I've Been Riding With The Ghost
In February 2008, I have completed the MFA in Documentary Photography in the University of Wales, Newport. Photographs are from my book ->
Seeing Things.
Seeing Things addresses issues on both a socio-cultural and photographic level. Firstly, it references the work I was occupied with from November 2006 – November 2007, on the largely overlooked social problem of poverty in modern Ireland. Secondly, it questions the nature of photographic seeing. Are photographers, as Badger says standing back and taking the wider view which separates them both physically and psychologically from their subjects ‘like the gods gazing down on the earth with Olympian dispassion’ (Parr & Badger, 2006, p. 263); or are they hiding with their presented vision, the hurt that they experience in the process? Does this predicament to get taken by the visual beauty of the scene in front of them – even a very upsetting one - override what is essential to one’s mental health – the optimism of memory? Are photographers tricked by beauty? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
