Exercise 2:2 Survival programmes

Read the article ‘Survival Programmes’ in Eight magazine (V5N1, June 2006). (Open College of the Arts, 2014:32).

Between 1974 and 1979 three British photographers Nicholas Battye, Chris Steele-Perkins and Paul Trevor set up the Exit Photography Group to record life in some of Britain’s inner-city areas. This work was published their work in the book Survival Programmes in Britain’s Inner Cities (1982). They chose black and white photography as they thought its seriousness and visual authority would add to the seriousness of their message of the need for social reform for race, religion, class and justice. the medium would strengthen the message.

“In aiming to create a lasting testimony that would resonate beyond the immediate political circumstances of the time, the three Exit photographers developed a complex and multi-layered response to the situation” (Survival Programmes: In Britain’s Inner Cities – Exit Photography Group, 2020).

• 

• 

• 

• 

All images © Nicholas Battye, Chris Steele-Perkins or Paul Trevor

Sharing the same position that inner city poverty was endemic and leading to social disorder, they used oral evidence (people’s interviews) to capture such experiences. They worked in different cities, contacting community groups, walked around deprived districts, talked to people on the streets, and knocked on doors; Nicholas Battye commented that back then people were happy to talk to photographers. The images were sequences from frustration to anger on 4 chapters: through growth, promise, welfare to reaction. The book gave the same space to the interview transcripts as images, which they discussed and chose from together. I was interested to learn that they shot in black and white to save money. Their work certainly brought viewers really close to the truth.

MY LEARNING POINTS

• Although times were different then they still must have worked hard to build relationships and trust with the communities that they photographed to get so close to them
• Reminds me again of the responsibility of the photographer to shoot with Integrity, the images are intimate but respectful.
• The benefits of working as a team and having a shared ethos
• The impact that sharing the truth can have when laid bare

References:

New Writing: Exit Photography Group | Photoworks (2014) At: https://photoworks.org.uk/exit-photography-group/ (Accessed 13/05/2020).

Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.

Survival programmes in: Ei8ht magazine 5 (1) pp.12–19. Available online at: https://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/Foto85.1_SurvivalProgrammes.pdf (accessed 13.5.20)

Survival Programmes: In Britain’s Inner Cities – Exit Photography Group (2020) At: https://www.amber-online.com/collection/survival-programmes/ (Accessed 13/05/2020).

NEXT POST: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/exercise-2-3-brandt/