S T N I O P IEW
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Mahtab Hussain Jonathan Illingworth Andrew Youngson
Photographs by: Mahtab Hussain info@mahtabhussain.com
Also available as a colour, e-publication: www.viewfinder.org.uk/shop
Jonathan Illingworth jonny67@live.co.uk
Published by: Viewfinder Photography Gallery 52 Brixton Village London SW9 8PS
Andrew Youngson andrewyoungson@gmail.com
www.viewfinder.org.uk Curated by: Kathleen Brey kathleen@viewfinder.org.uk
First published May 2011
Edited by: Kathleen Sadler kmgsadler@live.com
Š The artists and authors. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the views of the publisher or the editors.
Design by: Mandana Ahmadvazir designer@viewfinder.org.uk
Mahtab Hussain http://mahtabhussain.com/
Building Desires
My photographic practise is heavily focused on the complexities of ‘identity’ and ‘self’ within the British Pakistani community which have been moulded by a persuasive system of cultural and religious practices that puts the collective whole before the individual. One aspect of my project focuses on the notion of an internal conflict of identity developed predominately by the younger, British born, male, Pakistani generation and which I have titled ‘Building Desires’. Building Desires highlights a crisis happening within Pakistani male groups in Birmingham. My practise explores the concept of masculinity as a performance, leading me into many of the Asian gyms and down the streets of Birmingham witnessing how these young males are becoming men through their own understanding of what a man should be. By studying this performance, often expressed as a show of aggression, of ‘acting hard’, my project questions firstly, why is there this need to show such a front, secondly, why has it become their core definition of what a man should be and finally how has this aggression become normalised in their lives. One could argue that such collective persona has derived from adopting stylistic and idealistic elements from the black community, many of whom are considered to have a higher social status. In essence, such aggression attempts to break down the stereotypical notion of the Pakistani male as being weak.
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Jonathan Illingworth jonny67@live.co.u
End of my Journey This is the final chapter in an ever-growing three-part series of photographs for people in the community. The photographs are of the last location on a journey traveled many times - the end point in a body of work that has concentrated on three geographical references along my daily morning route to work. The first point was a tiny woodland followed by the middle locale, an area where ‘working’ donkeys resided. The final focal point is a social project that is at the end of its public function. The photographs in this series deal with a psychological state, as well as creative expression of an environment that is beginning to teeter into decay. The final project links themes explored and linked throughout the previous bodies of work. I hope to convey an uncoventional environment that is breaking down physically as well as in photographic meaning. The result is an unreliable narrative with an uncertain future conveying a mood of penultimate entropy.
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Andrew Youngson www.andrewyoungson.com
THE DEVIL'S GARDEN Here, maps are of little use. One main road stretches from Alexandria to Libya. Either side of it, beneath a featureless desert, the Axis and Allied minefields have spent seven decades drifting from where they were originally sown. The desert war was said to have been different from the war in Europe: it was a conflict fought only by combatants; civilians were not directly involved. The land on which the battles were fought was alien to both sides and historical accounts suggest those fighting felt more compassion for their adversaries than was usual in war, the desert having become a greater, common enemy. The only soldiers here now are Egyptian Army conscripts. The men who fought for this ground in the early 1940s are long gone, and yet, from just below the desert’s surface, the war has continued in their absence. It is estimated that approximately 17 million unexploded anti-personnel and anti- tank mines; artillery shells; bombs dropped by aircraft and machine gun, small arms and mortar rounds remain beneath the sand. This is the legacy with which the Bedouin live, but whereas areas allocated for luxury beach resorts and petroleum company compounds have been cleared of unexploded ordnance (UXO) as part of the region’s economic redevelopment, Bedouin land has not benefited from such comprehensive programmes. Official records of incidents involving UXO have not been kept until recently but it is believed thousands of Bedouin have been killed or injured since the end of hostilities. The term ‘Devil’s Gardens’ was first used by the German General Erwin Rommel to describe the box-like areas of minefields and barbed wire installed by both sides during the conflict.
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Viewfinder Photography Gallery 52 Brixton Village London SW9 8PS www.viewfinder.org.uk