David Plummer – Des Portraits de la Maison de la Chance
In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew:
Old passports can’t do that, my dear, old passports can’t do that.
The consul banged the table and said,
“If you’ve got no passport you’re officially dead”:
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.
Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.
Extracts from W.H. Auden Poem; ‘Refugee Blues’.
—
La Maison de la Chance, The House of Good Luck, is a nickname given to a women’s refugee shelter in Calais, France. The refuge is a place of safety for trafficked women, vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
The following ID Photos were collected from the refuge between November and December of 2008 having been discarded by their owners before continuing their perilous journey to the U.K & Canada.
When taken, these ID Photos were perhaps unremarkable. Now, given the dangerous journey many trafficked women have undertaken, these photos invite us to meet them, think about them and ourselves whilst facing this issue where women are frequently forced into a situation of extreme dependency.
Photographs: David Plummer
Website: www.lightstalkers.org/davidplummer
Discarded ID photos. The text romanticizes them, I suppose, but neither the photos nor the text tell anything about who they really were. A mother? A widow? A prostitute? A future suicide bomber?
I guess I just can’t figure out how this fits in here. They are discarded photos. Beyond that, I don’t get it.
JIM…
yes, discarded photos..isn’t that Plummer’s point??? discarded women????
do you remember David’s previous pictures???
many things “fit in here”….including you and your comments….
thank you Jim…
cheers, david
David, I did get the symbolism. But with a 1,000 aspiring photographers to publish, why publish discarded photos? I don’t get it.
As a set of supporting images for an in depth article I can easily see these as having a lot of power. especially if the piece were to follow up on some of these women and show us,and tell us, about their journey. Used in this way they would have, i believe, some use. As they are, they are just found photographs displayed above a quite sketchy abstract. Show me a link to the finished article (which I would like to see) otherwise these are just floundering about without any context.
John
JIM…JOHN
i do hope David Plummer jumps in as he did before…his work is totally non-photographic in the traditional sense…do you not remember his dying man???
photography has many purposes..photographers have many motives….this is only one of them….
ok, running…back with you in the morning….
cheers, david
I’d like to know a bit more about the refuge.
If, as we are told the women were all trafficked before they got there (as opposed to being regular refugees/asylum seekers/migrants), then they must have somehow been rescued from that situation…so how come they ended up continuing their journey from there? did they escape? did the traffickers come back for them? (that has recently been happening with trafficked Chinese children at a home near Heathrow airport, London).
And how do we know they have gone to the UK and Canada? How would they get to Canada?
I like the idea of using the passport pictures to give a face to these nameless, luckless women, but need more about the refuge to help me mentally put this into context
I’m haunted now.
I am as “traditional” as Jim and John in my opinion on this series. Sorry for that.
Provocative, but for me empty. Flat. Too many questions, but this bad questions.
Yes there are questions. And a lot of the time that is a good thing. And there are no real answers here either, and that can also be powerful. However, statements such as “When taken, these ID Photos were perhaps unremarkable. Now, given the dangerous journey many trafficked women have undertaken, these photos invite us to meet them, think about them and ourselves whilst facing this issue where women are frequently forced into a situation of extreme dependency.” Does it? Not as it currently stands it doesent, or at least not for me. I think that it could though. I mean, there is definately a story here and the ID cards, which ‘humanise’ these stories have a latent power in them. I just think that as it stands here, that potential is not being fulfilled.
John.
I’m reminded of Dworzak’s essay Taliban. I found that compelling, as I find this piece compelling. As mentioned above, you’re left with ?s… so what I say… anyway I thought that was the point (empty hollow answers). Throw a few more didactic portraits to explain things and the essay will lose what sets it apart.
Interesting essay David.
Thank you.
i love found photos.
http://www.foundphotos.net/
although for me the lack of certainly as to what happened next to these women leaves the kind of ambiguous thoughts in me which make the project difficult to read.. some of the women may have gone to canada or the uk.. some may have ended up with a much happier existence than before, and some of course will be worse off.. but without the knowledge and confidence of their outcome it´s a difficult set to respond to.. some of these women may be misrepresented here.
unlike the walls of photos at auswitz or the khamer rouge documents of the murdered, it´s not so simple and clear cut to conclude the outcome here.. which for me takes away from the credibility of the statements under the slideshow.
i remember teaching photography to groups of asylum seekers back in england a few years ago.. along with a little english :ø)
both women and men.. the deeply hurt and the less so.. who had traveled to england for vastly desperate reasons.
i´m not sure any would have been pleased with the representation here, since even the self portrait project i was working on with them remains unseen – as were their wishes.
:ø)
david
more interesting opening comments… i was very moved by this work… this is a real problem in society… i really feel this was addressed well through these images… amazing essay…. thank you for this…
ALL…
i agree with the criticism many of you have for just flat out needing more information on some of the work published here…
photographers are notoriously bad/famous for just not writing enough about the pictures they submit to publications….editors at every publication from newspapers to major magazines have this lament…often the pictures here come to me with even less information that what i finally publish…it takes so much effort on my part to try and squeeze out even the tiniest drop of info….i swear, pictures with come in with a caption like “Calcutta”…hmmmmmm, what to do?? well, one of the big improvements i want to make here is to have someone, as in any publication, drag this out of the photographers…it honestly takes a lot of time and effort as any editor will tell you…
if you are reading this and you plan to submit work to BURN, we just will not be able to publish your work without at least a modicum of pertinent logical information to go with the pictures…this is very clearly stated in the submission guidelines….it can be an artists statement or an accurate paragraph on the events surrounding the work…
by the way, ironically, the so called art photographers are generally much better at writing and explaining than the journalistic photographers..c’mon you documentary photographers..BASICS PLEASE…just a simple “who, what, where, why and how” will do…
what usually “saves us” here is that the photographer will finally jump in and explain….i know David Plummer is a very concerned and caring photographer….perhaps, in his case, the mystery is where he wants to be and i am sure he does not consider himself a journalist…..but, let’s wait and see….
thanks for your patience…..
cheers, david
mike, the problem for me is that nothing was addressed through the essay. We have the opinion of the person who compiled them, but the photos really say nothing of those depicted.
Hi Folk,
I like this series. For me sometimes simple is best; here we have straight portraits, all probably made in a photo booth. There is no photographer on the other side of the camera; no photographers agenda when the images are made; no sentiment or nostalgia; no sympathetic lighting. These images weren’t made an aesthetic purpose in mind. The camera just is – a dumb recording machine functioning without a motive, and the images are just a record to serve bureaucratic needs. The only thing that unites these images, apart from them all being of women is the process that the women have gone through. They all went into the booth, adjusted the seat, put their money in the slot and stared into the lens. Everything here is mechanical, the photographic process, the trafficking process that reduces these women to nothing more than a commodity – items that are just passed on down the line, and then are forgotten about once the money has changed hands. Theirs is a life with very little, or no humanity in it. I think the method chosen by David conveys some sense of this.
The only detracting factor for me, and I’m in agreement with Ciara on this, is the text. Okay it tells us they are trafficked women who have been to a refuge. But it does provide enough information about the situation. How does the refuge work? Where are they know? Why on onward journey to the UK and Canada? Are they safe now or are they back in the hands of the traffickers? I would like to know more about this.
The use of found photos reminds me of Thomas Dworzak’s Taliban book. I like that too.
Cheers,
Jason.
In general, I adore found photos and I deeply appreciate many conceptual pieces, but as a woman I feel that the use of these images is wrong unless the women gave consent to use these images this way. If I were a trafficked woman and had been through hell and I had at last found refuge in a safe place, and had cast off an image of myself before seeking a new life, the absolute last thing I would want would be for my face to be put up in identification with my former life. If they consented to the use, that is another story, but as I understand what is written, this seems like a violation and a further exploitation, and a taking advantage of the act of individuals (the discarding) who thought they were in a safe place. As a photographer, I think these images tell volumes and have merit, but while these women and their children live, I think this is not your story to tell.
I agree with most of the reactions above — the context of the photos is more interesting than the photos themselves, and without it the photos are nothing. The women in the photos may be deserving of our interest and sympathy, but the photos do not make the case.
ERICA…
interesting point and well taken…doesn’t this lead us into a discussion of any woman, man, or child whose photograph is used in the press without their permission in the context of their current or past circumstances which would depict them in a light which could bring them shame??? most people photographed by photojournalists have no idea that the photographer is shooting for the press, may not even be aware of any photographer, nor the context in which their picture will be used….
let’s see what David Plummer has to say….
cheers,david
ERICA,
I agree.
DAVID,
Doesn’t the copyright belong to the women if they took the images in a photobooth? I feel it’s more a mather of stealing a photo then taking one. But David Plummer will probably clarify.
But we are only given a “pass” in the press if we don’t misrepresent those we photograph. We were there and we know the context of the situation (and hopefully got complete cutline information ;)
These are discarded photos. The only context we have is the context he has given them, and because he knows nothing of these women other then where they were when the photos were taken, speculation about their past or future is just that. I think this is a misuse of the photos. They were discarded and the women may have had very good reasons for discarding them.
Don’t know where the idea came from these were taken in a photo both. Someone was likely behind a camera taking these ID photos.
DAH
yes, I think so, to a point..but the fact that these are ID photos that were taken with the purpose and intent to make the person recognizable, combined with the act of retrieving them from the trash pushes it into another context for me. (It seems) that the women intended for the images to go away, and they were in a refuge, not watching their backs or covering their tracks..and of course, they were already victims. Many people who are unknowingly photographed are not victims, are not so clearly identifiable, and do not have their past so clearly told. Shouldn’t victims of human rights abuses be given extra consideration in these instances? I wonder if Maison de la Chance knows about this use..I can’t see how they would feel it was appropriate. I don’t mean to attack David P, but perhaps this needs to be thought through more if indeed there was no consent to use the images.
mmmm…
discarded
and used again….
do these images pose danger to these women?
where are they now?
makes me feel
empty
sad…
I agree with Erica,
the women need to tell their story,
if they want….
as photographers
we need to be sensitive to that….
and yes, David brings up a good point about photos published without consent,
HOWEVER
the photographer knows in what context they were photographed…
these were ‘found’
the photographer can only guess at their story….
My fear is one of these women being recognized,
which potentially could be dangerous to her….
mmmm…..
**
as well the women are now living in the US and the UK, so I would think that the images are more likely to be seen / someone recognized than if they were starting new lives somewhere else..not that it matters in terms of ethical debate, but perhaps it does matter pragmatically
My original problem still stands, though. Why are “found” photos being published when there are untold hundreds of photographers in the wings who would like to see their “original” work published here? And I would rather see original work.
The more I think about this, the creepier it feels. The discarded photos are barely a year old, and the subjects are presumably living new lives with new identities (they are probably not working in the sex industry). Most of the women in the pictures are Muslims. To be be revealed on the internet as having been a sex worker would be devastating.
Yes, too many questions, but that can be answered, IMO. How did David get into shooting of these pictures, is this about David’s artistry, ie. treatment of information, or mainly to highlight trafficking? Are they in better hands, back to smuggler’s hands? only sex slaves? How do muslim women being trafficked differ in origin, abandonment, trafficking, psychology, behaviour, from Korean women (just to name another traffic ring, there are a lot of undocumented sex workers tied to rings in SF), etc……
At the evry least, provide us with links.
Way, way too incomplete for me, given the gravity of human trafficking. Sorry.
PS: I want to know who “helped” edit this… :-) and also a little bit :-(
.
i do agree with you on that point jim – despite a love found-photos..
the discussion is developing along the lines of photographic ethics much more than trafficking and as such perhaps the photos have failed in their intention?
there is no doubt that the ethics debate is valued and valid, yet it seems to steal away from the central story.. which makes me dubious as to the collections intent – to propose thoughts on the subjects and their predicament or to provoke intellectual arguments on ethics?
there is little talk about the issues intended to be raised by the photos.. which to me says that a better and less controversial way of tackling the story would have been more suitable.. accepting as i do that there is a story which needs to be illustrated.
with other workshops i´ve undertaken with similar groups, the subjects were given their own cameras, their own voices and allowed the courtesy of telling their own story – and choosing or not if they want people to see.
i am interested in seeing the origin of these photos – did the center pass them over with blessing?
.. and if they did – could we hear more about their reasons?
also – i think this and the taliban book could not be more different.. it´s the same technique of using found photos, yet a completely different conclusion which is intended.
the thing with photographing a story like this traditionally is that there may well be people who do not want to be photographed.. for whatever reason that is, we respect it because we do not know the consequences for the subjects if we DO photograph them and display them internationally within a certain context..
i like the idea.. as much as i like found photos.. yet i really don´t like this piece.
:ø/
I can’t help but compare these with the work of Fazal Sheikh, who “is an artist-activist who uses photography to create a sustained portrait of different communities around the world, addressing their beliefs and traditions, as well as their political and economic problems. By establishing a context of respect and understanding, his photographs demand we learn more about the people in them and about the circumstances in which they live.”..”Fazal Sheikh not only makes pictures, he interviews the people he photographs about their lives, transcripts of which appear in his books and exhibitions, to which he adds his own commentary on the people, their country, and the situation in which he finds them.”
This may not be the only way to bring awareness to human rights abuses and/or problems that people are facing, but it certainly is a powerful model.
I agree with Erica, I am not sure that these women want to be seen…
I wish i didn’t have to get working because there is also another great conversation to be made using the work of the photographer Hashem El Madani, a commercial studio photographer from Saida in S. Lebanon as an example..There is a book of his work, Studio Practices, that gathers images from his 50 years as the town’s portrait and studio photographer..I assume these people (most who are now dead) never imagined their images would be used this way, but they have great historical and cultural and social import..” it is an act of infiltration into the dialectic of identity and anonymity, as if anonymity were not the prior state of identity, but rather its destiny.”
“Not surprisingly the vast majority of the archive is comprised of identity photographs – faces by the hundreds of thousands. Faces are undeniably what we see best of anything in the world, yet their fascination lies in their incompleteness – they require a narrative…Yet it is somehow unimaginably important to see these faces..” – Stephen Wright
DAH
doesn’t this lead us into a discussion of any woman, man, or child whose photograph is used in the press without their permission…
——————————————-
Yes, it does, and should in a way, yet I think it could be debated in a “case by case”, according to what could happen to the people in the pictures.
Also, should we debate differently if the picture is bound to be seen “only” by BURN readers, and a few thousand more, or published to be available to millions. Does the net prevent now to relativize the numbers of viewers?
Here, I am not sure. here’s my take until David tells us: I think they escaped or were rescued from smugglers and are given the right to change ideas and seek refuge in other countries, break from the past altogether.
But there are so many “rules” (dress code, behaviour) for muslim women to observe and bow too, in many muslim countries, rules that they are bound to all their lives (no borders, like Bob says!), is there a chance such photo may have that past/bind catch up with them?
PS: Kat, I am sorry. I assumed they were muslims…. Damned, did it again. Audrey, help!!! ;-)
Very difficult very interesting debate…
In France, (if I do not make a mistake) all photographs perhaps attacked in the court, if it carry reached private life, the photographer will be condemned… but we cannot make street photographs as HCB without fearing a lawsuit…
Hervé, I don’t understand what help you need ?
¨is there a chance such photo may have that past/bind catch up with them?¨
that´s exactly my point herve.. burn is here and to stay here and be seen in the millions.. a newspaper might show 1/2 million before it becomes fish n chip paper..
and i add that to my initial point which is that some of these women may be misrepresented.. i don´t know.. some of these women may have already had choices and consent removed from them and to me this selection could add to that.
i say could of course prospectively and look forward to david Ps input..
regardless.. it is great to have another david here.
d
but we cannot make street photographs as HCB without fearing a lawsuit…
—————————–
Not sure if you meant the negative tense, Audrey. I do not think the law in France sides with people whose faces have been taken in public spaces, unless the case can be made it created a prejudice detrimental to the subject. A case was just thrown out last month, where the judge found the photographer was not trespassing the plaintiff’s right to privacy, for simply sitting on a bench, lost in thought.
herve is right – if the context is not derogatory to the subject, in europe at least a public space is a public space..
subsequent use of the photos can cause problems.. if the woman on the bench was used in a homeless campaign for example.
the way i have always understood it, responsible editorial photography causes little problems, while use in advertising or in sensitive areas contextually can become minefields..
d
pertinent
http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009/05/alt-weekly-paper-runs-photo-that-got-photographer-arrested.html
I agree with you, Hervé and David b, these last years, trials are in favour of the photographers, but many people have to plead in justice… same for a book..
For here, I read that they leave their pictures, but I do not think that they want to be shown with victim to sexual exploitation !
Meanwhile, while we debate over whether these photos could endanger some of these women, they remain on the Internet. On a website showcasing emerging photographers. None of whom shot these photos.
david B, thank you for a link…
it is interesting philosophically, there is no doubt, yet it is all concerned within the realms of the art-world..
some of the work on burn is intended to inflame, and some of the work here inflames debate unintentionally and i think this falls into the latter category.. it could be the most controversial posting yet..
It’s an ethical issue, and could have real consequences in the real world. It’s not only a philosophical issue.
(in hijack mode, as usual)
Every event i go too here in SF, I see all the press photographers (assuming they are) spending more time asking people their names and what not (releases?), than looking for that special shot/decisive moment. Work.
I try to do that in Asia, so often. I promise myself every morning I will write down names today! And every evening, I realize I forgot again (either the name or to write it down).
Then again, I am not a photographer, I just take photos…
Jim, I agree with you. The publication of these photos could be dangerous for these women. I think someone is being provocative with this set of images, not sure who or why.
As photos there’s nothing to discuss, they are just a set of I.D photos and poor ones at that. I don’t get it either. Is BURN turning into a place to discuss social issues rather than photography ?
i mean to say that the main thread of interest from many of the comments is concerned philosophically with the right and wrong of the photos context and the, (possible), lack of consent.. it is not concerned with the situation nor the lives being illustrated.. which i think is what the piece WANTed to be about..
in fact it could not be more different than david Ps first posting of the dying man, who was consenting and complicit in the photography.. although i am trying to not let my feelings over this post chip away at my positive support of the first one.. i am sure david P, as with most davids around the world, has good intentions.
all i remember from teaching asylum seekers is that a proportion of them did not want to talk about their experiences at all.. and they did not need to, (arguably), in order to move on a form a better future.. and not one of them got behind the idea of presenting an exhibition of their self portraits, as i guess some people do not want to be defined by what wrongs have happened to them in the past.
this piece does ´invite´ us to meet these women, although perhaps some of these women do not want to meet us in the context they are presented here.
whether they are put at risk or not, i agree jim – we could be on shaky ground..
… I feel as if these photos are shown as a way to draw sympathy. Do they want sympathy?
In the attempt to exit their country and to see a new culture, I imagine no sympathy. I imagine drive and determination and excitement of the future life… why would they want sympathy?
Perhaps, I’ve missed the point of this. The importance of picturing people without their explicit consent…sure, but what is the point of these photos?
I think this misrepresents the women pictured. Even if it’s not derogatory, I don’t see the point. To use myself as an example, I have no desire to live in the country in which I have citizenship…so could my photo end up here? Would my passport photo show any essence of my desire to leave? For me…no. How is this different for them?
I truly mean no offense, but I sincerely don’t understand the journalistic or photographic merit of this…
Barrie, agreed, but still it is relevant that as photographers we have a place to discuss ideas as well as imagery. Burn need not be an either / or..In this instance I think it would be enough to write a description of the photos, how, conceptually they came to be grouped together, and for us to discuss the implications of having them seen..I don’t think they actually need to be seen. This is one rare instance where I’d like to see the images themselves pulled, while letting the discussion continue.
*hijack*
herve – i just shoot pictures and forget about asking..
interestingly the majority of times i have been told not to photograph someone it has been while shooting interiors for restaurant reviews.. when Mr. X does NOT want a photo of him having dinner with Miss. Y published in a newspaper that Mrs. Z might read the next day :ø)
*/hijack*
barrie – i think photography and social issues can and need to exist alongside each other, perhaps they are even inseparable?
as such burn is not only a great place to educate and illustrate what good photography is about – it is also a place to open eyes to issues which may inspire action.. or perhaps inspire more inward thoughts regarding ourselves.. some think the post is fine and see no problems, while others do not.
maybe that´s what this post is about.. the debate is about use-of-photos and not about the trafficking at all.. perhaps that was why the post was made, and in fact it IS a post about photography..
it´s not really about social issues yet, after all.
:ø)
dinner time batman.
hotdogs.
d