The Visionary Award from the Tim Hetherington Trust

In only 90 minutes this presentation offers an overview of Tim Hetherington’s life and work in an historical context and demonstrates his continuing influence on contemporary documentary practice.

Greg Brockett of the Imperial War Museums (Contemporary Conflicts Photography Curator) in discussion with Max Houghton of the London College of Communications (Senior Lecturer & Course Leader MA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography) will explore Tim’s sustained relevance in light of IWM’s recent acquisition of his life archive.

This talk is free to Photo London Thursday ticket holders and Photo London pass holders. 

Special £5 tickets for this talk are available which allows the holder access to Photo London from 5.45pm on Thursday 17 May only to attend this talk.

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Also presenting:
Omar Imam (2017 Visionary Award): Omar used last year’s award to expand his project “Syrialism” a study of Syria’s culture as it now exists in its scattered form, showing it to be fragmented yet coherent in exile after nearly seven years of civil war that has displaced approximately 50% of the population.

Andrea Ellen Reed (supplementary award 2017): Andrea has continued her work on “Unsighted”, using video in its simplest from to create a wholly innovative experience for viewers, delivering a visceral understanding of how Black people have internalized white supremacist culture in contemporary USA.

The Tim Hetherington Trust continues Tim’s mission to inquire more deeply and to communicate more effectively by showcasing similarly inspirational work by today’s generation of visual storytellers. To this end the Visionary Award identifies journalists and artists breaking new ground in diverse visual disciplines and this evening’s discussion will introduce work by the five artists shortlisted for the 2018 Visionary Award:

Laia Abril shortlisted for “A History of Misogyny, chapter 2: Rape Culture” The first chapter of this ongoing project delivered a searing review of suffering consequent to the absence of reliable abortion procedures. Based on deep factual research and profound understanding of the lived experience of women around the world, Laia’s productions confront the viewer with irrefutable evidence that cannot be forgotten. Factual information rips at the emotions and provides a conceptual framework that gives meaning to the statistics. Chapter 2 on Rape Culture will extend this process as Laia reviews “this outrageous culture of rape”.

Assia Boundaoui shortlisted for “The Feeling Of Being Watched”. This documentary film has already premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and the strong reviews have reflected the extraordinary research and Assia’s creative expression of her findings that her home community in an Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago had fallen under an unprecedented blanket of government surveillance. Her work is now focused on extending the distribution of the knowledge gained in the making of the film through video installations and an interactive platform that will create a long-lasting home designed to shed light on the surveillance process and its consequences.

Oscar Castillo shortlisted for “Under Our Control”. Oscar was an early recipient of an award in Tim’s name when in 2013 the Eddie Adams Workshop recognised his extraordinary investigation of the culture of violence in Venezuela. Five years on he is still adding depth to this study of a country at risk as “the borders between political power and criminality are more and more diffuse.” Currently focused on incarceration the project illustrates the problem of rampant imprisonment and adds the rarely heard voice of those working to ensure a constructive and sustainable reinsertion into society, even as the country struggles with an economy in freefall. This will be documentary with a difference: a “box set” comprising Hip Hop, video, a zine, a photographic e-book and more.

Daniel Castro Garcia shortlisted for “Foreigner”. In 2015, horrified by the plight of thousands seeking passage across the Mediterranean and appalled by the media’s insensitive coverage of their suffering and fortitude, Daniel dropped everything except his cameras and left his home in UK to visit Sicily. He has been living there ever since and has developed a remarkable practice that uses the image as a hub for research, outreach and reconstruction. In the process of telling their story, he is giving support and hope to some of the most vulnerable, helping them and the receiving countries to visualise a future that is bigger than the story currently offered by mainstream media. “Trauma is a reality in their lives yet it does not need to control or destroy their futures.”

People’s Culture shortlisted for “Fireflies of Brownsville”. People’s Culture is a collaborative production with active involvement of over 100 participants, all residents and protagonists in the violent experience of life in Brownsville, a highly concentrated development of public housing in Brooklyn, New York. The project is focused on the production of a “docu-game”, an innovative application of computer gaming that both documents and engages participation with an ultimate ambition of educating participants and observers to reach beyond the stereotypes to find understanding of how things are and how they might be different. Built with the people of Brownsville and for the people of Brownsville “Fireflies” will demonstrate a model that can be reproduced infinitely by communities far and wide using the template technology developed here.

The event culminates with the announcement of the award.