THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY Talk: Laurel Chor (Zoom) 22.7.20
What can photography tell us about a city and its people at a time of political and social unrest?
Laurel Chor is a photojournalist and conservationist. She has documented the Rohingya refugee crisis, the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia in 2018, and recently the protests in her home Hong Kong. She was previously the Asia reporter/producer for VICE News Tonight on HBO, and says it has been different for her to tell a documentary photo story, but she has been able to because this work is a personal story about anger and hope of people fighting against their democratic rights.
Here she discusses the power of images, and how they can tell a story:
She shared with us many of her 2019 images, commenting that these images of protest are unlikely to be taken again in the light of the new rules imposed by China on Hong Kong. She describes it as a very visual movement, with lots of activity designed to be photographed by the media, saying they have a “a collective savviness”.
Her aim initially was to document and catch up as well as there was so much going on; though now she says it’s more challenging to tell the story as there’s not so many events, she is looking for more conceptual ways to tell the story, to convey a sense of loss, nostalgia, and defeat. She captured this elderly lady pleading with the police to go home. Chore was accused of egging the woman on and using perspective and photoshop to capture this moment, which disheartened her.
Laurel Chor (2020) Laurel explains that protests followed the incident above when masked “thugs” attacked people on the streets with no provocation:
She asked advice of John Vaughn who took an iconic image at the Mexican border of a girl watching her mum being searched, for advice and he said “make sure your captions are accurate”.
She was asked by the chair (writer and editor En Liang Khong) :
Q: What were the challenges of covering this story? There were many photojournalists, local and international also telling the story; a local person can immerse themselves more and have their own emotions to invest,
Q: Is it still safe to document these things? There hasn’t been an overt crack down in the wake of the national security law, but journalist credentials are being checked carefully.
Q: Is there a place or context that you like this work shown? This is difficult under current constraints; in terms of audiences she would like to reach out and open a dialogue with other countries with similar rights problems.
My learning:
This work reinforces my subsequent learning on the value of “insider” documentary photography as I doubt she would have captured so much emotion in her work had she not been native to Hong Kong.
I will definitely follow her work from now on. During her time at VICE News, she produced the special episode “Year of the Dog” about migrant workers traveling home for Chinese New Year, and worked on stories such as the Chinese social credit system, the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother to Chinese “boy” bands.
Reference:
Laural Chor (2020) At: http://www.laurelchor.com/ (Accessed 27/09/2020).
Talk: Laurel Chor (online) (2020) At: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/talks-and-events/talk-laurel-chor-online (Accessed 31/10/2020).
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Photography 2: Documentary 