I show the meaning of my work in my exhibitions and books
which are composed of 30 – 60 images about economic and political oppression,
racism and classism.
For my Substack essays I can offer single images of the following artists
with whom I have had the honour to work.
The paintings of Ricky Romain …
continually using an embracing poetic visual lyricism
to lay bare the obscenities of our era.
Photographing the theatre of David Glass…a theatre maker/writer/director/teacher
who creates stories of metaphor uncomfortably challenging acceptable norms…
Photographing the joyous work of The Complete Freedom of Truth (TCFT)…
using the arts to offer young people new ways of viewing the world
and their place in it.
philosophies of liberation,
striving for personal emancipation,
grasping permissiveness,
living outside crushing demanding expectations
of post World War 2 mainstream traditions,
of parents, teachers, bureaucrats, religious leaders, politicians,
media mongers, ‘personalities’
all terrified of Commies,
terrified of the bomb, of black people, of youths, of of of
preoccupied with religion, consumption, God and country,
secretly supporting witch hunts,
but
unruly basement Jazz and Folk clubs
underground publishers,
Bobby Zimmerman,
Joni, Pete and concerts,
Woody somewhere in the shadows slowly dying,
festivals, beat poet Ginsberg on the road,
happenings,
demos,
taking to street demonstrations for equality,
for peace
against racism, imperialist war making,
and wishing to stop time in mid sexual arousal
so life could always be on high
then JFK, MLK and Malcomb all gone
wrapped in eternal secrets
their memories still wishing to create liberating politics and culture
and an egalitarian economy,
imagining a better world,
turning on and dropping out,
grass, Lebanese hashish, Timothy Leary, LSD,
illicit transgressions,
desirous of all things anti-establishment,
knowing,
dreaming that today’s anguish did not have to be tomorrows...
this touched who I was and what I wanted to be…
I scratched my way through the mess
attacked in sunny afternoon New York’s little Italy
by a gang of teens,
then arrested for having a moustache,
smashed into by a hippie-propelled supermarket shopping trolley
for not having a moustache,
camera in hand almost falling out of a chopper above NYC.
the young then and now wanted to make decisions for ourselves, themselves,
they / we wished then and now
to turn away from traumatised post-war parents and politicians,
those who needed and wanted convention, safety, quiescence, total order
with the young then and now
longing to know who they / we were / are.
amongst the few things I knew
was that my camera could bring people into history,
that monochrome was not about a grey dystopia
but a way to clarify underlying structures
without the distracting confusion of surface colours and designs
I knew, thanks to Albert Camus, John Berger, Paul Strand, Edward Weston
and others: Lorca, Hikmet, Leonardo, Dante
that it would become possible to offer hope to the hopeless,
to make purposely invisible realities become purposely visible,
and that the transparent winds of change
could be revealed metaphorically
at that thought a poetry of visual imagery raised its head
while photographing commissions
I became discontented - my pictures were used to misrepresent
- editors, art directors thought,
‘because they paid me,
they had the right to construct out of my photographs
a reality acceptable to them and their reactionary publishers.
I’d been driven into conflict
between my responsibility to my media commissioners
and to those who generously gave me access into their lives
- something precious and delicate.
It seemed that I was insufficiently educated in the ways of capitalism:
”keep your eyes down,
keep your objections to yourself,
crucify your values but be secure, well-known and make money…”
my loyalty to their inhumanity
would be paid for in their admiration of my silence
You can see my last documentary here for free
called BELONGING / BECOMING
about how many different young people
from many countries think about life and the world
express their concerns about the state of the world.
It is emotionally engaging and filled with wisdom, longing and kindness.