filomena

filomena, freddie mills club, originally uploaded by shouting star.

I met Filomena at the Freddie Mills Club in the Elephant & Castle area of London. A devout Irish Catholic, she was getting the hall set-up for the charity boxing fundraiser that night and made me a cup of tea while we were waiting for it to start. She told me a lot of stories in a short time, about wars, starting life in the uk, family, faith, tea… After an already long day of photographing rowdy pub boys, this was a pleasant little break.

She is really upset that the Southwark Council is going to tear down the little hall run by her church – it is the only community space they have.

Admittedly, the photo could have been composed a bit lower but I just love her expression so much I had to share it. I wish I could share the photo I mentally shot when I met her walking towards me holding a cross to her lips.

- london, uk, clear early evening sky, 19 degress, listening to Feist’s ‘I feel it all‘

reflecting and moving forward

Spitou Mendy taking a break from visiting migrant workers, part of his role as leader of the agricultural worker's union (SOC-SAT) in Almeria. (c) Marcia Chandra 2009

In April I was in Granada, Spain, trying to work on a documentary photography project with a female gypsy organization. After numerous frustrations and the realization that the project was going nowhere at that moment, I spontaneously went to Almeria near the end of my break. I had been reading many newspaper reports about immigration issues in the south of Spain and, in particular, its relation with greenhouse agriculture, and I was curious about it.

I happened to be put in touch with Spitou Mendy, a tireless union organizer who leads the SOC-SAT – an agriculture worker’s union in Almeria (in the municipalities of Almeria, El Ejido and San Isidro). Over the course of 3 days he was invaluable at helping me to understand the situation, introducing me to people, and allowing me to join him on his visits with migrant workers. I was also lucky to have met Tobias Zick, a journalist, and Marc Beckmann, a photographer, who were doing a story for Neon magazine in Germany (just published if you read German!) – I didn’t have a car and they needed translation, a perfect match. But more than that, it was a great experience to be able to work with a photographer and journalist in the field; I learned a lot from them and they were very supportive of the work I was doing. It was nice feedback to hear from them that my approach with people was very personal; even if my photography hasn’t come into its own yet, I am glad to know that I am approaching it the way I feel works best.

You can see some more images from almeria here and here. Today I got some feedback from my prof, John Easterby, on the edit of what I shot in April. Surprisingly, it was nothing surprising as he confirmed everything I felt about what I had done so far – it needs a lot more time, my style is still a little confused, and something seemed to be missing. I think good photo editors are really intuitive. We had a good discussion about what I felt was missing; everything I shot seemed to be quite serious and rather bleek but what I actually experienced was people living, making do, enjoying what they can from the lives they are able to carve in this transient place. In three days, despite the heaviness of the experience, I also had a lot of fun with everyone I met, sharing laughs and stories.

Anyways, it was too short a visit to photograph what I would have liked – an intimate portrait of people trying to move forward amidst such insecurity. The edit I came back with were just a beginning. But I was glad I went, I was touched by all the people that shared their stories with me, and motivated by the clear and complicated injustices that exist there. I want to go back and work longer there to see if I can find a way to share these stories – they are important.

- london, uk, 18 degrees, partly cloudy afternoon, im in the library so no listening to anything…

intelligent (still) life, documents in form

Over the past few weeks, Peter Fraser has been inspiring and guiding our group of aspiring documentary photographers in liberating our vision to be able to see the world around us. Our only directions: to “see men like trees, walking”, to work in colour, and to take as inspiration John Szarkowski’s “Introduction to William Eggleston’s Guide.” A quote from the essay:

Form is perhaps the point of art. The goal is not to make something factually impeccable, but seamlessly persuasive. In photography the pursuit of form has taken an unexpected course. In this peculiar art, form and subject are defined simultaneously. Even more than in the traditional arts, the two are inextricably tangled. Indeed, they are probably the same thing. Or, if they are different, one might say that a photograph’s subject is not its starting point but its destination.

In these images of ordinary objects, form becomes the subject.

- London, clear night, 13 degrees, listening to Radio Citizen’s “The Hop“

new media inside (or outside) ‘illiberal’ regimes

Went to a (semi) interesting lecture at the London School of Economics yesterday: “Opening up ‘Illiberal’ Regimes: do media and communications matter?“

There wasn’t really anything groundbreaking shared, but there were some interesting notes about the role of global citizen media inside and outside of ‘illiberal’ regimes, particularly in relation to Iran and Burma.  Some brief/interesting notes:

• Illiberal regimes different now because of the communication spaces that exist – particularly cyberspace – both inside and outside the regime so that it is not possible to be entirely closed anymore. London, for example, is an important discursive and activist space for illiberal regimes. – Mary Kaldor Co-director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance (CSGG)
• In Iran, there are elections every year – a regular and concrete interaction between civil society and state. In these upcoming elections, it is the first time that the dominant civil society activists – women and students – are successfully using alternative media – websites, mobile phones, sms, facebook – to conduct campaigns and participate in the dominant discourse. - Ziba Mir-Hosseini, SOAS
• Burma was highlighted as an example of having an active civil society, but Dr. Maung Zarni feels that a failure of the activist community has been to focus on the political activities of the regime while not also focusing on improving the role of technology and alternative media in the country. He sees ‘news’ as a symbolic good – similar to manufactured goods – and feels activists need to take an economic approach to establishing it as a good – campaigning for electriticity, internet access, etc. Currently, the military is being educated as ‘future leaders’ of the country meaning that even if the regime were liberalized there would still be a significant knowledge gap within civil society which precludes an assumption that progressive politics would be put in place.  Some quick facts: a total estimated internet connection penetration rate is 1% – making Burma the 2nd least connected in the world; per capita income is USD 220, monthly internet charges is 45 USD; no. of cyber cafes – 500 serving 10% of population in 2 major cities. Here one can talk about how to liberalize regimes, but electricity and economic disparity play a major role in holding back the potential and role of civil society. – Dr Maung Zarni Coordinator of the Burma/Myanmar Research Initiative, CSGG
• The role of citizen media in the recent case of Sri Lanka demonstrates a polemic as media propaganda from both sides of civil society make it difficult to know which side to believe or to figure out what is really going on. - Rita Payne, Chair of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, former program leader for BBC Asia.
• An interesting point brought up in the discussion was that encouraging tourism and the private sector in illiberal regimes is a progressive step as these sectors demand access to internet and media. This may explain why Iranian civil society has had much better access to alternative media as opposed to Burma. It was also noted, however, that alternative media in Iran is also being used by the regime for propoganda, which may explain why these media outlets (such as facebook) do not get shut down.

You can listen to the podcast here (its less than an hour).

corinne silva’s landscapes in almeria

badlands 2008 (c) corinne silva

Just came across the work of Hey! Hot Shot! contender, Corinne Silva. Her series, Badlands 2008, is a work in progress describing the link between tourism, agriculture and migration through the landscape of Almeria.

I like the concept and approach and I would be interested to see the final edit. The description from her website:

trees in logarska dolina

Last weekend I went hiking in Logarska Dolina, a glacial alpine valley in Slovenia bordering Austria and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps.

Trees were definitely on my mind…

logarska dolina (c) marcia chandra 2009

- london, uk, 9 degrees on a clear night, listening to mazzy star’s ‘fade into you’

turkish street party

@ trafalgar square, london, uk – march 2009

you gotta love random elvis impersonators.

- london, uk, 15 degrees, sunny windy day, listening to Bob Marley ‘Stir it up’

Journeys of strength in Almeria

These are some of the wonderful people that welcomed me into their homes while I was doing some research/photography in Almeria earlier this month. Almeria is another world from the Spain I am used to seeing, these people are on journeys far removed. How they got to Spain are not simple stories. How they got stranded in Almeria is even more complicated. Most have families that are depending on them, to send money when there is some, to live in limbo for three years until they might be granted residency. Some have gotten farther in their journey, but it took much longer than they expected. One man tells me, “this isn’t a life.” Did they know it would be so hard here and if they had would they have come? But no one chooses this journey when life already offers better choices. It takes strength to move forward.

- London, UK, 10 degrees Celsius, listening to Black Star’s ‘Respiration’

On the migration of labour: the social landscape of Almeria’s greenhouses

People & landscapes in Almeria, Spain (c) Marcia Chandra 2009

This will be the first in a series of reflexive posts about a recent project I was working on over the spring break (for my MA at the London College of Communication we had to use the time to complete a photoessay project).

Almeria is in the south of Spain in the province of Andalucia (see map). If you look at the map in ’satellite’ view you will be able to see that the entire coast is virtually covered, from the mountains to the sea, in plastic greenhouses – often referred to as “the sea of plastic.” Among the primary products grown here are tomatoes, watermelon, melons and peppers, which are supplied throughout Europe.

Almeria is also one of the jumping-off points for immigrants from North and West Africa who arrive on boats everyday on the coast looking for a new life. Many of them find themselves stuck in Almeria for years until they can earn enough money or learn the language to be able to move on. The horticulture industry is, in fact, sustained by the labour of both illegal and legal immigrants who work on the fields for far below minimum wage and under unhealthy conditions. Native spanish labourers are rare as most of them gave up years ago due to low wages and poor working conditions, forcing the industry to go to Romania and Morocco to find temporary migrant workers to work the fields, and now it is more common to simply hire illegal immigrants that are already in Almeria. The system is complex, and the spanish are divided as to whether they support illegal immigration or not – without it, as one owner of 7 greenhouses told us, the industry would have a hard time finding labour. At the same time, however, no one is eager to act in defense of immigrants as the system depends on virtual servitude labour, on people who are desperate to find work, have almost no rights and even less knowledge about them.

I am just starting to get my head around it all and think about how to move forward. I went to Almeria out of spontaneous curiousity after some other projects I was working on in Granada were dying before they even started. I only spent 3 1/2 days there (its all I had left) but in that time I was lucky to have met so many beautiful people that showed me around and talked to me about their experiences. I’m handing something in for this school project, but the story is incomplete – I want to go back and work more on it over this year.

- London, UK, 15 degrees Celsius, hazy sunny sky, listening to La Cherga ‘Fake No More’

Parkdale Laundromat

(c) Marcia Chandra 2008

(c) Marcia Chandra 2008

(c) Marcia Chandra 2008