INSPIRATION
My Favorite Shot
CIVILIZATION
What’s your favorite photo?
“This one”. “No, that one”. “Or maybe this one?!”
Could you pick a favorite image you’ve taken? Not easy we know, but to coincide with our August 2020 CIVILIZATION call for entries, we asked some of the photographers in our community to do just that. Or at least to pick a shot related to the topic of Civilization that they hold dearly, were happy to have taken recently, or that resonates with them right now. Here they tell us why…
BANNER IMAGE: ROMAIN JACQUET-LAGRÈZE
www.romainjl.com / @romainjacquetlagreze
“The title of the photo is ‘Concrete Theatre’ and it was shot in Hong Kong in 2019. I was walking up on one of the famous vantage points of the city on a late afternoon. From up the hill we can see the whole city unfolding, but I noticed that there was a construction site of a new public housing estate just behind the hill. In Hong Kong it is common for construction of new buildings to use soft semi-transparent curtains to wrap up the structure. On that day, these big orange curtains flying softly in the wind with the soft sunset light on them and the workers that you can spot here and there in the middle of all this concrete felt so dramatic. It was like looking at a play of a massive scale recounting the fast expansion of this unique city which is Hong Kong”.
JULIA FULLERTON-BATTEN
www.juliafullerton-batten.com / @julia_fullertonbatten
Penelope, Lockdown day 51 – “In the beginning of April 2020 a growing panic soon became a pandemic that overwhelmed the world and changed all of our lives for ever. As infection and mortality numbers increased a new word came into our daily vocabulary – lockdown. We were not asked but told to stay indoors. Imprisoned within our own four walls we could only leave the house for one hour each day. The world was and still remains in turmoil, it was extremely surreal and scary, both at the same time.
As a photographer I felt motivated to contribute something to society during these troubled times. I felt that the best I could do was to use my professional talents to document for posterity the lives of people in my neighbourhood experiencing lockdown restrictions. I photographed them through the window of their homes as, in self-isolation, they looked forlornly out onto the desperate world outside.
I shot in the evenings as I love the twilight feel and the sensa of drama it created. As twilight diminished the indoor tungsten light illuminated the windows and the rooms producing a surreal cinematic quality.
One of my favourite images is of Penelope. I was intrigued to discover that she lived on a houseboat, berthed on the Thames at Eel Pie Island, London, very close to where I live. No cars are permitted on this mini island that was quite often used by the Rolling Stones for gigs. I always wanted to visit this super quirky place.
Up to now my 12-year old son had been helping me carry the gear with the lighting. This time it was a tricky location to access, a steep ladder was needed to get onto Penelope’s boat before jumping across to her neighbour’s and a third boat to get the perfect view. We could only manage to set everything up at high tide. The boats kept drifting apart and we had to hand-hold the lighting on the boat and I had to hang over the railings to get the right angle.”
SUZAN PEKTAŞ
“This image is from my series Human Landscapes From East Anatolia. Throughout history, the scarcely populated East Anatolia (Eastern Turkey) has been the land of war, rebellions, migrations as well as host to multiple civilizations. My several visits to the region, over a period of two years, felt like a journey in a time capsule. It’s impossible to miss how the geography, with its harsh climate, monumental mountains and highlands, has engraved itself deeply in characters of its people and their footprints. Abundant volcanic rocks are commonly used to build modest two-room houses in rural areas. This photograph was taken at the foot of the legendary volcanic Mount Ararat.”
TONY MCATEER
www.tonymcateer.co.uk / @tonymcateer1
“This photograph was taken looking north up William St. from a hotel on Pine St. NYC. It’s from my Crowned series which looks at the delirium, complexity and beauty of high impact urbanism. I was originally using a landscape format shot of this view, but on revisiting my options recently I became more drawn to this shot. The portrait format draws loads of information into a strange framing – the Frank Gehry building (8 Spruce St.) with its top cut off and the two columns of sky with a low solitary cloud eating down into the frame of packed architecture from different eras. In my Crowned photographs I play with colour, form and composition to tease out the sense of delirium and complexity mentioned above. This photograph on its own hits on a lot of what I’ve been trying to do with the series.”
CATHERINE LEMBLÉ
@www.catherinelemble.com / @catherine.lemble
“The Viewpoint of Mer de Glace, a glacier that once terrified people with its sublime power. Every day, every 30 minutes, tourists getting off the Train du Montenvers arrive here. This is the group of 10.30 AM. I like the way their backs are turned to the Mer de Glace, the pink bow in the woman’s hat, the staring open mouth faces, the dark sunglasses – masking the disappointment – similar to the robotic galaxy telescope on the right.”
PETER FRANCK
www.peterfranck.de / @peter_franck_official
“From my series „somethingsneverchange“ – A battlefield after and before a civil war. Humans disappeared in the steam of war. What lasts are the moments before,during and after death. Dying is not directly visible in this collage but you can feel its horror. History teaches us that there is no real progress in our so-called civilization.Humankind is what it is – a motley group of individuals, each trapped in their own reality and yet dependent on the others. A circle of life. Unfortunately, we forget this aspect all too often.”
GRZEGORZ WELNICKI
www.grzegorzwelnicki.com / @welnicki
Hundreds of Flies and a Dog Drowned by a Man – Ganges – “This photograph was taken in Varanasi on the beach shore of the Ganges river. It is a part of my photographic project Eternal which narrates on the issue of death. At first glance I thought that I was looking at the corpse of a dog holding a ball in his mouth, who’d accidentally drowned. But after a while I recognized that his legs were tied up and what seemed to be the ball is was actually his swollen tongue. It was not an accident but an intentional decision made by a man.
For me this image is an illustration of human violence towards weaker beings for whose rights and freedom we should be fighting constantly. I was and still am struck by a fact that our humanity that made such progress in civilization, has neglected to develop empathy of the same scale.”
KIRSTIN SCHMITT
www.sailorsyarn.com / @kirstin_schmitt
“This image is from my series Un Mundo por Delante – El Futuro no es Nuestro; Cuentos en angustias y quizás unas esperanza (in English: The World in Front – The future is not ours; narrations in anguish and maybe some hope). It has multiple chapters and contains video, text, photography and objects, and deals with worlds which seem have lost their natural balance.
We live in an era of humanitarian hardening in which the explicit is a must and breaking taboos has become commonplace. Picture by picture, word by word, every day the limits of what we humans accept get shifted and a new normality is created. I am interested in the undramatic drama and premonitions, in slow narratives and atmospheres shortly before condensation. With my works I want turn against numbing and desensitization. The photo was taken 2017 in La Habana on a day when the sea rises over walls and floods the city. More than a few hundred meters the ocean crawled into the country. For me, the photo is a symbol of the decline of our supposed civilization.”
ARGUS PAUL ESTABROOK
www.arguspaul.com / @arguspaul
“Student Protesters March from the series Losing Face. I shot this photograph during The Candlelight Demonstrations in South Korea. For those unfamiliar with the demonstrations, they were a marathon of impeachment protests that occurred between November 2016 to March 2017. Taking to the streets, citizens called for (now ousted) President Park Geun-hye to resign over extortion and influence peddling.
When I think of “civilization,” my thoughts turn to those who address societal needs and take action when ignored. Energetic and exuberant, I believe this image encapsulates these young peoples’ wish for political change and desire to take part in their country’s democracy.”
ANU KUMAR
www.anukumar.com.au / @kumar_anu
“I was on the back of a motorcycle with my cousin Prateek, going for a ride around the block running errands. I take my camera everywhere in my hometown in India. My most exciting images have come from unexpected encounters like this one. We had parked the motorcycle on the side of the road when I had spotted a man hobbling along the road with stacked pillows tucked under both arms and piled high above his head. It didn’t take too long to catch up to him. He was confused at first when I asked if I could take his picture. A row of men sat by the side of the road watched and laughed as I took his picture.”
CYRUS CORNUT
www.cyruscornut.com / @cyruscornut
The Egongyan crossings, Chongqing, China, December 2017 – “This picture is from my series “Chongqing, on the four shores of passing time”. I shot it with a 4×5” large format camera, to work slowly on the fast evolution of the city. It’s one of my favorites because there was a real chance to it.
I was trying to document some farmers working in the small fields that the empty spaces of the city allowed. I climbed up to this location where they were making bundles. The idea was to compare the crazy urban development to the outdated practice of farmers who have found refuge in Chongqing from the countryside after the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Over the past twenty years, dozens of bridges have been built on the two rivers of Chonqing. Transport has increased; bridges overlap and rub shoulders to allow cars, trucks, trains and pedestrian across. Here, one bridge is being built just next to another one with the most modern of technologies, while people grow vegetables to survive, just underneath.
I took the picture, packed up my camera, and suddenly saw a woman with a red coat coming from nowhere. There was no easy path or road to get here. I couldn’t ignore the visual impact against the red bridges and I had just enough time to place back my camera on the tripod, load some film and take the picture with the lady In the exact place I wanted.
It was so curious to see this woman here, walking through the fields under these bridges. It was for me like an echo of this incomprehensible civilization that we are building here and there, where things are no longer done anymore for humans, but for the gain of time and money.”
MIRIAM STANKE
www.miriamstanke.com / @miriamstanke
The Bakhtiari of Iran and the Zagros Mountains – “I still remember the overwhelming feeling of standing on top of the mountain far away from civilization. If people talk about a divine moment, this is probably the closest I’ve got to it. When we went to travel over the Zagros mountains accompanying the Bakhtiari nomads during their autumn migration in Iran in 2012, it was nothing that I could have imagined beforehand. I remember sleeping under the stars every night surrounded by the sound of sheep, goats and donkeys traveling with us. I remember the stories about the alleged bear encounters they told us almost every morning. I remember the extreme cold while crossing the peak of the mountain followed by the extreme heat while descending more and more to the wintering grounds of the nomads. Hundreds of years of migration had left their footprints on the mountains. The Bakhtiari knew every rock, every tiny water source on the way. It was incredible. We used to get up before sunrise and walk. I remember how difficult it was sometimes to keep up, to get in front of the group to take pictures as they were jumping over the rocks like gazelles with their little open plastic shoes. I felt a bit stupid as we all wore good old climbing boots.
I remember this one day when I was around the last ones of the group and reached a little peak. I watched down seeing the others descend in front of me and I saw this picture. It just came to me, asking to be taken and to freeze this moment forever. Now it sometimes feels like a dream to me. I don’t know if they still remember us, but I catch myself thinking about them every now and then, the Bakhtiari, the migration, the mountains, this very harsh, simple but beautiful way of living which will vanish someday soon.”
