Open Category Winner
Debsudda Belonging
Student Category Winner
Aishwarya Arumbakkam ka Dingiei
RPS Member Category Winner
David Collyer All in a Day’s Work
RPS Documentary Group Events
Jack Lowe - Engagement Talk
Image credit: Duncan Davis
This issue is focused, unashamedly, on Documentary Photographer of the Year (DPOTY).
We took a bit of a gamble in late 2020 and decided to go ahead with an expanded DPOTY. As well as a Member category, we had new Student and Open categories. This opened the competition to a global audience and, to help participation and inclusiveness, we also had concessions so that we didn’t put barriers in the way of entry. As a result, we attracted hundreds of entries, from across the globe, and, in total, had over 3500 images to judge.
That was completed on schedule by our panel of six experienced judges from UK, Italy, South Africa, and India. After several rounds of on-line scoring, I sat in on the judges’ final deliberations (via Zoom) as the Commended and Winners were chosen. It was clear we had some great work. Our shortlist had many very strong entries, and in the end, we extended the number of commended entries from two to three in each category as it was hard to make ‘the final cut’.
Our winners all tell important stories. Stories about the pandemic and humanity, about the environmental damage and displacement, and about prejudice and discrimination. Tough topics; but important ones. Told in a wide variety of ways, reinforcing the power and potential of the visual story. I am really pleased we have been able to bring some of these to light and to give them a new audience.
As well as highlighting those commended and the winners in this edition, we will be taking a touring DPOTY Exhibition around the UK. Harry Hall, working with the Regions, has already lined up venues in Oxford, London, Newcastle,
Glasgow, Inverness, Colwyn, and Chippenham. After opening at St John’s College in Oxford (16 February to 9 March), we move to our sponsors and prize donors Fujifilm, to exhibit in their House of Photography gallery in London (14 March to 30 April).
An important part of the DPOTY competition this year, especially for Student and Open winners, was to support photographers’ to develop their work. As part of the prizes this year, the Open winner, Debsuddha, will get development support from Martin Parr, Hon FRPS, and the Martin Parr Foundation and similarly, the Student winner, Aishwarya, will get development support from Simon Roberts Hon FRPS.
To complement our ‘development’ activities we continue to run our workshop series and our Engagement Talks and we have a stellar line up in early 2022, including: Roy Mehta, Carolyn Mendelsohn, Jack Lowe, Martin Parr, David Hurn and Nick Hedges.
Let me finish with a quick thank you to all who have supported us and our events this year, and especially to the entire volunteer team including the central team, our regional coordinators, and the Decisive Moment team. Have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.
Take care.
Mark A Phillips FRPS Chair, Documentary Group
Documentary Group Committee:
Chair: Mark A Phillips FRPS doc@rps.org
Secretary: Nick Linnett LRPS docsecretary@rps.org
Treasurer: Andrew Ripley doctreasurer@rps.org
Members: Harry Hall FRPS, Chris Martinka, Valerie Mather ARPS, Wayne Richards, Dave Thorp
Sub-Group Organisers:
East Midlands: Volunteer Required docem@rps.org
South East: Jeff Owen ARPS docse@rps.org
Northern: Peter Dixon ARPS docnorthern@rps.org
Southern: Christopher Morris ARPS docsouthern@rps.org
Thames Valley: Philip Joyce FRPS doctv@rps.org
East Anglia: Malcolm English ARPS docea@rps.org
Yorkshire: Carol Hudson LRPS docyork@rps.org
Central (w/Contemporary): Steff Hutchinson ARPS
The Decisive Moment:
Editor: Dave Thorp decisive@rps.org
Sub-Editors: Dr Graham Wilson, Lyn Newton LRPS
Editorial: Gerry Phillipson LRPS, Ray Hobbs ARPS
And the rest of the team:
Bi-Monthly Competition: Volunteer Required dgcompetitions@rps.org
Social Media: Volunteer Required docweb@rps.org
Flickr: Volunteer Required
To support the RPS Strategic Plan Photography for Everyone and to enhance the relevance for Documentary Photography by engaging more diverse audiences and ensuring our activities self-fund. We have focussed our goals and 2021-2024 targets under the RPS Mission of inspiration, creativity, and connection:
Inspire – showcase inspiring photography and to shed new light on subjects of importance
These activities are focussed around showcasing and celebrating high quality photographic work and thinking, which is fundamental to the RPS’s purpose:
Engagement Talks
The Decisive Moment
Documentary Photographer of the Year (DPOTY)
DPOTY Exhibition
Create – encouraging a deeper understanding of photography and providing resources for photographic education
To develop the range and reach of our educational activities. We want to help photographers develop their practice, and also educate non-photographers about what is current in documentary photography:
‘Telling Stories’ Workshops
Distinction Advisory
Engage University courses
Support individual development
Connect – promote belonging and inclusivity, by supporting and engaging widely
To engage with more people and connect with other communities, including those who are not photographers, to appreciate the value of documentary photography, so that it is enjoyed and accessible to as many people as possible:
Work with groups outside RPS
Regional and international activities
Website and social media
Documentary Group Bi-Monthly Competition
Monthly Newsletter
Over the past half century - certainly since the late 1970s - the decline of magazine published photography has caused a decline in many traditional forums for the publication of the documentary photograph - whether a single image or in series. Documentary photographers have had to reimagine their routes to their audience and, to some considerable extent, are now perhaps more focused on the art world and galleries as a way of presenting their work, rather than through magazines.
Although magazine publication of the documentary genre has not been completely lost, and while documentary photographers are increasingly shifting their forum of publication from print to exhibition, the basic tenet of the genre remains the same:
‘To capture a real moment, conveying a message about the world, focusing on an ongoing issue or story seen through a single photograph - or, more usually, a carefully crafted series of photographs - drawing attention to often sensitive, difficult or dangerous world issues which require some form of remedial or political action’.
Despite the shift in the route to an audience, the documentary photographer has remained true to this ambition. In the Royal Photographic Society, we are incredibly fortunate to have a Documentary Group that is so active, so well respected both within and outside the Society, and which has within its ranks, photographers of the highest calibre - as we shall see evidenced by the shortlisted, commended, and winning entries in this year’s Documentary Photographer of the Year competition.
Under Mark’s chairmanship, the work of the Documentary Group - including its publications, workshops and, of course, this competition - is directly supporting the third pillar of the new RPS Strategy in which we are “Sharing Photography”. This pillar aims to maintain centres of expertise in specific areas of photography through which we can share images, best practices, ideas, information, and skills; but most importantly, where we can see the best examples of the photographers’ craft and promote a sense of belonging, mentorship, and inclusivity.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I’d like to thank Mark and the entire Documentary team for leading the way and for setting such a high bar of excellence.
Simon Hill HonFRPS President
Royal Photographic Society
The Documentary Photographer of the Year (DPOTY) competition is organised by the Royal Photographic Society’s Documentary Group. It runs every two years. The competition has been running since 2012 and provides an opportunity to showcase documentary work and storytelling. rps.org/groups/documentary/dpoty-2021
The ongoing project ‘Belonging’ is about presenting the psychological struggle and sisterly companionship shared by my elderly, unmarried, aunts Swati Goswami and Gayatri Goswami.
Already facing social isolation due to the racial discrimination they have experienced being born albino in Kolkata, India where people are obsessed with white skin obliterating the natural, brown, complexion. They have been further isolated from their own surroundings by enforced government measures against the COVID-19 pandemic which took place in 2020 and 2021 too, due to the second wave of pandemic. The sisters know better what isolation actually means but the pandemic has exponentially affected them and made their world even smaller.
Since my childhood, I have been observing their life struggle. As a photographer and their nephew, whose childhood, the precious and most sensitive part of life, was surrounded and protected by them, I am collaborating with them in this project, to observe their mental health and how they sustain themselves through dreams, desire, and companionship, even at this elderly age, in their 163 year old residence in north Kolkata, India, the place where they born and brought up. The body of work intends to celebrate and commemorate their resilience through their sisterhood.
debsuddha.com
I am a documentary photographer from West Bengal. I was a freelancer for international news agencies from 2015 but from 2017, I have completely focused on my personal projects gaining a better understanding of the photographer as a collaborator. Apart from the project ‘Belonging’, I have, for the last four years been working on climate migration issues in India. I am also, with my mum, working on my own fear of losing my family and being lonely after my dad lost his battle with Covid in June 2021.
My motivation for this project stems from my aunts, Gayatri and Swati and our relationship, and it is an ongoing project.
In my childhood, which I consider is the most crucial stage of life, as it shapes a child’s future, I noticed several things I was unable to understand and express at the time - my aunts’ expressions, outbursts, angst, and sadness. I noticed and asked questions from my elders but rarely got any answers.
Now, at this stage of my life when I talk to my aunts freely and frankly, I understand the expressions of utter frustration. My aunts were born as albinos which is not seen as ‘normal’ in their surroundings. And this is in a society where people are obsessed about having fairer skin and skin cream companies earn huge profits by selling their fairness products. This has adversely affected my aunts’ entire lives and now I understand why they have become so shy, and psychologically caged in their own home.
They were bullied by society from a young age, and some family members kept a distance from them. I can remember one relative who invited my entire maternal family to a wedding ceremony but requested that my grandma did not bring my aunts as their presence could harm the family’s reputation. Once one relative chopped off my elder aunt Gayatri’s beautiful blonde hair because of jealousy. My younger aunt Swati has weak eyesight and her music teacher tried to use this weakness by physically abusing her. I only got to know these things years later.
Both of my aunts were afraid of getting married because of the fear of rejection, and because of this, after a time my grandpa didn’t try to force them. But despite these negative vibes in their lives, Gayatri successfully completed her degree in Sanskrit language, and Swati completed her degree in music. Their only safe place was their home, and their only way of expression was to perform dance, drama, plays, recitation and singing. That is why they established a music school in
their own residence for several years with the support of their parents, working with many students. They performed onstage twice a year where Gayatri wrote the script and directed the dance drama and Swati composed and arranged the music. They used to live in a 163 years old two storey house in Kolkata where they were born and raised. Once filled with seven brothers and sisters along with parents, now, only Swati and Gayatri live there alone.
But although their confidence was broken down by society, they never lost hope. Their lives, the racial discrimination, the frustration, but also the hope, and affection for life have pushed me to understand them, as a photographer, and I intend to showcase their psychological struggle, sisterhood bonding, and at this elderly age, a resilience I understand and admire.
The most challenging part of doing a personal project is knowing the reality and using it visually. The emotions sometimes act as a positive catalyst and sometimes act harshly. At times I had to stop when I listened to the stories told by my aunts.
When working on projects, I find my own connection with the story idea, then comes the research. In the context of ‘Belonging’, my entire 32 years have been my research period because of my own connection to the story, both as a nephew and a photographer.
The project was undertaken in 2020 when the first wave of Corona Virus came in and affected the world. At that time I was undergoing a mentorship program with VII Academy under the guidance of Christopher Morris, and it was my final project assignment. I wish to acknowledge here the help given to me by Turjoy Chowdhury, Colin Pantall and Christopher Morris who have mentored and guided me not just as a photographer but also as a human being prepared to face challenges and channel emotions through my photography.
Currently, I am represented by VII Photo Agency as a mentee of VII Mentor Program under the guidance of Ed Kashi.
Peru is one of the countries with the highest ratio of territory given up to extractive industries. More than 15% of the territory is in concession to mining companies, mostly foreign ones. For geological reasons the majority of those concessions are in the Andean area, over 3000 meters above sea level.
Cerro de Pasco has more than 70000 inhabitants and it grew around an enormous open pit called El Tajo. A crater two kilometers long and wide and almost one km deep. Over the years, El Tajo, has produced tons of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver.
Despite the millions of dollars generated by over 400 years of mining exploitation, today Cerro de Pasco is one of the poorest cities in Peru. The health system is almost nonexistent, the education system is close to collapse and the population receives no help from the government.
The inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco live in a situation of social and economic exclusion without any possibility of escape and live in the shadow of El Tajo. Moreover, the pollution caused by 60 years of industrial extraction has made Cerro de Pasco one of the most polluted places on earth.
If international standards were applied, 100% of the population would be urgently hospitalized for the presence of heavy metals in their bodies. 33% of infant mortality is due to congenital malformations and the incidence of cancer is four times the national average.
www.stefanosbrulli.com
An illegal “recilator” makes her living by dividing plastic from the rest of the rubbish. Meanwhile she takes the opportunity to feed her pigs that she will sell in the market in Lima. In Cerro de Pasco, urban waste is managed by the mining company who deposit everything on top of an old mining waste deposit that was built on top of the spring of the Tingo river. The water is used by the inhabitants of the valley to irrigate their crops.
José Brian (9) shows clear symptoms of lead intoxication. The average concentration of lead in the hair of the children of Cerro de Pasco is 36 times higher than the average for European children.
A view on Chaupamarca neighbourhood and El Tajo. Mining began to intensify in the 20th century. The more El Tajo widened, the more the inhabited centre was dismantled and new houses were built in the outskirts of the city. What used to be a small mining village is now the capital of Pasco province. Today, there is almost no distance between the houses and the extraction site.
Yan (13) is affected by a behavioural disease, caused by the presence of lead in his body. This disease makes him violent and aggressive. Yan sits on a pipe from the old treatment plant.
An overview of the neighbourhood of Paragsha in Cerro de Pasco.
When pollutants are seeping into our skins, bodies, and landscapes, can photographs maintain their distance and act only as a witness? This question propelled me to use the cyanotype process where contact between pollutants and the surface of the photograph is possible.
I want to create narratives about communities and the environment by transforming images through physical interaction with site-specific materials found in and along the Ganges - one of the most sacred yet highly polluted rivers in India.
This project aims to evoke the dependence of humans on nature, and the ways in which this relationship imprints the self and the inhabited landscape.
www.instagram.com/hari.katragadda
A Cyanotype portrait of a tannery worker in Jajmau made with a photogram process using found chromium-containing leather pieces.
Chromium compounds are used to process leather in the tanneries, and Hexavalent chromium - which is known to be carcinogenic - is released as a by-product.
A bleached Cyanotype print of leather refuse-dumps containing chromium compounds.
These dumps are a common sight in Jajmau, Kanpur. Hexavalent chromium, a by-product of the tanning process, is highly toxic and is known to cause skin diseases, lung cancer, liver failure and premature dementia.
A scavenger dives into the river for coins and pieces of molten gold and silver at Manikarnika ghat in Varanasi.
More than 80,000 people take a dip in the Ganges everyday in Varanasi. Officials admit that the water quality of the river is most unfit for bathing purposes. Most of the Varanasi city’s untreated sewage and nearly 18,000 tonnes of wood used for cremation generates 700 tonnes of coal and ash every year, which finds its way into the river.
Workers process chromium saturated leather pieces to soften them inside a tannery in Jajmau, Kanpur.
Kanpur is one of the most polluted cities in India and has been the hub for leather production since the British established tanneries in the 19th century. More than half of the tanneries in Kanpur are illegal and operate outside the pollution control regulations.
‘Nothing Left to Call Home’ investigates how religious violence in my home state of West Bengal, India, is also patriarchal violence targeting women. This ongoing project seeks to memorialize under-reported traumas while honouring women’s resilience before a generation of memories is lost.
The 2020 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), known as “the anti-Muslim law,” sparked nationwide protests and communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in Delhi. As a freelancer, while covering the protest, I witnessed Hindu mobs attacking women and infants with acid bulbs, and also targeting journalists. Later, massive communal clashes broke out in my home state, West Bengal. Women, again, were targeted.
taniyasarkarnet.wordpress.com
Women and children have become the softest target of violence in every part of India.
In Bengal, more than a hundred houses were set on fire during violence in several districts for clear electoral purposes between 2018-2021.
Visual metaphor photographed in Nadia, West Bengal, India, November 18, 2021.
In Bengal young people of both communities are often attacked at night while returning home from work.
Official narratives in the national and West Bengal media cover over the complexities of the ongoing violence, and often simplify it as merely political.
Visual metaphor photographed in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 2021.
As a documentary photographer, when Covid-19 first came on to the radar in the UK, I knew that in some way I wanted to record the imprint it was bound to leave on society. Simultaneously, as a healthcare professional working as an Anaesthetic Practitioner, in a hospital in South Wales, I was well placed to see at first hand the effects that the unfolding pandemic was having not just on patients, but on the staff, my colleagues, and also on myself.
There was a rhetoric during the first wave of the pandemic that many healthcare professionals were uncomfortable with, and one that we felt was being used by politicians who may not actually have the best interests of the NHS or its staff at heart, and that was the pushing of the image of “NHS Heroes”. This sat very uneasily with me. From my perspective, we went to work and did the job we were paid for, and this was a view shared by many.
It would have been easy to photograph patients, but I felt this was to an extent voyeuristic, but I was lucky that I was one of very few photographers given access to clinical areas so early in the crisis. I decided to effectively turn the camera vicariously back on myself, using my tight knit group of colleagues, to show a human face, and not the eulogised heroes of popular parlance. I wanted to capture light hearted moments as well as the exhaustion, but also to portray a sense of claustrophobia that we were feeling from the restrictions of the PPE.
The title, ‘All in a Day’s Work’, was designed to show that for us that’s exactly what it was. I shot the project entirely on film, and because I needed to maintain my clinical duties as well as being a photographer, I shot with a basic point and shoot that I could use discreetly, and keep clean. I was very fortunate that the work received international media coverage, including a national newspaper front page, and was published as a book. My ultimate aim was to record a snapshot of a time that few will forget.
davidcollyerphotography.com
The doctor will see you now
A surgeon gathers his thoughts before donning PPE for another emergency case
After almost five hours in full PPE, I’m melting
And now we do it all again
A newly qualified practitioner has a thousand yard stare before the first case of the day. A couple of weeks later she was on the front of The Guardian, and this photo went global.
Time out during a long case
A light hearted moment at the end of a shift, as a tired, newly qualified nurse jokes that she has found somewhere to sleep
I’ve been taking photos, with varying degrees of dedication, since the 80s when I learned the craft shadowing press photographers on a newspaper edited by my father. My predominant interest is in telling people’s stories, or how the land has been shaped by man’s activities. Most of my work has a loose theme of transition running through it. I’m soon to start shooting a project for Cancer Research Wales, looking at breaking down taboos around cancer, and seeing people as more than just a diagnosis - something that is close to my heart having had a cancer diagnosis myself. I’m also working towards publishing a book about a transgender woman in her fifties, as well as having other ongoing projects.
I live in South Wales with my partner and four cats, surrounded by mountains and an ever growing library of photography books.
I was motivated to begin this project whilst working as an Operating Department Practitioner. As a busy district general hospital, we were due to be downgraded when a new hospital opening nearby, took all the acute patients within the trust. When Covid reared its ugly head, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to document how staff were coping with the strains of the pandemic, set against a background of uncertainty over the future of their roles. I was also keen to show the human faces behind the NHS Heroes rhetoric, which I felt had been hijacked by political voices that didn’t have the best interests of the NHS at heart. This is a small selection from over one hundred photos that were published in my book All in a Day’s Work, which I’m hoping to submit for a Fellowship accreditation.
I hope that people look at this and realise the strains under which NHS staff work, not just through this pandemic, but against a constant background of underfunding and short staffing. I also hope that the humour needed when working under adversity shines through.
I shot the project entirely on film, and that obviously brings its own challenges in terms of processing. Other than that, the challenges were clinical rather than photographic. I shot for approximately two months in the period leading up to and during the first wave. I could have continued but felt that the story as I wanted to tell it had been told by that point.
I tend to have a loose idea in my mind about the direction I want the project to take, but I’m very happy to let the narrative unfold in front of me, as happened in this case. Originally this project was intended very much as a series of photos, to be a document of what staff were enduring, but it very quickly grew legs, and international media latched on to it. The rest is really history!
Other than that, planning is logistical - which cameras, which film stock, whether I have an outlet for publication.
High streets have always been places where you could do your shopping in many and varied independent shops. Recently however, large supermarkets have been built on the outskirts of our towns and as a consequence, with their huge car parks and the ability to buy everything you need in one place, the small independent shops of our high streets have suffered. In addition the rise of online shopping has contributed further to their demise. This has led to empty spaces that often remain unfilled.
The sad truth is that months and indeed years can go by before they are occupied again. I wanted to document not just the empty spaces themselves, but the interplay between them and the surrounding world. I was aware that just photographing these spaces in isolation would be impossible anyway, as the outside world always intrudes. From the outside looking in there are always the reflections of the surrounding urban environment and the people who inhabit it. These spaces no longer appeared to be empty. This idea fascinated me.
Whilst undertaking this project it became apparent to me just how widespread this phenomenon is, and how used to it we have all become. It is an unfortunate sign of the times. This selection of images was captured in several towns and cities across England and Wales over several years. Covid-19 has certainly had a large impact as well and a couple of the images were taken during this crisis.
neil-johansson.pixelrights.com
In the recent history of the US, one would think that the tragedy defined by ‘9/11’ could not be exceeded. However, on 14th January 2021, at the behest of D Trump, his mob desecrated the US Capitol Building. The seething mob’s anarchy that followed, and the man with the helmet with his glaring hatred, would show the world a picture of just how significant the ‘Political Divide’ is in the US today.
The nation has had a physical ‘divide’ since its creation, formed by the tectonic event known as Laramide Orogeny. This created a watershed through the nation through the States of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana - about 3000 miles in length. To the east, all water flows to the Gulf of Mexico / Atlantic and, to the west, to the Pacific.). This is most visible in Colorado as the ‘Rocky Mountains’ and is today called the ‘Continental Divide’.
Over the eons, people learned to cross it for a ‘promised land’ on the ‘other’ side. They would use and abuse this new exposed landscape for its ‘wealth’. Over millennia routes were forged into, and over, the mountains that allowed this ‘wealth’ to be extracted. Lives were started, towns were built, some were subsequently abandoned, while others became ‘world leaders’. The routes would be upgraded from track, to having a rock bed, and later be covered with tarmac or concrete.
Today, there are 61 state and federal highways that cross this ‘Divide’ landscape, most with tales of history, intrigue and greed, and the part they played, and are still playing by keeping the Nation ‘together’ through commerce and the migration of its people. Over several years, I have been able to photograph and explore these locations and discover what role they play in the nation’s history.
quentinball.com
US 50 MONARCH PASS - 38-29-49N-106-19-30W - Elevation 11,312’.
The Pass was named after an early mining claim in the area. This view is looking westward as the truck finishes its climb from the Pacific watershed, and begins its descent to Poncha Springs. The author William Least Heat-Moon wrote in his ‘Blue Highways’, “For the unhurried, this little-known highway is the best national road across the middle of the United States”
NM 146, 32-00-24N. 108-20-28W. - Elevation 4520’-five miles north of Hachita.
‘Old Hachita’, in the Little Hatchet Mountains eight miles south-west on NM9 from Hachita, was originally settled in the 1870s as a mining camp. Copper, silver, turquoise and lead were found and by the 1880s the town boasted a post office, three saloons and 300 residents. This swelled to 750 by the 1920s, but then became a ghost town when the price of silver collapsed.
NM 163, 33-42-54N. 107-49-57W. - Elevation 7719’, approximately 10 miles west of NM 52 and SW of Paddys Hole. At the same latitude but 80 miles to the east as the crow flies and at 05.30 on Monday the 16th July 1945, the Trinity Test took place. The first ever nuclear device on Earth was detonated. The fireball was visible in Amarillo, Texas, three hundred miles away.
WY 28 - SOUTH PASS - 42-22-00N. - 108-55-12W. - Elevation 7550’ - 10 miles SW of South Pass City. View looking northward with the Pacific watershed to the left. Because of its low flat elevation this Pass became the historic route for emigrants on the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails. In 1841 the first organised Oregon-bound wagon train came through. By 1860 the ‘Pony Express’ had a service through here. Ruts formed by wagons on this trail are still visible in numerous places.
MT 569 - SUGARLOAF PASS-46-01-11N. - 112-58-58W. - Elevation 6762’. Everything in the distance is part of the Pacific watershed. Eastward is the town of Opportunity, which was built by Anaconda Mining specifically to prove that it was safe to live in the path of the dark plume of smoke that billowed from the company’s copper smelter. Studies long ago shattered these claims. Today, Opportunity is defined by its struggle to force powerful corporates and government interests to clean up the dangers left behind.
In 2012, I met Olwen Griffiths who, at 79, was working as a monumental stonemason at R D Griffiths, Gwaith Goffal (Monumental Works) in Pwllheli North Wales. I discovered that she had taken over the business after the unexpected death of her husband in 1977. That traumatic experience left her with the responsibility of bringing up their young child alone while also managing the business in the face of prejudicial attitudes towards business women.
The work itself can be emotionally and physically demanding and is carried out in all seasons. It ranges from dealing with the bereaved, to commissioning and installing monumental stones. This used to include cutting and engraving though that is all now automated. Even in her 80s, she was still tidying up old grave sites during the summer, and in her younger years dug the graves by hand. Much of the physical work is now done by contracted labourers, but she kept a close eye on all activities as she described herself as “dwi fel mul” Welsh for being as stubborn as a mule.
In this series I wanted to show her work as it was in her later life. I felt I could only complete the project by recording her interaction with the bereaved. She saw that as the most important part of her role, and she fondly remembered that many would leave in a lighter mood than when they arrived. When I started this project, I did not know that Olwen’s last stone, at the age of 86, would be that of my own father. Olwen passed away in December 2018 and I dedicate this work to her, who I considered a friend.
www.garethjenkinsphotography.com/albums
Olwen inspects my father’s stone and carries out the finishing touches by painting the lettering.
In her eightieth year Olwen was carrying out physically demanding work clearing graves. She is seen hear turning over vegetation in the gravel at the cemetery in Llanaelhaearn on the Llŷn Peninsula.
At 86 and with failing health Olwen wanted to do one last stone. Here she finalises the inscription with Ann who is a retired Presbyterian minister. Much debate was had on getting it right.
Prior to setting any stones Olwen ensures it goes on the right grave. When satisfied she herself prepares the surface.
ka Dingiei is a story about Human Environment conflict and Indigenous issues. When a community loses land, there is a visible loss of property and livelihood. However, there are deeper, intangible losses, the loss of culture, mythology, and identity that are arguably more valuable.
Using photographs, bookmaking and installation, ka Dingiei allegorically explores repercussions of land loss in the region of Lama Punji, a Khasi village situated at the border of India and Bangladesh.
Supported by the Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Grant for Photography 2019, SSAF
www.aishwarya-arumbakkam.com
ka Dingiei is a story about Human Environment conflict and Indigenous issues. When a community loses land, there is visible loss of property and livelihood. But there are deeper, intangible losses, the loss of culture, mythology, and identity that are arguably more valuable.
I visited Lama Punji in 2015 during a residency at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My interest in storytelling and mythology made me curious about oral histories in the region. At the same time, the severe impact of environmental destruction in Lama Punji was unavoidable. I started pulling on these threads and this became the ka Dingiei project that these images are taken from. Through the work, I hope viewers can travel through this allegorical exploration of the repercussions of land loss in the Lama Punji region.
While working on ka Dingiei I have to constantly question biases embedded within me of my understanding of photography, of what it means to be an author, a collaborator, and an outsider. Staying true to a central core, which is Lama Punji, has been an important and necessary challenge to the work.
I’m a multidisciplinary artist working with photography, filmmaking and drawing to create narrative installations and artist books. Produced in grayscale, my prints, drawings, publications and projections are patient and intimate, slowly revealing mythical and political subtexts. Relationships and tensions between lens-based storytelling and documentary are integral to my practice. In my research, systematic collecting and image-making, I collaborate long-term with the communities around whom my work is centred. Through subversive storytelling, I attempt to contribute to an alternate collective narrative that unravels sociocultural complexities through personal experience.
I usually work on multiple projects at the same time. I also work on projects for a long time. It takes time for me to understand what the work is trying to tell me. I experiment, let it sit, think and try again. Practical aspects also necessitate that I take breaks within a project. During this time, I might not be shooting, but it’s there somewhere in the studio. It’s also most likely that I’m shooting or making something else. Stepping away and stepping closer, and the passage of time are important to my practice.
The term Tiramisu can be understood as a pick-me up or cheer me up. Visual stanzas, gathered into a multi-narrative piece, that are a testament to connecting with those closest to our living space, and what can be accomplished as a team through wit, spontaneity and action. Friends, roommates and neighbours. What’s closest to home, the opposite of the photographer’s obsession to exoticize - fellow foreigners that convene in the familiar feeling of being somewhere new. Covid-19 and the stark winter darkness of the 60th degree.
Exploring via dialectic, with emphasis on the collaborative process where the subjects provide ideas on where and how to be photographed; casting aside the dictatorial picture-maker; a wolf leading from behind. Members of the Chinese student community in Espoo, Finland, aiming at subverting stereotypical categorizations of what’s typically viewed in the media and a chance at writing their own tale.
The undertaking itself as a healthy social support system that culminates in a document that is situated between fact and fiction - sporadically implementing a collective imagination that shapes experience, interconnectivity and memory. A familiar life ritual at a crossroads of larger global phenomena. An opportunity to knock at the neighbour’s room and showcase the thrill of togetherness; a simplicity slowly dissipating via virtual hyperconnectivity. A chance to reimagine quotidian surroundings, the stairs used weekly to do the laundry, the bed that’s slept on, the expressions that are manifested after a profound statement or an embarrassing instant. Sitting at the common room table, sharing home-cooked meals, continuing the evening’s gathering by placing the mirror uncannily in an attempt to reveal something new.
www.alexanderkomenda.com
Nicole Mullan
North with The Spring is an on-going body of work which explores issues around Irish Diaspora and losing one’s identity after migration.
It looks at the familiar through a new perspective, one that changes and alters over time but is always present and never forgotten. It often results in feelings of placelessness; living in-between worlds, neither existing fully in Ireland or in England, reflecting a constant shift or movement between places we call home.
It highlights religion and borders as both physical and emotional boundaries, a reflection of my own identity, a constant search for belonging.
www.nicolemullan.com
Nico Froehlich
Growing up in Britain as a child of immigrants, I would hide certain elements of my life and upbringing. As an adult and a photographer, I actively seek out and champion the very things I obscured and disregarded as a youngster.
South of the River is an ongoing, long-form project that incorporates various genres and approaches. Partially social realism, partially biographical, but ultimately a celebration of the working-class spirit and the enriching diversity of South East London. The streets I call home…
nicofroehlich.com
All upcoming RPS Documentary Events can be found on our events page.
Our Telling Stories with your Camera workshop series:
These workshops are intended to provide expert practical guidance for those considering or already working on long term projects (documentary, contemporary or travel).
They aim to address some of the challenges in three areas: Starting out (building a photographic series, defining your intent, planning and researching your project), The Shoot (field work, shooting to a narrative, keeping it going and staying motivated) and Editing and Sequencing (selecting images for exhibitions, panels & books, sequencing them and getting your work out there). Check out the latest workshops on our Events page.
Our Engagement Talks series, Documentary Events and Exhibitions:
Repair is Essential Exhibition - 7 to 28 January 2022
Eco Village - Market Harborough
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/january/repair-is-essential
Engagement Talk - Roy Mehta - 27 January 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/january/engagement-talk-roy-mehta
Engagement Talk - Jack Lowe - The Lifeboat Station Project - 10 February 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/february/engagement-talk-jack-lowe
Using Photography to Investigate a Story - Agnes Villette - 2 March 2022
rps.org/events/groups/women-in-photography/2022/march/agnes-villette
Engagement Talk - Carolyn Mendelsohn - 3 March 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/march/engagement-talk-carolyn-mendelsohn
Engagement Talk - David Hurn - 17 March 2022 18.00
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/march/engagement-talk-david-hurn
Engagement Talk - Martin Parr - 31 March 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/march/engagement-talk-martin-parr
Engagement Talk - Nick Hedges - 14 April 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/april/engagement-talk-nick-hedges
- Documentary
RPS Documentary Photographer of the Year 2021 - Exhibitions
Oxford - 16 February 2022 to 9 March 2022
St John’s College, St Giles, Oxford
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/february/dpoty2021-exhibition
London - 14 March 2022 to 30 April 2022
FUJIFILM House of Photography, 8-9 Long Acre, Covent Garden rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/march/dpoty2021-exhibition-london
Newcastle - 7 May 2022 to 4 June 2022
Newcastle Arts Centre, 67 Westgate Road, Newcastle rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/may/dpoty2021-exhibition
Oriel Colwyn Gallery - 13 June to 11 July 2022
Oriel Colwyn, Upstairs at Theatre Colwyn, Abergele Road, Colwyn Bay rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/june/dpoty2021-exhibition
Group Meetings:
The RPS Documentary Group South East - 14:00, Saturday 22 January 2022
rps.org/events/groups/documentary/2022/january/doc-group-se-zoom-meeting-22ndjanuary-2pm-mark-phillips
The documentary group has a presence on the following platforms, come and join in the conversation. We understand that not everyone has a social media profile or wants to create one. That’s why all our profiles are public and can be viewed by everyone, no matter whether you have an account or not. This means you will be able to view all our posts and book on to ticketed events. Checking our RPS page and searching for events is still a good way to keep informed with all that is happening in the Documentary group. If you have any questions you can always e-mail us – all our contact details are listed there.
Facebook Page - facebook.com/rpsdocumentary
Our public Facebook page is new, but it already highlights the successful projects that entered our Documentary Photographer of the Year competition. You can also find albums for the Bi-monthly Competition winners and short texts from our Journal The Decisive Moment (DM) there – these updates are designed to be easy to read on a phone screen that also provides you with the link to the full articles.
Facebook Group - facebook.com/groups/RPSDVJ
We also have a closed group Facebook page, exclusively for our members. If you want to join us there, you can share your pictures with us, ask for advice, and engage with our online community.
@rpsdoc
Instagram is an image-based social media platform, so think of our profile as of an online gallery. If you follow us there, you can see pictures from our competition winners, DM contributors and members along with invitations to events and images from these occasions. Instagram is the place where we want to promote the work of our group and our members to the wider public and encourage them to follow and engage with our projects.
Flickr
Royal Photographic Society - Documentary Group
Documentary Group members run an active group on Flickr with plenty of images and the opportunity to discuss them with the group.
rps.org/documentary
Contact: docweb@rps.org
@rpsdoc
Our Twitter page is for short important updates such as events, exhibitions, call for entries or other announcements. If you do not have much time for scrolling on social media but still want to be in on the action, we recommend you to follow us there. We promise we’ll be short and concise.
The Decisive Moment is published on the Issuu platform where you can read each edition online or download pdfs to read offline. Please follow the Documentary Group in Issuu and use the buttons to like and share your favourite editions or individual features - it really helps support the Documentary Group.
Website
rps.org/documentary
The Documentary Special Interest Group has a section on The Royal Photographic Society website. Here you can learn more about the group, hear about recent news and future events and access an increasing number of documentary photography resources. There are now nearly 100 recommend photobooks, nearly 20 reference books on approaches and issues in documentary and around 30 street-photo references/books, plus links to 24 online archives. All free and available to anyone.
Documentary photography as a practice spans a range of approaches, so makes precise definition difficult. Taken literally, all forms of photography can be described as documentary, in that they document someone, something or some place. As a working definition, the Documentary Group uses the following:
“Documentary photography communicates a clear narrative through visual literacy. It can be applied to the photographic documentation of social, cultural, historical and political events. Documentary photographers’ work always has an intent; whether that is to represent daily life, explore a specific subject, deepen our thinking, or influence our opinions.”
rps.org/documentary
Members form a dynamic and diverse group of photographers globally who share a common interest in documentary and street photography.
We welcome photographers of all skill levels and offer members a diverse programme of workshops, photoshoots, longer-term projects, a prestigious Documentary Photographer of the Year (DPOTY) competition, exhibitions, and a quarterly online journal ‘The Decisive Moment’.
Some longer-term collaborative projects are in the pipeline for the future. We have a active membership who participate in regional meetings, regular competitions and exchange ideas online through our social media groups.
Overseas members pay £5 per annum for Group membership rather than the £10 paid by UK based members.
The Documentary Group is always keen to expand its activities and relies on ideas and volunteer input from its members.
If you’re not a member come and join us. Find us on the RPS website at: rps.org/documentary
rps.org/documentary