The Monthly interviews local community photographer, Mervyn Smyth – Part 3 – Photographing “The Troubles”

Was it just that you were photographing your environment that lead to you documenting “The Troubles”?

Well partly it was that. I was photographing what was around me, in my own surroundings. But there is more to it. Belfast Exposed takes a lot of pride in having a huge archive of photographs documenting “The Troubles”. Now part of that is me going into communities and photographing the community when things weren’t working at all well. There is also our workshops which taught people enough skills that they could take photographs, and this is very important, because they would take photographs in a completely different way from the way the press photographers would take images. Often I would find that local people would have elements in their photographs which would offer insights into why things were the way they were.

Omagh Bomb – Julia Hughes Funeral – August 1998 – Mervyn Smyth

With my own work I was always thinking about what I could do with my photographs that would go beyond just documentation. So I think a lot of my work now is used in working with the question of mental health. That means I go back to into communities after the difficult situations have passed but the legacy of those difficult situations remains. And I think there is useful work to be carried out regarding mental health, using the arts generally, but in my case using photography.

What about teaching people. Is that rewarding?

Absolutely. I often find that that the transformation which people undertake during a series of workshops is pretty amazing. They start off just shooting away, and I always say, “There are no bad photographs, there are just photographs we can make better.”

You see, that over a few weeks, almost everyone will start looking at their photographs differently. They will say things like, “I could have done this or I could have framed things that way.” They start to critique their own work, looking at what works and what might not work. And to me, that empowers people. Our work, my work, empowers people.

Holy Cross – Mervyn Smyth

Did you have any influences?

Don McCullin was an English photographer, and Paulo Pellegrin was a great photographer from Italy and also Gilles Peress, a French photographer. From here, Eamon Melaugh, took wonderful photos of the Bogside, and Sean McKernan and Frankie Quinn.were also wonderful photographers. All of these photographers have one thing in common, and that is that they shoot pictures of people. They tell the stories of the people involved, either in the conflict or the communities where the conflict took place. And I feel that my photographs link up with what those photographers were doing.

Stop and Search – Eamon Melaugh

 

Are you able to see the skills, or lack of skills, which are applied in photographs?

It is probably better to say that I can see how photographers are trying to frame the narrative, trying to tell the story. I can see how they are aiming to give more information than you might get at first glance. I also find that every time you go back to a community as a photographer, the community reveals a little more of itself. That is why it is important to build relationships with communities.

Maze Prison – Mervyn Smyth

To see more of the work of Mervyn Smyth – see the following link – www.belfastexposed.org/

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