THINKING PHOTOGRAPHY PICTURES OF THE WEEK - 4
Encounters with Duende
Above and below are photographs I made last week.
Throughout my career I have photographed trade union and political meetings and rallies, small groups of people in troubled or at times joyous discussions, and over the last 30 years I have documented actors rehearsing and many youth groups in workshops, consultations, discussions and numerous other activities.
To begin with I thought how unexciting but soon began to recognise the potential photogenic qualities of anger, disagreement, exploration, discovery, joy, innocence and nastiness. The oft displayed egos playing out and the attempts by those inherently diplomatic offered further raw emotional moments.
During all of last week I documented and in other ways contributed as best I could to a series of workshops organised by TCFT (see below) with and for 20 young Ukrainians and for 10 young people local to me in Dorset. These intelligent, enquiring, brave young souls were a joy to be with and offered many moments of very truthful emotions.
Above and below are photographs I made last week.
Throughout my career I have photographed trade union and political meetings and rallies, small groups of people in troubled or at times joyous discussions, and over the last 30 years I have documented actors rehearsing and many youth groups in workshops, consultations, discussions and numerous other activities.
To begin with I thought how unexciting but soon began to recognise the potential photogenic qualities of anger, disagreement, exploration, discovery, joy, innocence and nastiness. The oft displayed egos playing out and the attempts by those inherently diplomatic offered further raw emotional moments.
During all of last week I documented and in other ways contributed as best I could to a series of workshops organised by TCFT (see below) with and for 20 young Ukrainians and for 10 young people local to me in Dorset. These intelligent, enquiring, brave young souls were a joy to be with and offered many moments of very truthful emotions.
What I realised all those years ago was that a meeting means little photographically unless the emotional responses of the people attending and participating become central to the storytelling of the event.
This of course immediately draws upon the use of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s DECISIVE MOMENT, with which the photographer releases the shutter a fraction of a second before the emotional height of the action is reached in which the composition and the emotional expressions are in harmony with each other and within the formal elements of the frame. It is a practice I learned about many years ago which has guided my photographing both portraits and documentarist images.
This following is from my book TRANSIENT LIGHT, FLEETING TIME
An unshaven middle-aged man hunkers over his Flamenco guitar, wrapping his muscular arms around it as if clutching his lover. He hits a cord; my spine tingles. In regional Spanish he growls sounds of desire. A slim man enters and claps his hands rhythmically as his tenor voice, nurtured by brandy and burning cheroots, calls a response. A beautiful woman in a brazen red formfitting silken dress walks to the centre of the stage, each step announcing, “I am present”, “I am unobtainable desire”, “I am my own woman”.
In accord with the music, she swings her hips, stops, lifts the frilly hem of her skirt to reveal her lower leg, and on the beat, darts her right foot towards the audience. As she continues, the audience, both men and women, murmur approval, and like the guitarist, growl delight tinged with sensual admiration. Later an elderly woman, dressed more soberly in black, walks to the middle of the stage. With a weathered face, lined by picking vegetables under the hot Spanish sun, she waits for the music to find her and for the musicians to accede to her will. They do. She looks at the audience, the expectant men and the proud woman, proud because this elderly dancer makes neither concession to her lost youthful beauty nor to her aged knees and hips.
Silence, then the musky guitarist looks up at her, understands the precious moment and hits the cord he knows she wishes. She swivels her hips and snaps her foot towards the audience. This is luminescence, a world of deep understanding of life, survival, the transgressions of age and death; her spirit reaching out to the audience, embracing us as if she is our mother earth. The audience gasp. They may have expected this but to receive it is still apparently a surprise. This is what Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet called Duende.
In the presence and splendour of the young Ukrainians I saw moments of Duende. Youthful yes but stunningly moving. Their souls reaching out for life and love and accomplishments. Truly inspiring to all of us who took part.
*note re TCFT from Tina Ellen LEE
In 2008 in Srebrenica, I met a group of young people keen to use art and culture to heal their town (which had the only genocide in Europe since the end of WW2). They inspired what became The Complete Freedom of Truth (TCFT) https://thecompletefreedomoftruth.com an international youth arts programme that eventually involved thousands of young people and artists from many countries and cultures. Despite the loss of Erasmus in the UK, we continue with support, in this case, from the Council of Europe’s European Youth Foundation funding with other supportive foundations and trusts + crowdfunding. This project Art, Youth and A Shared Peace took place between the 22 June and 2 July 2025, when 30 young people from the UK and Ukraine worked together over 10 days in the West Dorset town of Bridport and in London. They developed their creativity, their friendships and their ability to self-care and tackle trauma, in all its forms in both countries. The people of Bridport showed how a community comes together to welcome, care for and support young people in work like this, from the kindness of hosts, the generosity of food suppliers and the Town Council’s belief in the importance of working together, both locally and globally. Robert Golden framed the week for us by talking about Democracy and Kindness. He quoted Albert Camus, ““in recognising the potential dignity of life through people’s unstoppable struggle for freedom, one can overcome life’s inherently absurd and tragic nature.” With that he inspired all of us who work together alongside young people from the UK and Wider Europe to seek that Freedom and sustain our Democracies for all.
See this, the mother company of TCFT: https://operacircusuk.com