The Association of Photographers’ Open Awards aims to shift the focus away from the photographer and instead celebrate the power of the image alone. Priding itself as an awards with a broad global reach, its most recent iteration saw some 3500 images submitted from various far flung corners of the world, from Finland to San Francisco. Entries came from hobbyists, professional photographers and everyone in between; instead of being influenced by a photographer’s professional industry accolades, the judges scrutinise the image as a standalone entity.

“Being a finalist in the AOP Open Awards has given me the confidence to produce more photographic work and present it to people with a belief that it will be taken seriously,” says 2017 finalist Julian Hicks. As a digital retoucher, Hicks felt that “most of the time [his] work was not recognised at an artistic level because [he is] not a professional photographer.” A celebration of excellence in photography from across the world, the Open Awards dismantles such barriers, reflecting the wider AOP’s ethos of ‘promoting, protecting and educating photographers of all levels’. The AOP was created 50 years ago by photographers and today it is still run by photographers for photographers. A not-for-profit, organisation, its all revenues go back into promoting photographers and creators.

Leon Fagbemi. Portrait shoot. Orpington. 15 May, 2016. © Tom Watkins www.tomwatkinsphoto.com

Photographer and filmmaker Dan Prince, a finalist from the most recent Awards, highlights the value of this inclusivity: “The Awards are a great platform for visibility within the industry as Open finalists exhibit alongside the main awards [the AOP Photography Awards and the Student Awards] which attract a lot of creative people,” he says. Finalists of the 2019 Awards will have their winning images showcased as part of a group exhibition at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf and will be rewarded with prizes including a £4000 Lumix kit voucher.

With the competition closing for entries on 25 February 2019, we spoke to four photographers – Katinka Herbert, Julian Hicks, Dan Prince and Fiona Read – about how they selected their winning submission and why the Open Awards were integral to their professional development. From a staged portrait to a candid shot taken in the wild, the range of submissions is notably varied. They can be seen as a microcosm of the wider entry pool.

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Katinka Herbert

Joana Menédez Gonzalez © Katinka Herbert www.katinkaphotography.com

“Gazing at these bodies, we are forced to imagine the movements of which they are capable. The lives they wish to leave behind, and the ones that they dream of,” says Herbert, referring to her photo series on Cuban athletes. The Movers unveils the layers of inaccuracy surrounding Cuban representation and repositions the photographer’s subjects through her critical eye. The image that made her a 2017 Open Award finalist, Joanna, Tropicana Club Dancer depicts a dancer, fully dressed in her performance costume, perched upright on the edge of her bed, stuck static within the confines of the bedroom walls and the even more rigid borders of the staged photograph. As a singular shot, it captures the overarching themes that tie the series together: the tension between mobility and domesticity, the black body as a “ticket to global mobility,” and the oppression of black movement both on and off the world stage.

Much like Prince, Herbert lauds the career-changing power of the awards: “the Open Awards offer great exposure across the industry,” she says. Since winning, The Movers has been exhibited at Photo London, the photography biennale at Somerset House and published in a number of high profile European magazines. Such exposure has further shed light and brought greater attention to the realities of life in Cuba.

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Julian Hicks

Screaming Cow © Julian Hicks www.julianhicksart.com

Hicks is a commercial retoucher. His photograph The Screaming Cow – a crepuscular cow staring ominously into the camera – was a 2017 finalist in the Stills category. Taken from the vantage point of a boat on the Thames, the photograph is shrouded in a mysticism found in the rest of Hicks’s photographic portfolio. Since reaching the Open Awards finals, The Screaming Cow has been exhibited at the 2017 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, as well as being longlisted for the 2017 Celeste Art Prize.

Hicks however stresses that most significant/impact of winning lies beyond the accolades: “Being a finalist in the AOP Open Awards has given me the confidence to produce more photographic work and to present it to people with a belief that it will be taken seriously. There must be so many people like me that have creative awareness and skill that don’t ever take the chance to be considered for prizes.”

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Dan Prince

The Latvians © Dan Prince www.danprince.co.uk

With such broad submission guidelines how does one go about selecting what to enter? For Prince, the answer is simple: “Sometimes it’s the shots that you personally might not think are the strongest that make the Awards. You never know.” His winning submission, The Latvians was taken while on set for a photography commission. “These guys [his subjects] were actors in the TV advert. I wandered around the location and found a large window which was perfect. I asked them to to stand for a portrait and luckily, they agreed.” He encourages prospective entrants to take the plunge and “Just submit. Even if you have doubts, submit.”

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Fiona Read

© Fiona Read www.fionareadphotography.com

Though the Open Awards is open to all, Read – whose portrait of her daughter featured in the 2017 Open Awards exhibition – stresses that serendipity alone does not make a winning entry. Rather, she suggests that a “compelling portrait is a truthful one, where the model is truly engaged with the moment.” Echoing the reflections of the photographers featured above, Read comments on the ripple effect the awards has had on her career: “Since then, I have graduated with a degree in Photography and have begun lecturing at the college I studied at. I have always loved portraits and working with people but this was a turning point for me and solidified that passion.”

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The Open Awards is now open for submissions in the following categories: Stills, Moving Image and Innovation – a new category designed to encourage the use of new technologies. Submit your photography here. A curated exhibition of the winning work will take place at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London from 15 April – 31 May 2019.

This article has been written in partnership with Association of Photographers. Please click here for more information on sponsored content funding at British Journal of Photography.

Fabrizio Albertini’s latest project began in his vegetable garden. “It was a stream of consciousness that lasted for a couple of years, from 2015 to 2017. I started taking pictures in my garden,” he says, “I was looking for something close to me”.

Radici is Albertini’s newest book, published by Witty Kiwi, and the winner of this year’s Unveil’d Photobook Award. Its title means “roots” in Italian, “like the ones in my garden,” the photographer explains.

But the project developed into an exploration of roots in a personal sense too. The book includes archival images found in a museum in Cannobina Valley, where Albertini’s mother grew up. From there, it grew into a project of self-analysis, as he began to shoot instinctively in response to his memories and the landscape that surrounded him. “Like for any self-analysis, it is not a theory, and there is no solution. It’s just a story,” he says.

http://www.fabrizioalbertini.com/ Radici by Fabrizio Albertini is published by Witty Kiwi, available to purchase for €35 www.wittykiwi.com

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

Radici © Fabrizio Albertini

A young boy sits in an armchair. Wearing a woollen cardigan, his hands loosely grip the side of the chair. His expression is neither buoyant nor sad. For all intents and purposes, this is just an ordinary photograph of an ordinary boy, yet the image forms the basis of an academic essay. Written by Benjamin Matthews – a part-time Masters student currently reading Photography: History, Theory, Practice at University of Sussex – the paper investigates the attribution of victimhood to subjects in images where an act of injustice is suggested but not shown.

With this context, the significance of the photograph becomes apparent. The image is part of a collection of material held at The Keep archive, and donated by relatives of German-Jewish families who survived the Holocaust. “The photograph is of a young boy who was tragically killed in Auschwitz,” explains Matthews, “but it was taken before he was transported. The image itself does not contain any reference to the young boy’s murder, it was taken as a family photograph, yet its place within the archive gives the photograph new context and significance.”

Matthews is a photographer with a background in practice-based arts – he holds separate BAs in Design Crafts (1995) and Ceramic Design (2014). Photography: History, Theory, Practice is his first formal exploration into the historical and theoretical foundations of photography. The MA was launched by University of Sussex in 2018 as a photography course with a difference. The teaching of photography is often divided by a focus on either practice or theory; this Masters presents the two on an equal footing and encourages experimental combinations.

© Clare Patrick

The degree to which Matthews engaged with his chosen subject matter was evident and he was awarded a highly commendable grade for the paper. As a result, just one term into the course, he decided to shift his immediate focus to a more theoretical and historically grounded study of photography. “We have seen a lot of this already and it is something I am really happy about,” says Dr Ben Burbridge, a senior lecturer at University of Sussex who was instrumental in the founding of the new MA. “It shows how much the students are learning, how open they are to the unpredictable ways in which an educational journey can unfold, and how quickly they are developing new or different sets of interests.”

Photography: History, Theory, Practice encourages its students to combine the development of their photographic practice with an exploration of the history and theory of the medium. “The MA grew out of our feeling that traditional distinctions between theory and practice were in many ways unhelpful,” says Burbridge. “In some way, those distinctions seemed to suggest that practice was somehow mindless, and that thinking and writing did not qualify as ways of ‘doing’ photography. They also risked discouraging innovation.

“Our students seem totally sympathetic towards our overarching philosophy that the most interesting ideas and the most interesting practices very often emerge from a place where that relationship is approached differently.” Many of the students currently enrolled on the course were searching for a degree that did not force them to choose between the practical and theoretical study of photography. “I get to decide what ratio of practice to theory there is,” says Matthews. “In this sense our course feels pretty unique, all the other MA Photography courses seemed weighted one way or another, and not in a way that the student can influence.”

Clare Patrick signed up to the MA after she graduated from fine art school. She focused on photography and art history during her undergraduate degree and believes that a sophisticated understanding of theory is fundamental to practice. “Photography today is understood to be so many different things … and theory can offer a way to define practice as much as practice can inform how to approach and critically interact with theory.” she says. Furthering her knowledge of the wider context of photography has been crucial for Patrick’s practice: “understanding context makes my work much stronger; it allows me to be confident in what I want to say with my work.”

© Sam Hui

In setting up the Masters, Burbridge worked with other university lecturers and academics to develop a set of structures and frameworks that could assist in the reimagining of traditional disciplinary boundaries. The course, for example, facilitates cross-disciplinary study in subjects including art History, Film, American Studies, English and Media. Yet, according to Burbridge: “The most exciting and important work is now being done by the students, who have already challenged some of our ideas and assumptions in very productive ways. The students themselves are now the main force shaping this dialogue between theory and practice, and in determining what forms it takes. The course is a living entity now.”

Another distinct feature of the MA is the importance it places upon archival and collection-based learning. The department holds partnerships with two of Britain’s most significant collections of photography – Getty Images Archive and the Archive of Modern Conflict – and students are encouraged to engage with both through masterclasses and self-initiated research. The Keep, a Sussex-based archive and conservation centre, is particularly central to students’ learning. In the course’s first semester, a significant portion of contact time is spent at the archive. During this time students handle and examine a diverse array of material including daguerreotypes, photographs from private family collections, artists’ book dummies, ethnographic imagery, spirit photographs and scrapbooks of press photography. Such approach feeds into the MA’s overarching goal to redefine and push the boundaries of photography education.

For Matthews, this focus on archive-based learning is a key element of the MA: “This is the differentiating factor of this course: the doing nature of our research,” he says. “The revelatory experience of handling the original object, rather than seeing it as a part of a Powerpoint display, enables experiences,  discussions and research that just would not be possible otherwise.”

The flexible and evolving nature of the course, together with its non-traditional approach to the teaching of the medium, allows the MA to attract a student body that is incredibly diverse. This in itself is a draw: “Naturally,” says Patrick, “it impacts on the discussions that unfold. There are many perspectives that offer new and challenging ways to think about photography.” Individuals currently enrolled on the course include photographers with long-established careers in the industry, those with backgrounds working in museums and galleries, writers, and recent graduates with a variety of subject specialisms.  

The direction in which Photography: History, Theory, Practice will evolve shall largely be shaped by its students. This is apt for a course that believes the teaching of the medium should be flexible, responsive and fluid. “Photography is such a complex, eclectic and contradictory subject. It can mean so many things,” says Burbridge. “Just as it makes sense to explore it across different areas of culture and within different disciplinary frameworks, it needs a diverse and engaged group of students to do justice to its multifarious character.”  

Enrol on Photography: History, Theory, Practice today! The deadline for applications is 1 August 2019, for international students, and 1 September 2019 for UK and EU students.

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© Clare Patrick

© Sam Hui

© Clare Patrick

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This feature is supported by University of Sussex. Please click here for more information on sponsored content funding at British Journal of Photography.

Seeing leafy New England askew in Aaron Schuman’s Slant
Inspired by local Police Reports, the curator, photographer and editor Aaron Schuman uncovered a humorous – but disturbing – fear at the heart of Amherst, Massachusetts. We spoke to Shuman about his project, Slant, now being published by MACK.

From SLANT, 2017 © Aaron Schuman

The NPG “not to proceed” with a £1m Sackler Trust donation
London’s National Portrait Gallery is no longer taking a £1m gift from the Sackler Trust, amid growing controversy over the trust’s links to Purdue Pharma – makers of the OxyContin prescription painkiller which has been linked to the opioid crisis. The £1m gift was to support the gallery’s Inspiring People initiative, a £35.5m project which would see the biggest-ever building development of the gallery since it opened in 1896.

NPG Gallery’s current entrance – Born Digital. Image courtesy the NPG

Ooshot Award: an exhibition of commissioned photography
The first award dedicated to commissioned photography will exhibit the winning project – Sneakers like Jay-Z by Ambroise Tézenas and Frédéric Delangle – alongside selected commercial work by 25 other image-makers. The exhibition will be on show at Magasins Généraux – BETC from 19 to 28 April.

© Charlie Engman for Emilio Pucci

Hyères Festival returns, 25-29 April
Established in 1986 as a festival for young fashion designers, the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion accessories, Hyères, has established itself as a small but beautiful festival with a cutting-edge handle on photography in fashion and beyond. Featuring 10 emerging image-makers shortlisted for a photography prize plus exhibitions by world-famous names such as Craig McDean, it returns to France from 25-29 April.

Kate Moss, Harper’s Bazar, December 1996. From the exhibition Craig McDean

Kyotographie 2019: VIBE
Set within the ancient city of Kyoto, among countless temples, shrines, and imperial palaces, is Japan’s largest international photofestival, Kyotographie. Weronika Gęsicka, Teppei Kaneuji and Ismaïl Bahri are among the headliners of this year’s festival, which returns for the seventh time from 13 April to 12 May.

Teppei Kaneuji, Sea and Pus (Concrete Block), 2018 © Teppei Kaneuji

Those who eat fish from the cyanide lake improve their sex life
Tomas Bachot’s documentary series about a gold mining initiative in Rosia Montana, Romania took an unexpected turn after receiving negative feedback from one of his couchsurfing hosts. From there, the project evolved into an introspective investigation into the nature of documentary photography itself. We spoke to Bachot ahead of an open-air projection of his work during Riga Photomonth this May.

From the series ‘Those who eat fish from the cyanide lake improve their sex life’ 01 © Tomas Bachot

Massimo Vitali: Short Stories
Massimo Vitali believes that “When you overshoot, you lose your balance” and his new book and exhibition are an exercise in restraint – including just 12 of his iconic images, shot on beaches and other crowded public places. “For me the beach is the perfect place to observe people,” he wrote on his blog back in July 2018. “In other words, we go to the beach to take pictures of people, not to take pictures of the beach.”

Cefalù Orange Yellow Blue, 2008 © Massimo Vitali, courtesy Mazzoleni London Torino

Jewelled snuffboxes, miniature Indian paintings, panels of luminous stained glass, and a pair of golden shoes are among the many treasures kept in the V&A that sparked Tim Walker’s imagination while he scoured the museum’s collection of over 2.3m objects. Using these items as a springboard, Walker has produced 10 new photographic projects which will be shown within a major exhibition of his life’s work that opens at the V&A in London this September.

“The V&A has always been a palace of dreams – it’s the most inspiring place in the world,” says Walker, in a statement issued by the V&A. “Many of the objects that I saw during my research at the museum made my heart swell and I wanted to try to create a photograph that would relate not only to the physical presence and beauty of that object, but also my emotional reaction to it.”

Since coming up with the idea five years ago with V&As curator of photography Susanna Brown, Walker has searched through the museum’s 145 galleries, and met with curators and conservators to uncover precious artefacts that are hidden in storage. As part of his research, he even scaled the roof of the South-Kensington museum to gain a better understanding of the layout of the buildings; a historic site which has grown organically since its conception in the 1850s.

Walker is known for producing some of fashion’s most whimsical and inventive photography projects. Distinguished by extravagant staging and themes of romance and seduction, his work has appeared in almost every glossy fashion magazine. “It is rare for the V&A to give an exhibition of this scale to a photographer so young [Walker is 49 this year], but I feel that he has achieved so much over the last 25 years. His work speaks to so many people,” says Susanna Brown. “Tim has a wildly inquisitive mind and a boundless energy, he never stops innovating and these new pictures are some of the most spectacular he has ever made.”

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things will begin with 100 images to illustrate Walker’s impressive 25-year-career. It will include portraits of some of the biggest names in fashion like Edie Campbell and Alexander McQueen, as well as David Attenborough, Peter Blake and David Hockney. One wall will be devoted to his muses, which include Tilda Swinton, Lindsay Kemp, and artist Grayson Perry. The first part of the exhibition will end with five projects devoted to nude photography.

Tilda Swinton Fashion: Gucci, Marc Jacobs. Jewellery: Lisa Eisner Jewelry, Vela, Uno de 50, A. Brandt + Son Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire, 2018 © Tim Walker Studio

The main exhibition space is designed by the acclaimed set designer Shona Heath, who is also Walker’s long-term collaborator. Separated into 10 specially designed rooms, each photograph will be presented alongside the objects that inspired Walker’s image.

In a room titled Pen & Ink for example, Aubrey Beardley’s provocative 1890’s illustrations will be displayed in a green velvet-clad room, next to 10 of Walker’s interpretive images, inspired by Beardley’s illustrations. In another room titled Handle with Care, an image of three mannequin-like models will be displayed next to a dress from Alexander McQueen’s seminal 2009 collection, The Horn of Plenty. Walker wanted to reimagine his first encounter with McQueen’s dress when he visited The Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, where the V&A’s textile conservators care for the museum’s world-leading fashion collection.

Curator Susanna Brown accompanied Walker for a large part of his research and production process. She recalls the immediate, emotional reactions that Walker had to objects, and how he would sit in object stores, scribbling down ideas and set designs as they formed in his mind. “He describes it as an emotional reaction, like falling in love at first sight,” says Brown, explaining how Walker wanted to challenge himself by looking outside of the fashion and photography collections that he already knew he loved.

The V&A will be sharing this personal and collaborative process through a series of behind-the-scenes videos, which will be uploaded to the V&A website ahead of the opening. “Ultimately, what Tim and I hope is that visitors will see how the collection has inspired Tim, and from there they will find their own treasures that spark their own imagination,” says Brown, “that will be part of the legacy of the exhibition.”

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things will run at the V&A in London from 21 September 2019 to 08 March 2020 https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/tim-walker

The Peacock Skirt. Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) 1894 Line block print on Japanese vellum paper. From the V&A collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Karen Elson, Sgaire Wood & James Crewe. Fashion: The Row, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vacarello, Daniela Geraci, Sarah Bruylant hat, Molly Goddard London, 2018 © Tim Walker Studio

Dress from ‘The Horn of Plenty’ Autumn/Winter collection. Alexander McQueen (1969-2010) 2009, Printed red and black silk. From the V&A collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sarah Grace Wallerstedt. Fashion: Moncler London, 2018 © Tim Walker Studio

Tobias and Sara on their Wedding Night. About 1520, Cologne, Germany. Stained glass panel with painted details and silver stain. From the V&A collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Zo, Kiran Kandola, Firpal, Yusuf, Ravyanshi Mehta, Jeenu Mahadevan, Chawntell Kulkami, & Radhika Nair
Fashion: Marni, Paolina Russo, Missoni, Ahluwalia Studio, Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Lou Dallas. Pershore, Worcestershire, 2018 © Tim Walker Studio

Krishna and Indra. About 1590, Lahore. Watercolour painting and gold on paper. From the V&A collection © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

For Fractured Stories, a British Journal of Photography commission supported by Ecotricity, Rhiannon Adam spent four months immersed in the fracking debate. A series of editorials published on BJP-online tell the stories of the individuals she encountered. A number of images are corrupted with a constituent chemical of frack-fluid, alluding to the potential environmental impacts of the practice. The second in the series tells the stories of local people both for and against the practice. 

In a living room on Blackpool’s South Shore, Claire Smith cradles a large rabbit. “He is the light of our lives,” says Smith. The rabbit’s enclosure extends across half of the room. “We found a Russian Dwarf hamster eight months before we found him, and then a guinea pig. They all belonged to the same woman but she has refused to accept ownership: she had five small furry creatures, of which we now have three.”

Smith is pro-fracking. As the rabbit – Ralphie – lollops about the room, she explains why. When the conversation ends, Rhiannon Adam photographs them both, Smith and Ralphie, against the prim furnishings of her award-winning hotel. “She is not the kind of person you would expect to support fracking,” says Adam. “The experience of photographing her in that space was quite surreal. But, ultimately, whether you are anti, or pro it, everyone has a different story. It is not as sensationalised as it has been presented in the media.”

The ‘start’ of new industry. Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam. rhiannonadam.com

Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

For the last four months, Adam has immersed herself in the fracking debate. She spent much of her time at, and around, Preston New Road in Lancashire, home to the UK’s first active fracking site since a moratorium on the practice was lifted in late 2012. The first frack took place on 15 October 2018, midway through Adam’s project. The process has caused numerous tremors to date. A number of which have stalled operations in line with government regulation. 

Preston New Road lies midway between Blackpool and Preston. From the late 1950s to the early 1980s, Blackpool was one of the go-to destinations for British holidaymakers from the UK’s industrial heartland. But, as the cotton and coal mining industries diminished, so did Blackpool’s once-burgeoning tourism trade. Cheap package holidays to warmer, more exotic, destinations contributed to the plummeting visitor numbers. Although tourism has somewhat recovered the city is still struggling. From July 2017 to June 2018 the unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent; one percent higher than the national average. In 2017, the End Child Poverty initiative reported that child poverty in the area was at 36.52 percent.

Blackpool county court where many of the protesters demonstrating at Preston New Road are taken to face charges. Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Blackpool county court. Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Those in support of fracking, like Smith, extol the practice’s potential for the creation of local jobs. In January 2018, Cuadrilla stated that its operations in the area had created just 50 jobs locally. Following the announcement of its second exploration well, the company gave £100,000 to residents in the surrounding areas. It was decided that this should be split proportionally between households located within 1.5 kilometers from the site. Properties within one kilometer were entitled to £2,000; those located between one and 1.5 kilometers were entitled to £150. “How many businesses have spent 10 million pounds in Lancashire over almost two years,” says Preston-based John Kersey, managing director of a hair salon, another supporter of the practice who Adam met.

Film negative corrupted with water from Carr Bridge Brook and polyacrylamide. Preston New Road, Lancashire, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

In the area directly surrounding the site Cuadrilla’s ‘investments’ have divided the community. Many declined the money or donated it to the protestors campaigning at the Preston New Road site. Others accepted. “Cuadrilla have tried to win over the landowners and a lot of them have been duped by them,” says John Tootill, who owns a nursery next to the site and has vehemently opposed Cuadrilla‘s activities since they began. “ They have taken money from them for access onto the land, I would have been one of them but I did not want anything to do with Cuadrilla because that would be so hypocritical,” he says.

Preston New Road. Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Film negative corrupted with water from Carr Bridge Brook and polyacrylamide. Inside Maple Farm Nursery. Preston New Road, Blackpool, UK. © Rhiannon Adam

Preston New Road. Blackpool, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

“The subject of fracking is not just a political issue, which is how the press generally report it,” says Adam. “It is also about the individuals and, the fact is if you believe that strongly in something it takes a lot of gumption to stand up and fight it. To be willing to alienate yourself from your community; to take a risk because of your own beliefs and convictions – that is quite powerful.”

Below, her images tell the stories of the locals she encountered both for and against the practice:

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Gina Dowding

“It is as if we have been left with no choice because the democratic process is not working”

Gina Dowding at home. Preston New Road, Blackpool, 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Gina Dowding has lived in Lancaster for more than 30 years and is a Green Party Lancashire County Councillor for Lancaster Central. She got involved in politics out of concern for the environment before fracking was even on the agenda. In November 2017, Dowding engaged in a direct action that saw her convicted at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court. She was one of 12 people, including two other councillors, who engaged in a lock-on to barrels and pipes outside of the Preston New Road site. 

“In the past, I never felt that comfortable about taking direct action,” she says, “that is one of the reasons that I got involved in local council politics; I felt that it was important to be part of the system in order to try and change it.” Dowding lost faith in this approach when the Lancashire County Council rejected Cuadrilla’s bid to drill at Preston New Road in 2014, but Sajid Javid, then secretary of state for the Department of Communities and Local Government, overruled the decision.

Dowding regards the development of the shale gas industry as undermining any action the UK is trying to take nationally against climate breakdown. Many advocates assert that fracking offers a ‘bridge fuel’ to a renewable energy future and is crucial for energy security. “But, this misses the obvious,” says Dowding, “a new fossil fuel just locks us into carbon production for at least another decade or two. It also delays the expansion and development of our renewable energy industries; green energy provides permanent energy security and is essential to avoiding climate catastrophe.”

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John Kersey

“I have always been a hairdresser. I love the profession. What you are probably thinking is why the connection between fracking and hairdressing?”

John Kersey in his salon in Grimsargh. Preston, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

John Kersey has run a hair salon in Grimsargh, a village in the city of Preston, for 22 years. He fell into the profession aged 14 and has been in the industry for over 50 years. “Having been trained properly myself, I wanted to do the same for others,” he says, “I have trained 150 hairdressers to date.” Kersey is a former chairman of the Lancashire branch of the Institute of Directors, an organisation for company directors, and business leaders, he is also a member of the North West Energy Task Force. It was on joining the IoD that he became interested in fracking.

“I felt that fracking was a major opportunity for Lancashire to come back to its heritage and be a great industrial county once again,” he says. Kersey believes that the industry will provide a source of jobs and energy security. He was involved in a report that the IoD published on the subject in 2012, sponsored by Cuadrilla, which concluded that shale gas has the potential to create jobs, generate tax revenues, reduce imports and act as a ‘bridge fuel’ to a renewable energy future. In late 2013, he stood as a witness in Parliament, as part of an inquiry by the House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee into the possible economic impact of shale gas and oil on the UK. The evidence he gave stressed the importance of fracking for energy security.

“There is not another option,” he continues. “We are where we are. We have energy security to think about, we have houses to heat, we have children to educate.” Kersey recognises that renewables are the way forward, but regards fracking as central to this transitional phase. “I would like us to be 100 percent renewable now,” he says. “But you cannot go from being where we are today to that tomorrow; there has to be this transition phase … if we continue to use fossil fuels, which we are inevitably going to do for the short term, we need to look into solving the problems associated with those and creating alternative ways of doing things.”

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John Tootill

“This industry is in its death throes — very soon it will cease. It cannot carry on as it has no future whatsoever”

John Tootill. Maple Farm Nursery. Preston New Road, Blackpool, UK. © Rhiannon Adam

John Tootill has run Maple Farm Nursery, located just 800 metres from Preston New Road, for 34 years. He lives there with his family. “I started the business with my dad. We worked together as a team for many years until his death a couple of years ago,” he says. “My dad was extremely concerned by Cuadrilla’s proposals to carry out fracking so close to our nursery and feared the worst for his family home and business.” Tootill had no idea about fracking when Cuadrilla Resources first applied to drill near his home. After discovering what the process was, and the risks it posed, he was horrified: “I am just trying to defend my family, my community and all the things that I have been brought up to believe in.”

One of Tootill’s concerns is the effect that the practice could have on his livelihood. “I want people to be able to visit the nursery without fearing for their health and their children’s health.” He donated a portion of his land to the protectors, on which they have set up Maple Farm Camp. “It is a big sacrifice because it is a site on the main road, which, from a business point of view, is an important location,” he says. “I am happy that it is being used to further the campaign against this harmful process.” The camp also provides a “safe haven” for protectors: “Maple Farm offers a refuge for people to feel secure because the policing can be very oppressive.”

Tootill himself has had a number of run-ins with the police. On the gates of Maple Farm Camp, a collection of large signs denounce fracking and the myriad dangers associated with it. In 2016, Fylde Borough Council sought to prosecute Tootill for unauthorised advertising. The case was dropped by the Council once his barrister disclosed to the court that the decision to prosecute him was made by Fylde borough councillors who had received money from Cuadrilla. He has been arrested twice: once for obstructing the road, and again for obstructing a police officer during an anti-fracking protest. The charges were dropped for both cases. “One of the reasons I was targeted by the police is because I am a local businessman,” he says. “I am seen as the face of respectability; that is not the face that industry and the government want showing opposition to them. And I have made my opposition very, very clear.”

Cuadrilla’s activities at Preston New Road have polarised the local community. “Cuadrilla has worked on this community for years: they have splashed money around, to all sorts of organisations: sports programmes, football and rugby clubs, schools, village halls, the list goes on,” says Tootill. “Many local people are frightened to show opposition to what is being imposed on them.” But, Tootill has remained dedicated to the fight. “The sooner that this dirty, reckless industry packs up and goes, the sooner I can get on with normal life,” he says. “Stopping it here will empower people to stand up for their communities in other places where the industry is trying to get a hold.”

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Claire Smith

“There is nothing else on the agenda that will improve our situation; fracking has the potential to do just that”

Claire Smith at her hotel in Blackpool. Lancashire, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Claire Smith and her husband Mark have lived in Blackpool their whole lives, along with their children and extended families. “When I first heard about fracking I thought this is serious,” she says. “Is this something that is going to have a hugely detrimental effect on our health, on our environment? I have to admit I was confused.” Today, she is a vocal supporter of fracking and part of North West Energy Task Force, funded by Cuadrilla Resources and Centrica, which encourages local businesses to become part of the shale gas industry’s supply chain.

Smith is the President of Stay Blackpool and has been a hotelier for 24 years: she runs two award-winning hotels. “Tourism is what we do. And we do it very, very well,” she says. However, tourism in Blackpool is not what it once was: the industry has declined with significant social and economic impacts. Smith is enthusiastic about fracking’s potential for job creation. “I want a better Blackpool; it is that simple,” she says. “I want more jobs. I want fewer derelict buildings, better healthcare, more teachers in schools, more police doing what they should be doing. The only way that we are going to achieve that is having more people in work.”  

“I am not completely right, but the anti-frackers aren’t either,” she says. Smith has little sympathy for the protest tactics of some anti-fracking activists. “A lot of them are not from here; they have no idea about the problems that we face.”  She does, however, empathise with the locals whose livelihoods could be compromised: “They are the ones that I do think have genuine reasons for being against it. I absolutely do feel for them … any change is scary.”

Read an introduction to the project here; the first article, which offers a glimpse into life on the frontline of the fracking resistance, here; and the third, which sheds light on the lives of anti-fracking campaigners, here.

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Fractured Stories is a British Journal of Photography commission made possible with the generous support of Ecotricity. Please click here for more information on sponsored content funding at British Journal of Photography.

Photographers Clément Chapillon, Ricardo Nagaoka, Francesca Allen and Brant Slomovic met for the first time in September 2018. Flying into San Francisco from various corners of the world, the four photographers spent the next 10 days travelling together across California. A filmmaker and a writer joined them on their journey.

California is the third largest state in the US and so the trip was split into two chapters. The group looped around northern California first – San Francisco, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mendocino, Montgomery Woods State Reserve and finally Sonoma County – before flying south and exploring a handful of the state’s more balmy regions – Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Malibu.

www.francesca-allen.co.uk. © Francesca Allen

The commission, run by British Journal of Photography in partnership with Visit California, tasked each photographer with creating a new personal project that would shed light on the lesser-known sides of the state. The photographers approached the subject matter from inside out: looking beyond icons and clichés, and instead immersing themselves in the everyday intricacies of Californian life. For several of the photographers this meant forming intimate relationships – being invited into their subjects’ homes and stepping, albeit momentarily, into their worlds – for others it involved getting lost in vast landscapes; stumbling upon scenes and communities that would otherwise go unexplored. The brief for the commission was intentionally open; it was important that each photographer was afforded the freedom to be creative in their approach.

Each photographer approached the brief differently. Chapillon, who travelled to California from Paris, explored wilderness in both a conventional and unconventional sense; his series places as much emphasis on urban environments as it does vast landscapes. The French photographer searched for liminal spaces with invisible borders, as well as human traces and enigmatic objects found in the middle of seemingly deserted landscapes.

Nagaoka, a Japanese photographer currently based in Portland, set about creating a series of portraits of Asian Americans living in the state. California is home to one of the largest populations of Asian Americans in the US, and was therefore a natural focus for the project, yet in mainstream film and media Asian Americans are rarely depicted. Nagaoka’s series – Gold Mountain – seeks to challenge stereotypes and provide a genuine representation of Asian Americans.

www.clementchapillon.com. © Clément Chapillon

www.brantslomovic.com. © Brant Slomovic

Allen took the opportunity to photograph women, of all ages, across California. Photographing over 50 women during the 10-day trip, the London-based artist experienced the state through the eyes of the women that call it home: a roller skater, an artist, teenage ballet dancers, park rangers. 

Slomovic, a practising accident and emergency doctor from Toronto, explored the restorative qualities of nature and the outdoors. “Often we turn to places of natural beauty for moments of solitude, contemplation and retreat,” he writes. “The portraits [that form the series] are of people engaging with their passions, being brave and cutting against the grain, committing to something unexpected or unconventional, and – in doing so – living their authentic selves.”  

Although the photographers all travelled on the same trip, the resulting projects are wildly diverse, testament to the nature of the state. One minute you could be in a tropical metropolis – towering buildings and palm trees in every direction – the next, you could be walking across mountainous terrain with not another soul in sight.

Above, we share a film that chronicles the photographers collective journey across California. At the end of this article you can also find out more about each  photographer’s process in a series of profile films.

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http://ricardonagaoka.com. © Ricardo Nagaoka

© Clément Chapillon

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Francesca Allen

Women of California – Click to read the article.

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Clément Chapillon

A Story of Californian Wilderness – Click to read the article.

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Ricardo Nagaoka

Gold Mountain – Click to read the article.

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Brant Slomovic

Wild Flowers – Click to read the article.

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Meet California is a British Journal of Photography commission made in partnership with Visit California. Please click here for more information on sponsored commissions and campaigns at British Journal of Photography.

A face, half-covered by verdant leaves and intersecting branches, confronts the camera. Two brown eyes, belonging to Kalidou, a 23-year-old Gambian man, pierce through the bushes. His gaze is unflinching. In this single shot, documentary photographer Aria Shahrokhshahi captures both the curiosity and determination that permeates his series, Kalidou.

Photographed in February 2018, over a one-month period, the series explores Kalidou’s gradual loss of sight. Shahrokhshahi’s photographs aim to raise awareness of Kalidou’s condition and accompany a Gofundme campaign that is raising funds that will pay for Kalidou to receive a corneal transplant in each eye. “Kalidou is 23-years-old and is going blind,” says Shahrokhshahi. He has got something called Keratoconus which is a thickening and misshaping of the cornea. I could really see his pain and frustration. Some days, if the sun was too bright, he would not even be able to go outside.” Photographs of Kalidou’s eyes peering through holes and silhouetted bodies subtly draw attention to his degenerative eye disease without explicitly pointing to the condition.

© Aria Shahrokhshahi www.ariamark.com

The finished project goes much deeper than the health problem, coming together as a depiction of the machinations of domestic life in The Gambia. From documenting unique customs – including Kankorang, a traditional west African performance dance – to everyday activities, Shahrokhshahi’s images tell a coming of age story that is at once personal and relatable. The juxtaposition of light and shadow, sobriety and play illustrates Shahrokhshahi’s preoccupation with the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. Our glimpse into Kalidou’s life is, in part, a reflection on youth and friendship anywhere in the world.

Shahrokhshahi never set out to photograph Kalidou. On a spontaneous trip to the west coast of Africa, the filmmaker and photographer met him by chance and the two immediately became friends. “He [Kalidou] has got a fantastic sense of humour,” says Shahrokhshahi. “He’s incredibly intelligent – he speaks six languages. And we both share a passion for very, very tasty Gambian food.”

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

Following this initial introduction, Shahrokhshahi was invited to spend some time living with Kalidou. “We slept on the same bed together, we had breakfast together, we spent all day together. In the evenings we would sit with Kalidou’s family and share stories about each other’s experiences lives,” he says. “I’ve rarely felt so welcomed into a household or community.” This experience proved fertile ground for making the series: familiarity with his subjects earned Shahrokhshahi the trust he needed to create the portraits. “When I first arrived, Kalidou and his family hadn’t seen a camera without a screen on the back before; a lot of the expectations that they had around taking photographs were not there,” he recalls. “Ultimately, I had to rely on them trusting that what I was doing would be truthful, dignified and respectful because I just had this arbitrary box that didn’t really show anything.”

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

This allowed a collaborative photographic approach whereby Shahrokhshahi and his subjects became “intertwined in the picture making together.” Because they couldn’t see these “latent images”, the family and the photographer were “both working to make the images together,” Shahrokhshahi explains. “Kalidou and his family were really interested in how the process worked. They asked me lots of questions.” The resulting images are suffused with a warmth that could only be made possible by a genuine friendship.

Find out more about Kalidou’s story and pledge towards his Gofundme here.

Fatima © Aria Shahrokhshahi

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

© Aria Shahrokhshahi

For Fractured Stories, a British Journal of Photography commission supported by Ecotricity, Rhiannon Adam spent four months immersed in the fracking debate. A series of editorials published on BJP-online tell the stories of the individuals she encountered. A number of images are corrupted with a constituent chemical of frack-fluid, alluding to the potential environmental impacts of the practice. The last in the series sheds light on the lives of anti-fracking campaigners.

“So often on Preston New Road, a car will pass and someone will shout: ‘Get a life, get a job, have a wash’,” says Rhiannon Adam, recounting the kind of insults routinely hurled at anti-fracking campaigners demonstrating at the UK’s first operative fracking site. Earlier that day, Adam travelled to  Manchester to visit Anne Power, an 87-year-old anti-fracking activist, at her home in an outer suburb of the city. Turning onto Anne’s road, Adam spots a bright red car emblazoned with the words ‘No Fracking’ in front of a terraced house. “I thought I was in the wrong place until I saw it,” she says. 

“Meeting someone on the roadside at Preston New Road is very different to seeing what cups and saucers they have, or what colour scheme they have in their house,” says Adam. The interior of Anne’s house is dazzling: “She wanted the house to flow; it looks as though an interior designer has decorated each individual space.” Anne built the stairs and knocked through the property’s walls herself. For decoration, she salvaged and repainted objects from skips, collected bits of brick and glass, and made collages.

Anne Power at home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Manchester, UK. November 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

“If I am just photographing someone at a protest, I don’t really get to see who they are,” says Adam. “They are just a number, a body, a presence on the street, which is, of course, important, but it is much more important to be able to understand someone’s actual motivation.” Visiting her subjects at their homes across the country enabled the London-based photographer to do this. “It is important to understand someone’s background” she continues, “to understand the richness and depth of their personality.” At home, one is always more at ease: there is the opportunity to discuss a subject’s backstory, to understand more fully what led them to become involved in the anti-fracking movement. “You really appreciate with someone, like Anne, how much she has seen and how much she has lived,” says Adam. “She has been alive for so long; the fact that she thinks this is an issue worth caring about says something.”

Film negative corrupted with water from Carr Bridge Brook and polyacrylamide. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Ginette Evans, aka Nana No Shit, taken on the day of the first frack. Film negative corrupted with water from Carr Bridge Brook and polyacrylamide. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Since September, Adam has immersed herself in the UK fracking debate. She spent much of her time at, and around, Preston New Road in Lancashire, home of the UK’s first active fracking site since a moratorium on the practice was lifted in late 2012. The first frack took place on 15 October 2018, midway through Adam’s project. The process has caused numerous tremors to date. A number of which have stalled operations in line with government regulation. Many of the campaigners she encountered at Preston New Road are locals or residents of the two permanent protest camps just feet from the main site; others, like Anne, are drawn from further afield.

Anne made headlines in 2017 when police dragged her across the road outside the Preston New Road fracking site after she refused to move from the entrance. Footage of her being pulled along the tarmac by three policemen was featured by many major media outlets. In summer of 2018, the actions of three activists received similarly widespread coverage. Simon Roscoe Blevins, Richard Roberts and Richard Loizou were convicted for engaging in a lock-on that lasted almost 100 hours in July 2017 and were each sentenced to between 15 and 16 months in prison. They were later released after six weeks when the court of appeal ruled that their sentences were ‘manifestly’ excessive, and the original judge’s family links to the oil and gas industry were brought to light. 

Film negative corrupted with water from Carr Bridge Brook and polyacrylamide. Richard Roberts, photographed at home in London after his release from prison. London, UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Like Anne, the coverage of Blevins, Roberts and Loizou was centred on their activities at Preston New Road. Driven to know more, Adam travelled to visit Blevins at home in Sheffield and Loizou in London. Below, her images shed light on the stories of these three campaigners.

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Simon Roscoe Blevins

“We are out of prison, in part, because we are outspoken, educated, middle-class, white-people. If we were not, then the media and the general public might not have taken so kindly. This is not just or fair”

Simon Roscoe Blevins at home in Sheffield. UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, has lived in a housing co-op in Sheffield for the past two years. He studied an MSci in Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, where he now works as a research technician. “My MSci was a significant turning point,” he says, “through your research you are aware of what is at stake and you feel the need to start putting yourself on the line for it.” The development of a number of proposed sites near his hometown, including one at Tinker Lane, also spurred Roscoe into action.

Roscoe did not plan to climb on top of the lorry, delivering equipment to Preston New Road, which saw him and two others sentenced to 16 months in prison. He was later released after the Lord Chief Justice ruled the sentence was “manifestly excessive”. “It was a split-second decision,” says Roscoe, “I climbed up expecting to be taken down within one or two hours by the police. No one came so I stayed. Still, no one came, so I stayed.” He remained on the lorry for 73 hours.

“The most striking thing was the unique perspective it gave me,” he says. “Being elevated allowed me to see how many people are involved and how many people care about fighting this.” The support offered by fellow campaigners and locals was incredible. “Residents from Carr Bridge Park, where lots of elderly people live, came over and offered support – from blankets and jacket potatoes to their thanks,” he remembers.

Roscoe remains dedicated to the anti-fracking campaign. “We need to stop framing fracking as a singular issue,” he says. “People often start protesting through nimbyism. But, through getting involved they learn more about climate change and realise that fracking is part of a much bigger issue.”

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Anne Power

“I am very prone to get angry; that saves me from getting scared”

Anne Power at home in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Manchester, UK. November 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

“I did not realise that this was going to change my life so fully,” says Anne Power. “I have got to 87 [she was 85 at the time of the incident] without ever being injured on the road; I know how to manage things for heaven’s sake.” Anne’s grandfather was a policeman. He died after sustaining injuries while saving children from an oncoming cyclist. “I had such a respect for the police,” she says. This is no longer the case.

Anne has been demonstrating against fracking for the last five years. At least twice a week she drives to Preston New Road from her home in Manchester. Often, she travels through the night to ferry people from site to site. In summer 2017, she spent four nights in her car on the roadside, just beside Preston New Road.  A group of protectors built two towers at the gate. “I was watching while I was dozing; I couldn’t tell whether they had built it on the bonnet of my car or not.”

“I have done things that I would have never expected,” says Anne, who originally trained as a teacher. Disillusioned by the curriculum, she retrained as a personal counsellor and started her own practice in 1981 in a small cottage in the hills of Lancashire. That same year she joined the Green Party. “My life dovetailed in that way: I found a political philosophy for the first time and a personal philosophy that really suited me.” Today, Anne devotes the bottom floor of her house to the activities of Party members.

“I got involved in the fracking resistance because it started at Barton Moss, very near to where I live.” she says. “I had just moved house and had the stair carpet laid. I went to an anti-fracking meeting in Eccles; the next day I went to the protest camp and from then I was just there every day, relentlessly. I never finished moving into my house.” This year, Anne has, in her own words: “focused on making more of a nest.”

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Richard Roberts

“There is so much need everywhere. It can be so overwhelming that the temptation is to do nothing”

Richard Roberts at home in London. UK. 2018. © Rhiannon Adam

Richard Roberts is a piano-restorer based in London; he specialises in reviving old, neglected pianos: “It’s a trade my father taught me, and his grandfather before that.” Roberts has been deeply concerned about the state of the environment for years and devotes much of his time campaigning to protect it; he has made adjustments to his personal life in line with his beliefs. “I had a vasectomy three years ago because I don’t think that the world needs my kids,” he says. “What it needs is more volunteer work and, since I’m a rather slow chap and rubbish at multitasking, I didn’t think I’d be able to support a family and do much volunteering at the same time.”

Roberts felt frustrated and disempowered by the speed and scale of planetary destruction until he met Reclaim the Power: a UK-based direct action network fighting for social, environmental and economic justice. The movement, which is open to anyone, works in solidarity with frontline communities to effectively confront environmentally-destructive industries and the social and economic forces driving climate change.

In July 2017, Reclaim the Power hosted a month of action at Preston New Road as it became increasingly apparent that attempts to challenge fracking through democratic and legal avenues had been exhausted. “Industry and government PR always serve up the same old line: ‘We need gas to heat our homes. If we don’t frack for it, we’ll have to import it, which is not good for our energy security or our economy,’” he says. “But we all know that we need to rapidly wean ourselves off fossil fuels now to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.” Roberts outlines the myriad alternatives, including improved housing insulation and renewable energy. “I could see that this was the first of potentially thousands of fracking sites, locking another generation into fossil fuel dependence, so it was important to send a strong, deterrent message that the UK government needs to change tack on energy policy,” he says.

Alongside Blevins, Roberts was one of the two other campaigners who climbed on top of a lorry delivering equipment to Preston New Road during Reclaim the Power’s month of resistance. The action was wholly unplanned and saw him sentenced to 16 months in prison in September 2018; he was swiftly released. Roberts has since become a spokesperson for the anti-fracking moment. “[I feel] undeserving and unqualified,” he reflects. “Hundreds of people made it possible for dozens of people to stop that convoy of fracking equipment for four days … many of them are much better spokespeople than I ever will be!”

Read the introduction to the project here; the first article, which offers a glimpse into life on the frontline of the fracking resistance, here; and the second, which tells the stories of local people both for and against the practice, here.

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“These pictures are dedicated to Thomas Burke, who sadly passed away on the 7th of January 2019, and all those like him, the so-often unsung heroes and heroines of frontline activism. We need more people like Tom. 

Tom was a constant fixture during my time at Maple Farm and PNR – always welcoming, and interested in what I was up to. Though he may have seemed quiet at times, he had a mischievous sense of humour, topped off by a truly generous spirit. Few outside of the activist circle realise how much self-sacrifice goes into living on the front line  – the hardship that comes with it, the discomfort, the cold, the stress, the emotional toll. Every day, people like Tom put their lives on the line in a belief that our collective future is worth fighting for. Of course, there is also the camaraderie and collective strength – to those at PNR, losing Tom is like losing a family member, and I know that his loss cuts deeply. Wishing strength to all those who knew and loved Tom / Grandad Tom.” – Rhiannon Adam 

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Fractured Stories is a British Journal of Photography commission made possible with the generous support of Ecotricity. Please click here for more information on sponsored content funding at British Journal of Photography.

“She hangs around with us after school even though we make it clear she bores us. We whisper nonsense and pretend to laugh at jokes so she laughs too, and we ask, ‘What’s so funny?’ to watch her squirm. She knows we are mean, and yet still she follows along behind. ‘Like a dog,’ we say, loud enough for her to hear.”

On athousandwordphotos.com this is the start of the text accompanying an image of Russian army cadets by Anastasia Taylor-Lind – but it’s not a direct quote from one of the young women depicted. Instead it’s a work of fiction by author Claire Fuller, inspired by the image but written without any knowledge of the circumstances in which it was shot.

It’s the same with the story that accompanies Karim Ben Khalifa’s photograph of a sofa, which was taken in war-torn Kosovo in 1999. In real life, the sofa had been looted and therefore set on fire by French peace-keepers to discourage further looting. But in author Dan Dalton’s hands, it’s set on fire by a 17 year old, who had spent happy hours with a slightly wayward group of friends hanging out on the abandoned couch. Meanwhile a photograph taken by Dungeness nuclear power station by Phil Fisk, inspired Lydia Ruffles to write a short story about a worker called Tomo who’s afraid of the sea.

Pairing documentary photography with fictional writing isn’t new – in fact it’s become quite a trend, with image-makers such as David Goldblatt, Vasantha Yogananthan, Max Pinckers, and Dayanita Singh – among many more – all playing with the combination in recent years. But the examples above come from quite a different project, set up to support Interact Stroke Support – a London-based charity that organises sessions in which actors read to recovering stroke patients.

On the path to the Gypsy part of Mitrovica under fire. Looters had to leave their couch on the road after the French army ordered them. The KFOR forces set fire to it to prevent the looters taking the couch back. Mitrovica, Kosovo, Yugoslavia. June 1999 © Karim Ben Khelifa

“There is a wealth of evidence that, following a brain injury, reading and conversational interaction stimulates the brain which can significantly improve the recovery process,” explains Ben Lambert, founder of A Thousand Word Photos and one of the actors involved with Interact. “Also a lot of the patients are bored and often in very low emotional states, so a visit can be a welcome break from the loneliness and, simply, some one to one human contact can really help cheer people up.”

A couple of years ago, a friend asked Lambert if he would write a story based on some old photographs; having completed his text, Lambert was inspired to take it plus the photographs on his next hospital trip. “It went down well, and I realised that this could be a useful tool to engage with patients,” he says. “So I asked some writer friends to do the same but, given that every photo is said to speak a thousand words, I added the rule that the length of the story should be limited to a thousand words.

“I found the sharing of a photo was useful to open the conversation,” he adds. “It gives a jumping-off point for the listeners’ imagination – as it does the authors’ – and the brevity of the story helps keeps the listener engaged when they’re often very tired and in busy, distracting hospital wards.”

Lambert worked on the project on an informal basis for a year or so, creating a website as an online archive of stories and pictures. But, after working with picture editor and multimedia producer Alexia Singh on a podcast for Save the Children, he asked if she’d come on board. Drawing on her 20-year experience of working with photographers, she was able to draw in well-established image-makers such as Chloe Dewe Mathews, Laura Pannack, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, and Karim Ben Khalifa.

“I’ve tried to bring on board a range of photographers with different styles and backgrounds – from war photographers to portraitists,” says Singh. “So far we’ve had a lot of documentary photographers whose images often have a strong narrative style. However I’d love to see how our writers respond to more abstract, non-figurative images.”

Dungeness © Phil Fisk

Each photographer is asked to provide three images from his or her archive, with no parameters other than that they should represent a broad selection; these images are then sent to a writer, who is given free reign to pick out one to work with. The impressive list of authors has come via friends, friends-of-friends, and novelist Richard Skinner, director of the fiction programmes at Faber, and range from published novelists such as Claire Fuller and Dan Dalton to science writer Gaia Vince, the first-ever winner of the Royal Society Winton prize for Science Books.

“So far nothing seems to faze the writers, who have responded to images showing everything from a picture of a bucket in a room, to a picture of the Berlin metro map,” says Singh. “A few authors have responded in a more documentary/essayist style that sticks closely to the content of the story but probably only two or three of them. The rest have gone off in wildly unexpected directions. We’ve had stories about aliens, dystopian futures, and time travel.”

“I thought the authors might shy away from some of the images we offered them – particularly the ones that were firmly rooted in a certain place, women in burquas or soldiers in Iraq for example,” she adds. “But this has absolutely not been the case. There is a freedom that comes with applying fiction to documentary I could never had predicted.”

The website now features 31 photographs and stories with many more lined up to be published over the next months, and Singh and Lambert are staging a live event at London’s respected TJ Boulting gallery, in which actors will read out six short stories, then some of the writers and photographers involved will talk about the project. It’s an intimate affair that quickly sold out, but Singh and Lambert hope that in future, they may be able to do bigger versions – events that might also help raise money, because, so far, A Thousand Word Photos is “completely a passion project,” as Singh puts it.

Image © Laura Pannack

She can see how it might work at a photo festival, or as a book, and would love to be able to turn the project into an open resource for other organisations working with brain injuries or literacy to use; either way, she and Lambert both say they’d like to keep going – with Lambert saying that getting to “1000 stories has a nice ring about it”. To that end, they’re also looking for more photographers willing to contribute work – well-established image-makers, who don’t mind donating their work for free. It’s a chance to do some good, they point out, but also an opportunity to see the images in a new and often surprising light.

“I think there’s a kind of magic that happens when a photo is taken completely out of context and put into the hands of a skilful writer,” says Singh. “It breathes new life into the image – reimagines it in a wholly unexpected, wonderful way. As a photo editor, I’ve worked on photo books, gallery exhibitions, and multimedia presentations across a range of digital platforms, and in each space an image can take on a new significance and meaning. However I’ve never seen the transformation of an image in quite this way.

“I am a huge fan of using fiction to enhance the storytelling possibilities of a documentary subject,” she adds. “In film and television it’s used a lot, both in fact-based fiction or through inserting dramatic scenes into documentary films. The podcast that Ben and I collaborated on for Save the Children, Anywhere but Home, was an audio drama based on true stories of children undertaking incredible journeys fleeing conflict, through which I was able to tell much richer, deeper, more human stories. This project is different in that we are not in any way trying to anchor the writing to the documentary reality of the image. Instead the image is completely transformed through the imagination of the writer.”

Follow A Thousand Word Photos on Instagram at @a1000wordphotos www.athousandwordphotos.com www.interactstrokesupport.org

A rusting conveyor belt dwarfs a man crossing the salt mine that used to provide employment for the surrounding area. Although the industry has ground to a halt since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is said that the spot where he stands was once covered with a 300m high mountain of salt. From Aral: A Dammed Sea © Chloe Dewe Mathews

© Phil Sharp