Story telling and the Rethink project

Tags

arrenagements, battle, buildings, council, crisis, demolition, developers, domestic, economy, estates, families, flats, Hammersmith and Fulham, high rise buildings, homeless, homes, houses, indoor, interiors, London, losing, low rise buildings, magpies, people, pictures, regenaration, residents, shelf, tenants, UK

My rethink project is surely becoming a rethink on the Rethink. The last months have been a rollercoaster within my practice and still don’t see the end of it.Being exploring multimedia approaches by re-working the story on overcrowding by adding text, interviews and going back to shoot more. Yet, I am not satisfied that this will be the approach that I will take the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates photo story forward. In some aspects, although I am looking at a community that will disperse and will lose their homes under an unjust regeneration programme, my strategies in telling their story needs a rethink. Generally, my way of working on a photo story would have been getting close to a particular individual, family, community and then through their lives tell of their plight. I don’t know a particular family well enough to create a story through them, neither there is a visible connection within the residents of the estates.My approach and my methodology needs changing in that with the limited time at hand, the lack of an in-depth relationship with a particular family or person living in the estates, I am now having to re-shape my thinking and strategically come up with something that would render their stories, thus is my rethinking my rethink project. (i.e. perhaps multimedia might not be an answer but the storytelling needs to change itself).In one of the tutorials at the MA in Photojournalism course, I was suggested to look at the story in a philosophical view. A conceptual approach is totally a new territory for me and it is a challenge.West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates is a complex of low-rise and high-rise buildings, neatly lined out. There is a doctor’s surgery, a school, playgrounds, tenants halls…in short what we see is a complex array of buildings. These are homes and within these homes, there is laughter, sadness, and a history of those that inhibit those walls. Some people moved in recently, some bought their homes, some lived there for many years and so forth. These individual lives will be interrupted and displaced. For some this might be the beginning but for most it means the rapture of their lives as it is known to them. For the elderly, it is a catastrophe, for those that have a terminal illness might mean many other awful things… I have been thinking a lot about this. A home is the space where lives have imbued its walls, retains personality through its arrangements and contains the history of those that inhabit. Thus, the idea that in focusing on the objects, the arrangements, and the aesthetics of interiors, I might be able to tell the story of the residents’ lives and what is going to happen to these lives.

Updates on my Rethink project and the West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates on  
http://cinziadambrosi.wordpress.com/

AMPS: Photofusion Salon 2012

Tags

AMS, annual, arts, Chichester, children, Cinzia D'Ambrosi, computer, conditions, crammed, December, documentary, Exhibition, families, gallery, homes, housing, LCC, living, living room, MA, members, overcrowding, people, photo story, Photofusion, photograph, photographers, photography, poverty, prints, show, siblings, Social, UK

One of my pictures from my photo story ‘No Space to Live’ on Overcrowding in the UK has been selected in Photofusion Annual Members Show 2012-2013. http://www.photofusion.org

The exhibition will run from  7 December 2012 – 18 January 2013

LAUNCH PARTY
Thursday 6 December
18.30 – 21.00

Tom Woods, and the spirit of photography

Tags

architecture, arts, cityscape, colours, early, emotion, landscape, London, london college of communication, mist, morning, nature, photographer, Photographers gallery, photographs, photography, Photojournalism, projects, sensations, street, Street Photography, sun, sunrise, Tom Woods, UK, University of London, windows

“I think of a photograph as a receiver of sensation.  Sensations are tangible and I try to  organize them through the act of photography” Tom Woods.

I saw the exhibition of Tom Woods at the Photographers gallery in London and I was simply taken by the spirit that encompasses his photographs.  There is a clear fascination and involvement with the medium of photography itself; channelling the emotions of a given moment.  I find it refreshing and beautiful.  Tom Woods’ words accompanying the exhibition in which he describes photography as a transmitter of a sensation have stayed with me, even more so as I have encountered them when I was to embark on a small project, part of our MA programme and experimentation, set out by Peter Fraser. The project asked that I was to close my eyes for 20 minutes in preferably unfamiliar place, and once the 20 minutes were over, I was to start taking pictures immediately.

The results have been wonderful for most of us, comparing this way of taking pictures as an ascetic and transcendental experience. The experience for me has been interesting; I have felt driven, transported in my picture taking. I would say that the resulting pictures look different, as the subject and the way I photographed it has been looser, less technically conscious, but more spirited somehow. Thus, the words of Tom Woods feel so appropriate in this discourse in that the photograph is a receiver of sensations.

What I have learned from this experience? I have enjoyed the freedom of taking pictures, without preconceived ideas on the subject,  technicalities, or aesthetic concerns. The exercise reinforced sensations and spontaneity in taking pictures, and it has been a valuable experience as it reinforces and makes you explore elements of beauty, feelings and transcendental in photography.

Here are some of the pictures that I took, one early morning in London after having my eyes closed for 20 minutes:

No space to live

Tags

Chichester, children, crammed, documentary, families, homes, housing, living, London, overcrowding, politics, poverty, Social, society, UK

In the last months, I have dedicated myself to document the effects that overcrowding has on families and children. It has been a hard task in that although the problemis increasingly expanding in magnitude, entering someone’s home is always difficult. Feeling of embarrassment were among the main taboos. I understand it totally, as families living in overcrowding conditions have not chosen to live among boxes, but they have no choice. With time, I realised that although my pictures were showing the clutter, the lack of space and privacy, I had to fight my frustration because I couldn’t say all the thoughts and things that the people were telling me and I wanted it badly. I returned to each family that had given me their time, opened their homes to me and took a recording of their feelings on living in an overcrowding situation. I feel that this was fairer representation. I will post a link to these soon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Overcrowding in homes is a large problem affecting hundreds of thousands of people.  In London alone, there are over 220,000 households reported as overcrowded. The negative effects that overcrowded homes has on families are numerous. Recent findings from the Housing Researchers Summary 2010 demonstrate that overcrowded conditions may lead to poorer health, mental health  problems such as  is  stress and depression and the quality of life is poor.  Living in a home where there is not space for oneself and the freedom to be oneself generates also other issues., in facts affected children tend to  show degraded educational per­formance, lower educational attain­ment as they do not have space todo their homework or are sleep deprived. By making over­crowding, an urgent issue to tackle , it will in the long run resolve other social problems.

Three families, one from Chichester and two from London have collaborated in this project. They have opened their homes and shown their reality of living in an overcrowding conditions. The im­ages documents the families daily lives in crammed homes where one lacks privacy, does not have space for doing homework, daily routines, and ultimately the whole household has to compromise in or­der to “live”.

Bulgaria’s Unwanted and PICS Photography Festival

Tags

Carmel Chiu Sutcliff, current-events, discussion, environment, Exhibition, Geographic Information System, ghetto, ghettoization, GIS, Global Net 21, Hub Westminster, inclusion, London, marginalization, panel debate, Photography Festival, Photovoice, PICS Festival, politics, Roma, segregation, Social, social changes, tool

Work from the “Bulgaria’s Unwanted” project will be showing at the Pics festival 2012- a photo journey into the lives of Roma living in ghettos in Bulgaria. Photo Voice and GlobalNet 21 present PICS Festival, celebrating the power of photography as a tool for social change.  This one day festival aims to bring forth debates and discussions around the role of photography in societal changes. The public and practitioners alike are invited to  take part in exploring ways forward  and more successfully in addressing issues through the photographic medium. 
http://www.photovoice.org/events/article/pics-festival-2012.-photographic-images-changing-society

In PICS Festival I am showing a small selection of images from my on-going project on the marginalization of minorities within Europe. The project  I am presenting is  ”Bulgaria’s Unwanted”  
http://www.cinziadambrosi.com/photo-stories/roma-in-bulgaria.html
 based on the ghettoization  of the Roma population in Bulgaria.  I look forward to talk to you about this project and to discuss how this can move forward in achieving a greater awareness for the issue involved and thus ultimately establish greater inclusion.

PICS Festival 2012

Saturday 19th May 2012, 11am – 5pm

The Hub Westminster, 1st Floor, New Zealand House,
80 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4TE

Bulgaria’s Unwanted

Despite the presence of the Roma population in Europe, dating back centuries and regardless of their large number, the history of the Roma in Europe is marked by a lack of integration. The European Commission estimates that the Roma Population in Europe stands at more than 12 million, a considerable number in any regards.

One of the most visible signs of their segregation is their placement in societies, starting from their poor and inadequate homes. Most Roma are living in the periphery of towns and cities, often in ghettos, illegal camps or enclaves.

Bulgaria has the highest percentage of Roma population, which stands to 5%. However the Roma population is hardly visible outside the ghettos. In Sofia, the largest ghetto, Fakulteta Mahala is a world quite apart from the rest of the city, one in which ordinary Bulgarians do not enter, but fear and discriminate. Their schools are Roma schools or segregated schools as they are referred to by the Roma people because attended by exclusively Roma children. The Roma population living in these districts have no access to basic public services, whether health care, public transport, waste collection or sanitation, whilst unemployment, lack of education shun away any tangible improvement to their conditions. A living condition scarred to remain stagnant because most Roma do not have a resident permit even if they might be born in the country, and in general whether they are European citizens or not, they are deprived of the opportunities of others.

In February 2005, the “Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015″ initiative was signed in Sofia, Bulgaria. This was a renewed effort by the Central and South-Eastern governments to work towards eliminating discrimination and making improvements to the socio-economic status of the Roma population within Europe.
Sadly, in Sofia where this initiative was to start off a new era of tolerance and acceptance for the Roma population, improvements hardly reached them.
As a matter of fact, events of the last years have shown an increased wave of discrimination towards the Roma population in Europe including the decision in some countries to expel them.
Although, the images shown in this photo essay “Bulgaria’s unwanted” are from the Fakulteta Mahala (Roma ghetto) in Sofia and from Kjustendil Roma ghetto, the living condition for the Roma are not exclusive to Bulgaria. Many if not most European cities have segregated areas where Roma live.

Ghettoisation in Europe

In Europe, we are witnessing a greater number of ghettoisation, created by social and ethnic reasons. Some of the recent governmental policies seem to support this non inclusive movement. For instance, in the UK, changes in social assistance is slowly moving families and young people that cannot afford rents to move in the outskirts of large cities such as London. Also, we have seen a greater intolerance towards so called minority populations such as the Roma, Irish Travellers and Pomaks to name a few. These population have been subjected to increasing marginalisation and today we see them in temporary and inadequate housing or being constantly evicted.
As a photographer and photojournalist, I have been working around projects that would serve as making the public aware of these issues. My projects, such as “Bulgaria’s Unwanted” was to address and create debates around ways that us as public could influence policies and policy makers in creating and incorporating a greater inclusion of marginalized and poverty stricken groups. Moreover, making us aware of a division that is becoming also a geophysical one. These lines of demarcations are in fact creating Ghettoisation.

Carmel Chiu Sutcliff  on the life in a Roma ghetto using action research for addressing ghettoisation in the Fakulteta Mahala in Bulgaria

Carmel is a PhD candidate in Planning and Building and her research interests include participatory planning GIS for promoting social justice, social inclusion and sustainability in ghettos and disadvantaged Roma neighbourhoods in Eastern European cities.  Her research is interesting on the academic level but also deep in the human aspect. Interestingly she is also utilizing GIS  (Geographic Information System) for presenting the strong connections with the formation of ghettos in the Roma population in Europe.  Below, is a small presentation “Life in a Roma ghetto using action research for addressing ghettoisation in the Fakulteta Mahala in Bulgaria ” of her current research work.  Some of the images have been taken by Cinzia D’Ambrosi.

http://prezi.com/1uthjzynejw6/life-in-a-roma-ghetto-using-action-research-for-addressing-ghettoisation-in-the-fakulteta-mahala-bulgaria/

Carmel  Chiu Sutcliffe

PhD Candidate Planning and Building

University of South Australia

sutcc002@mymail.unisa.edu.au

Relationships

Tags

apartment, assignment, black, child, children, closeness, combing, dance, daughter, disabled, documentary, drinking, drinks, elderly, family, flat, grand mother, grand-daughter, hair, henna, hugging, indoor, Irish, LCC, listening, London, MA, mixed, mother, old, photographer, photography, playing, pub, relationships, reportage, sitting, Social, talking, tattoo, tea, UK, white, women

Entering someone’s life, conveying emotions is giving an extra dimension to a photography work. Most good reportages are conveying emotions through relationships.

I enjoyed enormously the Relationship assignment, a lot more than the previous ones on Person at work and the Moment.  Entering someone’s space  and exploring their world is very interesting for me. It is about connecting to a person, exploring humanity in a way, and feel how it is to live in a reality different from our own.

There is an old lady that dresses in rather colourful manner that often sits down on the brick hedge outside my flat. I often see her, eating some biscuits, completely unaware of the looks given to her from people passing by. Occasionally I have exchanged some words with her. I decided to introduce myself and what I am up to. Explained my Photography Assignment and finally asked her if  I could take pictures of her. She seemed very eager to introduce me to her grand-daughter and her daughter, both living with her as I would soon found out. This is really the preamble to one of the Relationship series, which describes the relationship that occurs among the three women.

Interestingly, during our tutorial Paul Sutherland mentioned that sometimes people can be very close but not necessarily physically referencing this closeness. This simple and yet so accurate concept took me back to the difficulty that I was having around this particular shoot. I found that mother and daughter did not convey their closeness until the daughter started to brush the hair and trim her mum eyebrow.  Till those moments I couldn’t “see” their closeness.

My  second chosen subject was an Elderly Irish Tea Dance meeting. I loved it. Nice atmosphere and people. Very inspiring and I would like to return to take some more pictures. The hall had very dim lights and I just could not work as well as I would have liked. Lots of movement, low lighting and a camera lens that is not the brightest did not give me many options but to concentrate in two brighter areas of the hall. Anyway, these are some of the results.

And for the third Assignment a friend of a friend of mine invited me to her home.  It was an interesting experience and one that surprised me in that I was taken aback by the simplicity and the spontaneity of the family involved and the lack of a structure so to speak in their daily life. For instance, I would soon realize that they would sit a lot on the floor in order to be closer to their disabled child. The mother would spend a lot of her time playing with him sitting on the floor, whilst friends being visiting and finally her husband arrived from work. In a way, the lack of enough space to move around the shooting it made me a bit uncomfortable as I felt imposing my presence with the camera. But I loved some of the moments of tenderness as well as joy within the family.

And for the third Assignment a friend of a friend of mine invited me to her home.  It was an interesting experience and one that surprised me in that I was taken aback by the simplicity and the spontaneity of the family involved and the lack of a structure so to speak in their daily life. For instance, I would soon realize that they would sit a lot on the floor in order to be closer to their disabled child. The mother would spend a lot of her time playing with him sitting on the floor, whilst friends being visiting and finally her husband arrived from work. In a way, the lack of enough space to move around the shooting it made me a bit uncomfortable as I felt imposing my presence with the camera. But I loved some of the moments of tenderness as well as joy within the family.

A letter to the world

Tags

arts, assignments, blurb, book, children, China, coal miners, communities, conditions, discourse, documentary, Europe, illegal, Images, Kosovo, LCC, letter, london college of communication, MA, Marcus Bleasdale, minorities, photographer, photographs, photography, Photojournalism, pictures, practice, projects, refugees, Roma, self publish, Social, student, studying, themes, theory, University of London, war, Widows, work, workers, world

Where have I been, I have been doing , where am I now,
where am I going
why

Well, this is a task!

I am not sure how to get this going but I will give it a try. My journey with photography has been quite “bumpy”, with a few stops on the road and  extraordinary human experiences.  I have had the dream to be a photographer  since I can remember. As a teenager in Italy, I was literally following a local photographer on his assignments to learn how to use a camera.  I consider photography a means for expressing human emotions, conditions,  and  a means  to give a voice or speak out about social issues and injustices.  I always felt that, among many other reasons to be, photography can be a vital asset for changing and improving the lives of many by being witness to realities.  My first self assignment was to take pictures of families living in tin homes after years from the earthquake in Italy (1980).  I was quite young then and so open to the world that these pictures hold a particular appeal to me.

In the years that followed I moved to London, where my bumpy road started with travelling,  residing in various places, studying Fine Art Painting and being a full time fine art painter for a while.  I have been taking pictures and working on small essays mainly on refugees from Kosovo in London but  I was  very inexperienced and not confident.  In my clumsy way, I became a volunteer in a refugee centre where I befriended with a few refugees families and started to work around their lives in London.  Looking back, I can say that I followed this methodology  ever since. Most of the time, I entered a community, a situation by being quite close to the subjects I photograph.

The most important turning point for me was a seminar held by the photographer, Marcus Bleasdale. His work was inspirational not only visually but the way that as a photographer he was actively employing his work for campaigning on improving the lives of those he was taking pictures of.  To change or modify legislations in favour to a better working or living conditions, it was just fantastic to hear.  At the time, the seminar gave me the inner confirmation for the numerous possibilities that Photography could engage society in.  Up to that point I considered them to be remote and difficult. Marcus’s seminar gave me the courage to take my camera and go to Kosovo soon after. My idea was to bridge the gap between the refugees from Kosovo in London and those suffering in their country.  So much information was amiss.  Whilst in Kosovo, one of the things that drew me emotionally  was to see so many widows of war. I lived with a widow of war in Mitrovice and her three children for a while.  Some questions started to form in my mind about my practice and the relationship as a photographer to the people and situations that one is photographing. For instance, for a long time I have been feeling down because there was so much expectation from the widows of war that my pictures would have helped them in gaining more support. Back home, though the subject was not in” fashion”.

One of my question, is do we follow our heart  or are we having to modify our direction because of a market out there dictating what is to be published or not?  When I did not manage really to initiate an awareness campaign in support of the widows of war, did I fail as a photographer?  These are one of the main questions left hovering in my mind.

To summarise, since Kovoso Widows of War, I have been working as a photographer doing portrait work, press and teaching in order to finance my long term photography projects and projects with NGOs and charities. Workers conditions, illegal work, minorities and the oppression that corruption has on people, have been the issues that I have mostly being following and that I am drawn to for various reasons, including personal ones.  I have been most happy whenever by myself or with the collaboration with other organisations I have  initiated and created awareness campaigns.  This is what drives me and still does.  My work on illegal coal mining in China initiated a campaign from The Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese in mainland China.  The campaign was aiming to educate on the risks of taking illegal work and subsequently on the rights of the workers.  More recently I have been working on essays dealing with the conditions of minorities within Europe and that I have published  a book “Unwanted in Europe” 
http://www.blurb.com/books/2513800/pages/2
which I feel it is not final but a starting point.

Where am I at the moment?  I still feel naive in my practice. I wish to have a deeper understanding of what am I doing as a photojournalist, what is my role within society and how to address in the most appropriate way a certain theme . Explore and learn. I am enjoying very much the assignments given. Returning to basics in methodology and technologies is for me like creating a solid foundation, which I have been feeling amiss.

Where am I going?

Building a better understanding of my practice and my role as a photojournalist. Building an ongoing relationship and dialogue with peers and embracing thematics with a wider historical, philosophical and aesthetic awareness and engagement.

Street Photography/ The Moment

Tags

arrest, British, course, crowds, demo, documentary, event, fight, Iran, Leonardo da Vinci, London, market, moment, National Art Gallery, people, photography, Photojournalism, police, policing, queue, rally, Social, Stop the War Coalition, street, Street Photography, Trafalgar square, US Embassy, vendors

The Street  with an Event

For the Street Photography Assignment I decided to include an event. I set myself out to cover a Rally  ”Don’t attack Iran” organized by Stop the War Coalition outside the  US Embassy in Grosvenor square in London. I worked around the event taking pictures with a 35mm lens.  I was tempted to take some of the pictures by zooming in those occasions  when there was some fighting, arrest and so on.

By remaining with the 35mm lens I learned to grasp what was going on in a different way. I shifted my focus. For instance, rather than focusing and being wrapped around the action, I stepped back a little.  I observed that many people although gathered there for “supposedly” a common cause, were there with a complete different
agenda.  The crowd politics was so divided. A fact which would probably have escaped my attention otherwise.  I took some “moment” pictures focusing on this. Even when an elderly man was arrested because voicing his opinion “too loudly”, I focused on the relationship with the police . Him and the police, the crowd to the police and so on. When the fighting took on, I focused on the faces of the people whilst photographers, people and so on tried to look in to capture “the action”.

The Street as a Theatre

My next day on Street Photography assignment I thought of the street as a theatre stage, a concept introduced  by our tutor, Paul Lowe. I was walking in the city centre in London when I came across this very long queue of people going to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Art Gallery in London. This was an opportunity for applying the concept in a more literal sense. I was visually inspired. I took a lot of pictures in and around the scene in front of me as a theatre stage.

The Street as a Moment

I approached the next Street Photography assignment in a slightly different manner by working more instinctively and walking around  a certain area in London, Notting Hill, trying to catch a moment.

The images sets are  on: 
http://cinziadambrosi.photoshelter.com/page1

An individual at work

Tags

assignment, Bible, child minder, Christian, computer, de construction, documentary, employment, florist, flowers, home, indoor, job, LCC, library, London, MA, Masters, office, on line, Pastor, people, photographer, photography, Photojournalism, room, shop, study, subjects, theme, UK, University of London, work, workers, working

Pastor

When given this first assignment I thought it was great as the subject “An individual at Work” touches one of my favourite subjects “Workers”.

We were given strict guidelines to follow in shooting the images: B/W, manual focus,with a 35 or 50mm lens, ISO up to 400.  Two weeks and three individuals at work. At first, I only saw the requirements and mentally going through possible subjects.  The word that stuck me the most was deconstruction. The strict guidelines given for our assignment are meant to de construct our ways of shooting an image. Somehow this freed something in me. I was to shoot in a different manner, that would restrict the technical vocabulary, but still different and new.  This restriction somehow has opened many doors. Within these restrictions,  I felt less restraint.

I am used to spend a lot of time with a subject, taking care to do a lot of research before hand.  Sometimes I get to know the subject for a while before I take the first image. Two weeks for shooting three separate individuals at work are quite a challenge to my working methodology.

I have mostly covered essays abroad with themes that I have been passionately involved in. My challenge was to find the same engagement within my door step.

We are not allowed to shoot above 400 ISO which for my indoor shots have been a real challenge.

The criteria I set out to myself in the choice of a work to document has been on the basis of wanting to found out more of the particular work.  In retrospect, I should have taken in consideration jobs that are visually stronger as well as the nature of the job versus light.  With some of the images such as the florist ones, I struggled with the poor light and a lens that did not open up further than a f3.5.   of what would have been more visually strong but I didn’t. Oops!

A Pastor
A Child minder

A Florist

Taking pictures of Reuben (Pastor) was quite challenging as a lot of his work at the moment is done in a study room. From a photographic point of view, this could be considered rather boring. However, I was quite taken by the intensity of his work. After some  time , I think that he was so absorbed in his work that he completely forgot about me.  Consequently, some of my ‘favourite’ pictures belong to this session.

Jolanda (childminder). I have been thinking that this is a job that although most of us has an idea of what consists of, it just so much depends on the others routines.  Jolanda cooks, takes care of children in more than one home. Her day is take by the routine of the household she enters. Jolanda did not mind  that I was taking pictures of her, but I could feel her tension.  Only in our last session, I have been feeling that she was getting used of me with a camera and being more relaxed.

A florist

Keira (florist) The subject is visually strong. The main difficulty or frustration is that the subject was moving fast and with a slow shutter speed a few images turned out blurry.

MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography January 2012

Tags

Bulgaria, course, documentary, ghetto, january, LCC, london college of communication, MA, Masters, on line, paul lowe, photography, Photojournalism, quarters, roma ghetto, sessions, students, studying, work

It was wonderful to start on this collaborative and educational journey by joining into the MA on Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication.  I have decided to take on the on line mode so that I can carry on working, being a mum, whilst studying. The on-line mode has an inspiring aspect to it; photographers from various parts of the world sharing experiences at the same time as well as a vast arrays of creative backgrounds. The course started with Paul Lowe session explaining the course structure, the philosophy and the various on line platforms available to us to share and to communicate. Some of it feels daunting to me such as forums where I am often too shy to pitch in with my thoughts. After the initial orientation, the whole group introduced themselves in three separate sessions with the presentation of past work and/or work in progress.
The group showed interesting, engaging and awesome work. I am really happy to be part of it.
I have pondered a lot on what to share. I decided on my projects on the Dark Truth of Coal Miners, the Widows of War in Kosovo, and a couple of most recent work, Living with Loss in Campania,Italy and the Roma communities in Bulgaria.

Kiustendil Roma ghetto