I was fortunate enough, on Tuesday, September 24, to see a performance by Magnum photographer Larry Towell (who lives on his farm just outside of London, ON, where I am attending school), and Mike Stevens on (beautiful) harmonica. https://phi-centre.com/en/events/id/BloodInTheSoil It was a haunting intersection of bluegrass/country music (performed by Towell and Stevens), along with Towell's poetry and songwriting, and video and slideshow presentations of places he has traveled to. I found it experimentally exciting - a novel way of enhancing the meaning of the experiences in these image, but also somewhat self-congratulatory (too focused on HIS experiences, not of those in the pictures). I was able to talk with him only briefly afterwards, and from what I gather through his comments, this performance is part of a growing trend in photojournalism today - marketing though multimedia (and I use 'marketing' purposefully, because it seemed to be more about showcasing himself and Magnum than the people/circumstances in the images). On the one hand I thought this performance was really immersive and intense for the spectators, but then again I was disappointed as well. Because our conversation was not even that, it was just brief commenting, it did confirm in me the sense I got after talking with the photographers in Cambridge, break-time banter is not the time/place to get into the serious topics I want to broach, it is something to be handled very sensitively. I do so see that there is a difficult balancing/negotiating that press photographers have to contend with (like so many of the rest of us in other fields): a balance of ethics (personal morals and social norms) and political-economic realities (conditions). Opportunities, imperatives, responsibilities and limitations.
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