Timm Sonnenschein: Division, Resistance & Empowerment 15.01 – 24.02.2018

Timm Sonnenschein: Division, Resistance & Empowerment 15.01 – 24.02.2018

Division, Resistance & Empowerment

As a dedicated idealist, Timm Sonnenschein produces photographic work informed by a search for social and political justice. Sonnenschein seeks to empathise with those he photographs while simultaneously exposing and opposing the forces he sees as undermining an open and engaged contemporary society. He has been using photography as a tool to create insightful and critical observations of social awareness and change. The work displayed in this exhibition looks at class discrepancies, social injustice, workers’ rights, political struggles and racial tensions. It attempts to open a dialogue, which encourages empathetic insights that work toward strengthening dignity and respect within an often divided society.

Sonnenschein is a German born documentary photographer who has lived and worked in Birmingham for over 17 years. He is a lecturer in photography at Birmingham City University and is a member of the National Union of Journalists. Since his ordination in 2004 he has been a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order.

As a researcher Sonnenschein is exploring what position and shape empathy takes and how it is experienced within social and political documentary photography.

All images displayed in the exhibition are held in the archive of the independent picture library Report Digital. The exhibition consists of six sections, each supported by essays written by Dr. Kieran Connell, Andrew Faux, Fuji Sonnenschein, Alan Weaver and Timm Sonnenschein himself.

Trade Unions: Workers’ struggles

Trade unions have a long history of public protest, as depicted by the photograph showing the re-enactment of Women chainmakers marching through Cradley Heath in 1910. That march, celebrated each year by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) organised Women Chainmakers festival, commemorates the successful struggle of home-workers to earn the first minimum wage - ten shillings a week (50 pence today). That was a march against injustice and austerity. It seems everything unions do today has an historical equivalent.

It’s a union’s core function to stand up against injustice, be that in the workplace or to protest against a government that seeks to remove the pillars of civilised society. Trade unionists are no different to anyone else in society, they too feel the pain of cuts to services affecting their families, friends and neighbours. It’s just that they don’t take it lying down.

Trade unions are often portrayed as out of date, old-fashioned institutions that dwell in the past and have no relevance in society today. The media appear interested in them only when there is conflict between union and employer, or when protest hits the streets. Unions are generally portrayed in the press as harbingers of doom that bring only misery.

And it is true, unions are involved in misery. But far from creating it, they are actually in the business of alleviating it.

No-one calls their union on a good day. By definition, they contact their union when they have a problem. Because unions have well-trained lay and professional representatives many of these problems are sorted out behind closed doors. The grievance is heard, the disciplinary is settled, the pay claim is negotiated, the health and safety of the workforce are protected for another day. But those stories are rarely heard, and rarely make for good photographs.

However, there are times when those behind the scene negotiations get nowhere. When talks fail the union hits the streets and it’s those photographs, of unions bringing vitally important issues to the attention of the public, that make the news.

The classic trade union photograph shows a picket line, complete with flaming brazier to fend off the winter chill, and placards and banners with the union name writ large. Picket line photos depict the withdrawal of labour from an employer and show public defiance against the injustice that caused the strike in the first place.

There is an integrity and dignity about public protest, about working people showing they won’t stand for what is happening, be that public service cuts affecting the neediest in society, or attacks on their pay and (more often these days) their pensions.

Today, social media makes it much easier for like-minded groups to get together to support a cause or single issue. Before Facebook and Twitter, the only people organised enough, with structures to spread the message, were trade unions. Today’s protest groups stand on the shoulders of campaigns driven by organised labour.

But protest is only part of the story. Unions are a positive force for economic and social justice, campaigning for well-paid jobs in industries where workers have a future and where they can be proud to work. There is a special solidarity shown by trade unionists who support colleagues in different industrial sectors, speaking up for their cause because it’s the right thing to do.

At the end of the day, unions understand that what keeps communities together are good, well-paid jobs, decent housing and effective public services. And that is well worth taking to the streets for.

Alan Weaver Policy and campaigns officer for the Midlands TUC from 1996 to 2014

Timm Sonnenschein (2011) TUC ‘March for the Alternative’ passing the Houses of Parliament, London. 26.03.2011

Timm Sonnenschein (2013) Maggie showing her almost empty purse, in her council flat…20.05.2013

Poverty and Austerity

“A life of dignity and happiness for all human beings without exception is the very least we can expect, actually demand.” (Greenway, 2017)

Since I started my early political education largely through the lyrics of socially critical bands from the extreme music genres, it gives me great pleasure to begin this text with a quote from Barney Greenway of Napalm Death.

This education gave birth to an idealism that led me into political activism and awoke an urge in me to challenge the consequences of unequal power and wealth distributions - a path that took me to the camera as a means to communicate what I saw as socially questionable, or plain and simply, unjust.

Whilst I believe the condition of happiness is ultimately brought about by an inner position of self-effort, there are nevertheless many members of our society who grow up lacking equal opportunities, and who are not receiving the social dignity and respect they deserve.

The images shown here are observations of individuals living in disadvantaged, and at times impoverished, circumstances. They also depict those offering social and educational support. Within a society based around individual gain, those on its fringes are frequently left behind, whilst those active in social support organisations are increasingly facing obstructions through harsh austerity politics.

With documentary photography often engaged with observing the underprivileged, it has been criticised for deriving from and upholding unequal positions; “Scholars of documentary photography argue that the gaze of privilege is imbedded in the unequal power relations that are intrinsic to the structure of documentary photojournalism.” (Cassidy, 2012) and that “Documentary, as we know it, carries (old) information about a group of powerless people to another group addressed as socially powerful.” (Rosler, 1981)

However, despite the photographers’ perceived intrusions and acts of power in response to those they photograph, documentary photographers can also be seen to base their work on similarly intrinsic other-regarding intentions.

“I try to use whatever I know about photography to be of service to the people I'm photographing. Documentary photography … gives a voice to those who otherwise would not have a voice. And as a reaction, it stimulates public opinion and gives impetus to public debate.” (Nachtwey, 2007)

As an expression of my idealism and photographic accountability I believe I have a responsibility to honour the trust I am offered by those who let me share my photographic insights into their lives. This is an ethical responsibility I uphold in offering truthful and empathetic depictions of those I photograph by creating work that expresses solidarity in a joined struggle for change and empowerment.

“Empathy … is seen to involve more than simply a process of imaginative reconstruction because of the emotional charge it carries. Indeed, it is the radically ‘unsettling’ affective experience of empathy that is conceived as potentially generative of both personal and social change. Through establishing empathetic identification with those who are differently positioned to ourselves, the possibility exists that (privileged) spectators will experience a radical transformation in consciousness, which leads them not only to respond to the experience of ‘the other’ with greater understanding and compassion, but also to recognise their own complicity within … hierarchies of power.“ (Pedwell, 2012)

Change is necessary, and consequently a transformative interaction of all members of society is needed. Let’s open the floor for a propaganda of empathy.

Timm Sonnenschein

Cassidy, L.M., O’Connell, M.H. and Johnson, E.A. (eds.) (2012) She who imagines: Feminist theological aesthetics. United States: Michael Glazier. Greenway, B. (2017), 'How the Years Condemn song introduction’, speech, Napalm Death concert HMV Institute, Birmingham, 9 May. Nachtwey, J. (2007) My wish: Let my photographs bear witness. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/james_nachtwey_s_searing_pictures_of_war?language=en (Accessed: 5 May 2016). Pedwell, C. (2012). Affective (self-) transformations: Empathy, neoliberalism and international development. Feminist Theory, 13(2), pp.163-179. Rosler, M. (2006) Decoys and disruptions: Selected writings, 1975-2001. United States: The MIT Press.

Modern China

For many living in the West, the greatest impression of Modern China is it’s booming economy. It is undoubtedly true that China is growing and changing. Since 2005 Timm Sonnenschein has used his camera to look for these signs of growth and change.

As one of the fastest-growing countries China has been thriving for the last 30 years and has become the world’s second largest economy after the United States. An economy to a large extend aimed at export to the West but increasingly also at the internal market largely consisting of the growing Chinese middle class. In 2005 private cars where a novelty and a few black limousines stood out amongst the yellow, green or blue taxis and dated looking lorries. Now the streetscapes have changed. More and more individuals own their own cars. The wish to consume and increase personal living standards has changed China to a large extent and brought about a gap between those that can and cannot afford consumer goods.

During his first visit to China, Timm visited industrial sites and factories. As a non-native photojournalist, Timm was escorted through the sites, sometimes with grandeur and other times with high levels of guarded observance. Old communist restrictions could be frustrating and at other times he was met and welcomed openly as a comrade. Factories could range from traditionally union run outlets to ruthless modern capitalist profit based companies. In these contexts it was again and again the people who stood out and ultimately encouraged Timm to change his focus from industry to people’s life.

Amongst the people of China the continued growth brought many challenges, such as the disparity between rich and poor, the imbalance of education and health care and extreme environmental issues and pollution.

From the worker in the China shipping terminal to the migrant farmers working in the polytunnel; from the children playing on the street to the elders in the park, Chinese people are living in interesting times and their lives and living environments are changing. Young and old workers in the fields and factories are standing for old but still current ideals of a united workforce and at the same time working for a new wish of individual prosperity. The toy factory bringing work to a whole township on the outskirts of Shanghai or migrant farmers sending the profit of their higher pay rates back home to their families.

Rural poverty has been one of the major challenges for the world's second-largest economy and most populated country. In response to this the Government has vowed that by 2020 all Chinese rural residents living below the poverty line should have been lifted out of poverty. If achieved, this will be the first time in China's history that extreme poverty is eliminated. A very positive idea, which at the same time is very hard to imagine when seeing the levels of class discrepancy and poverty in Shanghai alone - as depicted in Sonnenschein’s photographs.However, Chinese President Xi Jinping's New Year speech has conveyed an "inspiring and practical" message that combines a "broad strategic vision with meticulous attention to detail" saying that "The Chinese people are ready to chart out a more prosperous, peaceful future for humanity, with people from other countries." (Mengjie, 2018) Fuji Sonnenschein, Teacher of Chinese, Member Cambridge International Examinations

Mengjue (2018) ‘Commentary: Xi demonstrates China’s role as a responsible country in New Year address’. XinhauNet. 1 January 2018. Accessed at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/01/c_136865307.htm

Timm Sonnenschein (2010) Poor migrant farmers prepare cultivated wild garlic… 31.07.2010

Timm Sonnenschein (2010) EDL protesters approach in an attempt to break through police lines…. 17.07.2010

The English Defence League

The English Defence League (EDL) first emerged as a street presence in Britain in 2009, a moment of rising political support for the far right. In the same year, for example, Nick Griffin – leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP) – made his infamous appearance on the BBC’s Question Time, having earlier been elected as a Member of the European Parliament.

The EDL, in contrast, makes no pretentions of electoral credibility. It brings together casual racists, hooligans, and white supremacists with a mutual hostility towards Britain’s multicultural society in general and its Muslim communities in particular. It is interested less in fighting elections than in staging confrontational street demonstrations, generally in areas with growing Muslim populations: places like Birmingham, Luton and, seen here in Timm Sonnenschein’s photographs, Dudley, Aylesbury and Bradford.

Far-right organisations have long deployed similar tactics in an attempt to intimidate Britain’s culturally diverse communities. The British Union of Fascists, for example, an organisation founded by the former parliamentarian Oswald Mosley, maintained a highly visible and often-violent street presence throughout the 1930s.

Four decades later, the neo-Nazi National Front (NF) married proposals to forcibly repatriate all ‘coloured’ immigrants with a violent programme of racist attacks and demonstrations. In each of these examples, however, far-right groups were met with strong opposition. In 1936, for instance, a coalition of socialists, communists and Jewish groups won a famous victory over Mosely’s fascists by preventing them from marching down Cable Street, an area of London with large Jewish and Irish populations. In the 1970s, reggae musicians, punks and anti-racist campaigners set up Rock Against Racism, a programme of marches, festivals and concerts designed to oppose the growing influence of the NF. And in the 2000s, trade unionists often took the lead in organising counter-demonstrations that vehemently rejected the EDL’s brand of racism and divisiveness.

The police are a prominent feature of Sonnenschein’s photographs of EDL demonstrations, taken in 2010. This illuminates one of the central dilemmas in how to deal with the threat posed by fascist organisations in democratic societies.

In the 1970s, the police’s decision to protect the NF as they purposefully sought to whip up racial tensions contributed to a profound breakdown in trust in the police amongst Britain’s black and Asian communities. Different tactics were used to deal with the EDL, with police prevention orders commonly used in an attempt to limit the nature and scope of their marches.

Yet, as Sonnenschein’s photographs show, these events often turned violent. Journalists and photographers, moreover, were commonly intimidated by EDL members, in an attempt to prevent them from bringing the EDL’s true face to a wider audience.

To what extent, if at all, should groups whose core values are fundamentally anti-democratic be afforded the democratic right to debate and demonstrate? How should the principle of free speech be married with a commitment to preventing the damaging effects of racism culturally, socially and physically? In this way, in the context of what is seemingly another resurgence of the far right on both sides of the Atlantic, Sonnenschein’s photographs help us get at one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Dr Kieran Connell, Lecturer in Contemporary British History, Queen's University Belfast

Timm Sonnenschein (2015) National student protest for free education in Birmingham 28.03.2015

Student Protests

In 2010 the then newly-formed Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government increased the cap on annual university tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000. The new cap came into effect at the start of the academic year 2012/13.

An initial proposal was based on the Browne Review drawn up by former BP chief executive John Browne. The increased cap was originally planned only to be introduced by top universities, and the cap of £9,000 only to be applied in ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, most British universities increased their fees to the highest limit shortly after parliament had passed the change.

The period of debate leading up to a final decision being passed saw student protests on campuses in most major cities throughout the country as well as several centralised demonstrations in London, some of which ended in riots. One of these included protesters storming the Conservative Party Millbank Tower headquarters.Students complained that voters in university seats were won over by personal promises over fees from the Liberal Democrats during the 2010 election. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, had specifically broadcasted a statement to the National Union of Students (NUS) during the election campaign in April 2010 that he and his party would ‘vote and campaign against‘ an increased cap.

NUS president, Aaron Porter, said Liberal Democrat MPs who were going to ditch their election pledge to vote against any rise in fees should be "ashamed of themselves".

Labour's Gareth Thomas said increased fees would represented a "tragedy for a whole generation of young people". Young educated voters specifically targeted by the Liberal Democrats’ promises were not taken seriously. Issues around working with a Conservative government and making compromises caused the Lib Dems to lose credibility. This weakened their position as a party so much that in many constituencies they were not able to recover, including John Hemming’s Birmingham ward, which returned a Labour candidate in the following two general elections.

As seen in the first two images, taken three days before the parliamentary vote, John Hemming MP’s office was occupied by student protestors. Protesters wanted to make a statement against the Liberal Democrats’ shift in policy, to raise public awareness, and to put pressure on Liberal Democrat MPs to stick to their initial promises. Many of the protests saw a rise in idealism and solidarity in support of future student generations to be effected by the fees. Students used their democratic right to protest by challenging political decision makers.

Later images leading up to the 2012/13 academic year and beyond show students protesting against selling off of debts to third party finance organisations, as well as cuts and redundancies within higher education in contrast to high salaries amongst vice chancellors and senior university managements.

The fees cap has since further increased to £9,250. Most undergraduate students today were between 11 and 14 at the time when higher fees were introduced and the ‘pay for education’ structure has seemingly been accepted as a normality. The period of increased protests and civil disobedience has largely died down although the 2017 election saw the issue of student fees return to the fore in the labour party’s manifesto.

Timm Sonnenschein Islamophobia in Birmingham – a personal perspective

In 2018 we survey a world where a crisis in the banking sector has had effects on the real world. Unemployment in Europe is high. Wages in the UK stagnate. The social state is in retreat.The nation state appears weaker than large corporations and strident politicians offer simple solutions to complex problems: walls will stop immigration; Blue Passports will return us to some glorious past.

We are uneasy. Many of us are poorer than our parents. In turn, our children may have a lower standard of living than ours. Some predict that each successive generation will die younger and suffer greater chronic ill health than the previous one. We are in decline.

Do we have a convenient group in our midst to blame for our ills? Is there an apparently homogeneous group who dress differently eat differently and behave differently to the majority? Well yes. British Muslims have formed tight knit visible communities in many of our cities. Birmingham in particular has been described by a US “terrorism expert” as a city where non-Muslims fear to tread. (Fishwick, 2017)

Two incidents, Project Champion and the Trojan Horse affair, demonstrate the government’s willingness to feed the populist notion that Islam in general is something to fear and to target Birmingham’s Muslim population in particular. Both events are the subject matter of Timm Sonnenschein’s work.

In April 2010, residents were reassured to see CCTV installations, usually reserved for the city centre, spreading out across Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook. But the cameras weren’t there to protect the population from the crime that defaces their community. “Project Champion” was paid for with money designated to fight terrorism and the purpose of the installation was to monitor the activities of a population deemed suspect.

The Trojan Horse affair hit the headlines in 2014. In terms of schooling, for years the inner city had been expected to tolerate poor outcomes for their children. The Park View Educational Trust modelled a new approach and brought academic attainment to families who had never previously had that life chance. The government’s reaction to headlines alleging an Islamic plot to take over schools was telling. Rather than appoint an educationalist to review events, a counter terrorism officer was instructed to report to Parliament and tasked to look for extremism amongst the already suspect population. He didn’t find any evidence of extremism, although that conclusion is hard to discern in the media coverage of events or indeed in the way the government has continually cited events in Birmingham to justify its “prevent” strategy with its attendant notions of a population under surveillance.

Clearly we have politicians willing to exploit our base fears for short-term political gain. Unfortunately, we always have. The question is how are we to resist that populism. How should we view our fellow citizens who dress differently, eat differently and perhaps question our more liberal social mores? I hope with empathy for individuals who, as shown in Timm’s images, feel besieged. I hope with an awareness of the real agenda behind the populist rhetoric. When you’re invited to distrust a whole group, ask yourself why? Think about who gains if you join in. Somehow, find the strength to stand against group thinking.

None of this means that there is no room for debate about the interaction between religious belief, cultural practice and societal expectations. Islamophobia relies on assumptions that all bad things done by any self-proclaimed “Muslim” (be that an act of terror or the persecution of homosexuals or the subjugation of women) reflect the views of all Muslims. But just as there is no homogeneity of views amongst the majority population, there is no homogeneity of views amongst Muslims.

The people Timm Sonnenschein photographs are not archetypes but individuals, just as each resident of Birmingham is an individual with their own beliefs, liberal and illiberal. Please carry that awareness with you and be sceptical of all attempts to ascribe a single mind set to a population as diverse in its views as every other part of the population.

Andrew Faux, Barrister involved in the Trojan Horse cases.

Fishwick, C (2017) ‘Fox News man is ‘idiot’ for Birmingham Muslims comments – David Cameron’ The Guardian. 12 January 2015. Accessed on https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/12/fox-news-expert-ridiculed-over- birmingham-is-totally-muslim-city-claims

Timm Sonnenschein (2006) A young Muslim woman wearing a Niqab and coloured contact lenses… 27.11.2006

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