Designers Never Think of People in Wheelchairs. Just a Little Thought Could Make Our Lives So Much Easier

from ‘No Access’, an HMPW touring exhibition

Designers never think of people in wheelchairs. Just a little thought could make our lives so much easier.

75p/$2.50

CAMERAWORK i

PASSING THE BUCK games for multinational drug companies inc. p&inc. from pCamerawork £1.20 Full colour posters 23” x 17” ofmontagethis Full colouravailable x posters17” 23”

THE TRANSFER PRICE GAME THE THIRD WORLD GAME THE CONTROLGAME 1. Take a product like Valium (original price £20 per kilo) 1. Take an untried drug like injectable steroid contraceptives 1. Ensure that drug companies are not nationalised 2. Pass it through your subsidiaries, preferably using tax havens. 2. Get ‘consent’ for testing from illiterate or low income groups 2. Send each GP 1 cwt of advertising per month, plus lots of ‘free 3. R aise the price substantially at e a c h transfer. 3. Usual test groups: 75% black, 25% coloured - no whites gifts’ 4. But ensure final transaction shows a 'reasonable profit’ 4. If drug works, sell expensively in developed countries 3. Ensure doctors prescribe by brand name, not by generic name 5. Sell your product to the NHS at £370 per kilo 5. If not, or too many side effects, sell to third world 4. Maintain and exploit patent rights as long as possible 6. Collect 1,850% profit, avoiding DHSS scrutiny on excessive 6. If dangerous, do not release test results - hush it up 5. Only list possible side effects if required by law profits. OBJECT: to maximise profits at lowest possible outlay whilst 6. Keep all your activities as secret as possible OBJECT: to prove your firm ‘operates and may be expected to maintaining a reputation for high standards of safety OBJECT: TO PUT GREED BEFORE NEED operate against the public interest’ (Monopolies Commission report on R o ch e’s actvitities) Winner takes all Photomontage by Peter Dunn and Loraine Lee son.

More Bad News Editorial With regret and after much discussion, Camerawork has had to raise its cover price to In December, the Arts Council o f Great Britain 75p. This is the first price rise since August cut 41 o f its revenue clients, many of them small, CAMERAWORK 1979: a long time to hold out against rising community-based and politically engaged is a journal of the politics of photography. It is designed as a forum for analysis, critique, theory printing and production costs, and we hope it groups under the drama department. Although and information in order to provide the basis for using photography within socialist and feminist will be equally long before any further rise. Arts Council decisions are never made openly, practices and to develop and encourage socialist strategies within the politics of representation. Our small circulation and high printing costs this action set a particularly high-handed An annual subscription includes six issues published necessary to maintain the quality mean that each precedent: the groups were axed without SUBSCRIBE bimonthly, and posters from all Half Moon exhibitions. copy costs 34p to print. As distrib utors costs take warning, explanation or right o f appeal, the Prices include VAT. Abroad, please send sterling draft drawn on a London bank. up 55% of the cover price, a 75p cover price gives clearly political motives behind the cuts us only 33.75p per copy - we will nearly break remaining unvoiced behind fudged and inade­ UK ABROAD Surface Mail even. Shortfalls and extra costs have to be quate excuses. The ‘Arts Fight Back’ campaign Standard rate £6.76 Air Mail Standard rate £8.00 covered by subscriptions. The wages of the two has been formed in response to the cuts - they Institutional rate £12.26 Standard rate £11.00 Institutional rate £15.00 Camerawork co-ordinators are paid out of the can be contacted on 01-637 5918. Student rate £5.26 Institutional rate £18.00 Student rate £7.00 Half M o o n ’s Arts Council grant, but Camera­ Beyond the outrage at these cuts and the need work has to pay for its own production. for a major fightback, the Arts Council’s action The main features o f this issue of representation, but for the interests and With this in mind, we urge Camerawork has major implications. The cuts signal the end Camerawork raise questions about the power to activities of women to be asserted as crucial supporters to take out subscriptions. That way o f a long era: the Arts Council takes its place represent. subjects for representation - on women’s own all o f the money you pay goes straight into alongside all the other institutions of the post­ In this ironic ‘International Year o f the terms. production. Whatever its cover price Camera­ war welfare state effectively being dismanded Disabled’, publicity gestures are made while work ultimately depends on its readers’ under the banner of reactionary ideologies of health, education and housing benefits to the continued interest and involvement in the work state retrenchment. The liberal consensus over a disabled are cut as a natural part of state The importance of Peter Dunn and Loraine the magazine is trying to carry out. Your letters, beneficent, but not democratic state has retrenchment. Photography takes its place in Leeson’s work is manifold. Firstly, their articles, contributions or any responses are withered away partly through its own decadence negotiations over power and resources that go on practice directly confronts the need for a welcomed. and partly through the exploitation of economic around a relatively powerless social group. specific material base and resources concretely crisis. The logic at work is duplicated in health or ‘Representing the disabled’ analyses some of the linked to a political context o f struggle. By Published by the Half Moon Photography housing as well as the arts. strategies by which the handicapped are visually attempting to build links with trades councils Workshop, 119-121 Roman Road, London In practical terms left cultural workers are exploited and made to serve other groups’ and trades unions - to provide information, E2 0QN. Tel: 01-980 8798. faced with the tactical challenge of developing interests. Even disabled people’s images of funding, distribution - while avoiding pure alternative resources - trade unions and trade themselves by themselves - the strategy usually functionalism, they are working towards new councils, the Labour party and the parties of the appealed to to retain power over one’s represen­ models of photographic practice. Secondly, CONTENTS left, new forms o f solidarity and alliance, new tation - are prey to patronising interpretations: their practice as a whole reflects back on many roles within communities, organisations and even power over image-making is not enough other traditions of photography, particularly Photography and the Disabled 2 campaigns. Strategically the fight is for a fully when power is constructing the exploitative dis­ photography in an art context. The meaningless­ Jessica James democratised funding o f cultural work with courses through which the image is being read. ness o f representations produced in social Photography and the Law 2: Copyright 6 access for all. Gaining Momentum represents another long vacuums and ghettoes can only be countered by Adrian Barr-Smith But in terms of political awareness something struggle for a voice and for self-determination, a establishing new relations to institutions Gaining Momentum: Eight women devastatingly basic has been made clear: that struggle equally threatened by the current engaged in real social struggle. Peter Fuller photograph women - an exhibition 7 cultural practices - like any others - depend on political situation. The women’s movement has describes Arts Council modernism as a ‘sub­ a material basis, on concrete resources, and that been central in demonstrating the political sidised impasse’: ‘whatever freedoms subsidized Work in Progress: an interview 11 access to these is a matter of politics and power. importance o f ideological and representational professional Fine Artists had been given in Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson As the old material bases get swept away some power, both in itself and as decisive to other Britain they had been deprived of the greatest Photographs by Peter Magubane 14 very practical thinking is needed: what is at stake forms of exploitation. As the subtitle, ‘8 women freedom of all: the freedom to act socially.’ That is the power and means to represent and be photograph women’ makes clear, the struggle is is a ‘freedom’, in fact a power, that has to be Letters, reviews, information 15 represented. not only for women’s access to photography and constructed. CAMERAWORK THE REPRESENTATION OF THE HANDICAPPED THROUGH

Photographs have been taken and used of handi­ gory of emphasising handicap. attractive young woman look after him (in a capped people for a long time, in ways which Nancy Hellebrand in her book Londoners uniform and engaged, presumably to someone have often been allowed to remain unques­ (1974) gives us photograph after photograph of else). She flicks his cap, he beams and it is a tioned, and which have permitted the photo­ depressed and alienated looking people from sunny day. All the depression of being handi­ grapher to be in a particularly powerful role. Tufnell Park. Each picture is taken with a wide- capped is eliminated, as well as the fact that Because of the nature of handicap itself the angle lens to help achieve this effect, with as because this man has no-one to care for him he issues that are raised in exploring this area of much emphasis on the objects that surround the has to be isolated along with other handicapped photographic practice are, in a sense, an exag­ people in their rooms. This photograph of people in a home. Again the photographer does gerrated version of what happens in photograph­ ‘Joanna’ (6) is fairly typical, showing a sad, not represent that person, but the needs of the ing anyone. For handicapped people are in an emaciated and washed out hippy type woman photographer (the charity and the public) especially vulnerable position as a minority staring into space in a room with peeling paint, a instead. group at the bottom of the social pile in terms of stained table and loosely hanging electric wires, finance, mobility, attraction and so on. They are with the only vestiges of activity in the live Social Documentary easy prey for the photographer and the public’s daffodils and attractive inlaid chair. As the other need for propaganda, compassion or voyeuristic forty-seven people in the book are portrayed in These photographs appear to be the most correct interest. With all such groups exploitation the same way, one can’t help wondering how for those committed towards bettering the lives frequently occurs but whereas women, black much Joanna has become the object of the of disadvantaged groups through photography. people and others have developed a level of photographer’s and audience’s own require­ A set of black and white photographs which say consciousness and ability to detect and resist it, ments. something about handicapped people’s lives is, the handicapped remain more of an unknown almost by definition, a good and worthwhile Diane Arbus is a well known example of this thing. Students on photography courses quantity. Even the most ‘socially committed’ type of photographer. She also took photo­ photographer can remain unaware of the subtle, frequently choose the handicapped as a topic and graphs of the handicapped as in this one (5) of easily get good marks. Handicapped people and not so subtle, power relationships that two mentallly handicapped women who are operate. grouped together (as they mainly are) make shown as infantilised adults with little attempt to captive subjects who, as handicap is generally I am interested in this field because I work preserve their dignity. But Arbus is not ashamed ‘Had I been present at the creation, I would have with handicapped people. I am not handicapped visual, immediately look different. Students (or given some useful hints for the better ordering of of her fascination with the bizarre and her professionals) come away with ‘meaningful’ the universe.’ Alphonso the Learned. myself and am, therefore, distanced from their ‘excitement by freaks’ (as she put it). She does personal experience. But I do not come to it as a statements about distorted looking people. They 1. From Christmas in Purgatory, by Fred Caplan. not pretend to be compassionate and is therefore gain, but do the handicapped? photographer often does, looking for subject honest in her portrayal. matter or an area of concern to take pictures of. Professional social documentary photo­ The handicapped in our society are generally Charity and Guilt graphers produce photographs of the seen as those people who have either a physical handicapped for a number of different reasons: or mental abnormality which prevents them For years charities working with the handi­ to illustrate a book, a ‘social concern’ article in a being able to do certain things. It is a socially capped have utilised the public’s feelings in newspaper, an educational publication, as pan defined concept because if society was different order to get money. Photographs have played a of a campaign to improve services for the handi­ certain so-called handicapped people would not large part in this, influencing the public image of capped, or simply in the hope of an exhibition or be handicapped. If all buses, toilets and door­ the handicapped through their wide distri­ a colour magazine spread. Most of these seem ways were designed to suit people in wheel­ bution. The pictures have become increasingly worthy enough reasons for taking such photo­ chairs, they would not be handicapped (but sophisticated, produced by well known docu­ graphs, yet I find it worrying that a professional walking people would be). Equally, if we did not mentary photographers as well as high-powered photographer can talk to me about having been value intelligence so highly then the mentally advertising agencies. The best strike a balance landed with the role of ‘handicap photographer’ handicapped would be less handicapped. In the between emphasising the handicapped person’s (since he tends to be called in whenever such same way black people in England are handi­ handicappedness (and need) and his/her ability photographs are required). A recalcitrant or capped because of racism, or old people through to succeed (through the right facilities provided even uninterested photographer is unlikely to ageism. However, there is a particular danger in by money). But the majority take advantage of bother giving much thought about the implica­ lumping all physically and mentally handi­ the public’s preconceptions about the handi­ tions of his/her act for the subjects concerned. capped people together. An intelligent person in capped: ‘how awful it must be’, ‘how marvellous Similarly photographs of handicapped people a wheelchair is more able to question who photo­ that she can do such and such’, ‘doesn’t she look taken from a distance through a telephoto lens graphs him or her than a mentally handicapped happy in spite of it?’. People become objects: we (as they often are), suggest a wish, on the part of person is likely to be. To generalise about the turn them into problems although they are not a the photographer, not to get involved. Is the handicapped is to fall into the trap of expecting problem - they have problems within this experience too disturbing? If so, what kind of the person in a wheelchair to have no mind or the society. This poster (3), seen on billboards, has message are the pictures produced likely to give mentally handicapped to have no powers of dis­ become a current symbol of the handicapped for to their audience? many people. Yet it leads us to think of the boy Some photographs produced under this guise A great many of the men and women looked crimination. I shall continue to use the term to depressed. Even the television sets, in several of make general points, but in discussing parti­ of a problem. We immediately feel pity as he of social documentary are more like art photo­ the day rooms, appeared to be co-conspirators in a looks so lost and struggling, unable to walk, in graphs. Halvard Kjaervik’s exhibition falls into crusade for gloom. These sets were not in working cular photographs the type of handicap and the order. Sadly the residents continued to sit on their individuals concerned will be entirely relevant. the middle of nowhere. The positive aspects of this category (discussed in Camerawork 15). benches, in neat rows, looking at the blank tubes. his life (such as his relationships and interests) The work of Fred Caplan in his book 2. From Christmas in Purgatory, by Fred Caplan, The Handicapped in all of us are not mentioned as there is an emphasis on his Christmas in Purgatory (co-author B. Blatt, re-captioned by Jessica James. dependence in order to bring in cash. But isn’t it 1966, USA), is of a political nature. The book is a These are photographs which delight in showing to the overall detriment of handicapped people photographic description (with text) of five state the perverse and abnormal in ordinary people to foster such attitudes amongst us? institutions catering for the mentally handi­ and in showing the ‘normal’ as bizarre. They This charity photograph (4) from the front capped in the USA. It was produced to inform take an interest in the pain or misfortune of cover of the Cheshire Homes publicity material the public above about the conditions that somebody’s feelings or warts. A photograph of a does the same thing in another way. It typifies existed and to stimulate radical change. Caplan’s He'd love to heavily overweight person with rolls of fat and the patronising attitude of many of the institu­ photographs (1) are not of a technically high drops of perspiration who is shown struggling to tions catering for the handicapped. We are being standard since his access to four of the hospitals get through a small doorway fits into this cate- asked to consider the man lucky to have such an had to be secret, requiring him to use a small V l d ( f \ a,\Aa,y -(rorvi

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3. Charity poster, photograph by Snowdon. 4. Photograph from Cheshire Homes publicity S. Photograph by Diane Arbus. 6. From Londoners, by Nancy Hellebrand. pamphlet. 4 CAMERAWORK

„ne Monday afternoon five of us Our f ir s t stop was the social Once inside, we breathed a sigh Designers never think of people set out shopping. Just to see services office. We could not of relief. But then we saw all in wheelchairs. Just a little now d iffic u lt i t was to shop even get in the front door. It those stairs!11 in front of us thought could make our lives so from a wheelchair. was too narrow for the chair. to climb. much easier. No Access These photographs come from a project on satisfying: to engage in a struggle that was theirs, access and disability which I worked on, as a using various media that before they had not had paid worker, with a group of handicapped access to, was very positive. We actually brought people. We worked collectively, sharing work attention to shops about the various problems of according to how handicapped people were, so access. that each print was produced collectively - I don’t think as an able-bodied photographer someone focusing the lens, someone printing it is right to take photographs of the handi­ developing/fixing, etc. Everything we did took capped - the power relations are too complex to ages but was truly collective - it was the only way give the handicapped people any real control we could work and the effect was very demo­ over their images. The group I worked with took cratic. Men and women doing equal work, all their own photographs - they wrote their everyone had to support each other, etc. own text, etc. This gave them more control over The photographs show different things. The their own image. work on access was to show how everyday simple The whole notion of making a commodity jobs, outings, etc are very difficult for handi­ image out of someone’s physical disability is capped people - and just to draw attention to worrying and therefore if it is done, I think as how anti-handicapped we are in Britain - legis­ much real control as possible must lie with the lation is weak, etc. person/s pictured. For the group to complete something was very The biggest problem was trying The job market had nothing for Trisha Ziff to pay. The cash desks were us either - don't people in ‘No Access’, a touring exhibition of photographs too close together. wheelchairs have a right to taken by disabled people, is available for hire from work too? Apparently not. the Half Moon Photography Workshop. We’re Outsiders Now These photographs were used as stills in the film (like turning on lights), using common-sense in We’re Outsiders Now, produced for the ATV treating every patient with respect, and deciding Link series (February 1980). The film is about when not to take a picture to preserve the dignity four adults, now living together in a council flat, of individuals. All this takes patience and time. who between them had spent over 100 years in For example, some severely handicapped subnormality hospitals. The stills were used people have nervous mannerisms like rocking, with voice-over spoken by the four adults to head banging, etc which makes focusing in low illustrate the kind of fife they had lived in light difficult: I did not want to over-state by hospital, their personal despair and sense of pushing to extremes of contrast. I wanted to isolation in hospital, and the images that they shoot straight to avoid exaggeration. I wanted associate with institutional life. the people to look as they are - human beings, I spent several days reading transcripts of the not freaks - to establish a point of identifica­ interviews with the four adults and two periods tion between the viewer and the adults whose living in one of the hospitals. It was necessary to story is told. win some degree of trust, both of the staff and The film is being used for training people residents, before beginning work. Some of the working with the handicapped, but I’m sad it staff greeted me with remarks like: ‘Well, you’ve went out on a Sunday morning slot and was seen come to see the zoo.’ Others, particularly the by people already committed enough to watch it. immigrant nursing staff who seemed genuinely Most people switch off: picture editors who have concerned about the residents, were extremely seen the photographs have told me: ‘Great, but In an out-building used by residents for washing I found these two women poised as though in another place and time. I spoke to not for Sunday morning with bacon and eggs’. them but they continued staring into space. The light was low and I went to get a tripod. When I returned they had not moved an helpful. inch. Years ago these women had been committed to hospital as ‘moral defectives’ - i.e. unmarried mothers. Many such The main difficulty is not getting in the way, Raissa Page institutionalised women work as domestics: the mentally handicapped are a source of cheap labour. not expecting anything to be made easier for you

In less than 10 minutes ten severely handicapped men were fed by a care attendant and patient from another ward. Chronically Returned to hospital against his will after a few days ‘on the loose’, this man sat for hours, clutching his radio, staring into understaffed, the job too often becomes even for the most caring of workers stuffing in food and cleaning up shit. space. In this unit, some of the residents have their own room. Despite staff efforts to squeeze money out of cut budgets to buy curtains and wall hangings, there is a dreary anomymity which reflects the fate of many long term hospital residents. CAMERAWORK «>

Sue and Tony always pick up their son from school. Although specially designed for the handicapped, their Sue and Tony obviously get great pleasure from being parents. It is a very warm family and despite physical house was built on an incline, so the wheelchair needs help up the hill. restrictions Sue and Tony give their children a great deal of physical contact. Family And Disability While I was still at College I visited the local day feel I hadn’t been exploiting the situation which care centre for the handicapped and met Sue and I was very conscious of at the beginning (what Tony with their two children. My very first right have I, able-bodied, to point my camera at thought was, ‘My God how can they be allowed handicapped people). to have children’ - I have never been so I try to be honest as to why I am doing what I ashamed o f any thought in my life. Sue was a am doing. I can remember in the early days spastic confined to a wheelchair and her feeling horrified with myself. I was photo­ husband Tony was very badly crippled, by a graphing a mentally subnormal young woman spinal injury in infancy, as well as being partially who was in a wheelchair. She was dribbling as blind. Mentally, they were both normal (what­ she sewed and I found that I was waiting for the ever ‘normal’ is!). I was embarassed about asking saliva to run right down her chin, waiting for the if I could photograph them in their home. In fact globule to drop to get a more effective photo. I never had to ask, as Sue came out with it point I desperately wanted to have Sue and Tony’s blank for me - she was very down to earth. I was story published, not particularly to help them - curious to see how on earth they managed with a because they were coping quite well - but to baby and a four year old child. help other women in Sue’s situation: women If at any time during my visits I felt like a who have been told by ‘the establishment’ that ‘voyeur’ or had feelings of guilt photographing they couldn’t possible marry, let alone have them, my worries were dispelled by Sue, who children (as indeed Sue had been told); to said that my visits had done her no end of good, stimulate women who felt they couldn’t cope more than any social worker’s. This made me into thinking ‘if she can do it, so can I’. Lynda Freebrey Sue manages changing nappies with the help of an armchair. As the handicapped are expected not to have children, cupboards in their home do not lock and the authorities will not give Sue the electric wheelchair which would make childcare easier. As kids get older and faster, parents’ restricted mobility could be a problem, but the kids sense their difficulties and cooperate.

Who are you staring at? is a teaching and learning aid for use by 14-16 year olds in schools, youth groups and other settings, although there is no Who Are reason why it ca n ’t be useful for everyone. The pack offers an intimate look at the lives of six young people who happen to be disabled, rather than a general statement on the disabled in Britain. By getting to know the six individuals through the photographs, tapes and transcript You interviews, users of the pack can see the issues - political, social and personal - that face the disabled and relate these to issues facing society as a whole. In itself, the kit is only a stimulus: wider discussion depends on how the user group develops the ideas. Staring At? The writer, Riva Klein, and I spent on average four days with each person, sharing as much of their life as possible in that time. One thing I was concerned with in photographing them was not centering on a p e r s o n ’s particular disability but on them as a person.

Mike Abrahams At school I talk and sign.

Philip Clayton Philip loves danger, even after becoming paralysed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident at the age of I8V2. It took him some time to adjust to being stuck in a wheel­ chair all the time but now, three years later, he leads an active, independent life in Gillingham, Kent, and works for an insurance company.

I d o n ’t really make any attempts to socialise with other handicapped people because I find it ’s still unattractive to me, I suppose.'

I t ’s a bit difficult to avoid taking the micky out of me at work, really, when I’m sitting in the middle of the office pumping my tyres up. 6 CAMERAWORK PHOTOGRAPHY; COPYRIGHT What role does the law play in harnessing the world of ideas to that of injunction and/or damages and/or an account of the profits, where the company has profited Using commerce? It is not an easy matter to determine when the law acts to reinforce and from the infringement. Obviously if the part of when to oppose the status quo, but there are many aspects o f the Copyright Acts and the infringed work is insubstantial, there is less associated laws o f which greater knowledge is essential, both for working with chance of securing any damages, although the Photographs photography and for ascertaining where the interests of the communicator lie. I f chances of gaining an injunction remain unaf­ The owner of the copyright in a photograph is fected - provided copyright has been infringed. the only person who enjoys an automatic and you are a photographer using your work commercially, it is important not only to be unfettered right to use that photograph, e.g. by aware o f the laws set out in this article, but also to make sure that the conditions set What is not an Infringement of publishing it in a magazine. in each particular case protect your interests. Copyright? He/she is not required to register the copy­ To exhibit the photograph does not infringe the right. He/she can dispose of the copyright to a one who receives a retainer owns the copyright in The agency is not selling the copyright, copyright therein. An academic is allowed to third party by ‘assignment’. He/she can author­ his/her work will depend upon the circum­ merely a limited reproduction right. Such a reproduce a photograph for the purposes of ise a publisher to reproduce it by grant of a stances of that particular case. licence can be granted in writing, verbally or by research or private study. ‘licence’. Most important, he/she can stop any­ This rule is modified as regards a photo­ implication. There are dangers implicit in A publisher is similarly allowed to reproduce a one else reproducing the photograph without grapher working as an employee of the proprie­ implied or verbal grants; for example, when a photograph for the purposes of criticism or permission. tor of a newspaper/magazine etc. The copyright photographer is asked to supply some stills for an review, but only if the reproduction is accom­ The mechanics of copyright are complicated. in his/her work belongs to the proprietor for the LP cover. panied by a ‘sufficient acknowledgement’. Ack­ Many issues are raised by the Copyright Act purpose of publishing it in any newspaper/ Licences should always be granted in writing, nowledgement is only sufficient if the title of the 1956, which must be considered in isolation. periodical etc. However the photographer owns specifying the identity of the licensee, for how work is given and the photographer identified. the copyright for all other purposes. He/she may long the licence will last, whether it is exclusive If the credit is missing or incomplete, the What Material is Protected? authorise a publisher to reproduce it on greet­ or can be renewed/transferred/surrendered, to Copyright protects all ‘artistic works’. ALL reproduction is not authorised by the law and ings cards. Alternatively the publisher may pur­ what countries/products it relates, what ack­ photographs are protected as ‘artistic works’. No would constitute an act infringing the copyright chase this limited copyright from the photo­ nowledgement will be given to the licensor (pho­ distinction is made between the work of, for in the photograph. grapher. tographer), whether the licensor will receive a example, Richard Long and that of a commercial If the caption is so worded as to distort the It is vital to understand that the rules about fee or percentage on sales (a royalty) etc. photographer - or a holidaymaker’s snapshots. meaning of the photograph, there is no copy­ ‘commissions’ and ‘employees’ apply in the The law implicitly acknowledges that creative What is an Infringement of right peg on which the photographer can hang absence of any contrary agreement. If you want to skill is involved in selecting even a mundane or his/her complaint except the sufficient acknow­ retain copyright in your photographs, you Copyright? technical subject as ‘artistic works’ irrespective ledgement one. Photographers who insist on a should state this clearly in any letter accepting a The owner of copyright can prevent someone of questions of artistic merit. The courts have particular caption should therefore specify their commission. Or incorporate it into the small from reproducing the photograph ‘in any consistently refused to adopt the role of arbiter requirement in the deal which is made with the print of your contract of employment. material form’ (e.g. photographing it), publish­ on matters of aesthetic taste. publisher. If they do not, and the caption is ing it, including it in a TV broadcast or dealing/ A photograph is defined as ‘any product of incorrect, they may be able to complain only that How Long Does Copyright importing/selling unauthorised copies (knowing photography or any process akin to photo­ the juxtaposition of caption and photograph is Protection Last? that they are unauthorised copies). These acts graphy’. This is not further defined, but would defamatory. are all ‘infringing’ acts and cannot be attempted include analogous techniques, e.g. photolitho­ In the case of unpublished photographs - A photographer can also complain if a work is without the permission of the copyright owner. graphs. Stills from a ‘cinematograph film’ (a indefinitely. ‘Publishing’ a photograph consists incorrectly attributed to him/her. This is an Reproduction in a material form would movie) are specifically excluded. of disseminating copies of it to the public. This extension of the moral right of paternity (or would obviously include reproducing it in a include making a sketch based on a photograph. authorship). This is the only moral right, as Are Ideas Protected Against newspaper or periodical. The copies need not be It does not have to be a slavish copy. distinct from economic right, which is en­ Plagiarism? sold, they can be distributed free. Nor need it be a reproduction of the original shrined in the Copyright Acts. Not by copyright. It would not include reproducing it in a house work in its entirety. It is sufficient infringe­ Cropping a photograph does not of itself For example, Andrea photographs Centre journal, because the work would not thereby be ment if the essence of the original work is repro­ infringe copyright, unless the altered work is Point from an unusual angle. She includes that disseminated to the public. Exhibiting a photo­ duced. In one case, an artist complained that later published or exhibited for the purpose of photograph in an exhibition of her work, where graph is also not considered to be ‘publishing’ it, copyright in his oil painting ‘Nature’s Mirror’ selling it. A satirist could thereby be prevented Bill sees it. He goes to Centre Point and photo­ because no copies are made and disseminated. had been infringed. ‘Nature’s Mirror’ featured by the photographer, from substituting faces of graphs the building from the same spot. The Once published in the UK, a photograph en­ the draped figure of a ‘Psyche’ with wings, e.g. TV personalities for those of the subjects of result is a photograph identical to Andrea’s. joys copyright protection for 50 years from the kneeling on a rock and looking into a pool of his/her work. Although he has used her idea, Bill has used end of the calendar year in which it was pub­ water! When a magazine published a photo­ However the photographer’s copyright is not his own professional skill and labour. His photo­ lished. The rules are slightly different for photo­ graph which appeared to be a rude copy of the infringed if a photograph is destroyed, or graph enjoys copyright protection. Andrea graphs taken before 1 June 1957. The effect is figure in ‘Nature’s Mirror’, without the wings censored (the copyright in a libeiious/immoral cannot prevent him from publishing it, even that no photograph taken before 1930 is protec­ and without the background, the artist’s com­ obscene/irreligious work is unenforceable). though it is indistinguishable from her own ted of itself by copyright. plaint was upheld by the court. work. Her concept is not protected against pla­ Can All Photographers Benefit? It might also be considered to be an infringing To these 10 Commandments, let me add giarism. act where part of a work, such as the cover of a another. Hang on to your copyright at all cost. This protection will only apply if the photo­ However, if Bill had used her photographic- Sunday supplement, is included in a photomon­ However slender the protection which it affords, material, the position would be different. If he grapher is a ‘qualified person’ tage, if that part is identifiable and substantial. it’s about the only protection the law allows to were merely to take a photograph of Andrea’s i in the case of unpublished works, at the time A company which infringes copyright does the photographer. when the photograph was taken photograph, that would constitute an infringe­ not generally commit a criminal offence. Only it in the case of published work, at the time when ment of copyright in her work. She could the copyright owner can institute civil proceed­ Adrian Barr-Smith the photograph was published. prevent Bill from publishing his photograph. ings against it. The copyright owner can claim an ‘Qualified person’ means a citizen or resident His photograph would not be ‘original’. It is a copy and would not enjoy any copyright of the UK, or resident in a country with recipro­ protection. cal arrangements with the UK under the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). Who Owns Copyright? Under the UCC the work of a British photo­ The first owner of copyright is the ‘author’ of grapher is protected abroad for at least 25 years the photograph, i.e. the person who ‘at the time from its creation. It is important (but not a pre­ when the photograph is taken, is the owner of condition of protection) for the photographer to the material on which it is taken’. The author is identify him/herself as the copyright owner on the owner of the negative, where a negative is the back of any prints. used, or the owner of the first positive where no If you use a stamp, this should include the BACK ISSUES negative is used. copyright symbol ©, the year of first publica­ This definition is cumbersome and gives rise tion, and your name and address. The work will 5: On Photographic Printing, the Side to anomalies. For instance, the lender of a be protected without these formalities (except, it Gallery, Bill Gaskins, Barry Lane. camera and film is technically the owner of the appears, in the USA), but how can a photogra­ 8: Analysis of press coverage of National copyright, unless he/she agrees to the contrary pher be traced without such information? (Many Front march, Lewisham August 1977. with the borrower. fine-art photographers also use their stamp as 10: John Berger - Ways of Remembering, It is important in such circumstances to eli­ the mark of authentication, with or without an minate confusion by specifying exacdy who will accompanying certificate of ownership.) On Photomontage, DIY exhibitions. own the copyright in the photographs. Most 11: Mass Observation photographers will want to reserve copyright. Can Copyright Be Sold? 13: Photography in the Community, The position is reversed in the case of ‘com­ If you sell a print, you do not automatically sell - the Bengali community under attack. missioned’ photographs. The person who ‘com­ i.e. ‘assign’ - the copyright. However, you may 15: Larry Herman’s Clydeside, On missions the taking of a photograph, and pays (or choose to sell the copyright (e.g. along with the Advertising, Through the Lens Fantasy. agrees to pay) for it in money/money’s worth’ negative) usually for a flat fee. This assignment 16: Manchester Studies - peoples’ his­ automatically owns the copyright - providing of copyright must be in writing and signed by the tory, critique of Camerawork 8. the photograph is then taken in pursuance of the seller. Copyright cannot be assigned verbally. commission. 17: The Fashion Spread, Blair Peach, For example, a deal to publish a set of post­ Nuclear Wastes, Matchgirls’ Strike. So the photographer will own the copyright in cards may include an agreement by the photo­ 18: Porn, Law, Politics; The Steel photographs taken ‘on spec’, e.g. at a grapher to assign his/her copyright to the pub­ conference. But if ‘commissioned’ by the lisher. Assignments are generally irrevocable Strike, Still Images on TV, Squatting. bridegroom to take photographs at a wedding, and the assignee inherits the same rights as were 19: Edith Tudor-Hart - 30s pictures, the photographer cannot at a later date sell prints enjoyed by the assignor (the photographer). The State of the Nation - photomontage. to a national newspaper. It was decided in one Copyrights are also transferred on the owner’s 20: Immigrant Women, Cover Women, case that the bridegroom owned the copyright in death to his/her heirs. NEW TOURING SHOW Photomontage from Heartfield to Staeck, such photo-graphs and he was awarded the politics of Community Photography, exemplary damages of £1,000 by the Court of What is a Copyright Licence? London Blitz: War Photographs Zimbabwe’s History, Photography Art and Appeal for breach of copyright. The copyright owner can grant a licence to September 1940 - May 1941 Money; Portraits - Ways of Taking. What About Staff Photographers? someone else to reproduce a photograph, A wide range of photography carried out A ll 80p(inc. p. & p.) from 121 Roman The copyright in the work of an employed without assigning his/her copyright. For during the Blitz, investigating the use of photographer belongs to his/her employer - example, when a photographic agency sells a Road, London E2 0QN. print for a reproduction fee, it is by implication images as evidence. Available as a touring provided that the work is produced in the course exhibition from the Half Moon Photography of his/her employment. Whether or not some­ granting the publisher a ‘licence’ to publish the work for the intended purpose. Workshop. GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM GAINING MOMENTUM 8 women photograph women

BIRTH AT HOSPITAL OR AT HOME?

Birth is an experience in which women have little control over what happens to them and are discouraged from making decisions or choices. We also quite often have little knowledge of the whole process, never having attended a birth. I photographed two experiences of birth - one in a hospital and the other at home, in an attempt to break down some of the barriers which exist largely through ignorance. I also wanted to say that with knowledge we are more able to make choices about things that affect us. Vicky White

NAVRATRI

Hindu women in London at the festival of the nine nights, Navratri. It takes place annually after the autumn harvest, starting fifteen nights before the full moon. The festival is dedicated to the goddess Amba who has the power to drive out devils, and to her reincarnation, Maha Kali, who has the power to kill them. In the Hindu religion the male gods have Soul and the female gods have Power, without which the soul is nothing. Long ago Navratri was a women’s festival. Today, although the role of women predominates in the dance and ceremony, both sexes o f all generations attend. It is a social and religious event, a large gathering which enables mothers to look for potential sons- and daughters-in-law. Sarah Wyld GAINING MOMENTUM Photography is male-dominated in terms of who takes the picture as well as the ideologies which inform the pictures taken. A momentum of resistance must be built up by women working together to redefine and strengthen their voices as photographers. The pictures in these four pages come from the work of a group of eight women who worked together for nine months. The themes which the photographers selected are disparate but they come together to counteract the male bias in many of the images presented in the press and advertising. By contextualising the images which they have presented, the traditional interpretations of themes of motherhood, women in sport, caring for others are quali­ fied and reworked. In order to challenge the dominant ideology of representation of women, images of women by feminists must be brought to a wider audience and we hope the exhibition succeeds in doing this. The group of eight women was brought together in April 1980 as part of the Half Moon Photography Workshop’s long term commitment to group work. A Greater London Arts Association grant was made available to commission photographers to produce new work. The women who became part of the group came with very different expe­ riences of using photography and we hoped that the inter­ action of these women would stimulate ways of working together. The photographers felt it important to follow up their own interests, for example childbirth and women’s health, using the idea of women developing, changing and gaining momentum as a linking theme. WELL-BEING O f all the repressions visited on woman by the heavy-handed centuries of paternalism, perhaps the most insidious has been the denial of her physical powers. (Ann Crittenden) From Aristotle to modern times men have characterized women as physically inferior, naturally soft, and imperfect. In these photographs I try to show women the possibility of connecting with their untapped vitality through their bodies. Women’s liberation is a physical libera­ tion which involves women breaking the habit of seeing their bodies negatively. They see them from the outside, as men do, as static consumables in need of improvement: too fat, too thin, too hairy, too pale, too wrinkled. Advertising, fashion and new photography all present women as prettily passive. Even when the woman is active, somehow every hair is still in place, her clothes are immaculate and she has two hours worth of make-up on and . . . no sweat. So the picture still tells you she’s really more interested in being pretty (being consumed) than she is about trying hard, feeling better, having fun or even (gasp!) winning. The women photographed are experiencing their own bodies for them­ selves. They are taking time to relax, to play, to heal themselves, to train, to develop and enjoy their own being. Chia Moan

WOMEN AND WORK People are beginning to question the jobs that society slots them into, and demanding more flexibility in male and female roles. I have documented several women who are doing traditionally male jobs, such as building, van driving and medicine, and examined why women have chosen such work. I have also looked at the war work done by women, and the way in which women are excluded from the job market according to fluctuations in the economic and political climate. Nicky Blakeney EXPERIENCING MOTHERHOOD

In my pictures I am attempting to explore the different roles of wife, mother and worker that women face. The ideology of ‘motherhood’ presents a powerful barrier to women in their need to freely express themselves and to choose lives that are desirable. In particular, motherhood gives women an unrealistic set of assumptions about what being a mother essentially means, and a false sense of security, which later turns to anguish and depression when real security is lacking. I have looked at three women from different class backgrounds and attempt, through photographs, to see the effects of these dilemmas on their lives. Gina Glover

UNDER­ STANDING AND CARING

Jobs that are traditionally accessible to women are extensions of their ‘natural’ function as wives and mothers. Women are encouraged to become teachers, nurses, domestics, secretaries, nursery workers, shop workers or waitresses, always servicing a male-dominated work world. These jobs carry low status and are badly paid; the satisfaction from caring is used to compensate for the drudgery and poor pay of the work. Many of these jobs are in the public sector and more imme­ diately vulnerable to expenditure cuts. The cuts are further increasing work­ loads and leading to deteriorations in working conditions. Such jobs, do, how­ ever, provide an opportunity for women to work together and overcome the isola­ tion of women in the home. Jessie Ann Matthew 10 GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM ... GAINING MOMENTUM POSITIVE NEGATIVE

It must be clear to anyone looking at my work that it does not sit comfortably within the tradi­ tion o f documentary photographic practice. Feminist studies have revealed the extent to which our cultural traditions have been con­ structed to accord with the male perspective, and, still, the most pressing problem for women artists is that of discovering positive channels through which to exhibit their work. The issues with which I am concerned revolve around notions o f Art, Education, Political Literacy and their mutual accountability. My thinking and questioning on these matters provides me with an overview which informs everything I do rather than simply locating areas from which I would want to glean overt subject- matter. I am no longer satisfied to simply reinforce or celebrate ‘reality’ via the photographic medium - the ‘space’ afforded by the artwork provides an all too rare means by which to question, explore, and transgress ‘common-sense’ values and ideas. My theme in this instance is ‘sexuality’ and the work is intended to question the extent to which this is a manufactured notion. The piece operates on a number of levels and is not intended as a definitive statement. The images which accompany this text comprise one panel - the work totals 10 such panels which are designed to be read as a continuous ‘narrative’. Narrative being under­ stood as the form through which one might encourage the paradigmatic to surface. I leave it for you to decide whether or not my ‘story’ is based in/on fact or fiction! Sue Arrowsmith

ONE LAW FOR WOMEN AND ONE LAW FOR MEN

Throughout history, women have fought against vindictive and unjust laws which resulted from male selfishness, egoism and monopolistic atti­ tudes towards what each man regarded as his private property. In order to ensure that women would obey their laws, men went to the extreme o f using instruments of torture. The images o f the female body I have chosen symbolise the marks these sadistic practices have inflicted on our lives. Male compulsion still casts a black shadow on our bodies, and it will take more than ten years of ‘liberation’ before we can redefine out sexuality. My images are not here to plea for pity or sympathy, but to remember those thousands of women who suffered in the past, as well as those who are still trapped in their bodies, strangled by a male definition of themselves. Rachel Finkelstein

Rachel’s work was accompanied by this statement by the women of the Half Moon: The questions o f violence against women and women’s right to define their own sexuality are both crucial. We support all women working on these themes and engaged in the struggle against these oppressions. However, we disagree with the way Rachel’s work deals with the issues. We find the images of truncated and vulnerable female torsos problematic because they conjure up images from a particular genre of male porno­ graphy. The work shows women as passive, not fighting oppression. It can be misread and misunderstood. At a time when the questions o f racism, pornography and sexuality are in the forefront o f feminist struggles, we are unhappy about the ambiguities.

Drawing of 1408 Italian chastity belt projected onto torso CAMERAWORK 11

has been used by other campaigns: Fightback, p u b lic ’, w e d o n ’t have the resources to begin cuts, conferences, etc. with, and even if we did the law restricts all This exhibition continued the resource idea ‘political’ campaigning on such a scale to the begun in The Present Day Creates History, but its established parties - that’s ‘dem ocra cy ’. What focus was clearer, its content more militant and we are doing is quite different, our posters are its use - the important thing - was overtly a tool directed towards the more conscious sections of Towards a Political o f struggle. The East London Health Project the working class, through their distribution simply extended it further: it dealt with a wider networks. And this is not ‘preaching to the scope of issues and moved into large edition converted’, it is to aid those who are already prints which could be widely distributed. So in a interested and active, and also those who may sense we come right back to the influence of have the right leanings but not the information Practice context - if it is one of struggle, then your pro­ to back them up. Some uninterested people duction is not an ‘end product’ as you called it, might be provoked to further questioning as a but a transitional object in the same sense as a tool result of our posters. But in all honesty, these are Loraine Leeson and Peter Dunn’s practice intervenes in possibly the most crucial area for left is an object which does not exist ‘for itself but as probably in the minority. A change in material a means of transforming. Its form is crucial, but photography’s future _ the trades unions and trades councils. Based on concrete struggles, but conditions and the present social fabric is the breaking ground visually, their work and its history indicate the complexity of evolving a political as a means not an end. only thing which could really change that on a photographic practice. The following is a written interview with Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson. wide scale, the dominant ideology is far too How did you decide on posters for this pervasive and unconscious. militant working class movement, but they are ‘means’? It is interesting that this ‘problem’ with our What are you working on at the moment? still the most powerful instrument the working work is unerringly seen by intellectuals and not class possesses. If you have to be reformist, When we met to discuss the formation of theEast those who are the main users of the posters. One The most central thing over the last two years has better to be reformist within working class London Health Project we discussed different reason is that they are not confused by half- been the East London Health Project. This organisations - working to further the struggle possibilities. W e ruled out film, video or tape/ digested semiological theories, but the more basically involves the production of a series of - than to be reformist within capitalist institu­ slide because o f the need to have audiences important reason is that they understand the prints, for wide distribution, which aim to tions. But that is only a problem within the larger specially gathered. W e also wanted to spread it distinction made by its use because they are inform, politicise and advocate action on health unions and the TUC. It is not a problem with the over a period of time so that information could be involved. This is not to dismiss semiology: it has issues. Some of them obviously deal with the trades councils we work with who are very up-dated, etc: a single product w asn ’t flexible been one of the invaluable instruments in break­ cuts, but others, such as the ones on mental politicised and have aims close to our own - enough. Postcards can be useful but their size ing down crude infrastructure/superstructure health and multinational drug companies con­ without them and some of the more militant restricts the amount of information you can get divisions in theory. However we are now con­ centrate more on the underlying social and branches, the East London Health Project across, and the kind o f image/text relationship fronted with a real danger in the opposite direc­ economic factors rooted in the capitalist system, would not exist. The only problems we have with we were after. tion - dissolving everything into ideology and which exist whether the cuts are being made or them is getting everyone together for meetings. What interested the Trades Council about our abandoning materialism. Whilst semiological not. W e believe it’s important not to get too Bethnal Green work was the combination of analysis o f individual adverts might be interest­ hypnotised by the cuts or - as some campaigns Your method of work obviously affects image and text. They felt there is a tendency for ing and revealing, it is not these subtle ideo­ are doing - blame it all on Thatcher. We began the end product. How has this changed? pamphlets to become just part of the ‘litter’ of logical nuances which really influence people, this work when Labour were in power. Specific campaign material. What excited them was the but the blanket effect of pervasive advertising focus is important, but you mustn’t lose sight of In our early works it was a questioning of the idea o f combining the visual impact of a poster together with the lived ideology o f social rela­ the wider perspective. That’s why whenever we context o f our work which gradually changed with the more in-depth information which a tions. Advertisers ‘cream off these ideological cite specific examples - usually in East London their direction. After we began to work outside pamphlet might contain - not just simple codes, often unconsciously, they d o n ’t construct - we always try to put them in the wider national the art context we found we had to reassess our slogans - a kind of ‘visual p a m p h le t’. them with ‘evil g e n iu s ’. It is more important to or international context. whole approach, the means of presentation, and change the lived ideology o f social relations o f course the form o f the work itself. Probably How did you arrive at using image and than to decode its more symptomatic expres­ How are you funded? the best way o f describing how this happened is text in the way you do? sions, even if they do have a reinforcing feed­ to briefly discuss the changes which occurred back effect upon social relations. The East London Health Project was originally between two works The Present Day Creates W e began to use text initially as a form o f set up with funds from the East London trades History and the work we did on the Bethnal commentary, at first to describe processes You were both trained as fine artists; how councils, as a direct result of the Bethnal Green Green Hospital Campaign. within the work, then later to re-establish a have you moved away from this indivi­ Hospital Campaign, which we had been working The Present Day Creates History was based context; to re-insert the photographs, these dualist way of working? on. The trades councils were interested in utilis­ upon B r e c h t’s idea of taking the ordinary, the ‘frozen in s ta n ts ’, back into the changing flow of ing visual means to broaden the scope of the familiar, the ‘given’ and shifting the ideological events from which they were tom - The Present The move probably began by realising the campaign beyond a single issue like a hospital perception of it - ‘The audience no longer takes Day Creates History approach. At that time contradiction of being trained (sic) for a system closure. We also got some donations from union refuge from the present day in history - the image and text were separate and linear, comple­ that was rapidly becoming merely the nostalgia branches and arts funding bodies. The Arts present day becomes history.’ - the possibility mentary narratives. In the Bethnal Green of our tutors - the 1960s art market and gallery Council and Gulbenkian made it clear they of effecting change being implicit. This work Hospital Campaign, however, rapid communi­ network. By the mid-1970s that optimism, couldn’t touch anything so ‘political’, but Tower basically concerned the development of a cation of information was vital, and by using the which was reflected in the work still being Hamlets Arts Committee have been a great help, cultural resource which might also act as a more deliberately constructed image of the ‘pushed’ in the art schools, seemed to have and the Greater London Arts Association gave us political tool: a kind of ‘pe o p le ’s history’ on one montage it was easier to relate image and text in a becom e hollow, superficial, and so inward a bit. side; on the other, an analysis of the develop­ more symbiotic way. looking that communication was difficult W e ’re now getting some money back from ment of capitalist organisation affecting two The East London Health Project was more between different studios, let alone outside the poster sales, so that will go back into the kitty towns from the turn of the century to the present concerned to present an argument, rather than department. We began to do group works, towards production o f the next batch. But it day. The work was shown in various libraries the single slogan/idea which characterises most sometimes involving students from other d o e s n ’t look as if w e’ll manage to be self- and public places in the two towns. It contrasted posters. This also fitted with where we expected faculties and colleges. These began as works sufficient yet, because, whilst there are a lot of the projected futures o f the planners, commer­ the posters to be used: clinics, health centres, ‘about a r t’, then moved on to question the campaigns springing up everywhere needing cial interests, advertising, etc, with the lived community centres, etc, where people would be education system and its politics. However, they posters, th e y ’re all struggling for funds and a lot reality, using p e o p le ’s recollections, ‘sn a p s’, etc. likely to have more time to study them - not on never really extended beyond the immediate of the time w e ’re actually selling below cost. I t ’s It was very ambitious and there were several the street. The size o f the prints (obviously educational or art context and we still saw them not the best way of establishing a firm economic major problems. The first was funding: as is influenced by finances, access to printing etc) very much as peripheral to our individual work, base, but tools are most effective if th ey ’re being ‘normal’ in art practice we were doing the work meant that we had to consider two reading our ‘real’ work. used when th e y ’re urgently needed. Eventually ‘free o f s tr in g s ’: scratching together material distances: one for the main text and image Once we began working outside an art however we would like to see the project costs, etc, from our own meagre resources. Now impact, another for the image detail and small context, we quickly discovered that any naive becoming self-sufficient. apart from the ‘strings’ which lack of money print. This is another reason why we tend not to ‘Art & Society’ notions were worse than useless: imposed, it also hampered the collaborative ele­ use the ‘yelling it all out’ type of slogan. If people it was not a question of making a relationship How do you see this co-operation with ment which was essential to the work. People see an intriguing image/text relationship on first between ‘Art’ and ‘Society’ - that already exists trades councils and trades unions were suspicious because they d id n ’t understand impact, they are more likely to read the small - the point is to change it, change them both. developing? our motives, we seemed to be doing it for print to see where it comes from. W e also learned that artists, as individuals, ‘charity’ - who were the beneficiaries and to cannot hope to contribute to such change by Well the way it works at the moment is that we what purpose? The final results reflected this Advertising is obviously a bourgeois merely presenting a visual drop in an ocean of discuss themes and ideas with the committee: lack of clarity in our motives. product and some of your work works in a bourgeois perc -prions. The only way to work is they will often suggest contacts for information This is not to deny that some good things came similar way to advertising. Do you see collectively, in collaboration with those striving in a particular area or even bring it along them­ out of it: it generated interest in the towns and is that as a problem? for similar goals. It may not mean physically selves. Regarding the synthesis of information now a permanent resource housed in Ruislip working together - the main thing is solidarity. and visual decisions, we are left pretty much to library. But its position there makes it a more This comes up a lot, especially in art circles, so Finally, if you are attempting to develop a our own devices, though we discuss the rough likely haunt o f local historians and middle class for some people presumably it is. The problem socialist cultural practice within a capitalist drafts and designs and we would never go to researchers than a political tool for the working as they see it is that a) it is reinforcing bourgeois society, then it cannot work in isolation. It needs print without majority approval - not that class. In retrospect, the ‘impetus for change’ it forms of representation, or b) if it is operating on support, it needs to place its roots in the only th e r e ’s ever been any conflict about what we represented probably pointed more to our the same level, how can it hope to compete thing which will achieve its aspirations - should print so far. On the research side w e’ve approach than did the social conditions it tried to because advertising has more resources, is more working class struggle. developed stronger links with other groups like deal with. pervasive, etc. Radical Statistics, Science for People, W o m en ’s This realisation, together with the particular T o take the first point: historically, the Is there a theoretical decision behind Health Information Collective, and many more circumstances of a campaign, made the work for photomontage form was pioneered by the left, your shift away from an art context? specialists in particular fields. the Bethnal Green Hospital very different. We Heartfield being the most notable exponent. It So far as distribution is concerned, only one were no longer trying to be ‘instigators’ but were was appropriated by capitalists for fetishising If you mean, did we have a theory which we then major union, NUPE, has bought in sizeable bulk simply part o f the mobilisation of a whole range commodities - an inversion of its original use. If tried to put into practice - no. We tried, and for national distribution. I t ’s been at branch o f forces with a common purpose which was this form, in itself, were ideologically con­ continue to try, to solve contradictions arising level and through trades councils that the main clear and concrete - it was obvious what we ditioned, then advertising would be subverting from our practice by working them through. But distribution has been. The network seems to be were doing and why. We were funded initially itself with a leftist form. This is clearly nonsense; of course we also look for precedents and slowly expanding on the grass-roots level and we under a Greater London Arts Association film/ the form is adapted and its semiotic codings parallels in the work o f others, either theo­ hope this continues. But obviously this can only video fellowship, running workshops for adults developed according to its use. We do not use retical or practical, which we can learn from. sustain the project on a stop-go basis. What we and kids in the area. We were also funded for sexist, racist or those kinds of codes which But to return to your question, there is an would really like to see is more bulk orders extra-workshop activities of our own choosing - idealise a bourgeois lifestyle. Advertising is argument - call it theoretical if you like - for coming in from the larger unions on a national one of these produced a campaign video tape for selling a product; in doing so it fetishises it, analysing the context in which the practice level. This would not only get the project moving the hospital. We then began making posters for mystifying and obscuring the underlying social operates. The context can deny or neutralise more quickly, but would also indicate that there fly-posting, paid for out of campaign funds, and economic basis. Our function is totally the content and, represents a more powerful was at least some chink opening up in their insti­ followed by an exhibition/resource which was opposite - a re-inversion o f this use - to reveal signifier o f class allegiance. It is clearly no tutionalised conservatism. We five in hope. housed in the hospital entrance during the the underlying social, economic, political and accident that the context of art, its institutions, The important positive aspect is working in campaign. This presented the broader context of ideological forces bearing upon the issues we are networks and general social milieu, do not signify solidarity with those who are broadly struggling the campaign and - in collaboration with other dealing with. working class involvement, and that facile with similar aims, and o f rooting the practice campaigns - dealt with issues such as the Now to take the second point: we are not attempts to ‘introduce them’ to it are doomed within working class struggle. We all know that authorities’ dirty tricks, information gathering, attempting to compete on the same level. We are right at the outset. The reasons are complex and trades unions in Britain are far from the ideal of a mobilisation and public support. Since then it not aiming a blanket campaign at the ‘general manifold, but the fact that art has, throughout I 12 CAMERAWORK

the mainstream development of Western cul­ the system. There are artists working within it ture, been supported and promoted by various who we admire, and works which we get a lot ruling elites - from the cultural precedents of from - and not all of them are ‘political’ either. Egypt, Greece and Rome to the multinational art It’s the same with the capitalist system on a market of today - is certainly a major factor. Its wider scale - you attack the structure and the structural function - use and status within the ideologies it generates, not the individuals who social structure - reflects its class position. exist within it. This is not to contradict what we Now obviously that’s not the whole story; said before about the need for separation: it is history clearly shows that cultural products simply the other side of the dialectic. Under cannot be ‘fixed’ within any single class or present historical conditions, marginalisation is ideology, that they can provoke meaningful a real danger. The real question is not how to response when extracted from their original minimise collusion, but how best to maximise context - the Eskimo tool, the feudal altarpiece, effective opposition. the temple frieze, - can all be appropriated as Art by a bourgeois culture. We don’t want to go What do you see as the possibilities of into whole question o f‘timelessness’ here, or the effectively intervening in an art context? mythologies surrounding it, but simply to point out that a class analysis or ideological decoding is Perhaps it might be useful first to discuss what inadequate to discuss the significance of we don’t think is effective. To begin with, there individual works. The real value of a class are those who would attack certain ‘forms’ or analysis lies in its ability to point out the media (e.g. ‘abstraction’ per se, painting, structural function of the practice as a whole: performance, or whatever), claiming them to be why for example the great church frescoes and reactionary on some ideological pretext. This is a sumptuous palace ceilings of the feudal period dangerous error: it collapses visual ideologies gave way to the more portable and marketable into political ideologies in a very crude way. easel paintings, the dominant commodity forms Cultural practice is not political practice - they of the capitalist art market; why the transforma­ are dialectically linked but they are not the same. tion from workshop artisan, through guild- There is a relative autonomy in these spheres master to the individual cultural entrepreneur - which we ignore at our peril. To do so can easily the modern profession of ‘artist’. Why also the lead to an inversion of the whole basis of a shift from labour intensive practices to capital socialist cultural practice - a stylistic Stalinism. intensive practices also had its reflection in a shift Similarly, you cannot say that all works pro­ in dominance to ‘media culture’ presided over by duced in a bourgeois context are ‘in themselves’ large centralised networks - the ‘culture bourgeois - it is undialectical and allows no factories’ of monopoly capitalism. space for change other than some woolly notion However what is more important than the of historical determinism. And here we would reflective relationship between the dominant just like to emphasise that when we spoke earlier ideology and its culture, are the active of context as a class signifier we clearly located it expressions of cultural production in challeng­ in the social use not in the works themselves. ing the dominant ideology. These become more Now let us turn to those works which present marked during periods of major social rupture a socialist view in terms of subject matter, but are when a new class emerges to challenge the old strictly gallery oriented - what we have called order, because an oppositional culture - born ‘gallery socialism’ - and may even find them­ out of a new conception of social relations - selves on the art market. There is an obvious must mark its separation from the dominant contradiction between the subject matter and its culture, its evident ‘otherness’ to the dominant use as a commodity - a fetishised object which ideology. What marks these differences are not reinforces the very system and ideology it pre­ formal or stylistic but structural and material: sumes to criticise. But we live in a capitalist Early Christian catacomb paintings were stylis­ society and cannot help colluding with it. This tically very similar to Roman wall paintings; the contradiction is perhaps not very different from easel painting and altarpiece co-existed with that of a militant shop steward at Fords who little formal division at first. But the ‘religion of advocates the overthrow of capitalism whilst the slaves’ created a new context of operation, producing for one of the multinational bulwarks economic base - a new social use - for its of this system - does this contradiction cultural production. Similarly with the ‘free neutralise the message? market’ revolution of the bourgeoisie came ‘free But there is a difference: the shop steward’s Photomontage by Loraine Leeson from a series of five posters on women and health. expression’, a new context, economic base and ‘message’ is in the context of the union work, social use for art. which is inextricably linked to production but is If we now wish to discuss the development of a not the same. Let us suppose instead that s/he socialist cultural practice, we cannot predict decided to make the ‘message’ in the form of a what forms will emerge, nor can we be specific ‘socialist car’ but still marketed by Ford. Apart in defining the social use of cultural production from the ineffectiveness of this as a political act, in a socialist society. But what is clear is that the what would constitute this car’s ‘socialistness’ - new social relations will demand a new context of would it be covered in slogans or have controls operation and economic base, a different social allowing all passengers an equal share in driving? use. What is also clear is that an oppositional It becomes ludicrous, a joke. However, a differ­ practice within capitalism must mark its separa­ ent method of approaching a transport system, its tion from the dominant culture structurally and, production and use, is not a joke. together with the more conscious elements of In the same sense, one cannot say a single working class organisation, transform itself into work of art is ‘in itself socialist, capitalist, or a revolutionary force. Only a classless society can confine it to a specific political ideology per se. produce a truly classless culture. But you can talk about a different cultural practice in terms of total role and use value (as But you do show in galleries from time to opposed to commodity value - not a crude time. How do you feel about this? ‘functionalism’). There is a crucial difference. That is why we would argue that, providing Uneasy. We go through traumas every time. But the main thrust of the work is towards develop­ we also believe it is important to do this ing such a different use, then the occasional occasionally despite the contradictions, because showing in a gallery is not likely to cause serious there is an ideological battle to be fought there difficulties. If however the main thrust is too. Also, we believe it does make a difference towards gallery and art market, fashionably where the main thrust of the work is, where it is using working class struggle for subject matter, centred. But we are not there to preach anyway. then it is simply the appropriation and exploita­ We exhibit mainly for two reasons. Firstly, tion of one class for the ‘art’ of another. there are those who are interested in this kind of The difference is vast, but confusion between work and these issues, especially students, who the two types of approach is all too often might otherwise find it difficult to find out apparent in misconceived ‘Art and Society’ what was going on - there is as yet no developed initiatives. But if you are an artist genuinely network for such practices which allows an easy concerned with these issues and cannot get cross-fertilisation. Secondly, the establishment funding outside the Art world, then what do you and those who would align themselves with the do? Are you expected to ignore the sympathies ‘Artscribe’ mentality, would like nothing better you have, which may be the well-spring of your than to see people like us exiled from the art production? This problem has forced many into world for ever - they even use our own argu­ a sterile knot of non-production. Perhaps it’s ments against us, ‘bourgeois contexts’, etc. The better to suffer the contradiction and try to work questioning of the values, norms, goals and through it. But there are no easy answers, only system surrounding Art practice must be easy criticisms. continued and it must be done from within because the art world is very adept at ignoring Do you see yourselves as working within things happening outside its contained social a particular tradition? territory. Now all that might sound as if we despise Yes, in many ways. But there is an important everything that goes on in the Art world, that we distinction to be made here between working think it’s all reactionary stuff. But that is not within a tradition in a way which uses the lessons what we are saying. What we are condemning is of the past to actively engage the present, and

1 Woman in 6, 1 man in 9, have treatment in a psychiatric hospital at some tim e in their lives — most are from deprived environments. Mental illness expectancy has been estimated as high as 40% for working class mothers w ith young children. The incidence for schizophrenia can be calculated w ith 95% accuracy ► according to the degree of poverty which prevails (PRA Poverty and Schizophrenia 1 9 7 3 ). Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson’s work is very specifically designed for a poster format. In reducing their size, the text on this poster and ‘Passing the Buck’ (p. 1) become unreadable. We have therefore had to reset and adapt the text in order to translate the work out of its original form . CAMERAWORK 13

• m h h h m h h h i mmmmammmamm ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■Hi

THEIR ECONOMIES < * • S I YOUR HEALTH

Photomontage by Peter Dunn and Loralne Leeson from the Bethnal Green Hospital Campaign.

tradition as academicism or nostalgia which is a function here might be quite clearly defined, we ultimately to a dehumanising idealism. The established it) to define what is rear. In our reactionary or escapist response to change. All are not presenting it as a ‘model’. Nor would we doctor would serve the revolution better by society, the ‘established reality’ is that of the cultural production has its roots in some tradi­ advocate a crude ‘functionalism’ for the direc­ maintaining the practice and utilising the skills ruling class, its ideology, and if the breaking of tion; it is through its connections with the past tion of a socialist cultural practice - pan of the he or she possesses. That does not preclude this monopoly to ‘define what is real' is not and its relevance to the present that its forms struggle is to broaden the scope. changing the economic and ideological role of engaging in class struggle, then what is? become intelligible. the practice, nor does it exclude the doctor also But before we get too carried away by all this, Now we began working within a fine art A pervasive view within the art world is explaining to patients about the wider social and let us come down from these dizzy heights to the tradition, but in moving out of that context we that art and politics don’t mix. Your work economic changes which can be made to prevent more modest and limited task of our own found serious problems in adapting those forms would seem to exist in opposition to such certain illnesses. It.is the difference between project: to find our ‘potential space’ in -the to our new context. It might be worth explaining an attitude - do you feel this to be so? dissolving into politics or ‘mixing’. The former transition from capitalism to socialism; if we briefly why this should be so: Twentieth Century restricts the patient’s capacity to enjoy good produce ‘authentic art’, as Peter Fuller calls it, Art - partly because of the concept of art history To put it simply, the idea that they cannot mix is health, the latter is an expansion. along the way then it’s an added bonus - but we as an autonomous discipline which isolated it a stupid one; many of the pivotal artists of the Peter Fuller has recendy taken up would certainly make no such grand claims for from social, economic or political events, and ‘Western tradition’ were involved in politics and Timpanaro’s argument to put forward what he our posters. partly because of the rapid turnover of ‘new their concerns were evident in their work. calls a ‘materialist theory of expression’. We traditions’ resulting from avant-gardism - pro­ But that’s not the real issue - it’s in what lies have differences and reservations about some of What next? duced a situation whereby the intelligibility of behind the claim that the complexity arises. To his conclusions, but on one central point we do new work became more and more dependent begin with, there is a problem about the word agree: art as a material pracdce cannot be wholly Prophecy! - a difficult one. Things on the upon its connections with an ‘internalised’ past ‘art’: some people would argue that what we do is reducible to ideology, and a renunciation of horizon: well, the East London Health Project and an enclosed present. Whilst still producing not art because its form is not ‘an end in itself - aesthetic form (per se) is an abdication of respon­ will no doubt continue for some time to come, things of interest to us because of our back­ that’s the formalist argument. On the other sibility. hopefully extending its base; we’ve also begun to ground, mainstream Modernism provided us hand, we would avoid calling ourselves ‘artists’ However, let us turn for a moment to a quote do some work on London Docklands, but that’s with few useful lessons for our present context. because of the current presuppositions this he uses from Marcuse: ‘The universality of art still largely an unknown quantity regarding what Consequently we had to look further back, or to carries about the context in which you operate. cannot be grounded in the world and world we will come up with eventually. We don’t like the periphery, or to ‘non-art’ visual forms. We But leaving aside the historical genealogy of outlook of a particular class, for art envisions a to talk too much about what we are going to do, it didn’t consciously ‘look for a tradition’ - it was the word for a moment, the issue is exacdy the concrete universal humanity, which no parti­ can fix your ideas too quickly and commit you to more a question of rediscovering things in same for radical doctors, scientists - in fact any cular class can incorporate, not even the pro­ a course of action which is not based on very response to concrete problems which the work of the ‘professions’. It is largely due to the letariat, Marx’s ‘universal class’. The inexorable much. The complexity of the issues surrounding presented. ‘neutrality’ myth which surrounds them. The entanglement of joy and sorrow, celebration and Docklands need a lot of careful examination - Clearly what interested us most was work that BMA, who fought tooth and nail against the despair, Eros and Thanatos, cannot be dissolved and that’s precisely why we are doing a ‘pilot’ came out of struggle. The most visibly obvious setting up of the NHS, say politics and medicine into the problems of class struggle.’ stage first, just to look at the possibilities. We’re influences can be seen in the posters: Heartfield, don’t mix. And BUPA, the private medical Now apart from the circularity of this argu­ not going into this totally cold though, we’ve Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Russian and Cuban insurance company who financed and orches­ ment - if the universality of art is a ‘given’ then been working in the area long enough to see how posters, also Chinese and the May 68 prints. But trated the campaign against the phasing out of obviously it cannot be grounded in the world the development of Docklands is making itself in terms of establishing a context for our work, pay-beds in the NHS, coined the slogan outlook of a particular class - Marcuse suggests felt. One thing is certain, this planned there is a long tradition of oppositional cultural ‘Patients before Politics’. But there is more to that Marx’s ‘universal class’ is the proletariat. ‘Enterprise Zone’ is likely to form an important practices from the early Christians (in recorded this than professions protecting their neutrality This is a misrepresentation. Marx constructed precedent for future social and economic history) onward, and we do make an effort to mystique (and therefore status), or the masking this concept, deliberately, as a contradiction strategies, a test-bed for the future which our study these and learn from them. The sense of a of their underlying ideology for dubious (universal v. class) which can only be resolved rulers are mapping out for us. As for another tradition, a continuity, can be a useful anchor - interests. More even than an expression of through the dialectic - the proletariat’s negation kind of future - the visual development of our especially when you might be breaking new unconscious ideology. It is the grain of truth of itself through its destruction of the class own practice - we would like to broaden its ground in other ways - it’s difficult to take both which forms the kernel of the neutrality myth - system and the creation of a classless society. scope, to develop the rich potential for cele­ feet off the ground at once. But of course some­ the relative autonomy of material practice. This is the social expression of a ‘concrete bration alongside the cutting edge of attack. times it’s necessary to do this - make a jump - To explain what we mean by this we will use universal humanity’ which ‘art envisions’. But Indeed there is an urgent need to develop a new because the tradition you are working in may an example close to our own area of concern let us be fair to Marcuse, his ‘summing up’ in the richness, variation and vitality in cultural become inappropriate to present day circum­ which Timpanaro uses: if a doctor abandoned final sentence is perfectly valid. It returns us to practices allied to the left. Certainly our present stances. There is also the danger of getting his or her practice on the grounds that it was a the difference between dissolving and ‘mixing’. context is one of struggle but in rejecting the trapped in your own ‘tradition’ - a style - ‘bourgeois profession’ and instead told people One cannot dissolve the things he speaks of into bourgeois ideology of culture we must be careful which can fix you in one position. The parti­ that their illness was due to the results of class struggle, but to engage one’s self (or one’s not to ‘throw out the baby with the bath water’. cular needs of struggle do often make quite capitalism - even when it might be true - then cultural practice) in class struggle does not To paraphrase Marx - criticism has plucked specific demands, and of course there is a very this would be an abdication, not only of his/her exclude “the inexorable entanglements of joy and and spoiled the imaginary flower in the chain, real danger of drifting into ‘formats’ which have responsibility as a human being, but also of sorrow . . .” etc. Further, as Marcuse himself not so that we may bear the chain without imagi­ proved to be effective. materialism. It would be an over-determination says, the truth of art ‘lies in its power to break the nation and consolation, but so that we might One final but important point: whilst our of the material in terms of ideology, which leads monopoly of established reality (i.e.of those who throw off the chain and take up the living flower. 14 CAMERAWORK

Peter Magubane

‘Magubane’s South Africa’ established Peter Magubane as a photo journalist able to represent the voice of black Azania. In this interview he talks about his subse­ quent work and how he views his relationship with his people.

During Soweto riots in 1976, students bury one of their dead companions. What have you done since your book clobbered by the police if they d o n ’t want you ‘Magubane’s South Africa’ was published? there. White photographers have an advantage I have done five more books - ‘Black as I a m ’, because of their skin. One police officer in with the poetry of Zizi Mandela, then I have Alexandria township had my press card in his ‘Soweto’, text by Marsha Leigh, and ‘Soweto hand but he still clobbered me with his baton. I Speaks’ with text by Jill Johnson. This year I ’ve had my nose fractured and spent five days in also published two more books in Johannesburg, hospital. one on black and white children in South Africa and the other on Crossroads. I ’ve been working D o you feel that the restrictions have changed on both books and newspapers. I still work for at ail? the Rand Daily Mail but I ’ve also been collecting I think t h e y ’ve got worse. Newspapers in South my own material. Africa are now afraid of publishing any material which involves the police. Isn’t newspaper photography a very different way of working to doing a book? Are there many other young black photo­ I’m still primarily a newspaper photographer but graphers in South Africa? when I conceive of an idea for a book, for Yes, there are now. But we have no black instance I want to do a book on black children, colleges which cater for photography, i t ’s just then whenever I go out on assignment I collect something you pick up under an apprenticeship, pictures which have something to do with starting at the bottom and working your way up. children. One problem is that they d o n ’t have electricity in their homes and without a darkroom t h e r e ’s just As a reportage photographer, do you feel nothing you can do, you c a n ’t see what y o u ’re isolated from your own people by your work? learning. What they actually do is to take snap­ shots, so as to send them back to their people. No, not at all, I feel I’m part of them, if I were Because they are paid to take portraits the sitter isolated I wouldn’t be able to identify with my tells them how to do it, and professionally that people and move around in their midst. d o e s n ’t take you very far. And being the other side of a camera doesn’t D o you think that the wide publicity your work Working on a potato field in Bethal put you in a different position? has gained makes it easier for others? No, it doesn’t isolate me at all. I w o u ld n ’t really say that I’m an exception but I ’ve been lucky in the way that I have contacts, D o you see working as part of a group as a and I ’ve worked quite hard. My travelling expe­ possibility, either with other black photo­ riences have made me not sit on the material I graphers, or as a mixed group? have, but make use of it. The idea of my pub­ Unfortunately in South Africa it is a different lishing books is a kind of incentive for young situation altogether because of the policies of the photographers. It helps them understand that country. I certainly would like to work in a group photography is not just snap taking, i t ’s some­ but it is just not possible, firstly because pro­ thing that is valuable. fessional photography amongst blacks in South Africa is a very new thing, I would say i t ’s about 40 years old, and then working with whites is out In your introduction to ‘Magubane’s South because that would mean I’d have to go to their Africa’ you say ‘My wish is that everyone in the places, they c a n ’t come to ours because t h e y ’d country should be able to try and solve our need a permit. I really wouldn’t like to work that problems amicably with no bloodshed. There way, it shouldn’t be one-sided. is till time and plenty of room for th a t’. Do you We do have very good black photographers in still feel this? South Africa even though they h a v e n ’t been Yes, I still feel the same. given much of a chance. Most of the newspapers have white picture editors and the odd jobs You d o n ’t mention your politics; where would simply go to white freelancers. If y o u ’re a black you place yourself? freelancer in South Africa you will starve to I’m with my people naturally, because I’m part death. They would only want to use you when of the oppressed. I would rather work with there are upheavals in the townships, where photographs, t h a t’s the gift I have, and leave white photographers c a n ’t go. In all these years politics to the politicians who are gifted for that. that I ’ve been a photographer I ’ve noticed that I politicise with my camera. the white newspaper photographers have never had any respect for us. The only time that black Are most of your pictures used by the photographers have been able to shine and show establishment rather than any alternative their capabilities has been since 1976 because the press? white photographers couldn’t win, the system In South Africa I c a n ’t really give my pictures to worked against them for once, they had to taste newspapers other than the one I work for, but their own medicine. In Soweto the black photo­ outside if there are people interested in my graphers were able to show the situation and pictures I do give them. But I have to find out prove their capabilities to their counterparts. what the pictures are going to be used for. I d o n ’t believe in giving out pictures without knowing how they will be used and what the story will be. Even so from what you’ve written in the intro­ duction to your book ‘Magubane’s South What plans do you have for the future? Africa’, it seems that it was still difficult for I want to keep on getting material. To have black photographers, with police being hostile books published and try and help the up and to them and black people themselves coming photographer. My main wish is to get a suspicious? practical workshop going for young photo­ Yes, that is so. As a result many black newsmen graphers. I’d also like to collect together the and photographers were locked up during the work of black photographers in South Africa and riots, especially in August 1976, under the have it exhibited around the world because many Internal Security Act. of them have never had the opportunity or facili­ ties to have their work exhibited. It would really What restrictions does a photographer encourage young black photographers to know working in South Africa have to take into that people outside South Africa are interested in account? them and their work. Firstly i t ’s not easy for a black photographer to get a press card. The police press card allows you Peter Magubane was interviewed by Jenny to work unhindered, but even then you still get Matthews Young man shot dead during Soweto riots in 1976. CAMERAWORK

the defenders of professionalism can be very threatened by the idea of handing over editorial NATIONAL News, Reviews, Letters control by changing their practice. But lessons of CONFERENCE OF experience and skill have to be passed on, and The Media Machine, by John Downing, Britain: the Morning Star, Socialist Worker, both extremes tend to throw out the baby with SOCIALIST Pluto Press, £4.95. and the Militant. He maintains that their failure the bathwater. Anyone who has worked in an PHOTOGRAPHY is due to their politics, rather than their small alternative media collective or business probably The Media Machine is interesting and mis­ circulation; the politics of fixation on the white has strong, vividly etched opinions on the OPEN MEETING: Saturday, March 7 at 2.00 leading. It provides a useful summary of recent male trade unionist, refusing to confront the subject! at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, London marxist thought on ideology and culture, divisions within the working class, explaining There are other unanswered questions. E2, near Bethnal Green Tube. debates which have often been left outside the capitalism by the lowest common denominator Downing doesn’t touch upon the contradictions The National Conference held at Leeds in mainstream of British socialist tradition. But it is of greed. In contrast, he points to experiments in facing many media trade unions; when NUJ November was an important initiative in the misleading, precisely because it is much more Italy such as Radio Citta Futura in Rome, journalists from Fleet Street get attacked by politics of photography - one to be built on: the about ideology than the media machine. which tried to demystify the technology and pro­ TUC colleagues for their coverage of industrial need to bring together socialists working in Downing hints at media practices and values, fessional ethos of the media, and whose success unrest, for example, or the mutual suspicion many different areas of photography is a but doesn’t actually show how they are used. He was grounded in its strong ties with mass move­ between alternative printers and distributors continuing need. aims to write a general outline for ‘viewers and ments outside the station. and their solid trade-union counterparts in the The open meeting is being called to constitute listeners’ rather than professionals, and his There is little to disagree with in Downing’s commercial world. And some people trying to a new organising committee for the conference, subject is ambitious - the nature of capitalist general arguments, but the book leaves gaps make a living on freelance work for the alterna­ (the old one being exhausted), and to discuss media. But the book seems to be directed more which make it less useful and powerful that it tive media feel more ripped off than they would future directions. to socialists with professional interests than to could have been. The question of profes­ do by commercial outlets which at least pay good Building the conference depends on people’s the ordinary media consumer. sionalism is ignored. Downing stresses that the money. involvement: Come to the meeting or write (c/o Downing is concerned with understanding smooth running of the machine - the instant The conclusions about the left press in Britain 119 Roman Road, London E2) for further the specific influence of the media for oppression production of capitalist hegemony, to use the today also leave much to be added. Yes, the three information. or liberation, focussing on the inter­ jargon - depends on the ethos of profes­ papers mentioned are guilty of all the faults he relationships between class, sex and race. He sionalism, which pressurises media workers to describes. But we could produce the very best, starts from the assumption that ideology is not a adopt certain practices and assumptions, or be imaginative, non-economistic media in the Pinhole photographs passive mirror of the ruling class, and criticises considered, simply, ‘not good at your job’. He world and still be left powerless without strong marxist traditions which reduce everything to doesn’t really tackle the radical alternatives to integral links with a mass movement. It’s not The Half Moon Photography Workshop is still economic explanations. For example, contradic­ this ethos. enough to compare England and Italy as two looking for your pinhole photographs to be tory states of consciousness “are the rule not the Professionalism is the reef on which countless capitalist countries; England simply doesn’t included in a future exhibition. If you are taking exception”, and are not simply imposed from collectives have foundered. It is very easy either have the same political references and pitch, let pinhole photographs yourself, or have any that outside. But the media gives “countless tiny . . . to accept or reject completely the professional alone the same airwave laws, and the media alone you think we might be interested in showing, pushes to the memory which keeps assumptions package, but the hardest thing of all is to forge a cannot create a movement. please let us know as soon as possible. alive.” new combination of skill and openness. Any These problems come up again and again, and If you send us any pictures, please remember To illustrate his point, Downing gives medium has a responsibility to its audience deserve more thorough treatment. I hope that to pack them carefully and put your name and examples of media treatment of sex, race and which should be as important as the ‘learning someone else can start from where Downing left address on the back of each picture. Thanks to class, and looks critically at three left papers in process’ of the participants in production. And off. (Susan Greenberg) those of you have already submitted pictures. The exhibition is scheduled to take place this summer. Bootle Arts and Action Dear Camerawork, Dear Camerawork, The editorial comments accompanying Robert One of the contradictions to be found in Film distribution With community arts increasingly threatened by Radford and Wolf Suschitsky’s research on Camerawork concerns the lack of attention paid political attacks and cuts, it is heartening to Edith Tudor-Hart (Camerawork 19), contains to the crucial distinction between the politics of The Other Cinema’s new complete list of films report a story of successful resistance: Bootle the amazing statement that ‘as yet relatively little representation and the representation of politics available for rental is available free. Send sae to Arts and Action has recently emerged victorious has emerged about the Workers’ Film and Photo through photography. The former would engage The Other Cinema, 79 Wardour Street, London from a politically motivated attempt to close League in this country . . . ’. in the debate which sees photography (and art) W1 them down. There is a lot to learn from their In fact an extensive amount of work has been as reducible to ideology and seek a basis for a experience. carried out on the League over the last five practice capable of containing that problematic: As reported in Camerawork 19, Arts and years. In particular the pioneering work of our the latter begins from a conscious political Women’s films Action, a dynamic Merseyside community colleague Bert Hogenkamp has almost single- perspective which uses photography as a tool for photography project, incurred the wrath of one handedly been responsible for drawing the agitation and propaganda. I do not wish to The London Film-makers’ Co-op is organising a of the most reactionary Tory councils in Britain, attention of the labour movement to the exis­ discuss the merits of these positions now, but to series of open screenings of women’s films, Sefton Council. The project’s work was accused tence of an International Film and Photo League present both poles on the left juxtaposed on starting in March. They would like to hear from of being of ‘an extreme political and/or anti­ movement. The films and associated documents facing pages (issue 20 pps 4 & 5) without any any women who have films they would like to social nature . . . unworthy of support from exist as an archive because of the persistent editorial attempt to recognize the contradiction show or are interested. Contact Jeanette Iljon, public funds.’ Last April Sefton threatened to efforts of Jonathan lewis and Elizabeth Mead in the transparent usage of political content London Film-makers’ Co-op, 42 Gloucester withdraw its financial contribution to Mersey­ Taylor. But for their work all the material would alongside a spread of sceptical deconstruction, is Avenue, London NW1. side Arts Association if they continued to undoubtedly have been lost after the death of the to suffer a loss of credibility. This is not a support Arts and Action. The MAA suspended last Secretary of the League. The League’s films criticism of Camerawork alone - the Arts Council Exhibition Provision their funding pending investigation. are now fit for public showing due to the persis­ problematic exists throughout so called ‘left In May Sefton Council presented a 13-page tence of Vicky Wegg-Prosser (one of the earliest photography’ and deserves prominent, if not The Arts Council of Great Britain has established a list of allegations against Arts and Action. In researchers in this area). She also compiled an central analysis. working party to consider the provision of exhibitions June the MAA investigation completely extensive annotated inventory of the films, Part of the problem is journalistic - how to devoted to fine art and photography in London and exonerated the group. Sefton chose to ignore the having persuaded the British Film Institute to present contradictions as endemic to the struggle the English regions. The working party is specifically report, continue their blackmailing, and place the films in the archives and provide on the left whilst remaining ‘active’ in the field. concerned with the activities of the Arts Council both demand the appointment of an ‘impartial and showing copies. This compilation, with There are those who would say you cannot do as a direct provider of exhibitions and as the channel independent investigator’. After great diffi­ commentary, is now available. Trevor Ryan has for grant-aid to other bodies involved in creating exhi­ both but that both should be done. Burgin’s bitions. Its task is to consider existing arrangements culties finding an ‘independent’ agent willing to been extensively researching workers’ cultural notion of the propaganda message being and possible improvements or alternatives to the Arts take up their cudgels, Sefton sent a business politics, revealing much that is valuable about rendered ineffective ‘to the extent that it Council’s own provision at the Hayward and consultant to visit the Project in September. His the League. Finally, my own research on the endorses the very codes which frame the Serpentine Galleries and through its centralised ‘impartial’ efforts yielded no usable evidence of League has occupied all my spare time for the ideology it would oppose’ is relevant to touring service. any misuse of funds, but he charged the MAA a last few years. Camerawork’s direct intervention of documen­ The working party consists of Gerald Forty (Chair­ fee of £500. The results of all this research have been made tary reportage. How can the left develop a man), Nancy Balfour, Michael Compton, Dennis The siege ended on 21 October: the MAA publicly available in several different forms as practice which does not contain those formal and Farr, John McEwen and John Willett, and it has been Executive Committee (Sefton Councillors pamphlets, a film compilation, as part of aesthetic devices common to the seamlessness of asked to make recommendations to the Council’s Art included) unanimously voted for restoration of Advisory Panel. Its first meeting took place on 14 Photography/Politics: One, a slide show, and dominant practice? Not, I think, if it fails to January 1981 and it expects to begin collecting views Bootle Arts and Action’s grant. more importantly the 24 panel Photography distinguish between various practices and their and information from mid-February onwards. The This successful outcome was of course not Workshop exhibition, The (Workers’) Film and inherent problematic. The result of such failure working party will be seeking views from individuals simply the result of passing two audits. Nor was Photo League 1934-39. Bearing in mind that it will be to render all photographs similar to and organisations on specific matters relating to the the project’s ability to withstand six months of was precisely Photography Workshop’s attempt Immigrant Women, the Half Moon and Cockpit enquiry, but would also welcome submissions. financial starvation due to their grim deter­ to foster an interest in Socialist traditions and touring exhibitions as suspect in terms of the Those who would like to submit views are requested mination alone. In fact, Arts and Action’s resis­ practices of photography which led to the exclu­ politics of representation as those in advertis­ to get in touch with the secretary to the working party tance strategy is an important model to consider. sion of myself and Jo Spence from the Half ing. The left will then find themselves having to who will send details of the terms of reference and a list Bootle fought back with positive action. Moon Photography Workshop and Camera­ deconstruct their own practice - perhaps no bad of points to which the submissions should be related. Rather than defensively responding to allega­ The secretary is Mike Sixsmith, at the Arts Council of work, is it not time to publicly ask Camerawork, thing for any photographer. But the defensive Great Britain, 105 Piccadilly, London W1V 0AU, tions point for point, the project used the atten­ ‘What the game is?’ Extensive Film and Photo analysis of the left by the left in order to justify its telephone 01-629 9495. tion focused on them to publicise their work and League research exists - why then does it not efficacy is a qualitatively different exercise from carry it further: “We decided that we must receive the credit due to it in Camerawork? the offensive battle being waged against those answer these attacks in a positive and creative (Edited) Terry Dennet same reactionary elements within the dominant manner. Ironically, this turned out to be one of The remark to which Terry objects was not a ideology. our most creative periods.” They opened their slight to researchers in this area, as our list of Whilst I support Camerawork as a journal in gallery, sent exhibitions around the country, further reading showed. We said that relative to opposition to a photographic hegemony devoted The Half Moon Photography Workshop produced a set of postcards, as well as carrying other areas - especially the US and Germany - to concealment, I cannot support an interven­ acknowledges the financial assistance of the out their normal programme. there is less material available on the Workers tion which does not question its own practice. Arts Council of Great Britain. Their most direct response to the situation was Film and Photo League in Britain. Moreover, Bertien van Manen’s images of women show how Editorial Group: to publish a book called Art in Action. With only though there is documentary material, the easy it is to use photographic rhetoric - choice of Greg Kahn, Jenny Matthews, Shirley Read, one paragraph discussing the current threat to photographs of the League remain largely lens, lighting, composition worthy of Don Slater, their life, the book instead presents a clear, com­ undiscovered. Rembrandt - without even beginning to Catherine Bradley, Caroline Kraabel and prehensive and well-produced case for the question the politics of representation. A few Mike Leedham worked on this issue. project: taking its worth and importance for master has been ordered by Sefton Council to pages on we see Mike Hughes at least trying to granted, it outlines its history, details its remove an Arts and Action exhibition from his engage the problematic with a series of portraits. Printed and typeset by Expression Printers, projects, interviews users, introduces its key school. The Right will always play the ‘political’ It is not a simple question of opening up London N7. workers and emphasises its future plans and card against community groups whose politics Camerawork to include different approaches - Trade distribution: Full Time Distribution, projects. Normal fight-back activities were are inconvenient to them. The meagre resources in the two examples given above one 27 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1. carried out alongside the book: publicity, of such groups will continue to leave them vul­ photographer used photography, the other con­ Newsagent distribution: Moore Harness Ltd., lobbying, organising. However the book nerable. However Arts and Action’s success fronted it. There is little doubt in my mind as to 50 Eagle Wharf Road, London Nl. expresses the tone of the campaign: fighting shows that it is possible to emerge from a sus­ which practice is the more valuable but back by moving forward. tained, politically motivated attack stronger Camerawork have yet to convince me that such Bootle’s Arts and Action’s fight will never be and more outward-looking than before. (Don issues are central to their project. definitively finished: even now a Bootle head- Slater) Michael Wools' Leyton Ladies Band, c.1895. 8p or £1 for set of 16 (add postage). Women’s Photography Collective From London Borough of Waltham Forest, Vestry House A set of six silkscreened postcards in day-glow pink and black Museum, Vestry Road, London E17. £1.00 plus sae to: W.P.C. Postcards, c/o Camerawork

‘Kids by Kids' is a series of ten postcards photographed by kids Boston 1980 by Susan Greenberg. 12p plus postage from 49 and produced by Arts and Action. £2 from 290 Knowsley Road, Davenant Road, London N19. Bootle, Merseyside. Current exhibition and touring show

The Half Moon Photography Workshop’s current exhibition is ‘The Nonconformists’, photographs from the five years in which Martin Parr documented the area around Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. It is open I2-6pm Tuesdays to Fridays, March 10 to April 10 at 121 Roman Road, London E2, Bethnal Green tube, buses 8,106,253. Telephone 01-980 8798 for details of hiring.