Bonus Content: Issue 5

Photography is all around us. From newspapers to billboards, fast-food junk mail to catalogues; but has the true art of photography been lost among a barrage of intrusive, pathetic and laughable pictures that accompany society’s ever-growing fascination with the celebrity?

Where have the controversial, thought provoking and awe-inspiring photographs gone? Real photo-journalism and real photography has the ability to evoke so many emotions, it’s a shame it’s taken a back seat to gossip and nonsense.

More often than not, the most affecting photographs come from tragic and horrific events that, whilst it may appear morbid to remember them, sear an image into your mind. But they’re real (for the most part…and yes, I’m looking at you Piers Morgan).

Despite not being around when the Vietnam War took place, I will never forget Nick Ut’s goose bump-inducing image of badly-burned children running from a napalm attack. I will never forget the deeply upsetting images that came from various famines across some of the poorest parts of Africa where starving children lay dead, dying and helpless. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Imagine the wonderment that people experienced in the 1960’s when the first ever image of Earth was revealed. Even looking back at that iconic black and white image of construction workers perched high above the ground eating their lunch whilst building the Empire State Building makes you feel something.

These are major events and any photo from a war zone or epic discovery will be more powerful than anything your average Joe could create. But when put in the hands of someone who has something to say, the camera can become a tool to highlight all manner of things and the subsequent reactions can prove just how uncomfortable some people still find certain topics.

Oliviero Toscani. The name may be new to some and others may be fully aware of his work. Working with Benetton, Toscani created some of the world’s most controversial advertising campaigns. The slogan will be familiar to most: United Colours of Benetton.

Ranging from Priests kissing Nuns, a black horse mating with a white horse, the blood-stained clothes of a soldier killed in action, a black woman breast feeding a white baby and three hearts labelled ‘white’, ‘black’ and ‘yellow’, Toscani has the ability to address social taboos through his work.

During his time with Benetton, race and colour were the main focus of his photographs but no subject was out of bounds. A few years ago he caused a stir in Italy with an advertising campaign for a men’s clothing company that centred on sexuality and angered various groups with pictures of men kissing and groping one another.

Regardless of the subject, here’s a man that is able to photograph a simple idea and use it to reveal just how insecure and narrow-minded a large portion of society actually are.

But it isn’t just risqué or controversial photography that seems to have taken a knock.

Unless you regularly read magazines such as National Geographic or Time, or you actively seek out new photography, it doesn’t appear in the mainstream as often as it used to. You could put this down to the advent of the internet or the ease of video capture, but photography, when done right, still has the ability to say so much more than any amount of words and I find it a real shame that something that powerful is being lost. Even the BBC has postponed the numerous photography competitions that used to run – albeit this decision was taken after the public outcry about phone-in competitions on TV programmes.

There are a few photographers among the members here at TSA, including our very own Peter, so it’s good to see that it hasn’t been forgotten completely. Hopefully I’m not alone in thinking that it’s something that should be shown and credited more and not dismissed as an old type of media that has passed its sell-by date.