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Community Photography in Action
By Danny Burke
In the 1970’s and 80’s the pioneering Merseyside collective "Art in Action"
blazed the trail for the new and exciting concept of a community of interest
using photography to tackle the issues of the day. "Art in Action" were
a small group of unemployed activists in Bootle, Merseyside who highlighted
the burning issues of the time by documenting living conditions in high
rise flats or by joining in and recording the press of a right to work
march to London or a women'’ issue demonstration in Liverpool.
In Ireland in the 80’s photographers such as Joanne O’Brien, Derek Speirs
and Tony O’Shea were to individually trailblaze in political social, economic,
women’s issues, etc…. their own "Art in Action."
In the South "Dublin in Depth" forged a more hands on approach
to the community while in the north "Belfast Exposed" mirrored
"Art in Action" – both groups challenging censorship through groundbreaking
work on repression, state terror, travellers, health cuts, drugs, beliefs,
problems of the elderly and unemployment.
In the 90’s in the island of Ireland the issues are more complex and ubiquitous
while the weapons of community activism and campaigning are more hi-tech.
Video, radio, information technology, cyberspace and the Internet have
augmented still photography, flyers and posters, and have refocused the
community response to assess.
A host of new organisations both local and national are selecting new
battlegrounds for the cut and thrust of community action. Women’s rights
groups, gay and lesbian campaigns, C.A.F.E. and C.A.F. for community arts,
N.I. Anti-poverty network, National Organisation of the Unemployed, Traveller
and Refugee groups, the Big Issue and of course Community Media Network
itself. Community photography must redefine itself in the post-cold war,
post Thatcherite "revolution," the age of undiluted consumerism, privatisation
and widespread economic squeezing of the poor, unemployed and marginalised
communities. This redefinition must not solely be restricted to the technological
opportunities posed by digital photography and computer imagery but must
ensure that these skills and technology becomes the cutting edge of the
struggle to democratize media and the empowerment of marginalised communities.
The list of marginalised groups feeling increasingly isolated in late
90’s Ireland is endless – start where you want; Women’s health and choice,
dysfunctional families, single parenthood, rape victims, pedophile victims,
youth alienation, HIV, alcoholism, drugs, gays, lesbians assaults on older
people, the armies of homeless and jobless, waning Catholic ""orality""in
the south, iridentist Protestant puritan style "morality" in the North,
crime in both jurisdictions, deep communal divisions and their marching
consequences in the north, in the south the chasm between Dublin 4 and
Ballymun or Ballyfermot, in the north the widening rift between the Malone
Road and Ballymurphy or Cherryvalley and Harryville.
The availability of E.U. funding in recent years has obviously assisted
community photography where it has been accessed but the reality is that
if community photography is seen as subversive to the establishment, "political"
or outside the "law" funding will not be forthcoming.
Community Arts or Lottery Funding is heavily bureaucratic and biased in
favour of groups who reflect the thinking of Arts Councils and Governments.
As in RTE in the 70’s and 80’s self-censorship continues to dominate the
thinking of community media activists.
This contributed heavily to the fractioning of Belfast Exposed in 1992.
One section seeing itself as funded driven while the other continuing
to operate outside the mainstream. Community Visual Images in Belfast
promotes community photography as empowerment of the marginalised groups
that it serves in it’s cross-community projects like Chancel Meets Falls
and it’s cross-border project funded by P and R to promote photography
and video workshop based training to socially and economically deprived
groups in border counties. Shankhill Meets Falls exists to allow people
from both communities to explore their common interest and differences
through photography and particularly inter-community exhibitions, new
tools have been added to the community photography arsenal.
Of course, developer, fixer and S.L.R’s (35mm cameras) are still par for
the course, but the computer scanner and the internet is globalising community
access and issue-based photography. Anti-Gulf War protesters, Save Our
Trees campaigns, anti-racist demo’s are instantly accessible and new undreamed
of networking is now possible. Exhibitions, posters, fliers, community
publishing are being augmented by alternative and Guerilla Video, community
access T.V. (still a big battle) and the digital photo/video challenge
of the ………?
Make no mistake about it, the community media empowerment revolution will
not go unchecked by the State and the multi-national conglomerates. Legal,
financial and other forms of control and repression are already in the
pipeline. The Democratic demand is to discuss, debate and redesign the
community campaign agenda and to defend community empowerment into and
beyond the Millennium.
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