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International Photography Festival 2012TRANSCRIPT
The EyeInternational Photography Festival 2012
Front cover photograph Stephan Vanfleteren
David Hurn | Andy Rouse | Marco Longari
Welcome to the inaugural Eye International Photography Festival ajam packed weekend with leading UK and international photographersgathering in Aberystwyth for a programme of talks, discussions, interviews,portfolio reviews, films, videos and exhibitions.
Leading UK and International photographers with talk about their work and experiences, with the line-up including celebrated Magnum photographerDavid Hurn; Eamonn McCabe, Guardian Picture Editor; multi award winning press photographer John Downing MBE FRPS; Panos Picturesphotographers Abbie Traylor Smith and Chloe Dewe Mathews; award winning wildlife photographer Andy Rouse; photojournalist Marco Longari,Chief Photographer for AFP; Welsh documentary photographer Roger Tiley;Sean O'Hagan, the Guardian and Observer features writer; internationalcelebrity portrait photographer Cambridge Jones and James Morris, documentary photographer They are joined by Sophie Batterbury, PictureEditor, The Independent on Sunday, Will Troughton, Image Curator at theNational Library of Wales with the event compered by renowned pictureeditor and photojournalist Colin Jacobson.
The Festival’s major exhibition is Call The World Brother showing work by Panos Pictures established and young contemporary documentary photographers including Chris Keulen, GMB Akash, Robin Hammond, Andrew McConnell, Stefan Vanfleteren, Martin Roemer and Espen Rasmussen. Panos Pictures, the photo agency, is celebrating 25 years inleading on global social issues. Other exhibitions include Africa by GlennEdwards and work by Andy Rouse.
We hope everyone will enjoy the opportunity to immerse themselves in photography for a weekend, here on the glorious mid-Wales coast.
Glenn Edwards Festival Programme CuratorAlan Hewson Aberystwyth Arts Centre Director
The EyeInternational Photography Festival 2012
Photographers
Chloe Dewe MathewsChloe Dewe Mathews is a freelance photographer based in
London. After graduating in Fine Art at the Ruskin in Oxford, she
worked in the commercial film industry. Both inspired and
frustrated she turned to photography, as a more immediate and
intimate creative process. Working with different people in their
natural environment, enabled her to engage with the world more
directly. Since dedicating herself to photography, her subject
matter has been diverse, from Uzbek gravediggers on the
Caspian coast, to Hasidic Jews on holiday in Wales. In 2010
she hitchhiked from China back to Britain, which became a
recce for
a lifetime`s work ahead.
Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto and published in magazines
including The New York Times, the Saturday Telegraph, the Sunday Times, Huck, IL Italy, Dazed and
Confused and Harpers Bazaar.
Chloe has recently been awarded the BJP International Photography Award, the Julia Margaret
Cameron New Talent Award and the Flash Forward Emerging Photographer's Award by the Magenta
Foundation. In 2011 she became the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, "Picturing Britain", which
followed her long-term project on the banger racing sub-culture. In June 2011, she was signed to the
photo agency Panos Pictures; then, in November, her series Caspian, including images from Naftalan,
won the 2011 international photography award run by the British Journal of Photography.
www.chloedewemathews.com
Andy RouseAndy Rouse is an inspirational
wildlife photographer who is well
known the world over. A unique
and charismatic figure he is famed
for his ability to capture moments
from the lives of animals and birds
in the wild from a different view
point and often from his trade-mark
stance, that of being "up close and
personal" to some of the most
fascinating and often potentially
dangerous animals. Over recent
years, Andy’s photographic style
has been developing to be all encompassing of the animals and their environment in order to augment
his passion for telling a story and to highlight the beauty of the natural world.
Andy’s images have been acknowledged as being some of the best in the world for many years.
He has won 8 awards in the past 6 years in the prestigious BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Competition is the current holder of the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species and has just
been awarded the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award for nature photography by the Royal
Geographical Society. He has a Crackerjack pencil but still does not have a Blue Peter or a Tufty
badge, although he is always hopeful.
www.andyrouse.co.uk
The Eye International Photography Festival
Marco LongariMarco Longari graduated with Honours from the Istituto Superiore
di Fotografia in Rome in 1999. He had started his career as a
photojournalist the previous year covering the unrest in Kosovo.
This work is collected in a book, "Nachbarn des Krieges"
published by Styria of Austria. He moved to Africa at the
beginning or the year 2000 where he started to freelance for AFP
and for other major US and European publications. In 2002 his
work on refugees is collected in the volume "Rifugiati" (Sossella)
with a preface by the Dalai Lama. As Chief Photographer for AFP
he served in Nairobi, coordinating the coverage of the Eastern
African region and in Jerusalem where he is currently based, covering Israel and the Palestinian Territo-
ries. Over the course of his career he covered among other issues the Darfur crisis, the war in Georgia
and the events of the Arab Spring. His work has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions.
Abbie Trayler SmithAbbie Trayler-Smith grew up in South Wales before moving to London to study law at Kings College.
While studying, she began taking photographs for the student newspaper. Completely self-taught, Abbie
began working regularly as a photographer for the Daily Telegraph in 1998 after graduation and was given
a full time contract in 2001.
She has completed a huge variety of assignments: from the final burial of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia to the
forgotten war in Sudan, the famine crisis in Malawi and anniversaries in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the
Falkland Islands. She covered the tsunami and re-visited Banda Aceh one year and five years on. She
reported on the conflict in Darfur, Sudan with the veteran journalist Bill Deedes. She is a member of the
Panos Photographic Agency.
www.abbietraylersmith.com
Cambridge JonesWelsh born British celebrity portrait photographer Cambridge Jones
has built up a reputation for photographing the rich and famous.
From Prime Ministers to pop stars, Jones ̀subjects cannot help but
be striking, but his powerful images of them show us these
well-known figures in a new light.
His exhibitions have included The RADA Centenary Portraits,
portraits of the great and good from British stage and screen include
familiar faces such as Alan Rickman, Joan Collins, John Hurt and
Anthony Hopkins. He cites Cecil Beaton and David Bailey as
inspiration for his practice.
'Talking Pictures' his most recent exhibition portrays some of Wales's
greatest names Michael Sheen, former Python Terry Jones; actors
Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce; Sian Phillips, Matthew Rhys, Ioan
Gruffudd author Jan Morris; singers Shirley Bassey, Bonnie Tyler,
and Cerys Matthews; Welsh bands Stereophonics; opera Singers
Bryn Terfel, and Katherine Jenkins. Cambridge Jones has been
described as 'Britain's answer to Annie Leibovitz'.
Notable commissions include work for RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), Prince Charles ̀charity
The Prince`s Trust, The BBC, Nelson Mandela, London 2012 (Olympics Committee), Mayor of London Boris
Johnson, and Christ Church Oxford.
In 2009 he was made an ambassador to The Prince's Trust.
www.cambridgejones.com
John Downing MBE FRPSBorn in Llanelli South Wales John began his career as
an apprentice photographic printer for the Daily Mail
1956-61. He worked for The Express as a freelance
from 1962-64 then staff photographer 1964-2001,
becoming chief photographer 1985-2001; and
continuing as freelance ever since.
He has covered most major wars, including Vietnam,
East Pakistan/Bangladesh, Rhodesia, Beirut, Iraq,
Smalia, Rwanda, Croatia, and over a dozen visits to
Bosnia. Lived rough for many weeks with Guerilla
fighters in Sudan, Nicaragua, and three times in
Afghanistan. Hitch-hiked on lorries along the "Road of Death" across Central America. Beaten and imprisoned in
Uganda by Idi Amin in what the Daily Express described on its front page headline as "World exclusive pictures"
taken inside the black hole of Kampala. He was present inside the Grand Hotel, Brighton, when the IRA bomb
resulting in further world exclusive photographs.
He was a founder of the Press Photographers' Association and was president until 1986.
Just some of his awards include Rothman's British Press Pictures of the Year 1971; Ilford British Press
Photographer of the Year 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989; IPC British Press Photographer of the Year
1977 and 1980 ; UN Photography Gold Medal 1978; Photokina Gold Medal 1978; Martini Royal Newspaper
Photographer of the Year 1990; Kodak Feature Photographer of the Year 1992/93; La Nacion (Argentina)
International Photographer of the Year 1994-95; overall winner of the British Airways London Eye Photography
Competition 2001; and British Picture Editors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award 2001. He was honoured with an MBE
for "Services to journalism" in 1992 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2011.
http://www.johndowning.co.uk
The Eye International Photography Festival
Roger TileyA Welsh documentary photographer. His work on
documenting the coal mines of Wales and America has
been used extensively in publications specifically during
the miners strike of 1984-5. He first worked as an
industrial photographer and then studied at the School of
Documentary Photography under Magnum
Photographer David Hurn. He has worked for national
newspapers and magazines, including The Times,
Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Observer. Since
the 1980s, Tiley has concentrated on working on
commissions for exhibitions, archive collections,
television and book publication in the U.K., Europe and
the U.S.A. and is the author of three books. Because of
his work on the miners strike, he was commissioned to
produce 'The Valleys Project' one of his best collections of photographs reflecting life in the South Wales Valleys. They
are meticulously annotated and encompass every part of the miners lives. Other commissions include photographing
the Welsh descendants living in Pennsylvania and covering extensively the mining communities of West Virginia,
Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. Roger has recently been awarded a major commission to photograph the
manufactured coast-scape in Wales and will travel the length and breadth of Wales to record the way the coast line
has been adapted to cater for twenty first century needs.
www.rogertileyphoto.com
David HurnBorn in the UK but of Welsh descent, David Hurn is a
self-taught photographer who began his career in 1955 as an
assistant at the Reflex Agency. While a freelance photographer,
he gained his reputation with his reportage of the 1956
Hungarian revolution and was invited to become a full member
of Magnum Photos in 1967. In 1973 he set up the famous
School of Documentary Photography in Newport, Wales, and
has been in demand throughout the world to teach workshops.
He has written: "Life as it unfolds in front of the camera is full of
such complexity, wonder and surprise that I find it unnecessary
to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things
as they are." He suggests that two of his major influences for
attempting to be a better photographer are good shoes and
looking at other peoples pictures. At the Festival he will chat
about both. David Hurn has a longstanding international
reputation as one of Britain's leading reportage photographers.
He continues to live and work in Wales.
Eamonn McCabeEamonn McCabe started off photographing for local papers
before freelancing for The Guardian and other national titles.
He joined The Observer in 1976 and won Sports Photographer
of The Year a record four times, covering three Olympics.
In 1985 he was named News Photographer of The Year for his
work at The Heysel Stadium disaster. In 1988 he joined The
Guardian as Picture Editor, winning Picture Editor of the year
a record six times. In 2001 he returned to freelancing,
photographing mainly people in the arts for The Guardian but
also other newspapers and magazines.
Has produced several books on photography and is a Fellow
of The Royal Photographic Society and at The National
Museum of Film, Photography and TV. He holds an Hon.
Prof at Thames Valley University, and Hon. Doctorates at the
University of East Anglia and Staffordshire University. Eamonn appears regularly on radio and TV talking about
photography and has exhibited widely in Britain. He has several pieces of work in The National Portrait Gallery
collection, London.
James MorrisJames Morris studied history at university and went on to teach himself photography and film making as a means,
initially, to travel and explore. For many years his principle focus was on architecture and the built environment,
photographing both contemporary and historic buildings and working with some of the worlds most prominent
architects. Along side he developed a practice looking more broadly at the impact of human intervention and
presence in the landscape, with an interest in what can be understood from observing it. He has commented that
‘by observing landscapes, meaningful and expressive storylines are revealed that help understand something of a
place and its people, it past as well as its present’. By photographing specific landscapes he aims to distill the
stories that are expressed there. In addition to numerous architectural books, in 2004 he published Butabu with
Princeton Architectural Press, an exploration of the unique vernacular landscape of West Africa, and 2010 A
Landscape of Wales with Dewi Lewis Publishing. His work has been recognised through awards from, amongst
others, D&AD, the Arts Council of Wales, The Graham Foundation for Fine Arts and the EU. He exhibits
internationally and his work is in many private and public collections.
www.jamesmorris.info
The Eye International Photography Festival
Presenters
Sophie BatterburySophie Batterbury is Picture Editor of The Independent on Sunday. Her career in photojournalism began in
The Independent darkroom in 1989, where a keen interest in photography became the passion that it is today.
Since then she has had various roles across both Independent titles either side of a short stint at a celebrity
agency. She is a contributing editor of ei8ht magazine and on the board of the Young Photographers Alliance.
Colin JacobsonColin Jacobson is a picture editor and photojournalism lecturer. He began his illustrious photographic career as a
picture researcher with the Sunday Times Magazine in the early 70s. He went on to work as a picture editor for
several national publications including The Economist, The Observer Magazine and The Independent Magazine.
Leaving full-time journalism in 1995, he became a visiting lecturer and a senior research fellow at the Centre for
Journalism Studies at Cardiff University.
Colin has been on the jury of the World Press Photo Contest four times, including twice as chairman.
In conjunction with the British Council and Reuter Foundation, Colin has participated in photojournalism workshops
worldwide. He was the founder and editor of Reportage, a quarterly magazine of international photojournalism, which
subsequently went online as an internet publication.
In 2002, he edited the book, Underexposed, which highlighted aspects of censorship, propaganda and spin in
photography. He has also curated exhibitions at the Guardian Newsroom, the Getty Gallery in London and the
University of Westminster. In 2008, he edited the book, Beyond the Moment: Irish Photojournalism in Our Time.
Colin is currently Senior Lecturer in Photojournalism at the University of Westminster in London.
Sean O'HaganSean O'Hagan writes about photography for the Guardian and the Observer and is also a general feature writer.
He has interviewed many of the world's leading photographers including Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Josef
Koudelka and Stephen Shore. He was named 'Interviewer of the Year' in the British Press Awards in 2003 for his
profiles of footballer Roy Keane and musician Brian Wilson, among others. He is the winner of the 2011 J Dudley
Johnston award from the Royal Photographic Society "for major achievement in the field of photographic criticism"
for his writing in the Observer and the Guardian.
Will TroughtonWill Troughton was educated at Ardwyn Grammar and Penglais Schools in Aberystwyth and at the
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. For the last twenty years, following careers in teaching and
finance, he has worked with the National Collection of Welsh Photographs at the National Library of
Wales. He is now Visual Images Librarian and shortly to be re-designated Curator. Locally he is
known for a number of books on local history and has also written articles on subjects as diverse as
postcards of colonial India, maritime history and of course photography.
Africa Exhibition Glenn EdwardsPhotographer Glenn Edwards` first introduction to Africa came in 1993 covering the Somali Famine
for The Independent. Since then he has made over 80 trips to 18 African countries such as Namibia,
Gambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Sierra Leone, as well as undertaking commissions
in India, South America, the Middle East and troubled European countries such as Albania and
Bosnia. This exhibition shows many facets of the Africa he has come to know; a vibrant but troubled
continent of extremes. He was UK News Photographer of the Year in 1998.
This exhibition coincides with The Eye, Aberystwyth Arts
Centre’s first International Photography Festival and celebrates
25 years of Panos. Panos Pictures is a photo agency which
specialises in global social issues, respected for its integrity and
its willingness to pursue stories beyond the media agenda.
The exhibition takes the theme of endurance, in many forms,
and the photographic stories told include a tiny country
threatened by rising sea levels; child labour in India; architectural
remnants of the Cold War; injustices experienced by the
Saharawi people; the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake;
a gruelling Eritrean cycle race; Hasidic holiday in Aberystwyth
and portraits of the weather beaten fishermen of the dwindling
Belgian fleet.
“The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole
world brother.” Charles Dickens
The Eye International Photography Festival
Call the
World Brother
Works by Panos Pictures Photographers
GMB Akash
Chloe Dewe Mathews
Robin Hammond
Chris Keulen
Andrew McConnell
Espen Rasmussen
Martin Roemers
Stephan Vanfleteren
GMB Akash: Born to work“To abolish child labour you first have to make it visible.
Child labour has been forbidden in Bangladesh since 1992. 13 years
later I visited a garment factory in Narayanganj, which is the centre
of the country's textile industry. I took a picture of the owner beating
a 12-year-old boy because he had been too slow sewing T-shirts.
According to UNICEF, more than 7.4 million children are engaged in
economic activity in Bangladesh.
With my work I want to confront people with the issue - Bangladeshis
as well as people in the West where products produced by children
are sold.”
Chloe Dewe Mathews: Hasidic HolidayFor over 20 years, British orthodox Jews have been holidaying in
Aberystwyth for two weeks every summer. Each family rents a small
house in the empty student accommodation on the hill and a large
yellow and white striped tent is erected on the campus as a
temporary synagogue.
They arrive in large groups, followed by huge removal lorries,
bringing all their possessions from home including children’s bikes,
cookers and fridges full of food. Around a thousand people make the
trip each year and although the majority of families come from North
London, there are many others from further afield - from Manchester,
continental Europe, Jerusalem and New York.
Robin Hammond: Tuvalu sunsetBy the end of the century the oceans could be one metre or more
above their current levels; the impact of rising seas and the increase
in extreme weather events can already be seen in Tuvalu. It is one of
22 Pacific island nations with 7 million inhabitants between them that
contribute only 0.06% of global greenhouse gas emissions but are
three times more vulnerable to climate change than countries in the
North.
At the primary school in Funafuti, children are taught about climate
change from the age of six. They are also learning what it means to
emigrate, because this could be the last generation of children to
grow up in Tuvalu.
GMB Gash | Chloe dewe Mathews | Robin Hammond
Martin Roemers: Relics of the cold warFor many years, Martin Roemers has been photographing the
abandoned and guilty landscapes of the Cold War in Europe
including its old bunkers, air-raid shelters, barracks, weapons,
airfields, training grounds and nuclear missile silos. All wars leave
their traces, and not only in the form of cemeteries where lines of the
fallen lie in their thousands. Each war generates its own defence
system; new weapons are invented that lead to new strategies and
new fear. Once peace has been declared, we are confronted by the
sheer plethora of material remains: the defunct weaponry, the
defensive works and secret vaults. As peacetime progresses, the
remnants of war begin to acquire a new and different value.
Chris Keulen: Giro d'EritreaEritrea's passion for cycling is one of many lasting influences of
Italian colonial rule. The country's first multi-day cycle race was
staged in 1946, although locals were not allowed to enter. The Giro
was resurrected fifty-five years later, a symbol of the new-found
confidence of a nation which had finally achieved its independence
in 1991.
Africa's oldest cycle race is a far cry from the televised sporting
extravaganzas that we're used to seeing on TV, but a live telecast
almost seems unnecessary as the roads are packed with spectators.
The event is a huge celebration in a country whose repressive regime
gives its people little to cheer about.
Stephan Vanfleteren: Fish headsIn 1950, the Belgian fishing fleet consisted of 457 boats; by 1980, it
was just 208. Nowadays, there are 115 boats, spread over three
fishing ports: Nieuwpoort, Ostend and Zeebrugge.
As a boy living on the coast, Stephan Vanfleteren remembers the
comings and goings of ships leaving port along the harbour channel,
the quays lined with boats, barrels of fish in the fish market and the
fishermen's pubs packed with burly men with tattoos and empty
glasses on the bar. Now there are, all told, eight fishing boats in
Nieuwpoort and one small remaining fishermen's bar, t'Schipje
(The Little Ship). The fishing boats have been replaced by yachts,
the fishermen by tourists.
Martin Roemers | Chris Keulen | Stephan Vanfleteren
Espen Rasmussen: The survivorsThe earthquake in Kashmir on October 8th 2005 killed more than 73,000
people, and up to five million lost their homes. Three months after the
massive quake, the survivors were struggling to stay alive in the cold
weather. Millions were living in tents which were not designed to cope with
the extreme temperatures, and in the ruins of the city of Balakot, workers
were still trying to clear away the remains. In 2007, Espen Rasmussen won
a World Press Photo award for his story on the earthquake survivors in
Balakot, shot in early 2006.
Andrew McConnell: The Last ColonyA former Spanish colony, Western Sahara is Africa’s last open file at the
United Nations Decolonization Committee; the Saharawi people have been
involved in a decades-long dispute for independence. Morocco invaded the
territory in 1975, forcing the Spanish to withdraw; Spain divided the land
between Morocco and Mauritania. A Saharawi rebel group, the Polisario
Front, began a guerrilla war against the new occupiers with the backing of
Algeria, and forced the withdrawal of Mauritania in 1979. In the 1980s,
Morocco built a 2,700-kilometer-long sand barrier and planted it with mines,
dividing Western Sahara in two. Most Saharawi live in the inland desert
behind this barrier, or in refugee camps in Algeria.
Espen Rasmussen | Andrew McConnell
Programme
Sessions throughout weekend are chaired by Colin Jacobsen
Friday 29th June
7.15-8.15pm Welcome and
Exhibition reception David Alston Director of Arts, Arts Council of Wales
8.15-9.15 pm David Hurn Magnum photographer
9.15... Meet the photographers
Saturday 30th June
9.30-10.30 am Sophie Batterbury & David Hurn Free Individual Portfolio Reviews
10.45-11.45 am Eamonn McCabe Photographer and Guardian Picture Editor 1988- 2001
12.00-1.00 pm Cambridge Jones Portrait Photographer
1.00-2.15 pm Lunch
2.15-3.15 pm Roger Tiley Documentary Photographer
3.30-4.30 pm Andy Rouse Wildlife Photographer
4.45-5.45 pm Will Troughton National Library of Wales Photography Archive
5.30-6.30pm James Morris Documentary Photographer
4.45-5.45 pm Sophie Batterbury & Eamonn McCabe Free Individual Portfolio Reviews
6.00-6.30 pm Sophie Batterbury & David Hurn Picture Editors Q and A
Throughout the day pinhole and photogram workshops
6.30 pm Henri Cartier Bresson film 'The Impassioned Eye'
screened in the Arts Centre's cinema
Sunday 1st July
10.30-11.30am Chloe Dewe Mathews Documentary Photographer
11.45-12.45 am Marco Longari Photojournalist
12.45-1.45 pm Lunch
1.45-2.45 pm Abbie Trayler Smith Documentary Photographer
3.00-4.00 pm John Downing Press Photographer
4.00-5.00 pm Closing Session discussion Sean O'Hagan and speakers
Fri 29 June - Sun 1 July 2012
The Eye International Photography Festival
Thanks to
Arts Council of Wales for
financial support.
Panos Pictures for their support
with the Call the World Brother exhibition.
Hungry Eye for media support.
The Eye International Photography Festival
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University,
Penglais, Aberystwyth. SY23 3DE
ISBN 978-1-908992-02Design Stephen Paul Dale Design [email protected]
Aberystwyth, Wales
Fri 29 June - Sun 1 July 2012
Aberystwyth Arts Centre