The Monthly interviews local community photographer, Mervyn Smyth – Part 4 – Where to now for photography?

Everyone is taking photographs; what happens to photographers now?

I think it is great that everyone is taking photographs. That means that more people’s stories are being documented. People are taking visual images of their lives in a way that wasn’t possible before. People are looking at the way they can document their lives through visual imagery, and they are revealing their stories. You can look at it as something negative, that it is just plates of food or parties, or trivial events, but it isn’t that at all in my view. It is people revealing elements of their lives.

Dalai Lama – Woodvale – Mervyn Smyth

Years ago it would cost a fair bit to get a camera, and then more to get the photographs developed, and if a photo didn’t work out, you couldn’t take it again. Now you can take lots of photos, as many as you like, on your phone, or an iPad, and you are saying, “This is me?”

And the idea that people are doctoring photos to make their lives better, or make themselves look better, that has always been done. There have always been photos that have been manipulated and that’s fine by me. This happens in all visual art, it happens in paintings for example. I have no problem with this at all.

I will say though, that when you, as a photographer, are documenting the life of a community, then that is a little different. You may pick the best photographs, but the crucial thing is that you really are searching for as true a picture as you can capture. You really are trying to reflect the story of the people in that community and that requires a more nuanced approach. Otherwise, my view is that I will be working on more and more photographs, producing more and more photographs, and hopefully teaching more people how to do that as well.

Ballycraigy Bonfire  – 2006 – Mervyn Smyth

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

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