Edmund Clark
I only really became aware of Edmund Clark's work last year, when I came across a copy of Still Life Killing Time knocking about class. I was immediately drawn to the clean lines and small details of the images, devoid of people, yet intimately focused on the existence of ageing prisoners. So I was pleased when Edmund Clark came to Burton College to give a talk and show work including his more recent Guantamano Bay work, for which he was awarded the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award 2009.
Interested in what was going on in the world and wanting to be self employed, Edmund Clark completed a photo-journalism. After leaving college, he was determined to do his own thing. Wanting to be a photo-journalist, Edmund Clark worked on a project detailing the spread of HIV in the Red Light District of Calcutta. The project showed how sex workers also worked as peer educators, informing others about using condoms and so on. They also had their own trade union and own bank, which afforded great leverage for people who could be seen to be low down in the class structure. It was here, on this self funded trip to Calcutta, that Edmund became aware that he was making pictures for the sensibilities of the Western world. The images were black and white, in stereotypical Magnum style and Edmund found himself questioning his methodology. Should he be taking pictures to impress a judge for an award or because a picture editor prefers a certain style? This made Edmund think more about his approach and how he shot his subjects.
Also after leaving college, Edmund worked for a trade paper and design agencies and worked on the odd commission. Edmund then went on to make No Place To Go, a piece about asylum seekers in London. "If you didn't claim asylum the first day you arrived then you didn't get benefit. Most who claim asylum don't know where they're going to end up. They are scared and don't know the social security scheme." Edmund was interested in the plight of the individual and went to the refugee council. This helped make things easier and improved access. Thinking it dull to shoot this project in a reportage style, Edmund used the idea of covering your face as a metaphor for fear and loss of identity.
Still making money from design and editorial work, Edmund went onto his next project. After seeing lots about teen mothers and reading negative things about teenage fathers, he produced the project, Baby Fathers. A lot of time was spent organising this. There was a certain amount of negativity about giving media access to the teen fathers. However, Edmund found a group of young fathers who wanted to play a positive role in their child's life. Edmund found that Doctors, Health Visitors and the like never took young fathers into account, saying things like, "I only think of the father if he is creating a problem." There were a series of administrational and attitudinal barriers inhibiting them to be fathers. At this stage, Edmund had gone from shooting 35mm to medium format. This was because he wanted to show what you never see, teenage boys with their children, expressing the physical joy of being a father, "You never really see that unfettered happiness."
Edmund's next project was the aforementioned Still Life Killing Time. This detailed the space in which elderly prisoners were held. Originally, it was conceived to be a portrait series. However, it developed into the images that they are now, as Edmund felt that one doesn't find out anything about a person from their portrait, preferring to rely on the context of the photo. There were other issues with the portraits, how do you represent a serial rapist or a murderer? When showing others the images, people would only really want to know what the prisoners had done.
This was a turning point in Edmund's work. Edmund noticed details at the prison and focused on the idea of the passage of time. Edmund had completed Art History at university and was interested in Vanitas art. Underpinning this art were strains of thought about the pointlessness of temporal existence; learning, art, wealth, possessions, basically we're all on that path to meet our maker. The classic symbols in these paintings is always the skull, also books, hourglasses, burning candles, spilt vessels, fading flowers. At the prison, Edmund was really reminded of this type of symbolism, seeing them in his images of the British bulldog clock, the coffee jar of old teeth and Reader's digest.
Edmund was particularly interested in how this process was documentary photography, but was saying more about the individual experience and onwards, he was not interested in record something for posterity.
Still Life Killing Time was eventually made into a book. This took five years of trying to get it published and Edmund had to raise funds to do it, in what Edmund describes as a "fairly painful process." Speaking of the significance of books, Edmund explains they are incredibly expensive and difficult to produce and less effective than other forms of dissemination. But they are still important, although a form of self valediction, they are a crystalising of what you’ve produced.
Guantanamo Bay wasn’t top of Edmund's list of projects to work on next. But as Still Life Killing Time had been successful he decided to stick with the themes of confinement and prison. And so began another long and painful process, this time to get into Guantanamo Bay. Edmund spoke to lawyers, liaised with the Pentagon and Guantanamo Media team, explaining that he wanted to photograph the naval base at Guantanamo, the prison and the homes of the released prisoners.
Edmund had eight days shooting in the prison and naval base, as apposed to the normal two day media tour. At this time a journalist from Miami Herald, Carol Rosenburg, who had covered Guantanamo from day one also wanted to do a piece. So Edmund paired up with Carol who knew the place well. All the images shot in peoples homes are shot on large format film, but in the camp they were shot on a digital Hassleblad. Edmund had to agree to shoot digitally on the base and in the prison for censorship reasons. Images would be scrutinised and were deleted if they didn't meet certain restrictions; not allowed to show anyones faces, not allowed to show any identifiable camp infrastructure or landscape, can only show one watch tower, can't show an unmanned tower, can't show security cameras, and sea and sky could not be visible in a single photo. However they were unable to download Edmunds Hassleblad images, due to the software needed, so each photo had to be blown up to 100% on the cameras LCD screen to be checked.
Guantanamo Bay is going to be a book later this year and currently Edmund has been completing all the work and editing for this himself. Edmund is keen for this work not to be seen as a piece of documentary photography, he doesn't want it to monumentalise Guantanamo Bay, rather wanting it to contrast the spaces of the naval base, the prison and the prisoner's homes.
Edmund Clark left us with some advice at the end of his talk;
"It's very important to take pictures of things that interest you. So you're not showing just your portfolio, but you can say 'I've been working on this,' you can talk about it. Learn by shooting by the seat of his pants. Think about how it will look at the end, think about the delivery mechanism? Do stuff you think is interesting, there are too many of us working out there, there are lots of technically wonderful photographers, the only thing you've got that others don't have are your ideas, they will set you apart from others, that is what others will find interesting about your work. Thats what I think anyway, if people can see that your really engaged with something and your work says something about your drive and commitment, that really is the most important thing. And be polite."
