FIVEFOOTWAY | Picturing A City For All

31/10/11 1:07 PM

WHAT IS INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHY?

I use this term to cut across all genres of photography. The photographer pursues a body of work on his or her own initiative. It can be any kind of photography, e.g. documentary, conceptual, contemporary, even Photoshop work. But to define independent photography is not so straightforward. You might produce a body of work about stateless refugees in the world. The first three works were not funded, but you eventually sold it. So when the work is sold, is it still independent? For me it is, because it is still created by you, and the selling occurs at the end. After that, a non-governmental organisation may like the work and commission you to do something similar in a different country. I still consider this independent because it is something you initiated, and someone has simply funded you to take it further.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DOCUMENT SOUTHEAST ASIAS INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHERS?

I just felt there was a gap, a black hole, and if nobody is going to map it, then the scene cannot grow. If nobody maps it, then people will continue to say there is no history of photography here. Even after this, people will still say what they want to say, but at least I can now say come and reference my research. You cant come in and claim Cambodian photography only started in 2002.

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FIVEFOOTWAY | Picturing A City For All

31/10/11 1:07 PM

WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE REGION?

I cannot answer it as a region. Thats the thing I hesitate to talk about because the development is not the same. D J Clark, who teaches multimedia photojournalism in China, once made a passing comment that when we talk about European photography, well break it down and talk about French humanist photography or the Dusseldorf School of Photography, but when we go to Africa, well lump everything into African photography. When I say Southeast Asian photography, its just a simple research label for me.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO START YOUR RESEARCH FROM THE 1980?
It is easier to know which of the older photographers are important because you can still feel their influence now the younger ones are harder to comment on. So I start with 1980 because of certain photographers who started working then. The year 1975 would be too early, because its the end of the Vietnam War and the start of the Khmer Rogue. I originally wanted to start in 1986 when the Marcos regime fell in the Philippines, but as I did more research, I realised a few anti-Marcos photographers were already working in 1980.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP WITH DEMOCRACY AND INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHY?

Documentary photography has a relationship with the freedom of expression. The fall of Macros in 1986 lifted the control on photojournalists to pursue whatever issues they wanted. Of course, Filipino journalists continue to operate under dangerous conditions, as the Maguindanao massacre in 2009 showed. Today, the Philippines has the dubious honour of being the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. The country is ahead of Afghanistan and Iraq, no offence to the latter. But it could also be artists working with conceptual photography who are pushing the boundaries of expression, it all depends on local conditions. In countries like Burma, the control of the media and the printed word is stronger than the visual arts, so the photojournalists are under much more pressure, and its the conceptual artists who are pushing the envelope.

IT SEEMS THE INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHER IS AN ACTIVIST WHO CHAMPIONS ISSUES WITH HIS OR HER IMAGES? HOW DOES OBJECTIVITY COME INTO THE PICTURE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER?
I dont think its possible for an independent documentary photographer to feel neutral, especially if you feel strongly about the issue. If youre pursuing a project on an independent basis, most of the time you will be quite passionate, because youre spending your own time and youre probably not funded to do so. I think objectivity is a kind of bargain the newspaper strikes with the advertisers in order to sell advertising dollars by convincing them they can reach out to the masses. Nobody would tell you that the New York Times is not bias, neither would they say that about the Christian Science Monitor. If we dont expect a paper to be neutral and objective in a supposedly liberal news environment like the USA, then why do we expect the situation to be otherwise in Thailand or Laos?

HOW DOES INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHY HELP TO CREATE A MORE INCLUSIVE CITY?

I dont believe it when they say photography can change the world. Once we realise that, we can then talk about photography properly. Inclusiveness is a very problematic idea because photography can also divide. It is really quite neutral and depends on how you use it. What photography does is to open up a space, but it is not uniform and not everyone is on the same page. But if you pursue it as an investigative tool on your environment and personal life, you can raise certain issues with your images. For me, photography allows you to create spaces for discussion, but it cannot change things on its own. This is something Susan Sontag said 30, 40 years ago. You cannot have a photographic work for a politics that doesnt exist. What I mean by politics is that there must be a certain awareness of an issue before you can produce a work that people would make sense of. Only when there was considerable support to end the war
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FIVEFOOTWAY | Picturing A City For All

31/10/11 1:07 PM

was there a need for anti-Vietnam War photographs. Its really difficult for photography to precede the politics.

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