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These protesters are human, they feel pain and anger but they feel love and happiness too; and the two often work in response to each other. People often want change not only for themselves, but for their families and loved ones too. Although my practice will be in contrast to and in response to  the discourses the mainstream photojournalism recite when covering protest; it is important to clarify that my practice itself is not necessarily something I consider to be photo journalism but rather visual ethnography; blurring the lines between ‘ethnographer’ and ‘photographer’ by proposing to work within specific social and cultural contexts. As my praxis will be linked to exploring my question of how the representation of resistance to social injustice impacts perceptions of social change and activism rather than documenting a particular protest as such this pushes it away from photojournalism because of the context in which the photos are taking place. By leaving space for the possibility of audio and video too this further allows me to make my research something which is ethnographic.

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I left the exhibition feeling really touched by what I had seen, and although that is the very nature of art to ‘bring out’ emotions from the viewer I felt that the exhibition which focuses on subjects ranging from refugee crisis, to the IRA riots in Ireland; capusating this idea of ‘uprising’ rising up from disaster and pain, showing groups of people and individuals who meet what oppresses them and seek the possibility to resist oppression and move towards change; left me wanting to know what happened between the scenes of uprisings and conflicts. Having been to a number of protests myself, I think back to all the ‘in between’ moments between walking between 10 Downing St. and Trafalgar square, or the tube journey to Westminster or the music that people play whilst waiting for the march to begin and during; these bits of protest, these rituals which so many protesters share that often you enjoy just as much as the loud chants and the disruption of peace outside the main protest. Kennelly (2011:2) draws on notion discussed by Mc Robbie (1994;2016) of the dichotomous nature of the “good” vs. “bad citizen in terms of activism and the representation of youth activism in the Western world. This dichotomous nature which is painted through modes of cultural law and media often leaves people questioning the idea of standing up to something, or going against the ‘norm’; but it is these people who go against the norm who are the ones who often ignite the start of social and political change and inspire people to join. I want to explore how this inspiration of activism can be captured through the lens of ritual; something that informs those who may not know much about protest and get them to see a side of it which is often missed out, not only from mainstream media but social media too. The images that are often scooped up by the press and ‘retweeted’ the most are the ones that are showing these common narratives of protest, deviancy, violence

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Uprisings at Jeu de Paume - Concorde, Paris / Teaser from Jeu de Paume / magazine on Vimeo.

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Although people campaigning for social and political changes all the time, our idea and more importantly in relation to my particular practice, our ‘visual’ idea of what and how activism through protest is often encapsulates scenes of anger, maybe violence and deviancy. Mainstream media depicts the way in which we the masses see the world; but their often contradictory and subjective natures of representation can be ones which neglect progress and pauses activists seeking  social change. As David Hoffman expresses in his article, protesters are often limited in how they are represented too because of the limitations photojournalists have in getting their work published in mainstream media. with Media outlets concern with  “audiences [who are] typically looking for easy confirmation of existing beliefs” (Hoffan,no date ) problemtizes the nature of photographers who wish to provide alternative perspective on protests. This alternative lens often make their chances of publication very unlikely or that the rates of pay ore too low to make it something they can continue doing and in return effects the number of phtoographers doing so.  What this reproduces is a narrative in the media about how people think and understand protest; and the nature of activism. What I wish to explore through my praxis is the notion of ritual; ritual of protest, the dance, the music, the creativity which takes place amongst all the marching and “smashing up” of public property often covered through mainstream media outlets. An exploration of ‘the other side’ of protests which is often disregarded and not thought about.

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Williams, E. (2015) Taken at Black Lives Matter vigil in response to Micahel Browns death. In these photographs here I wanted to highlight the sombre mood which took place amongst the march for victims of police brutality. Much coverage of BLM protests focuses on the anger of BLM protesters, but behind the anger is a deep pain.

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Audio part of installation

As I began to go and take photos at different demonstrations I was really trying to emerge myself not only as a photographer but as a protester myself; asking myself questions about how the atmosphere made me feel, what I could see, smell and hear and the ways in which I could represent that through photography. 

My photos try to capture what I am calling the ‘rituals’ of protest; these are the parts of protest which are at the heart of the causes demonstrated and bring together people from all corners of wider society. These ritualistic moments  are often left out of mainstream narrative and propaganda.The mainstream narrative of ‘protests’ and the ‘protester’ identity is something I believe we must challenge; in an age where ‘public pedagogy’ is more influential to society than traditional models of education (Giroux, 2000) hegemonic notions of protests could hider the importance of people having a voice and fighting for social change and justice causes.

  At protests I am often running about to make sure I don’t miss a special moment or good image of the demonstrations, but there are times where the protests took hold of me and I was immersed ‘in the moment’; often fluctuating between the role of ‘protester’ and ‘photographer’. From taking part in chants and the marches; stopping to talk to people handing out information leaflets about the event or dancing with others, to the music people are making or playing amongst the marches and wherever they pause outside;  I found these moments so special and almost impossible to translate, with integrity with my camera. Reflecting on ways I could contend with this limitation, I decided that by capturing sounds of the protest and protesters as well as images. I felt that I offer another element in an attempt to answering my initial research questions. 

As well as document the audio of the actual protests as they took place; I felt that the notion of ‘voice’ was a theme that has continuously popped up throughout my praxis. The important statement of protests being a ‘voice’ to people and what they care about and the reality of media having a responsibility to  giving these protests the platform were these people voices are heard nationally and internationally and then failing to do so; meant that I could create an audio-visual installation that confronts this reality; and creates the platform to offer not necessarily an alternative view; but an ignored one. 

I thought about ways I could really convey this notion of voice, my photos already give ‘voice’ in a universal and metaphorical sense but with the added element of audio I can now give a ‘voice’ in a more literal sense too.

I began having conversations with peers and family about their own perceptions of protests; asking them whether they feel the media truly represents what happens at protests and the multiple identities of the ‘protester’ and concluded the following questions; which I will be asking around 4-5 people. Their answers will be recorded and played on a loop through speakers out loud. 

Questions:

1. What do you think of when you hear the word protest?

2. Have you ever attended a protest?

3b. If so, what was the most memerable one and why?

3.a. If not, why not?

4. If you could start your own protest what would it be about and why?

5. Through my research so far and my own experience of taking part in protests I’ve been intersted in this notion of  ‘ritual’ and how protests have their own ‘rituals’. Things such as the music performed and played often at protests and how people interact through dancing and singing; people making art collectively  etc. - what are you’re thoughts on this? Do you think there is rituals of protest?  6. Do you think the mainstream media truly represents what happens at protesters and the multiple identities of ‘The Protester’

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In preparation for my final work; I have been playing around with editing software from Adobe Photoshop. Using the hue and saturation tools to experiment with colour and black and white. Whilst the colour images are vibrant and really capture the moment in the present; the black and white almost add a historical lense to the photo, making it timeless and have a sense of importance.

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As I was going though my photos I found that there was some photos that matched really well; an important part of my exhibition is how I actually present my work. With photographs it is important how you present them, not only the size and colouring but also what photograph they are next to; whether they are in pairs or stand alone. I felt with these photos I’d managed to capture a real connection between the two drum players; and it really represents to togtherness and collective atmosphere protests create. These photos will be presented in portrait form with the female on the left and the man on the right so it is like they are facing eachother, just as they were in real life.

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Following on from the previous post about the theme of ‘The child protester’ I fell in love with these two images; protests create a space in which children can learn to understand the nature of their own voice on the various political and social issues that they will face. I believe it is not about scaring young children about the reality of how challenging this world can be, but empowering them to have the courage and the agency to make a difference and to stand up for and with themselves and their communities; nationally and globally.

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“ I listened to the sounds of the marches as they drifted up to my window. Attached to the bed, I rose up my sick woman fist, in solidarity.”

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I initially printed my photos onto standard a4 paper to get an idea of how I wanted my photos to be presented and to test my photos on the mounting board. I have chosen to mount my phtotos onto board so that they can be presented on to the wall in a more professional and clean way. I originally measured the size of my phtoos and then measured this out on to the board an cut it to size with straigh cutter. However, when I cut it out it wasn’t the same size as the photos. I then decied to trace the outline of the photos onto the board which worked much better. I then sprayed the back of the photos with photo mount adhesive and carefully place the phtoos on the board. After I had practiced with this a few times and had edited my final photos; I printed the photos out on to professional photo paper and repeated this process with the final prints.

I have 10 photos in total, so I wanted to make sure that my pictures were spread evenly on the space I am using. The wall is approx 3m 47cm so I gave myself 34.7cm for each photo, dividing this by 2 to find the centre great point which my image will sit within. My photos when placed on the wall in testing felt flat Nd didn’t give the presence I wanted, so I have used smaller pieces of mountboard and fixed the to the back of the image so they are off the wall by around 3-4cm. My speakers will be placed above my images, this is to make sure that the photos are the main visual Nd that although the sound will draw attention, viewers will only look at the photos and hear the sound at the same time and not the pictures and the speakers.

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JEREMY DELLER

Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2008.

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Marlon Brando Pocahontas and Me.

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Rituals of Protest

I began my ‘journey’ with the hope of exploring activism and social change; initially focusing on how art form can be used to communicate social issues within society. As part of this exploration, I began documenting protests through photography and became intrigued in how they offer a specific ‘representation’ of protesters and the atmosphere protests create. One image I captured was of a woman holding a banner; I took the image from behind and through the lighting of candles surrounding her, the banner became illuminated and transparent revealing the text ‘Black lives matter’ (see Tumblr page). This image was taken at a vigil held in memory, a year after Michael Brown’s death, for the countless young black men and women who were killed at the hands of police brutality. Not only did this image present the sombre atmosphere of the vigil itself; but was taken from an ‘insider’ perspective, as oppose to one being taken by a journalist. Thus, making the photograph perhaps ethnographic, as it gives the viewer a sense of what it was like to be amongst hundreds of people who were holding candles and grieving together in the dark. Although I was attending protests to take photographs, it is important to express that I was first and foremost attending as a protester myself. I felt that my connection to and enthusiasm for the social issues the protests were about really verbalised the ‘insider’ perspective I was trying to create.                I have referred on subcultural theory as a main source of influence to my work, specifically the sociological notion of the ‘Outsider’ (Becker, 1963), something which I feel protesters are depicted as. The Miner strikes of the 1980’s saw the harsh reality that the anger and frustration surrounding the collapse of the mining industry in Britain had on the working-class communities which were built around it (see Jeremy Deller’s archive installation ‘The Battle of Orgreave’, 2001). Protests offer an insight and reflection of the current political and social issues within society, but also provide historical insight too. Reflection on the miners strikes and the protests that evolved as a result, is often met with notions of ‘deviancy’ and chaos that was caused by the miners; but this perception in fact ignores and undermines the importance of community and spirit behind the strikes; violent and non. I felt that if I was to truly try and ‘represent’ the experience of attending a protest, this was something I would have to draw on and develop. I found that whilst protests are covered extensively within mainstream media, the narrative offered of the protest/er, didn’t truly represent what was happening on the streets of the protests I was attending. The discourse of deviancy within coverage of protest presents protesters ‘Outsiders’ who deviate and resist dominant culture and ideologies. As Becker discusses in his book ‘Outsiders’ (1968) deviancy in “the simplest form is essentially statistical, defining deviant as anything that varies too widely from the average”, this is problematic, for several reasons. Within the context of my research I focus on how this narrative of deviancy ignores the collective and ritualistic elements of protest. From this view point, I began to look at that ways in which my photography can challenge the hegemonic narrative of protest/ers presented within mainstream media. Illuminating the ‘rituals of protest’ through my photography was crucial in communicating to viewers the kind of atmosphere the protests gave off; by this I mean the way in which protests give participants a sense of belonging, collectiveness and empowerment.  As Duncombe (2002) suggests, protests and the activists that start them, can be seen as “free spaces” which “experiment with new ways of seeing and being” and how the rituals of protest are a way to “develop tools and resources for resistance” (5). Protests from this perspective can be understood as a form of “critical pedagogy”, not only in the ways they can teach those who witness them about social and cultural issues and the resistance to the structures that create them but offer ways in which society can implement social change at a grassroots level, as well as a hegemonic one.   From collecting photos from various marches; such as the Black Lives Matter movement, Women’s March, Emergency demo against Trump’s ban on certain Muslim countries and Anonymous movement; I began to draw out themes that were emerging.         Music and dancing at protests is the most obvious ‘ritualistic’ trait people identify with and are a big part of creating the ‘collective’ atmosphere at protests. These themes were translated through the images of people with musical instruments and the ‘Rave Man’ really capture the moments where people get lost ‘in the moment’. I feel that even in these moments they may not be shouting about a social cause (or maybe they are) but it is still the foundational reason as to why they are all their; celebrating the culture of activism.    The more protests I attended the more I noticed an increase in families attending; grandparents, parents, young children and babies were out on the streets amongst thousands of other people. I think this theme more than the others really challenged the hegemonic discourses presented in dominant media narratives of who and what a protester looked like.    Another theme I have drawn on is ‘The child protester’; young children attending protests and their sense of agency in resisting social injustice could be seen through their homemade banners and involvement in chants (see images of boy with megaphone).                These themes were what then influenced how I chose my final photos which are featured within this audio-visual exhibition. My actual presentation of my exhibition draws inspiration from Jeremy Deller and the way in which his artwork is an archive of a particular moment in history; his 2001 conceptual audio, film and photography installation ‘The Battle of Orgeave’ really presented a realistic and rich depiction of what it was like to be part of the ‘battle’ between the miners and the police during this strikes in Northern England in the 80’s.  Although my picture really do speak for themselves in terms of offering the ritualistic aspect of protests; I felt that the discourse of ‘voice’ within protests could be further embraced by using the actual voices of protesters, and non-protesters and their views on how protest and the identity of the protester are represented within society. After various discussions, with people I met on protests and close family and friends I found three individuals who were happy to answer the questions and contribute to my work. All my participants were answered the same 6 questions and were given the freedom to answer them, however they wanted. We did all the interviews in one take so that the answers were as raw and natural as possible.   Questions 1. What do you think of when you hear the word protest? 2. Have you ever attended a protest? 2a. If so, which was most memorable and why? 2b. If not, why not? 3. If you could start your own protest what would it be about and why?   4. Through my research so far, I’ve been interested in this notion of ‘ritual and how protests have their own ‘rituals’ e.g. music, dancing and singing and chanting, people making art collectively -Do you think there is ‘rituals of protest’?     5. Do you think the mainstream media truly represents what happens at protesters and the multiple identities  of ‘The Protester’.      Drawing from feminist Hanisch (1969) theory of the ‘Personal is political’ Abi, one of my interviewee’s talk about how protests could be seen to offer a space in which people can celebrate the culture of activism and feel a sense of belonging and generate debate and discussion around how personal problems should be seen as political ones; and if shared publicly, within spaces such as protests then this could be a way of offering solutions and tools to resolve the Duncombe (2002.  Protests are more than just spaces where people go to shout about their problems, they are places which contain rituals where people come together to offer solutions and support, reflecting a sense of community that arguably has been lost during the transition in to a more meritocratic and individualistic society.

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Audio answers thoughts and discussion

Although I only have 1000 words for my rationale I wanted to talk about how each participant in my recording offers both extremely interesting but different perceptions of protests and the notion of ‘the protester’. My first participant almost looks at my topic from a historical perspective, having lived through the miner strikes of the 1980s in a mining community there comments link to my thoughts of Becker’s (1968) concept of ‘outsiders’ and the “iron fist” the protesters were met with, really symbolising the times ahead of a neo-liberal era where community and collectivity as a way of living would no longer be a part of.

My second participant offers the ways in which ‘rituals’ of protest could offer an increase in particular to the participation of protests and educate people on the “power” of the collective people’s. This really resonated with my concepts about protest as critical and public pedagogy (giroux, 2000) (Duncombe 2002)

My last participant takes a strong feminist approach to protests and the identity of the protester, offering feminist theory of ‘personal is political’ (Hanisch, 1969) as a way to understand how protest can be a form of solution within itself of the social and political struggles that influenced them.

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Shortened rationale for exhibition space

                                             Rituals of Protest                                                                                                                                                     Protests are more than just spaces where people go to shout about their problems, they are places where people engage in a space which can offer “tools” and produce a culture of “solidarity”, demonstrating the ‘power of the people’ which arguably, has been lost from society becoming a more meritocratic and individualistic place.                       I began my research journey with the hope of exploring activism and social change, initially focusing on how art form can be used to communicate social issues within society, I began documenting protests through photography and became intrigued in how they offer a ‘representation’ of protests/ers, different to that found in the newspaper. Drawing on subcultural theory as a main source of influence to my work, I focused on how protesters are presented as ‘Outsiders’ (Becker, 1963) and I wanted to represent the ‘Insider’ experience of protests, by being a protester myself. The Miner strikes of the 1980’s saw the harsh reality surrounding the collapse of the mining industry in Britain and the affect it had on the working-class communities as a result (see Jeremy Deller’s archive installation ‘The Battle of Orgreave’, 2001). Documentation of protests such as these offer insights of the current political and social state of society during the time in which the protest took place. Memories of the miners’ strike and the protests that evolved as a result, are often met with notions of ‘deviancy’ and chaos; but as I discuss below, concentrating on protests and activism in that way ignores and undermines the importance of community and spirit behind strikes and protests, regardless of whether they are violent or not; something that the miners’ strike themselves were trying to protect and ultimately lost. I felt that if I was to truly try and ‘represent’ the experience of attending a protest, this was something I would have to draw and develop on. This narrative of protesters as ‘Outsiders’ (Becker, 1968) resisting dominant ideology constructed by mainstream media may not be false but doesn’t however, represent the whole picture of what protests are and the people that attend them. As Becker discusses in his book ‘Outsiders’ (1968) deviancy in “the simplest form is essentially statistical, defining deviant as anything that varies too widely from the average” therefore media infatuated with depicting protesters in this way is problematic. Within the context of my research I focus on how this narrative of deviancy ignores the collective and ritualistic elements of protest.  Illuminating the ‘rituals of protest’ through my photography was crucial in communicating to viewers the kind of atmosphere the protests gave off; by this I mean the way in which protests give participants a sense of belonging, collectiveness and empowerment. As Duncombe (2002) suggests, protests and the activists that start them, are “free spaces” which “experiment with new ways of seeing and being” and how the rituals of protest are a way to “develop tools and resources for resistance” (5). Protests from this perspective can be understood as a form of “critical pedagogy”, not only in the ways they offer education of social and cultural issues within society but also,  offer ways in which society can implement social change at a grassroots level, as well as a hegemonic one.               My piece takes inspiration from Jeremy Deller and his 2001 conceptual audio, film and photography installation ‘The Battle of Orgeave’; it provided a realistic and rich depiction of what it was like to be part of the ‘battle’ between the miners and the police during this strikes in Northern England in the 80’s. I felt that this realistic element could be brought out even more with producing audio to accompany my photos. I initially began putting together my final piece though finding themes that were emerging through my photography. The theme of rituals itself was the primary focus throughout. As Durkheim (1915) expresses, “rituals can be seen as social practices that produce and reproduce symbolic goods along with moral and emotional attachments to a social order”) and ‘rituals of protest’ being the “spontaneous phenomena that [has] the latent effect of producing functionally integrative solidarity” (Pfaff and Yang, 2001: 541). Durkheim’s notion of rituals really conceptualises the way in which protests offer, and reproduce “moral and emotional attachments to a social order” e.g. the social issues that the protests are about. In terms of ‘ritualistic’ themes, music and dancing is one people would most associate to protests. Images I shot of people playing musical instruments and the ‘Rave Man’ included in this exhibit, really capture where people get lost ‘in the moment’.     I feel that even in these moments they may not be shouting about a social cause (or maybe they are) but it is still the reason as to why they are all there, celebrating the culture protests create, collectively. Throughout the years, I have seen a major increase in families attending protests from grandparents and parents to young children and babies; they were out on the streets amongst thousands of other people. I think this theme as well as my theme of the ‘Child protester’ really challenged the hegemonic discourses presented in mainstream media. Young children and families attending protests and the sense of agency in resisting social injustice could be seen through their homemade banners and involvement in chants (see images of boy with megaphone). After various discussions, with people I met on protests and close family and friends I found three individuals who were happy to participate in answering questions about protests and its connection to media and rituals. All my participants answered the same 6 questions and all the interviews were recorded in one take. As well as recording their answers, I interweaved between the three clips interviews, audio from the protests I went to with the aim to capture the atmosphere of protests first hand, as well as visually.