Category: Writings

  • Welcome to America

    One of my last duties before leaving London was to publish a catalogue of photographs for sale to the commercial creative market (advertisers, designers and the like). It was a joy to introduce artists such as Julia Hember, David Hiscock and Calum Colvin to the commercial world and immediately an Ajamu image was snapped up…

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  • Objects Of Desire – on photographing sex

    President Clinton’s assertion that orgasm can be achieved without having sex provokes an interesting line of thought: it looks like sex and it feels like sex, but apparently it isn’t sex. He proposes that it is possible to create an illusion of sex that is so real that we can have the experience without the…

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  • Warsaw 1947 – Jindrich Marco

    Warsaw 1947 © Jindrich Marco The photograph came into its own during the 20th Century as a means of controlling information, subtly using facts as a means to manipulate truth. Photography plays on our perception of reality, inviting each viewer to construct our own believable story in response to the events shown in the frame.…

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  • Rules Of Attraction – how the media machine works

    Commerce and creativity are often regarded as irreconcilable opposites in the work of photojournalists. This article takes a sardonic look at the rules for commercial success, but concludes that the best photographers can be both creative and commercial. First published in the British Journal of Photography, 24th February 1994 In a parallel universe there is…

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  • Photographing The Invisible – HIV & AIDS

    There is something different about HIV and AIDS. If the photographers’ purpose had been to explore the personal catastrophe of illness there are many medical conditions that could have been approached – but unlike any other virus the medical and emotional battles of those living with HIV are underscored by unique social conditions. What distinguishes…

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  • No Single Meaning – an alternative reading of Benetton’s “AIDS ad”

    Oliviero Toscani’s controversial advertisements for Benetton in the early ‘90s met with almost unanimous condemnation in the UK. This article considers the motives of the photographer and the subject’s family. First published in The British Journal Of Photography, 13 February 1992 Much has been said in the discussion about Benetton’s motives in using Therese Frare’s…

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  • Indecent Exposures – moral censorship

    Third in a series of three articles exploring non-legislative control of information in the media. Although written in 1991 with specific reference to the United Kingdom, many of the precepts remain highly relevant. First published in the British Journal of Photography, 5th September 1991 There is a big difference between the events that happen and…

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