediums:

That bringing words and images to the unspoken and unseen event is a kind of healing and overcoming. Morrison says that with the realising of the story of sexual abuse ‘a void is filled’, a need is met. Similarly, the silence appears as a kind of menacing spell, a thing to be ‘broken’. The relief provided by this break is clear in ‘spoken at last’ – this has been something needed and anticipated for a long time.
That the victim herself does not necessarily have the words: ‘the victim does not have the vocabulary to understand the violence or its context’. This is not to say, the victim is incapable of ever having the vocabulary, but rather her position as victim is defined by not having the words or a voice to speak against what is happening to her.

This makes it clear that to fight against the creation of victims of sexual violence, words and images must be given to those victims with which they can begin to address and describe their suffering and those who cause it. As it will become clear, these words and images are hard to provide or develop in a culture which still struggles to see the complex, various and ubiquitous nature of sexual violence.

In light of this, and to draw our attention to photojournalism, Ariella Azoulay’s essay, “Has Anyone Ever Seen a Photograph of Rape?” sets out an argument for the sheer lack of imagery of sexual violence in the canon of iconic photojournalism (1). Azoulay argues, whilst photographers have brought into the public arena images of many kinds of suffering – genocide, mutilation, violent warfare etc. – images of rape, an act which occurs in much the same context as the other atrocities, are largely absent. This labelling of the blind-spot proves to reveal not only that photographers have mostly failed at documenting rape when it occurs amongst other atrocities (typically during wartime), but their techniques of documenting rape during peacetime are also highly restricted and restricting. This blind-spot, in Azoulay’s analysis, goes on to be seen not just as an historical failure to vision, but also an ongoing inability to envision, born of the inadequacy of social discourses which still cannot recognise the reality of rape.

Azoulay’s questions are then, Why is it we cannot ‘show’ rape in the way that we can show other kinds of torture and bodily suffering? Hint: this might say more about the viewer than the actual event itself. And also – In what ways do these lack of images damage those who might need them – i.e. victims, potential victims and the wider society?

These questions will be explored later. As a first example, ‘Project Unbreakable‘ by Grace Brown is an interesting place to start:

It attempts to do the same thing that Morrison does with her novel, to fill ‘the void’ of silence and bring words and imagery to that which has been kept un-worded and hidden. People who have suffered abuse hold up the words of their abusers, words that were used to silence them. It is one simple gesture of resistance, of refuting the silence that has been put upon them. The phrases are short but they provide a small window into the complex world of abuse and sexual violence. That opening image, ‘I love you’, is especially powerful because it marks the importance of context and the complicated nature of abuse. They signal the way in which abuse can be non-violent – something that must be recognised if these cases are going to reach justice. They also indicate what the victim must struggle with: What if abuse is presented as love? What if you don’t know enough about love to be able to say this abuse is not love? That is certainly the case for Pecola, the abused girl in Morrison’s novel.

Perhaps the technique is a familiar one – photographs of people holding up signs with their personal stories or position on has been used in many other contexts and protests – but here is takes on a special resonance because these are words that have been characterised by the fact that they occur in private. Their power has been because of secrecy, because the abuser persuaded the abusee to never tell, because the abuser invoked shame and fear in the abusee. These signs are an act of placing the shame back on the abuser, of making the public witness what goes on in private. It is one simple way to take the words and turn them around.

The images also make clear, in case there could ever be any doubt, that choosing what to show – the very act of representation – is a fiercely political act. The format and style of that act of showing can make or break the message. These truths are especially raw in the context of a little seen and little understood phenomena which needs vision and recognition in order to overcome its occurrence.

This article is the first in a series about images of Sexual Violence in photography, photojournalism, documentary and visual art. My own piece, ‘You Did This To Yourself‘ figures a response to the issues and examples I raise here.

- Madeleine Corcoran. Original post here.

————————————————————————————————–

You can read more about Brown’s project here.

You can see the ongoing tumblr blog of Brown’s project here.

(1) See : Azoulay, A. The Civil Contract of Photography, 2008, New York: Zone Books.

Ever thought about killing the person who leaves dirty cups in the sink?

duckrabbit — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:28:25 +0000

For me there is always a story under the story in the best photofilms. James Hooker gets this.

Earlier this year I was invited to spend a couple of days with the undergraduates on the photojournalism course at London College of Communication (alongside duckrabbit’s teaching on the Masters course there). I’m not sure if they knew quite how lucky they were to be taught by Roger Hutchings but they were an impressive bunch.

Whilst we are talking about Roger, have you seen his work? Roger is not one of those photographers turned teacher just to make up the bills. He really, really cares about giving the students a decent education. It showed. I found them one of the most intellectually switched on groups I have taught.

One of the talented on students on the course is James Hooker, and not just for having the ability to cycle home after drinking duckrabbit under the table.

I was chuffed to receive a copy of his first photofilm. Chuffed because it showed someone in the class was actually listening!

Thanks James. You made duckrabbit’s day.

(if you want to train with duckrabbit get in touch. All our workshops are currently SOLD OUT but I am thinking of putting on an extra workshop in July around the Birmingham Jazz Festival)

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Showing Congolese as only traumatized victims (or killers) may be highly offensive … but mostly it’s untrue.’

duckrabbit — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:06:32 +0000

Yesterday I put up a post that in part explored how highly staged and stylized photography has come to define how we perceive women survivors of rape in The Congo. I’ve been pretty amazed that no-one wants to defend what has become the pre-eminent way of working on projects as a documentary photographer/photojournalist? Shouldn’t we just admit what photography, stripped of text, or audio, can and can’t do?

Take a look into the eyes of the Congolese woman at the bottom of the page. She has experienced more trauma then I could ever even begin to get my head round. Look at her. She is beautiful. Such dignity. What can the photographer add that isn’t already captured in such simplicity?

I think this comment from Agata Pietron about her feelings on working in Eastern DR Congo are really worth reading:

I remember how shocked I was when I went to Kivu for the first time … How much different the place was from what I expected (from what I saw earlier in magazines, books, etc).

Showing Congolese as only traumatized victims (or killers) may be highly offensive, but mostly it’s untrue. As duckrabbit writes, it is how ‘we’ want to see ‘them’, how ‘we’ imagine they feel.

I spent some time with women and youth there (and many of them experienced really traumatic events). I must say I was amazed how psychologically strong they were, and how they celebrated every minute. When the situation stabilized, there was not regular killings every day. Congolese women are not as fragile, traumatized and vulnerable as we see them. I was told by one woman, shortly after her husband was buried, that the life goes on.

Also, I’m not sure if its only B&W versus Color. And also, I realize that when it comes to DRC, and Kivu especially, it’s a tough place to work. The possibilities for working/photographing/reporting are very limited. You cannot go wherever you want, whenever you want. Many stay close to Monuc/Monusco and NGOs, which shape your vision a lot.
[Sorry for not eloquent way of writing.]

A group of heavily pregnant women have a good laugh at duckrabbit's expense! (C) Yasuyoshi Chiba

One of the heavily pregnant Congolese women MSF houses in Masisi. (C) Yasuyoshi Chiba

Beautiful, eloquent, thought provoking. Damn thing made me cry.

duckrabbit — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:34:42 +0000

Those are just a few of the words that come to mind watching Margaret Cheatham Williams’ photofilm Goodnight Moon (first spotted on the excellent Innovative Interactivity).

There’s been a lot of debate around the use of cinematic techniques to film traumatic events. Dan Chung’s video of the aftermath of the Japanese Earthquake is a classic example (for which I think he was unfairly beaten up).

For me the problem is not the use of cinematography in journalism, it’s that too often that’s all there is in these films. The audio is crap. There is no story, and it doesn’t look like the person making the film is thinking much beyond dollys and shallow depth of field. A sense of authenticity goes out the window and we end up thinking about the person behind the camera more than the person in front of the lens.

Margaret Cheatham Williams’ film is beautiful, but it’s not the grace of her camera work that we are left thinking about (or her choice of music).

Goodnight Moon from Margaret Cheatham Williams on Vimeo.

“First it was her face, and she always had a beautiful face.”

A story of my grandmother, who lost her courageous 13-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease in February.

Special thanks to Chad A Stevens.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness month. I’m in, are you?

Music by Thomas Gamble

“I have four babies, beautiful, gorgeous, why should I ever think about suicide? I had these thoughts in my mind. I was messed up.”

duckrabbit — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:51:11 +0000

This is an astonishing photofilm about how one small fishing community has been affected by the BP Oil disaster. What the photofilm lacks in context about the disaster it makes up for in emotional punch and as good a set of documentary photography as you are likely to see.

I take my hat off to Director/Photographer Melanie Burford.

“Its not a job, it’s who you are. We are losing it. I don’t think we’ll ever get it back.”

Please watch this, share on Facebook and Tweet. You may not see a better photofilm this year and guess what, no shallow depth of field in sight.

Thought provoking post about Japan earthquake on Phil Coomes BBC Viewfinder blog

duckrabbit — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:53:34 +0000

followed by a series of even more thought provoking responses to Jake Price’s black and white pictures on show.

Here’s just a few:

I think of all the bullshit around photography the idea that somehow a photo in black and white is a deeper more truthful representation of life is amongst the most daft. It seems to get passed on from one generation to the next as some kind of blinding truth, but can anybody actually point to some research on the matter?

Hidden History: The Irish At War, Damian Drohan

duckrabbit — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:28:34 +0000

Goddamn this is a project and a half barrel of whisky.

Immense.

Damian Drohan is one of the most committed students duckrabbit has had the pleasure to train. It gives me great honor to introduce you to his monumental project about the unknown, unrecognized Irish veterans of World War 2 (be sure to check out the full project here).

I wish I could take some credit for this work, but I can’t. Its driven by Damian’s passion to capture memory before it flares to smoke.

‘WW2Vets project is a visual/audio and photo-film project which seeks to tell the story of war memory in Ireland. These memories have been buried for many years. Although 70,000 Irish men and women fought in WW2, their service has never been recognized officially, except through token gestures, and occasional mentions. The stories here represent the direct experiences of veterans from, or living in Ireland and the experiences of those indirectly affected, such as Brian Smith, whose family war memory spans several generations, and the story of Paddy Bassett, a child during the war, his memories, preserved through the many military items he has accrued, the first being a piece of a spitfire he collected as a child.

Photography alone would be too limiting for a project such as this, there would be a danger of preserving the veterans as relics of history, monuments if you like. Instead the audio and photo-film approach helps to bring their stories to life.

A big thanks is due to duckrabbit for various types of support during the project, advice, guidance and encouragement, and various plugs and mentions have helped keep the project alive. Cheers Ben & David.’

Damian Drohan

Paddy Bassett was born in England and remembers World War II as a young child. He was evacuated on several occasions, but survived. He worked in England in the Forestry Service for a time after the war, and moved to Ireland in 1952. Paddy has retained a lifelong fascination with collecting all things military. He has a large collection of uniforms, bayonets and other items, some of which he’s had since he was a child. One of the first items he collected was a piece of a downed Spitfire Aircraft.

Brian Smith was born in Swansea in South Wales into a family with a long military history. His father served in the Great War and survived being gassed, twice. His uncle was in a Cavalry division and survived being buried alive by shellfire. Both of Brian’s brothers flew with the RAF during wartime. One brother flew in a Lancaster bomber and survived unscathed, except for hearing damage sustained due to high altitude flying. His other brother was a wireless operator-airgunner on a Beaufort torpedo bomber, he also survived unscathed. Brian describes being surrounded by the war, Swansea was a hive of wartime activity. The large harbour meant it was used in training exercises in the lead up to D-Day. Brian was too young to join the RAF during hostilities but he served as a pilot for three years in the early 1950′s. He later joined the Merchant Navy and then the Coastguard. Until recently he provided safety courses for sailors. He has now retired and lives in County Cork.

Sound Portraits:

Margaret McGrath

Margaret (Peggy) McGrath moved to England to take up nursing training at the age of 20. She trained in the Royal Waterloo Hospital and then moved to East Grinstead to Archibald McIndoeís pioneering plastic surgery ìGuinea Pigî hospital. She recalls meeting her husband-to-be on her very first dayís service. He had lost his toes through frostbite and was traumatized after returning from a Japanese P.O.W. camp. She continued to nurse her husband after the war ended as he was unable to take up work. He eventually found work in a new initiative program which was designed to get injured ex-servicemen working. She lived in England for most of her life and moved back to Ireland in the last few years.

Paddy Mooney:

Patrick (Paddy) Mooney is 89. He joined the RAF at the age of 22 in 1943. He wanted to join sooner but his mother didn’t approve. He was posted to Egypt and maintained aircraft engines, with the intention of becoming a flight engineer. However the squadron he was posted to didnít train flight crew, so he worked as ground crew for the remainder of the war. He also served in Palestine. After the war ended he returned to Ireland and ran his own bar businesses for the much of his working life.

James Redmond:

James Redmond’s father served in the Great War. James joined the RAF in 1942, and ended up serving as a rear gunner in a Bomber squadron. There was a long waiting list for Pilots and Navigators so impatience led him to accepting a position as a rear gunner. After the war he trained as a doctor and lived for many years in Zimbabwe before Robert Mugabe’s land confiscations forced him to flee.

Jack Allshire: D-Day Veteran

Jack Allshire served in the Second Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles. He lied about his age to gain entry to the army at 15. He landed on Sword Beach on D Day, and was part deafened in action a few days later whilst firing an anti-tank gun. He continued through France to Germany and left the army in September 1947. He spent the post-war years as both a painter-decorator and a truck driver. In common with many of the veterans featured here, his father fought in the Great War.

‘Finally! … Our Truth’

duckrabbit — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:41:45 +0000

Got a cool email this morning. Samira Hack, who was a prominent voice in the Open Eye documentary and photofilm I made with Joseph Rodriguez got in contact with Joseph with these words:

‘All that I can say is, Finally! I am very pleased with the results that you guys came up with. I know that people will criticise and say that this situation doesn’t exist in Sweden but you really kept it real and came forward with the truth, with our truth. And this is the only truth.’

As a programme maker you always worry about how the people featured in the programme will react. There is a unwritten contract that you will treat their words with respect. Once you break that contract you destroy trust.

I can see that in the work of a few photographers. They tell themselves their story is more important than the people in the pictures.

No doubt some great work is produced that way and in some circumstances they might be right.

I think radio producers, though their work tends to reach much larger audiences, are pretty philosophical about what their work can or can’t achieve.

Give someone a voice. For me that’s enough, anything else is a bonus.

You can see and hear Samira in the photofilm duckrabbit produced for the BBC below. You honor both us and her by taking the time out to watch:

Open Eye: Lebanon’s missing (Radio documentary and photofilm on the BBC)

David White — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:04:36 +0000

(PLEASE SHARE THIS IMPORTANT STORY)

If you didn’t get to listen to the fascinating and harrowing piece on the BBC World Service this morning about the photographer
Dalia Khamissy‘s attempts to document what happened to the thousands who were kidnapped and disappeared during the Lebanese civil war, then you can listen again here. You can even download it as MP3.

You should hear it. Millions of others have. It was fanbloodytastic to be able to listen to the whole programme, and to then be able to pop over to Auntie’s to have a butcher’s at what I had just been listening to and imagining. It seems such a natural progression to tie a radio broadcast in with images of and about the story, especially when the story involves a photographer.

To the right of the page you will see something unique:

The radio programme sits alongside a bespoke Photofilm, built around Dhalia’s images and video. This bi-media approach is the first for the World Service. The second part of the series, featuring photographer Joseph Rodriguez and his work on young immigrants living in Malmo, Sweden, will take a similar approach…a bi-media production, with a 23 minute radio programme on the WS alongside a powerful photofilm built around his images.

Please check out the piece.

*Disclaimer: Benjamin Chesterton was the producer for both pieces, and both Photofilms. If you are an established photographer who is working on an interesting long term project then we would like to hear from you, as it would be great to extend the Open Eye slot to cover more subjects.

A special thanks to Phil Coomes for pulling this together on the BBC website.

The film that would win the World Press Multimedia Award (if there was a public vote)

duckrabbit — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:38:21 +0000

Obviously the top people at The World Press know a thing or two about how to run a competition. For their latest award, they’ve decided that the FIFA World Cup football selection model is the way to go. Well, not quite …

According to someone commenting on the duckrabbit the nominators of this years multimedia awards will remain anonymous until the award is announced.

Hello?

If we are to believe the comment, World Press’ argument is that the nominators will remain nameless to prevent them from being kidnapped (or influenced).

Hello?

Nominators will ask around if they are serious about finding the ‘best’ work. The people they work with, and their friends, will know that they are nominators and subtly they will be influenced. The people that won’t be able to get attention for their work are those on the outside.

Did it ever occur to anyone that sometimes the outsiders do the best work? Maybe. And maybe that’s why there is such a restrictive system (more to come on that conspiracy theory in another post).

Proof?

I teach photofilms on the masters programmes at London College of Communication. Four of the films made by my students are better then almost anything I saw last year. Have they been seen by anyone? No. Do they therefore stand any chance of being nominated? I doubt it. At least if I knew who was nominating I could approach them on my students behalf.

Do the people at World Press have the attitude that ‘we know best and we know the people who know best’?

Maybe they do know best. Probably better then me. But that can only be a hypothesis right? And all hypothesis’s need to be tested. In the age of the internet there are other ways of doing things, but if you are going to do nominations, be transparent and announce who has the power. Let people upload their work onto a site and let people debate the work.

Do an open and a closed competition.

On the off chance the nominators will really remain anonymous, below is the photo film (in my opinion) that should win. There is a high possibility that not a single nominator has seen it and that’s absurd.

In photofilms, when it comes to audiences, names mean nothing. Photographers, beautifully lit talking to the camera, mean nothing (its just cheap content), it’s all about the story.

Take ten minutes.

Like any decent photo film you HAVE to get to the end to appreciate it.

I don’t care what the jury says.

This is the best photo film of last year, or any year. It wounded me.

Bright Brass is a photofilm about a brass band of former street children in Kinshasa (Congo DRC). This self-funded film is made by Rachel Corner (photography) and Laurens Nijzink (audio). This photofilm appeared on the website of The Guardian on 16 novembre 2010.

In Kinshasa (Congo DRC), between an estimated 25.000 and 40.000 children are living on the street. They are either orphans or have been expelled by their families. Accusation of witchcraft is an often-cited reason for ousting a child from a household. Despite the violence and insecurity the children face on the street and the criminal activities and prostitution they sometimes have to employ in order to stay alive, many prefer street life to abuse at home.

Espace Masolo is a day centre that organizes French lessons and cultural activities – mainly their brass band – for street children taken in by other centers where they stay overnight. In Kinshasa it is rare to find such an organization that works with children on cultural projects. It is wonderful to see the brass band empowering these youngsters by giving them so much joy and self-confidence.

We have portrayed 3 children from this brass band. They tell their story about how they lost their families and what it means for them to play in the brass band. These are painful stories but, despite the burden they carry, the photofilm also shows how they found joy at Espace Masolo and that they radiate confidence about their future.

You can SUPPORT Espace Masolo by sending some money to their bank account at the BIAC (Banque Internationale pour l’Afrique au Congo). Account: 33000670101 CRSAA-Espace Masolo, Swift code: CCBPFRPP. This swift code is necessary for international transfers to the BIAC.