PIG HOUSE
PICTURES contemporary images with purpose
edition
IV
PIG HOUSE
PICTURES
PIG HOUSE
PICTURES PHOTOGRAPHS
Cover: Tales From the City of Gold by Jason Larkin Contents: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon by Ed Thompson Colophon: The Cornish Americans by Robert Herron Submissions: The Village by Ed Thompson Back Cover: Reborn by Annabel May Oakley-Watson
FEATURES
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The Cornish Americans
Looking for Palestine David Brunetti
Robert Herron
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Boys will be Girls
Glory, Glory Mongolia Utd
Harriet Rock
Patrick Campbell
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Reborn
Amish Mennonites
Annabel May Oakley-Watson
Anders Haughland Pedersen
INTERVIEWS
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Jason Larkin Documentary Photographer
Ed Thompson Documentary Photographer
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Mike Trow Picture Editor // British Vogue
PIG HOUSE
PICTURES EDITORIAL Editors: Artur Melez Tixiliski artur@pighousepictures.com Tom Pullen tom@pighousepictures.com Art Editor: Joel Hewitt joelhewitt22@yahoo.com
CONTRIBUTORS David Brunetti
davidbrunetti.com
Patrick Campbell
patrickcampbellphoto.com
Robert Herron
robertherron.co.uk
Jason Larkin
jasonlarkin.co.uk
Anders Haughland Pedersen theamishproject.com
Harriet Rock
harrietrock.co.uk
Ed Thompson
edwardthompson.co.uk
Mike Trow vogue.co.uk
Annabel May Oakley-Watson amoakleywatson.com
Alex Atack
alexatack.com
Anna Partington
Jack Kenyon
annapartington.com
jackkenyon.net
CONTACT pighousepictures.com contact@pighousepictures.com instagram.com/pighousepictures submit@pighousepictures.com @pighousepics
PIG HOUSE
PICTURES
PIG HOUSE PICTURES FOREWORD | JULIAN RODRIGUEZ
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PIG HOUSE
PICTURES contemporary images with purpose
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foreword It does seem incredible that even with wall-to-wall TV channels, the Web and myriad ways to experience and share photography through Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest, the power of the traditional picture magazine has not been dented. It is over ninety years since brilliant photo-rich magazines like Arbeiter-illustrierten-Zeitung (AIZ) magazine appeared on the streets of Berlin, amidst a new hope signaled by the Weimar Republic. Despite the march of time, the fundamental ingredients have not changed – good access, strong images, sharp editing, balanced text, juxtaposition, simulacra and varying stylistic approaches depending on purpose - all conspiring to captivate and educate. And all of these are viscerally at work here, on the pages of Pig House Pictures either viewed on screen or even better as an object in hand. When Pig House appeared out of the blue in 2013, the product of a Falmouthbased student collective, it was clear from the start that this could shape into something special. Here was a group who understood that through empathy, respect and depth - important stories get told. The photographers here are under no illusions about being objective or exhaustive but recognise these as frailties, all thinking photographers struggle with daily. To Pig House’s credit this is not a photography magazine. It is a magazine about the quality of life. Moving through the pages we get drawn into a wide sweep of other worlds: Amish Mennonites in Ireland finely balancing the simple life with just a smattering of modern trappings; the disappointments and day-to-day toil that persists in Johannesburg despite the end of Apartheid; joining youngsters carving out new-found passions for football on icy pitches in Mongolia and get our prejudices rightly tested about the upbeat hopes and desires of Palestinians. Closer to home: we share glimpses into the world of drag queens; are challenged to empathise with the slightly disconcerting ownership of hyper-real baby ‘dolls’ and square up to the English Defence League (EDL) who embody the same kind of racist thinking that cut short a culture in Weimar. And, with a nice nod to the south westerly roots of the Pig House Pictures venture, we gain an intimate insight into Cornish Diaspora communities in the US, first drawn there by the hope of precious metals, following the disastrous collapse of Cornish mining in the 19th century. The Pig House initiative is a work in progress but there are more than just echoes here of the same strengths that operated in magazine giants of the past like: Life; USSR in Construction; Picture Post and the Sunday Times Magazine in its heyday. And if Pig House Pictures can summon up just a fraction of the collective group spirit, logistics and independence that propelled Farm Securities Administration (USA) in the 1930s and the Co-optic and Exit Photography Group (UK) in the 1970s, then we can look forward to more incisive stories in our present challenging times worldwide. So Pig House - the time is right to really fly.
julian rodriguez | company director at photoworks brighton
CORNISH
THE
AMERICANS by robert herron
PIG HOUSE PICTURES ROBERT HERRON | THE CORNISH AMERICANS
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robert herron is a documentary photographer and graduate of ba(hons) press & editorial photography at falmouth university, during which time he interned at vii photo agency in paris. interested in telling stories that embody themes of culture and anthropology, robert has undertaken projects such as multi-faith living in postcivil war sri lanka, to his most recent body of work investigating the mass migration of cornish miners to north america during the 19th entury. “born and raised in cornwall i had always been interested in undertaking a project about my home county” robert tells us. when he learnt about the mass migration of miners overseas, he was drawn more towards the expats to north america. “i was fascinated and knew i had to investigate how the cornish culture had adapted and reinvented itself within the usa.” //
On the 24th April 2014, the British Government announced that Cornwall would now be recognized as a national minority. This announcement will mark a milestone in Cornish history and will give the county the same rights as other Celtic groups in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Cornwall inherits a unique culture, however, unbeknownst to many the culture isn’t solely confined within the county itself. During the 1840’s, Cornwall’s booming mining industry began to crumble. As Cornish mining became less profitable, many mines closed down, forcing workers to find employment elsewhere. With little opportunity now in Cornwall, miners started taking their expertise in hard rock mining overseas. From North America to South Australia, the Cornish started migrating to countries rich with new opportunity. By the turn of the 20th century more than 250,000 people had left Cornwall during what was called ‘The Great Migration’, in search of work and a better life for their families. Subsequently, Cornish culture has been reinvented in the United States. This series highlights the influences generations of Cornish men and women have had on North America, through present day Cornish American descendants of ‘Great Migration’ expats, in the mining regions of Michigan and Wisconsin.
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PIG HOUSE PICTURES ROBERT HERRON | THE CORNISH AMERICANS
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a view of lake superior frozen over, eagle river, keweenaw county, michigan. the lake stretches 80 miles across and was used to transport copper ore from the mines in copper country. left sheryl makolia prepares pasties for sale at tony’s bakery, laurium, michigan. tamara funk, curator of interpretation and collections at pendarvis historic site. the pendarvis grounds hold a collection of six constantly maintained, cornish built houses dating back to the 1850s. mineral point, wisconsin. the bastion brothers (ron, bob and thomas), calumet, michigan. their grandfather thomas bastion emigrated from camborne, cornwall, to the copper country of michigan’s upper peninsula in 1843 and worked at cliff mine in phoenix, michigan.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES ROBERT HERRON |THE CORNISH AMERICANS
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quincy mine, houghton, michigan. quincy was formerly the largest copper mine in michigan’s copper country, located in the upper peninsula of the state. many cornish miners worked here upon their arrival into the united states. right jean ellis, a cornish american and bard with gorsedh kernow. her great grandmother emigrated to the united states from cornwall in the late 1840s and settled in michigan’s copper country. eagle river, michigan. josh treganowan after a hockey game between the fire brigade and the police at michigan tech university. josh’s great great grandfather emigrated from kea, cornwall, to the mines of michigan’s copper country in 1845. inside the home of jan medlyn, a member of keweenaw kernewek, a group for cornish americans to meet from around the keweenaw county. hancock, michigan.
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PALESTINE LOOKING FOR
PIG HOUSE PICTURES DAVID BRUNETTI | LOOKING FOR PALESTINE
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David Brunetti is a London based photojournalist working worldwide, specialising in editorial, portraiture and in-depth documentary photography. David’s personal projects are visual narratives, gathered over extended periods of time, which confront issues of human rights, migration, refugees, conflict and identity. With a particular interest in humanitarian issues affecting identity in postconflict situations, David’s work has featured in Zeit Online, New Internationalist and the Wall Street Journal, as well as exhibitions including the Foto8 Summershow and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.
maya khaldi is a palestinian musician and singer. maya is singing with several groups and has performed numerous jazz-fusion gigs with palestinian musicians. she also teaches music theory, early childhood music education and conducts three choirs at the edward said national conservatory of music.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES DAVID BRUNETTI | LOOKING FOR PALESTINE
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any people tend to see Palestinians through the lens of their chosen stereotype because we’re all brought up with certain clichés about Palestine. And though there are exceptions, these stereotypes are all we hear and know about. The picture that then emerges, of something called Palestine, is surprisingly consistent and coherent. There is a lot of material contributing to the creation of this unified image of Palestine and Palestinians – with a set character and characteristics emphasizing broad themes of refugee flows and dispossession, anger, violence and resistance – that just keeps coming back. But what do we expect from representations about this land that is everywhere and nowhere, on all our television screens and newspapers? But not in a territory it can confidently call its own? What do we think we know about this place that is real and familiar as well as fictional and foreign? We expect work about Palestine to show us individuals consumed by victimhood or criminality. Images so harsh that we convince ourselves that the situation however tragic simply cannot be helped. Guns, blood, and wailing mothers, piercing screams and bodies consumed with rage and grief. We expect to see people, and though they resemble us in many ways, whose circumstances, actions and reactions make them wholly ‘other’ in relation to ourselves. We see victims whose character has become defined and deformed by the occupation and apartheid. We see anonymous people without agency, stripped of the banalities of daily life that make them human. There’s a lot that is misunderstood or not seen by the people, and the media, in the West. The result of the medias focus on a select few visual tropes that casts Palestinians as either victims of the occupation (in one way or another) or radicalised terrorists means that all people in Palestine come to be understood in the same limited and destructive way. Understanding a complex society such as Palestine in this narrow way takes away from the humanity and diversity of ordinary Palestinians. But there is no Palestinian ‘defect’, there is no ‘other’, and Palestine simply is not the place so many of us presume to know. It may not ‘exist’ as a geographical entity. But Palestine exists in an intangible manner, as a space of memory and future hope. Palestine is a promise that is constantly on the threshold of a physical reality. The Palestinians I met are confident that Palestine will continue to develop and mature, despite its shrinking territory. Palestine is insisting on its existence, it’s refusing to be forgotten because Palestinians defiantly live their identity everyday. They have been resisting by singing, dancing, reciting poetry, celebrating their heritage, their craftsmanship, Palestinian food and art and by remembering. They refuse to forget who they are or to abandon their identity. Facing relentless adversity, Palestinians have to constantly reconstruct the sense of normality that we take for granted. We often don’t realise how vulnerable this illusion of normality and stability is. It’s at risk of being undermined, broken down, and even annihilated. It’s in need of fervent protection. And this is what the people of Palestine do. They keep going, rebuilding, restarting, and living, no matter what keeps coming. This ongoing portrait project doesn’t set out to speak for Palestinians or tell stories of the occupation. It’s intended to be a corrective portrait of people who – having to negotiate conflict, resist occupation and who may have been reduced to stereotypes – are confident, ambitious, talented and capable individuals. The people I’ve met don’t defy stereotypes. They are their own persons. Their work, passions, craft and art are exercises in understanding, and efforts to comprehend the transience of things that are essential in shaping life.
ronza asfour is the owner of express nails, a beauty salon in ramallah. ronza is a qualified teacher but her passions are beauty and business. she was determined to open her own salon and attended numerous training courses to be able to offer professional treatments ranging from massages to pedicures, manicures and more. ronza is also the only qualified female tattoo artist in the west bank.
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majd abdel hamid is an international artist. born in syria, he lives and works in ramallah. majd’s work - mohamad bouazizi & pain killers broaches controversial topics and aims to create a uniquely palestinian artistic voice. his work has been featured in exhibitions in ramallah, london, toulouse, lund and torino.
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ihab zahdeh is a professional actor and director from hebron. Aapassionate theatre actor, he works with several ensembles across the west bank, including the ashtar theatre, and has performed at the globe in london. he is also the co-founder of yes theatre (masra7 na’am) in hebron. ihab works as a drama teacher at the community theatre project that promotes the performing arts for children and young adults. hebron is a conservative city with few after school activies for children and teenagers. nasra7 Na’am offers a welcoming, inclusive and safe space that encourages creativity and curiosity. besides a lifelong appreciation of theatre and the arts, the children gain social skills and build confidence by producing plays that reflect their everyday experiences.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES DAVID BRUNETTI | LOOKING FOR PALESTINE
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dam (brothers suhell and tamer hafar and mahmoud jreri) on stage at a concert at birzeit university. dam were among the first to rap in arabic. their music is reflecting the realities of palestinians living both in israel and the west bank. they are the voice of a new generation and are extremely popular in the west bank where they perform often.
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shehada shalalda is a violin maker. when the al kamandj창ti music school opened next to his family home in the old city of ramallah, shehada could hear the music across the yard sparking his interest to pick up the violin. he was always curious about the instruments and when a violin maker visited the school he used the opportunity to learn more about how to make, repair and service violins. shehada eventually studied violin making and repair in the UK.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES INTERVIEW | JASON LARKIN
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jason larkin // documentary photographer the first work that i saw by jason larkin was cairo divided - a joint project between him and jack shenker about the construction of luxury housing on the outskirts of cairo. on a superficial level, the photographs are about the landscape, about the construction sites and about the men who work there. with all good documentary though, what you see on the page isn’t what makes the work interesting... cairo divided brings to question issues of wealth concentration and urban expansion; it reflects a more down-to-earth view of the utopia the developers have in mind and, i have to say, this is the reason i love it. it goes behind the scenes to bring down the facade. after cairo divided i looked at more of his work – ‘ascension: a useless island’ and ‘tales from the city of gold’ which was released last year as a book - and really was just taken by his style. his ability to talk about social issues with work which heavily features landscape pictures is something i hadn’t seen before, and it turned me on to a way of making stories with pictures which was totally new. i think that documentary photography should, and i hope this doesn’t sound too idealistic, really give viewers a creative way of processing things that are happening to our world. it should be surprising, it should be intimate and it should find its own angle on the issues covered. i found jason’s work to be the first that ticked all of these boxes for me, and i hope that by reading this interview and looking at his pictures it will do something similar for you.
alex atack One of the things that I’ve noticed about you is that you don’t seem to be apprehensive about moving to another country to dedicate yourself to a project - you moved to Egypt after your MA and to South Africa in 2010 to work on Tales from the City of Gold. Can you talk a little about the logistics of upping sticks and moving somewhere - how do you balance these long-form personal projects with working for paying clients? jason larkin Moving country is an exciting experience in itself; you can learn a lot about a different culture by just being there, more than you could probably ever get to grips with by just researching from a far. Logistically, it’s a challenge but, setting yourself up anywhere in the world is about opening yourself up to other ways of thinking, and that’s exciting, and daunting, and confusing, but I guess it just depends on your character and how much you want to push yourself.
In terms of personal projects, that’s just something that’s always energised me in feeling much more connected to my passion – much more so than commercial work, which is great, but personal projects are really important to me. aa So how does it work in terms of your client base? How did you continue to work as a freelance photographer when you moved to Egypt & South Africa? jl Well, I’ve always worked for the Western media – mainly publications and newspapers. You have to do a certain amount of updating on your location, and telling people that you’re somewhere different, but the papers I was working for when I lived in Cairo weren’t very different from the papers that gave me jobs in Johannesburg. I think it’s more about your current development and where you’d like your career to go, and
what you’re working towards. Doing your personal work in tandem allows you to become more focused and ambitious. The area of documentary that we work in is very much dependent on what’s going on in the world, and I guess a big part of my challenge is trying to bring things to light which don’t necessarily come up on a lot of people’s radars, to try and make connections to stories and to show aspects of society which editors in the West might not know about. I guess that’s an idea that feeds into Tales From the City of Gold, Cairo Divided and Past Perfect. aa So Pig House Pictures, a lot of people who read it are students and graduates. Is there anything you wish you’d done differently about that first year after graduating? jl No, no. I mean I think I pushed myself as much as I could during my MA and I think moving to Egypt was
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portrait © dominic steinmann
a great decision. I think I was getting jobs much, much quicker than most of my colleagues from the MA. So no, not at all. aa Well, I guess that’s reassuring to hear. Your work in South Africa, as well as Cairo Divided were both published in a newsprint booklet and you published Cairo Divided in Arabic and in English, and After the Mines in English and Zulu. I heard you talking on a radio show about ethics in photography, and engaging with the people you photograph, and it’s kind of obvious that’s important. I think it’s awesome that you acknowledge your audience by making the work accessible to the people from the countries you photographed in. Did you find it to be successful? Did you get much feedback from Arabic speakers on Cairo Divided? jl I mean, success is a strange thing to
measure. I think if you’re trying to highlight child slavery and trafficking, for instance, you would want media exposure and then you might be able to measure success in terms of arrests or smugglers stopped. Something like Cairo Divided is a little more abstract. It deals with the implications of building a huge space for just the rich. I think it’s going to be many years before we see the implications of something on that scale. So, in terms of the response from interested public, different bodies, PHD students, language schools, yeah - the response was great. How that’s actually enabled individuals to understand a certain situation in Cairo better - I haven’t had too many one to one conversations with people who have requested copies of the publication, but the fact that requests are still coming is, I guess, a good sign. aa To anybody who has visited a newly developing Middle Eastern city,
the imagery of these construction sites - the palm tree telephone masts, the grey shells of villas - is all really familiar. With Cairo Divided, I was interested to see a photo story about this new thing of building huge property ventures in the most arid environments. What do you think the future is for these villa compounds? I can’t speak for Cairo but I know that in other places these developments are still in high demand - do you think that they will keep just getting built or that they’re just a phase and will become ghost towns over the next few decades? jl I think that you’ve got to put it into context of where Cairo is - Cairo’s economy is massively settling. I would imagine that many of those projects have slowed down and I’m sure the prices of what they were hoping to get have decreased severely. The profit margins have, I’m sure, been wiped off. I think that you can’t really look at that story and that issue, and think
PIG HOUSE PICTURES INTERVIEW | JASON LARKIN
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highlight mankind within that space - small handrails and bits of building - that’s about the inhabitants that once did live on the island. There are British military personnel now, and of course I’m not really going to be able to photograph them because their operations are highly secretive. I mean obviously its a bit harder for some people to get to grips with why I would do a story like that, but a lot of my work has always been involved with the landscape. aa I know that obviously you would have used translators when you were shooting Cairo Divided but some pictures - like the one of the man praying - are so intimate, and it made me wonder, how do you really get stuck into a project like that without being able to speak the language? jl Well, people do it differently different people work in different ways so there isn’t one certain way of gaining that trust and that relationship with people. In situations like that, its just really hanging out with the workers and talking to them with a translator who we trust and who understands what we’re looking at, what we’re interested in. We ate lunch with those guys, and we were sat around smoking cigarettes and talking to them when one of them said he needed to pray. I think that praying, and your connection with Allah isn’t exclusively a personal one. It’s done in huge groups, in large mosques all around the Muslim world. I think sometimes people can be aware of how the West can distort their religious beliefs and the way that images from those customs can be hijacked or misconstrued – given a false narrative. But these guys, they trusted us and I hope that if he’d have been able to see that picture afterwards that he would be fine with it.
alex atack is a graduate of press & editorial photography at falmouth university
CAIRO
DIVIDED
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TALES
FROM THE
CITY
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GOLD
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PIG HOUSE PICTURES HARRIET ROCK | BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
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GIRLS
BOYS WILL BE
by harriet rock
PIG HOUSE PICTURES HARRIET ROCK | BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
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PIG HOUSE PICTURES HARRIET ROCK | BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
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interview by jack kenyon // a ba (hons) journalism student at falmouth university
n the Cornish fishing town of Falmouth, what started as photographing friends in bedrooms dressing up, became living in the drag capital of the world, following the biggest queens in business. Working for Madam JoJo’s as a staff photographer, Harriet kept her Polaroid and Hasselblad close, and captured life in the prized Tranny Shack competition. Invited behind the curtain, she saw and recorded, boys being girls. A substantial body of work, this first sparked into life as a second year project, with a few portraits of Falmouth students dressed as queens. As final year at university dawned, and students were tasked with one last assignment, Harriet took the early idea and ran with it. Missing lectures, she hustled contacts and entered London’s glamorous drag world. Working at the notorious Madam JoJo’s, she became part of the thriving scene, “for one month I was there every Monday, Thursday and Friday.” She followed the queens night and day; made friends, and gained trust. As the weeks passed, the rolls of film began piling up, and from the thousands of frames she found the edit, which resulted in a book. Every player in this vibrant world is unique; there are Londoners, foreigners, young and old. “Some of them are hilarious, some are really promiscuous. And you wouldn’t be able to tell if they were men.” Each blurs their sexuality differently, but the women they become are constructed with precision. Larger than life in all areas, Harriet was surrounded with names that demanded attention: Ruby Wednesday, Dusty O; Snow White Trash; Matilda Von Mattress; Bourgeoisie; Miss Red. These are big names for big characters, and all of them were looking to perform, “it was never a problem for me photographing them, because they loved the camera.” Near bursting out of the frames, they flocked to the camera with glamour and poise. Past the loud posing and glitzy names, there is another reality captured, more striking and honest. For the audience, they only see the glamorous powdered front - a striking woman in a tight dress moving fluidly – buried deep beneath which is an everyday guy. But in between, somewhere in the middle, in a lonely bedroom or a busy changing room, there is a period of transformation: faces buried in makeup, body parts strapped away, buzz cuts covered, voices raised, expressions changed, walks altered. This twilight period lasts maybe an hour at the most, and only a few are privy to it. “When I arrived at the beginning of the night I would see them as themselves and then they’d put their makeup on they’d change into a different person. It was the strangest experience.” From mundane to fabulous, and fabulous to mundane, Harriet caught the shedding of their skin. Contrasting with these candid and intimate moments, are the series of classic studio portraits. Shot solely in Falmouth, these men are the local student queens. We have no drag scene here, and no businessmen with money, but the performance still continues for them in a similar glamorous manner. In the controlled environment the aesthetic naturally changes: fleeting poses become formal and gazing eyes more vulnerable. Without an audience, in a quiet room, these men reveal different things to the camera. “I like working in the studio, but it’s just the studio: white background, lights. There’s a lot more you can work with on location, and shooting in an environment like Madam JoJo’s there was so much going on.” How would the London queens, raucous and wild, have reacted to the clinical studio? Probably with ease. They are performers after all. Through the whole body of work, and some frames in particular, you can see the influence of Nan Goldin. Their themes connect on some level: rich intimate moments in other worlds. And their styles overlap at certain points: raw shots surrounded in blacks and deep reds. Harriet is conscious and respectful of this link; “I used her work aesthetically as a reference point, for my images to develop around. Aesthetically she was really important to me.” How she got there wasn’t the same: Nan pointed a camera at her life, Harriet entered the lives of others and brought the camera with her. But the frames she came away with are close enough to pay tribute, and far enough apart to be her own.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES HARRIET ROCK | BOYS WILL BE GIRLS
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PIG HOUSE PICTURES PATRICK CAMPBELL | GLORY, GLORY MONGLIA UTD
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patrick campbell // documentary photographer patrick campbell is a documentary photographer from dorset, uk. he graduated from ba(hons) press & editorial photography at falmouth university in 2014. his series ‘glory, glory mongolia united’ was recently shortlisted for the south-west graduate photography prize 2014.
tom pullen
What made you pursue Mongolian football as a story?
patrick campbell
I got drawn in to the world of Mongolian football after reading an article on the BBC about an English coach who had gone over there to coach Bayangol FC. The original idea was to document this, with the mixture of cultures and the sport as the focal point. Everything changed when I found out that the coach had decided to leave Mongolia. I decided to pursue the story and as I went on I was immersed further into a world where I could show a community fighting for what they believe in. Amongst corruption in the government, FIFA’s money disappearing, illegal broadcasting of champions league matches in bars meant to be closed due to the alcoholism rates in the country, suddenly it was not just about the game. Football became a way of telling the story of a struggle of the people in Mongolia amongst one of the worlds fastest growing economies.
tp
What are your favourite images from the series?
pc
I have two favourite images in the series. The first is the ‘sound of Mongolia’ portrait. I love this image because of the quiet thoughtful moment that it shows in training. The words on his back ‘sound of Mongolia’ are so relevant to describe the rising football scene. The second is the boys changing in the stands of the MFF stadium. It was about 7am and the sun was just rising over the mountains in the background, it was breathtaking. I shot this early on in my stay and it was the turning point for me personally where I felt I was beginning to get somewhere with the project.
tp
What are your plans for the future?
mk
Currently I have moved back into education and studying an MFA at Falmouth University. I have also begun scanning and colour correcting the work I photographed on the Trans-Siberian Express in April after a short summer break from photography. I have also started researching a new project based in the South West in which I hope to incorporate some video as well.
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the dramatic landscape of mongolia surrounds the city of ulaanbaatar, with snow clouds looming over the children playing football on a miniature artificial pitch. as the extreme cold temperatures of the mongolian winter have finally subsided, football season is ready to begin.
the mongolian football federation stadium, ulaanbaatar. mongolia’s equivalent of wembley stadium was built in 2001 using a £10 million grant from fifa. although the facilities should have only cost £3 million, the full £10 million was absorbed into the construction. with only two regulation size pitches in the country, the mff stadium sees 80% of all mongolian football. however, without a roof the season is forced to shut down for more than half the year because of the freezing conditions.
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fc mr noyun pizza change in the stands before their match in the etv tournament, ulaanbaatar. after winning the rights to screen the 2014 world cup, the mff and e.tv quickly organised a tournament of 32 teams as an advertising concept. instead of using preregistered teams to help with the development of players, the teams were thrown together using a mixture of players from the different leagues, using sponsors or invented names for the various teams.
a bayangol fc player rests during a training session, ulaanbaatar. bayangol fc is the newest club in the mongolian premier league. they are determined to make a positive change in mongolian football by developing young, homegrown talent within a professionally run club structure. by developing young talent the final goal is to make the Bayangol players idols for a new generation.
davaadorj, a deren under 13s academy player, sits on the bleachers before training at the deren training pitch, ulaanbaatar. fc deren are allowed to use the miniature pitch that joins the mff stadium to train their children as they are named after the construction company that built the stadium.
baganuur fc train after working for 12 hours in baganuur coal mine. with the team receiving life changing jobs at the coal mine to keep them at the football team, they mine the coal for 12 hours before training, or travelling to ulaanbaatar for matches, three hours away. the coal is taken by train to thermal power plant 04 in order to power the city.
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the under-15 and under-17 national champions lift their trophies during the championship ceremony at the mff stadium, ulaanbaatar. these players are the first generation that will experience the changing philosophy of mongolian football, with more belief than ever in the dream of professional football that will change their lives.
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players run out from the tunnel of the mff national stadium, ulaanbaatar. the pre-match preparations are taken very seriously before every football match in mongolia. unlike in england, where you find sunday league players taking the field and kicking off, all mongolian matches begin with the formal process of leaving the tunnel, lining up for the spectators and the team handshakes, mimicking the process you see in the english premier league.
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supporters watch manchester united vs. bayern munich at an illegal broadcast of the match at the manchester pub, ulaanbaatar. due to the high levels of alcoholism in the adult population of mongolia, all bars are ordered to close at midnight. because of the seven hour time difference, many matches begin as late as 3am in mongolia. this does not deter the fans in the slightest. such is the support the bars experience their heaviest trade after hours, with packed venues showing the game.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES ANNABEL MAY OAKLEY-WATSON | REBORN
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annabel may oakley-watson is a photographer currently living in cornwall, uk. her work focuses closely around themes of motherhood, exploring the innate maternal instinct combining both fine art and documentary photography practices as foundations to research and create.
For what many may consider as child’s play, a rapidly growing phenomenon is spreading, merging the boundaries between innocent fascinations with adult gratification. Reborn babies; specialist hand painted, vinyl dolls, and more recently silicone dolls, designed to be mistaken for a real child attracting collectors on average as young as 7 and as old as 82. Whatever the reason for this pricey and addictive obsession, these dolls are created specifically to evoke the same emotion and require the same love as a real baby, and are always considered a worthy investment. Disguised behind the astonishing artistry and the array of glowing ‘mothers’, successful Reborn artists dedicate their whole life to producing the most lifelike doll possible; their aim always being for the Reborn doll to be indistinguishable from that of a living child. With optional accessories such as detachable heat pads and mechanical heartbeats, these dolls attract attention wherever they are taken - looking, weighing and even smelling like a real life, new-born. For market stall prices, these accessories add another, deeper element to these lifeless dolls, questioning the intentions of the Reborn artists, as well as the collectors, by imitating life and their never-ending fixation with perfection.
R E B O R N
PIG HOUSE PICTURES ANNABEL MAY OAKLEY-WATSON | REBORN
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the wonder wafters beautiful baby powder smell wafter to insert in your babies body to create “the wonder baby” body scent associated with newborn babies.
the voice recorder you can record a baby’s cry or laughter to incorporate into your reborn baby. record and re-record any sound! 10 second record time. batteries included and easily replaceable.
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the hospital name bands for your baby, 100% genuine hospital baby bands, available in blue, pink and white.
steel balls perfect for weighting your reborn baby’s little body. made from highgrade carbon steel, the flexible balls give your reborn baby doll a realistic baby weight. place the beads in a length of stocking and secure at both ends for your baby’s body or head.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES ANNABEL MAY OAKLEY-WATSON | REBORN
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the heat pad make your little baby stay warm for up to 2 hours with these high quality reusable heat packs. these are the top of the line vinyl packs, not the bargain plastic ones. these packs stay softer and feel nicer in the baby than other brands. activate the heat source by simply clicking the metal disc inside the pouch. simply reactivate the heat source by boiling in water for 10 minutes. reuse over and over and over again! use one pack in the front of the baby. or use two packs, one in the front and one in the back. these packs are 3 1/2 inches long by 2 1/4 inches wide, perfect for reborn babies. *NOTE: these packs are not intended for use on real babies
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the beating heart you will receive one beating heart with battery included. these beating hearts are felt more easily than heard, and are designed to be the closest sound and feel possible to the human heart. these heartbeats come with batteries that are replaceable. there is no on/off switch or volume control knobs to fuss with, just give your baby a gentle hug and feel the soothing thump of this tiny heart. hold your ear close to baby’s chest to hear the soft beating sound. what could be more real? 5 x 5 x 2cm.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES INTERVIEW | ED THOMPSON
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thompson // lecturer
ed thompson is a british photographer, artist and lecturer. his own photographic work has focused on various subjects over the years from covering environmental issues, socio-political movements, subcultures and the consequences of war. in 2007 he studied on the ma photojournalism and documentary photography course at the london college of communication for which he received a first class distinction. since then, his work has been published in international magazines including national geographic magazine, newsweek japan, greenpeace magazine, the guardian weekend magazine and the sunday times magazine. he lives in the south-east of england working on regular assignments both in the uk and worldwide.
tom pullen What made you decide to be a photographer? ed thompson I wanted to be a film maker, but in the late 90’s it was a very expensive pursuit (pre-digital), so instead I thought I would do photography as some great directors started out as or were at least very competent photographers. Once I started photographing though I realized that the still image could provide something that film can’t, it’s a very lyrical medium. It also is a medium where you can work alone and I like that; I can lose myself in a group/ story in a way that a camera crew could never dream of.
earn a living through it – so you need to really excel and somehow storm the gates of the industry on your own. Photography jobs aren’t advertised so straight away the upper classes have advantages as their families know CEOs, hell, their families are CEOs! So this means they get given lots of high paying assignments through the old boys network. Being a freelance photographer who can’t turn down a job has its advantages though: every time you do it you are powering up. You are going to places you wouldn’t normally go, seeing things you wouldn’t normally see. It broadens your horizons, sharpens your senses and enhances your technical skills – think Martin Sheen in the hotel room at the start of Apocalypse Now.
tp How important was a BA and a Masters in Photography for you?
tp What was your first assignment and how did you get it?
et Very. With the BA I built up a firm foundation of knowledge on the history of photography and various techniques which I experimented with freely in that period of immersion. The MA was important as it allowed me to break into the industry. I think university is particularly important for working class/middle class photographers as they are the ones who will have to
et I graduated from my BA. I went to the job centre. I got a job at a holiday camp photographing children sitting on the knee of a giant mascot called ‘Loopy the Rabbit’. At that point I stopped worrying about my ego. When you give up your ego you can do anything. I worked there for a year then I graduated to wedding photography, then little PR jobs after that. To be fair I did any job I
could get, from photographing at hair salons to documentation for arts organisations. After 7 years freelancing the weekend magazines started to respond to my emails. There was no singular person, apart from myself, that got me here. If you can do it on your own you become an unstoppable force, you build your own momentum. No matter how good you are, don’t ever let them see you coming. You keep yourself small. Innocuous. Be the little guy. You know, the nerd. tp The English Defence League, rehoused chickens, Syrian refugees in Lebanon and The Unseen projects are very different in subject matter. Could you tell us how you choose your stories? Do you believe a photographer has to have a defined style, or that being flexible is more important? et The photo-industry wants you to be the person who only takes black & white photos of dogs or only works on projects concerned with post-feminist issues. That way they know how to work you into the establishment as everyone already has their little patch of turf, their style and their issue. I do whatever I want to. I photograph whatever
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genuinely interests me. Some of my work is environmentally concerned, some projects are very socially aware, some are geo- political, some are pseudo-scientific. Maybe that’s made me stay under the radar a little in the industry, especially as I don’t play their games – I’m an anti-social social documentary photographer after all. tp Your work on the EDL has been exhibited as part of The Rise of Populism in Europe. How did you come to work with this cause? How has working within a collective benefitted you? et I was contacted by Jan Joseph Stok
(an amazing Dutch war photographer who is currently working on his amazing ‘Che in Congo’ project). He and another Dutch war photographer, Dirk-Jan Visser, came up with the idea of the Rise of Populism which was then facilitated by Dutch photo organization Fotodok. They wanted me to focus on Populism in the UK and at that point the English Defence League (who were described as the largest populist street movement of a generation) just happened to be in their infancy. Up until that point I’d mainly focused on groups I’d had some kind of connection with. This was the first time I’d covered something contentious that was very far away from my own ideology and politics. Also after 10 years
photographing it was the first time I received funding. So that was nice to get some support. We met at Dirk-Jan Visser’s rustic house in the flat polder of Holland as a group and showed each other our work at the start of the project. We weren’t a collective; it was more a curated project with various photographers from various countries. I’m not sure how I feel about photography collectives, I get it on a commercial level, like an agency. I know enough about subcultures to understand that any styles/tokens in a group dynamic merely separate you more from others and eventually create a self-imposed exile. I’d rather be free. tom pullen is editor of pig house pictures
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Syrian Refugees in
LEBANON
England ‘till I die
PIG HOUSE PICTURES INTERVIEW | ED THOMPSON
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Re-home
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The Unseen //
FOREST
The Red
PIG HOUSE PICTURES INTERVIEW | MIKE TROW
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mike // picture british
anna partington For those who don’t know what a picture editor does, can you explain your role and what important qualities you must have? mike trow As picture editor of Vogue I am actually responsible for commissioning, producing and sometimes art directing most of the portraiture and reportage, sometimes still life’s for the magazine. I don’t do the main fashion. We have another separate team for that. I don’t want to because I’m not particularly in to fashion. For the magazine, when I do a shoot, my aim is to get images that the editor of Vogue, the art director of Vogue and the readers of Vogue feel is a Vogue image. Vogue is a product, all magazines are a product and we work to the perimeters with in that. It’s not about being super exciting, it’s about the quality.” ap I believe you did a degree in philosophy. How did you make the transition from philosophy to picture editing? mt I needed a job. I knew about photography because I grew up with it to an extent and I knew photographers. When I left University I ran a bar, which fortunately got closed down before I became an alcoholic, and then I went to a picture agency for some work experience. After a month they gave me a job as a researcher, sending out pictures of people who smiled at banks, awful stock research, which we did a lot
of and then I was editing reportage and worked for an agency called Colorific. I went to the newspapers with a bag of transparencies and prints to try and sell them, which again I was hopeless at. ap What is it really like working at Vogue? What are your favourite and least favourite bits? mt It’s actually really good working for Vogue. It’s me and pretty much 35 women. There are only two other guys on the whole team. Both of them are designers. It gets a little pressured and a bit stressful. It’s quite demanding. The good bits are when I’m out on a shoot and making everyone laugh and we’re taking great images and you’ve put a hole team together for a day that produces something that looks brilliant in the magazine. That’s a great thing. The production before hand can be stressful. That might be several weeks, lots of false alleys and corners and changes in people’s minds. I choose the photographers with particular stories so I see a lot of photographers. It’s great when you meet someone who’s brilliant. Which you know, is not always the case. I like meeting people so it’s a great sociable job. Very little is about taking the perfect image, its about making things right consistently, month after month. ap Tell us about the process of producing a front cover shoot, and the team you work with.
trow editor vogue
mt The cover is done separately on the back of the big fashion shoot, so that would be Patrick Demarchelier, Mario Testino or Nick Knight. The way we choose the cover stars, we usually have a few celebrities through the year that we definitely want to do and then mixed in with the big models of the day like Daria, Kate or Cara Delevingne and they are chosen by the editor and the features team. I don’t get too involved in covers. We have the fashion side for that so I wouldn’t like to say too much about it but we get a selection of covers in that the photographer has sent. The editor approves, we mock up two or three different covers that are focus grouped. Retouching can be done several times, so the whole process of doing covers is a month long process. Then there are meetings and the MD of the company ultimately decides what we go with together with the editor, the publisher and the art director. It’s a very fraught business doing covers and the cover is not always the best shot. The cover is the one that will sell best and fits the type best. It’s about layout and structure. ap If you weren’t a picture editor, what would you imagine doing instead? mt Stand up comedy, but I would have failed at that so I have no idea. ap How do you feel about the future of print verses the increasing popularity of the digital magazine?
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ap How much of your own photography is used in the magazine? mt I do an image or two every couple of months. I don’t commission myself. If I’m asked by the feature editor or the editor or short of time, I go and do it. I’m not a photographer and never will be. It’s a much harder life and there are lots of brilliant photographers out there who, were I to put myself all over the magazine, would hate me even more than they do already. I’m not very good, I’m fine, they work okay and I’m pleased with some of the images, but to do it properly takes... You know, I’m not a photographer. I like seeing it in there. It’s fun, but it’s every two or three months depending.
portrait © anna partington
mt I think print will go on for a long time. Particularly luxury magazines and things that are beautiful like Vogue will last. They are nice objects to have. It’s not just about information. It’s about owning something that’s beautiful. We are inquisitive, we like to own things and there is the fact that the magazine is the perfect format. It doesn’t break. If it gets wet or you loose it you can get another one for a couple of quid. It doesn’t need switching on. You don’t have to scroll through it like an iPad. You’re not going through menus. You can read it back to front in anyway you want to do it. It fits in a bag and it’s relatively cheap to produce, so to say print is dead is wrong. I think digital is made for information like listings, you know, like finding out about an exhibition quickly and your TV, films and reviews and those things. More and more are doing that but for objects of beauty, great magazines still have life in them, they really do. There’s Vogue or Tank or Black and White magazine, these things you collect and cut them out and keep the pictures and, you know, you quantify them and they don’t go missing. If you loose your hard drive or your iPad, you’ve lost those things. You run out of battery power and you can’t watch it. To just assume everything digital is panacea is wrong.
ap How do you find new talent and what catches your eye? mt New talent finds me. I don’t have to particularly go looking for people because people want to shoot for Vogue, which means lots of photographers who aren’t necessarily right for Vogue, think they should shoot for Vogue, so I see all sorts of people. I look at their website first. I’ll talk to them on the phone, if I like the feel of their work and I get a sense, then they’ll come and see me and have a chat. I’ll look through their portfolio. Sometimes they’ll never get a job out of me, which is more often the case frankly but other times someone might come in and a year later I’ll employ them. Someone very new, I will tell them to go and shoot elsewhere, the Telegraph or anywhere they can, any magazine, because at Vogue you only get one chance and if you screw it up, it’s really hard to come back again and I don’t want that to happen, so I’ll commission someone because I know they’ll do a good job and that comes from having experience and being an adult about it.
ap What advice would you give to someone wanting to pursue a career in the magazine and picture editing industry? mt I wouldn’t (laughs). It’s very hard. The notion of a picture editor has changed a lot. I’m in a very lucky world in that I get to commission and produce what I want to a lot of the time and work with whom I want. In many other publications you find it’s the creative director who is the designer who controls all those things and you can find some picture editor calling in pictures off the web or whatever, so its how you build your career and the skills you have. I would say to anyone that wants to be a picture editor, be a good designer as well and understand all those processes and understand photography technically too because I am a conduit between the photographer, the art department of the magazine, the features and the writer. So, if you understand that then you can be a good picture editor. You have to be very flexible, open-minded and not get to offended by things.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES AMISH MENNONITES | ANDERS HAUGHLAND PEDERSEN
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AMISH
MENNONITES by anders haughland pedersen
Anders Haugland Pedersen, who graduated from Falmouth University in 2013, has documented the lesser known Amish Mennonite community in Ireland. He presents an intimate look into the every- day-life of the people there where he lived for several weeks. ‘The Amish Mennonites’ was Anders’ major project, which he worked on for over 9 months. It took him on a spiritual journey exploring the beliefs of the Amish Mennonites. Early next year he plans to publish a photo book with the same name with photographs and short essays from his time with the community. Seventeen years ago an Amish Mennonite community was formed in a small Irish village outside Waterford City. Wanting to spread the teachings of the Bible into Europe, a few families decided to leave their homes in North America, to establish a Christian Fellowship in Ireland, which now hosts a growing number of Amish Mennonites. The Amish Mennonites are a protestant religious group dating back over 300 years. In the early 15th century, a rebirth of looking more deeply into the Bible spread across Europe and through these close bible studies came a sense of astonishment for the purity of the apostolic church. Despite being tortured, burned and jailed for wanting to reform the state church, groups of sincere Christians came together, and by the year 1525, a fellowship of these believers had formed. Today these worshippers and their beliefs are known as Anabaptists. By the year 1536, Menno Simons, a former catholic priest, united with the Anabaptists and as a result of his influential work, this group instead became known as the Mennonites. In later years, a young Mennonite priest – Jakob Amman – made his mark on the belief system when he declared his opinion that the church was departing from biblical teachings and therefore should apply a stricter teaching of the bible. Those who agreed with Amman became known as Amish. Many of the Amish and Mennonites immigrated to America as a result of being persecuted for wanting to reform the state church. Today there are over one million Amish with approximately 150,000 of them falling in the category of Amish Mennonites. The term Amish Mennonites simply identifies the church not being exclusively Amish or Mennonite. A few Amish Mennonite families have started to return to Europe and Ireland is among the first country to now have Amish Mennonites.
PIG HOUSE PICTURES AMISH MENNONITES | ANDERSON HAUGHLAND PEDERSEN
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SUBMISSIONS
pig house pictures is a platform for visual storytelling across a range of photographic disciplines, whether students, graduates or established photographers. we regularly feature photography on our website, and publish a digital and printed magazine quarterly. we are always open for submissions. to submit to pig house pictures follow these steps. //
- send us a pdf or low-res JPEGSs attached in an email to submit@pighousepictures.com - tell us about the photographs, their purpose and context, along with your website and contact details. - if you are sending multimedia or a documentary film, please email the vimeo/youtube link.
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