Handing over the edit – Ramona sequences her own story

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How many photographers let the subjects of their photos have a go at editing, I wonder? It’s something I thought about doing during my MA – I had some ideas of how it might work but never quite got around to it. Maybe I’ll find a way to experiment with this properly a later date – it would certainly produce a more collaborative result.

This week though I had an accidental crack at it, when I helped Ramona prepare a talk she’s going to be giving to Roma teenagers at a school. I took my laptop to her house and we went through my Lightroom catalogue which contains every shot – my work, their family photos and some of their mobile phone or Facebook pictures – in the now two-and-a-half year old project.

But whereas last time I only really showed her my picks and she selected from them – this time she got free reign over every folder, including all the many dud shots. She selected the 22 or so that she wanted and then I opened them in Bridge, where she told me the sequence she wanted. At this point I thought it might be worth recording some of this, and so shot some shaky video on my phone.

Her choices were interesting to me because they weren’t what I would have chosen – many, to me, are weak visually, or at least weaker than the versions that I have used until now, and a couple of them are her own shots from her phone. But of course she’s looking at them with a different intention – constructing her edit of her life as she wants to show it in a motivational talk.

 

Ramona’s edit:

 

 

One big party

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It’s been a few days of celebration – punctuated back at home by spurts of painting my office. Last week it was the surprise 6th birthday party of Latifa, the little daughter of Elvira, who has now been living in the UK for almost a year. Throughout the period where we worked on our book, Elvira and Me, the pair were separated, but one lovely spin-off of selling a few books was being able to help her finance a trip back to Romania to collect the girl. Latifa is doing brilliantly at school and almost speaks English like a Mancunian. This was the first birthday she had shared with her mum since 2009 so it was a special one for them both.

 

Then, yesterday, it was Orthodox Easter Sunday – another big date in the family. Last year I visited the previous day when they were cooking but for some reason couldn’t make the day itself. This year I was told to come round for about 10.30am and much like Christmas Day we first went to visit Elvira’s relatives to eat from their Easter table. Having stopped eating meat, days like this – when practically every dish on the table contains flesh – generally result in me eating my own body weight in cakes. Romanians have a tradition of dyed boiled eggs – two of you bash your eggs together (the older person’s egg on top) while saying “Christ is risen!”…the person with the unbroken egg will apparently live longest. Wikipedia says this tradition exists in the UK as well but I’ve never heard of it. There was much dancing and we all then traipsed back to Elvira’s, where her relatives ate her food. Video is the only medium which really does justice to the dancing – at some point I will edit what I recorded as it’s pretty amazing.

 

 

Still here, still plodding

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I have lapsed at this blogging lark. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still working on this project – I am, honestly.

One of my main priorities at present is my Roma commission in Middlesbrough, where I have now been visiting one Czech family for a year – it probably works out as about once a month, although the frequency has varied. I am an incredibly slow worker, and I’m almost slightly embarrassed that I’m not anywhere near feeling ‘complete’ with this, but I think the work will hopefully be all the stronger for this time, both in terms of showing a long-term engagement through the passage of time in the images themselves, and also in terms of trust. There is talk about a possible trip to Czech in the summer, and I have been invited, but who knows whether or not that will actually happen or whether I’ll be able to go. If I can it would be amazing for the project, obviously, and I love the family so I hope it takes place.Qui vivra verra, as a French friend often says to me: time will tell.

This project strand came about – and is being funded – through a commission from Side Gallery in Newcastle, although my Arts Council grant is topping this up and allowing me to work at my preferred snail’s pace, and there is now talk of an exhibition at some undecided point in the future, which is exciting. The family of course find this very strange, but I’m sure they will love it when it happens. Here’s a few images from this weekend..

Photography and obfuscation

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“…it seems that the photographers much prefer obfuscating the realities they document, never allowing facts and knowledge to color their work…It is however deeply hypocritical because the very men and women who claim to cover the world’s ‘historic’ events, later attempt to feign ‘neutrality’ about the same events, hiding behind postmodernist positions while refusing to take a stand on the basis of clear and obvious principals.”

A brilliant article on the photography – and obfuscation – of the Iraq war by Asim Rafiqui.  Food for thought.