Other people’s work

Q&A with Tiffany L. Clark

Other people's work, photojournalism, Still photography, Thoughts

(Note to readers: Some graphic content)

In this post I’ll be sharing just a small sample of the intimate and moving photo essay by Tiffany L. Clark called “A Release: Stories of Self-Injury.” Chances are you haven’t seen many stories like this before, partly due to the graphic nature of self-injury, and also because it is a very difficult story to tell. Some publications may decline to cover this topic, or some may not be able to find anyone willing to share their story.

Tiffany has done a very good job of gaining the trust of women who are walking an often lonely and hidden road, in order to document an important and underreported issue. Below, I’ve also asked Tiffany a few questions about her project. You can see more of Tiffany’s work on her website.


(Photo by Tiffany L. Clark)
Caption: Thirty-three year old Jenn started self harming when she was 17 by cutting herself, but finding that wasn’t enough moved to burning her body. Everyday can be a struggle, she finds herself getting tired very easily throughout the day. At the time she was not aware that she was diagnosed with Lyme disease, which has added to her daily struggles. A mix of depression and different events that have taken place throughout her life has attributed to her self-injury.

Q: What is self-injury and why do certain women become drawn to it?

Tiffany: The act of self-injury itself is usually an impulsive physical way for people to control their feelings. Self-injury is similar to other addictions and disorders (i.e. drugs, alcohol, eating disorders) in the fact that it is not about attention or fatally hurting oneself. It’s about dealing with things and this is their outlet. Doctors attribute self-injury mainly to depression, other addictions and PTSD, indicating that some incident happened (usually when someone is young) and learned a proper way to handle the influx of emotion and some how they stumbled upon self-injury as a way of release.

I don’t believe there is a specific reason why people choose to self-harm as their form of emotional release; I think it just happens. Like any other incidents’ that occur in our lives most find a way to deal with these events – I have found sports and running is how I deal with stress and difficult events in my life, we all know people who found alcohol to be their release; self-injury for some just happens to be what they have found.

I’d like to state that it is not only women who self-injure. Yes, the majority of people who do are women but men do self-injure as well, it just may not be reported as greatly. People speculate that the reported numbers of people who self-injure are higher with women because females are more open to sharing and talking about their emotions and actions with what’s going on in their lives. Whereas men tend to keep everything in and not admit to their own self-harm.


(Photo by Tiffany L. Clark)
Caption: Anne, 29, displays cuts on her chest from her self-injury. Anne has been cutting herself since she was 14 years old. Stress from a tough childhood, the death of her biological mother and ending up having to live in an orphanage for a period of time, she believes, is her reasoning for starting self injury. Anne stopped cutting for 10 years when her first son was born but started cutting again when she had her third miscarriage. Like everyone who self-injures, she wants to stop.

Q: Why do you care about this topic in particular and what challenges have you faced?

Tiffany: I grew up and went to school with people who self-injure and it hurt hearing what others would say about them in terms of why they thought people were harming themselves. There are so many misconceptions and stereotypes put out there that I got so tired of people not understanding and assuming these people were freaks/crazies doing it just for the attention (which the act of self-injury is not about). When I was in school studying photojournalism and had to begin a long-term project I knew this topic had to be it. I want to bring my representation of self-injury to help create awareness because there is an obvious lack of understanding and too many false assumptions about self-injury. Without awareness, people who self-injure stay in the dark and don’t know how to receive help out of fear of the repercussions and thoughts their family and friends will instill on them if they tell them that they self-injure. Out of any of the most common addictions and disorders, self-injury is by far the loneliest one to deal with and seek treatment for because of the lack of support and the social fear of telling people that you are a self-injurer.

One challenge I have faced, like anyone else doing a documentary project, has been trying to find people to share their stories visually to the world. What holds people back is that fear of what others will think of them and how their lives could change. But access has not been my biggest challenge. Getting the work published and seen has been the challenge. I have heard from people and editors that it is too tough of a story to publish because it is hard to look at images knowing someone has harmed themselves intentionally and they have difficulty understand this fact- but isn’t that the reason than to present work like this? I believe that the only way people can really learn and understand is by bringing awareness.


(Photo by Tiffany L. Clark)
For twenty year old Nicole, writing out her thoughts and feelings is a way for her to cope with her overwhelming emotions, but at times it is not enough. This letter that she wrote has a line of dried blood across it after an episode of cutting herself. The hardest part of self injury, compared to other addictions, is that it is all in the mind. You can try and take alcohol away from an alcoholic, but you can’t take away the thoughts of self hatred or lose of control from anyone. A self harmer knows how to hurt themselves with any object.

Q: How did you gain the trust of these women and what are your plans for the future of this project?

Tiffany: I gained the trust of them by being honest. I tell them why I believe their stories matter and that I want to represent them and self-injury in a truly honest way and they know I am not there to expose them or judge them. They fully understand and agree about the lack of help and awareness that is available about self-injury and want to be a part of that change. One of my subjects told me afterwards that by sharing her story and being photographed, it helped her to fully stop self-harming. I mean, just knowing that, how can I stop doing this project and stop trying to share people’s stories?

My future plans would be a video/multimedia piece so viewers can hear the voices of self-injurers tell their stories. So much of self-injury happens and begins mentally, and to try to photograph and represent that mental side of it is truly a difficult task. This is where multimedia gives you the opportunity to hear what thoughts are taking place along with seeing these visually striking images.

 

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See more from Tiffany L. Clark on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or at www.tiffanyclarkphotography.com.

 

A Dose for Dominic – Documentary Short

Multimedia, My work, Other people's work, photojournalism, Published work, Video

Our short documentary film is a finalist in the 2013 International Documentary Challenge! Many thanks to director Ruth Gregory, producer Luke Ware, producer/DP Daniel Berman, and everyone else on the long list of credits. It was a great team to be a part of. Our film will premiere at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto on April 30. Hope to see you there. We can’t share the film with you until after the premiere, but stay tuned!

Google Maps Photojournalism | Seattle Photographer

Google Maps, Other people's work, Published work, Seattle, Still photography, Tech stuff, Thoughts

Is this the new face of photojournalism? Google Maps is certainly part of the future of photojournalism, like it or not. (Related: See my Google Maps photo essay.)

Below is a screen shot of SeattlePI.com and you can see how they have utilized a Google Maps Street View image for reporting purposes. It’s very sad that a woman was shot and in this case an actual human photographer I think would be able to cover this story quite well, but instead we have a Google Maps image taking the place of traditional photojournalism. Of course I’m sure the SeattlePI.com journalists would agree that using a human photojournalist would be ideal – and seeing Google Maps in this story probably comes down to a case of budget constraints.

I’m actually surprised that I have not seen more Google Maps images in the press, but I am wondering how the readers are responding to this. Right now there are four comments on the story but they all relate to the rather shocking content of the story, not the use of a Google Maps image. My guess is that viewers/readers do not care one bit. They probably do care that the image presented is pretty boring, but that is not necessarily because it is a Google Maps image. There are plenty of pretty and interesting Google Maps images out there, but just like traditional photojournalism it takes time, energy and expertise to find those images.

For me, I really am intrigued by the use of Google Maps images for photojournalism, reportage and photo essays, but the image below isn’t exactly a good supporting argument. Aren’t I afraid of losing my job? Not really. I actually think that the more that Google Maps images pop up, the more that media consumers will realize that their lives are constantly under surveillance. For this reason, and others, I think folks will begin to remember why they love images made by real, empathetic, human photojournalists. There is something great that people love about images made by other humans, and the screen shot below can help with understanding that. However, as a photojournalist myself I’ve found that using Google Maps can be rewarding. Part of my graduate school capstone work included a Google Maps Street View photo essay.

 

Breaking Barriers | Seattle Photographer

Diversity, Multimedia, My work, Other people's work, Published work, Still photography, UW Bothell, Video

I’m working with the Diversity Recruitment & Outreach team at UW Bothell again, this time to document a special project at McKnight Middle School in Renton, Washington. UW Bothell student volunteers are spending time with the middle school students each week to build leadership and communication skills as well as self and cultural awareness. The volunteers are also facilitating conversations about how McKnight Middle School can better serve these students and set them up for success in college and beyond. The middle school student group consists of mostly African American and Latino young men, which are largely underrepresented groups on college campuses. Programs like this one can hopefully change that. It really is a remarkable program.

At the end of the year we will be producing a short documentary film that explains what we were able to accomplish. In the meantime, you can watch the first video installment of a series of updates about this outreach work. I am doing some of the filming, taking photographs, and most importantly mentoring a UW Bothell senior, Amen Mengesha, who is the director of the project. He is a media production star of the future, so be sure to watch that first video installment here, or below, to see what he created. I’ve included some of my photographs from week two below.

 

 

UW Light Box Displays

Diversity, Graphic Design, My work, Other people's work, Published work, Seattle, Still photography, University of Washington

It was a great pleasure to finally see my work on the walls of Mary Gates Hall at the University of Washington last week, part of a light box installation that I designed and photographed over the summer. You might have seen periodic blog posts featuring the portraits and other photos I had been working on, which are now featured in the large 3′ x 5′ light boxes in the Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity. I shot most of the photos in the displays and designed the layout as well, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The Center approached me last spring because they were moving to a new office space and they wanted a bright, colorful, display with photos that featured a lot of natural light and outdoor scenes, while also telling the story of their programming and outstanding students. I think the project turned out amazing and I’m especially happy with the final quality of the printing. The detail and texture of a light box is really unique – something that I don’t often get to see with my photos.

Photojournalism & Famine: David Campbell’s Analysis

Other people's work, Thoughts

I was referred to the blog of David Campbell by the late Tim Hetherington and have a great deal of respect for Campbell as a scholar and a blogger. I cited some of his work in my capstone project for graduate school and I think he is asking a lot of good, tough questions. The problem is that many in the realm of photojournalism quickly become defensive when hearing Campbell’s thoughts.

Campbell stirred up quite a discussion this week with his critical analysis of famine coverage by photojournalists, a conversation Campbell has been part of for a while but a conversation that has new energy due to the current famine in East Africa. Campbell engaged with some the criticism of his original blog post in a second blog post. Have a look at these because it is an important conversation to be having. I’ve included a particularly important passage below, from his first blog post.

 

“We can easily lament the limitations of famine iconography, especially the way it homogenises, anthropomorphises, infantilises and impoverishes. But above all else we have to understand it is a visual sign of failure. The recourse to the stereotypes of famine is driven by the complex political circumstances photography has historically been unable to capture. This means that when we see the images of distressed people, feeding clinics and starving babies, we are seeing the end result of a collective inability to picture causes and context.” –David Campbell

Jason Eskenazi – “The Black Garden”

Multimedia, Other people's work, Still photography, Thoughts, Travel

I had the privilege of meeting Jason Eskenazi last summer and he continues to be one of the best photographers that you probably haven’t heard of. (Check out his website). This is his new project, The Black Garden, on Kickstarter, which is an awesome new website designed to help find funding for creative projects. If you haven’t been to Kickstarter yet, I strongly encourage you to visit the site and have a look around. And support Jason’s latest project if you can. Stay tuned and look for one of my projects on Kickstarter soon.

The Bang Bang Club

Multimedia, Other people's work, Still photography, Travel

I was pleased to be able to see The Bang Bang Club on opening night at the NW Film Forum in Seattle on Friday. This film tells the story of a close group of photojournalists during the height of Apartheid violence in South Africa. I enjoyed the film although it was quite depressing … and as a film/creative piece, it left much to be desired. The sound, for one, was mixed poorly and so I missed quite a bit of the dialogue. But it was very interesting to witness what are supposedly quite realistic re-enactments of combat photojournalism and scenes where outstanding photographs, including Pulitzer Prize winners, were made. I was also disappointed to see that the story pretty much avoided any mention of black, coloured, Indian, or any photojournalists of other ethnicities in the country who were working at the time. In a story that takes place in the extreme racism of Apartheid South Africa, it seems problematic to find that our heroes at the end of the day are a group of white men. There are no doubt many many unnamed heroes in the struggle that are left invisible. Of course, the film is based on the book by photojournalists and “members” of The Bang Bang Club, Joao Silva and Greg Marinovich, and that story simply didn’t include anyone but white photojournalists because that’s who happened to be in the “club.” And that is who won the Pulitzers, etc.

The film did do a great job, in my opinion, of offering the ups and downs of conflict work and the difficult emotional and ethical situations that photojournalists deal with. Specifically, we see Kevin Carter eventually commit suicide as well as try to explain whether he helped a starving little girl after photograph her being pursued by a vulture during a food crisis. Overall I give this film a B-. If I weren’t a photojournalist I would probably be less excited about the whole thing and give it a C-.

Sweet Crude

Multimedia, Other people's work, Thoughts, UW Bothell

I had to the opportunity to hear documentary filmmaker Sandy Cioffi speak last night in my graduate school class at UW Bothell and it was a great experience. We were hearing someone so passionate, smart and politically inclined – and it was a breath of fresh air to hear that someone like this has decided to run for Seattle City Council. We watched her film, Sweet Crude, and then had an hour to ask questions. Cioffi deserves your vote and your volunteer time on her campaign.

Most photographers and documentary filmmakers believe that the best way to effect change is via the camera, but Cioffi has decided to make an interesting new path through local politics and I’m very interested to see how she does.

I’ve embedded the trailer for the film below. The DVD comes out soon.