Image copyright Ben Graville
Uhhm Ben Graville's series "In & Out Of The Old Bailey" where to start. I would like to say that out of all the genre's of photography (and yes I know definitions are getting blurry, but humour me) Art & Documentary are what I spend most of my time looking at. I would never claim to be that knowledgeable about photojournalism but in the words of my Mother "I know what I like" so what to make of Graville's series.
I came across it by being on the Foto8 mailing list where this series is currently being showcased. I approached it from an Art point of view, wow I thought what a concept, what a good idea. We've all seen the paps and hard nosed press fella's sticking their big DSLR's up at the Meatwagon windows when some pee-doe or politician is behind the little black portholes, but what about the ordinary convict, breakdown of society, celebrity, surveillance all kind of metaphor and on top of that, fuck yeah lets look at them convicts! I've not seen that done before, think
Elephant Man style Victorian freak show goer and that was me.
On some levels these images are great. The rawness of the aesthetic, the fact that they have left me feeling a little grubby and have got me still thinking about them several days later and I'm sure for longer to come, all goes in their favour and some way to justify their existence. One of the justifications of shock art is to question to create debate and so this work has filled that role.
All that said I am uneasy with this work. I'm not sure about it's morale's. As said I became aware of it through Foto8 so it is fairly safe to assume that it's supposed to be a photojournalist piece not Conceptual Art. Does that matter? I believe it does and here's why.
Art owes nothing to anyone. Sure the artist owes to his/herself to be true, but other than that it's only job is to raise questions. How that is done is between the artist and their conscience. The artist has a supreme right to create work that is answerable to no one. OK a little strong but you get my point. I really don't believe that photojournalism has that right, in short it has more responsibility, and judging this work by what I see as the agreed rules of journalism I can't see the point or worth of these images and if anything find them just wrong.
First off what gives Graville the right to take in the truest sense of the word these peoples pictures. For a start off unless he has some gift of insight that even the judiciary I'm sure would not claim to have, he is assuming that these folks are criminals which of course if innocent till proven guilty means anything we can't know that. The whole series tells me next to nothing about the criminal justice system, crime or indeed nothing about the reasons behind crime or the criminals themselves other than what they look like when kept in less space than a fucking farm animal gets. No this is an idea that a photographer has had that has no other purpose than to raise his profile and fuck the people portrayed. He says this in his statement: "
The long process and dark grim historical nature of criminal law was the starting point of these pictures, highlighting through the anonymity of the remand prisoners hidden away from public consumption, not through choice but a decision made by the authority to potentially alienate further from society these remand prisoners. Through the project I realized when taking the pictures that the remand prisoners reaction by the third photograph with the flashgun firing was true to how they wanted to be portrayed in their current situation. Covering themselves up, making rude gestures, exposing parts of their body, expressing gang signs, pulling strange faces or joking with the camera. Devoid of the public gaze you often hear remand prisoners banging on the window of the van to attract attention, a reaction I received as well photographing. This want to be heard or seen is present in the photos showing how the process of criminal law mystifies and intensifies the situation as the prisoner travels between the remand prison and the Old Bailey."
Maybe it's me but I don't get any of that from these pictures I get people trapped and having their humiliation amplified by someone taking their pictures. OK so perhaps some respond with bravado so what? Tell me I'm wrong I would love to hear points of view from people with more experience of photojournalism and responsibility like say Duckrabbit.
Why do I have such an issue with this work, it smacks of that shit categorising people that the Nazi's did. I'm not saying that Graville's a Nazi but he obviously thinks he's Superior to this lot.
