Aftermath

Final Major Project Posts
  • Week Sixteen Reflections October 27, 2019
    Today is Deepavali / Diwali, the traditional festival of light, when there is victory over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance, and a most ...
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  • At the University of Leeds October 25, 2019
    I was in Leeds this week,  giving my first lecture to the MA Media and Communications students. I had been invited by Dr. Jim Brogden, Programme Leader ...
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  • A Constructed Image October 16, 2019
    As I am closing in on the final choices and hanging plan – and nearing the time that I need to write a Critical Review ...
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  • Quotes and Photographs October 13, 2019
    On Friday, I gave a talk to the Frome Wessex Camera Club, entitled ‘Unfinished Stories – From Genocide to Hope’. I was gratified that it ...
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  • A research-led practice September 26, 2019
    The MA is now in its 21st month. In that time I have flown almost exactly 50,000 miles to and from Cambodia. Looking at my ...
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  • Place and Placelessness August 18, 2019
    As I have been finalising the book edit, I have increasingly been drawn to maps to help tell the story – both the Khmer Rouge ...
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  • RPS Contemporary Group August 2, 2019
    I had noted in May that the RPS Contemporary Group planned to publish some of my work. Well, on returning from Rencontres d’Arles and vacation, ...
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  • Week Eight Reflections July 28, 2019
    This was our first visit to Rencontres d’Arles, and it will not be the last. A terrific experience. The venues and presentation puts Paris Photo, ...
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  • Angkor Chum July 18, 2019
    One story that will not feature in the book is one that concerns our family. It also is an exercise in rephotography, in the sense ...
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  • A Sense of Place July 13, 2019
    I have been reading James Tyner’s book, The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmasking of Space. It is well established that in defining Year Zero, ...
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  • James Tyner – The Killing of Cambodia – Notes July 12, 2019
    Book Notes Chapter 1: Imaging Genocide Can we define Genocide? Mick Q: Am I structuralist or post-structuralist? Mick Q: Role of power/knowledge nexus in ethical framework ‘Given that knowledge is ...
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Informing Contexts Posts
  • Realism and Imagination April 20, 2019
    This week has been focused on completing the Critical Review. The recent Oral Presentation was well received, although I knew that for the CR, I ...
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  • Afterwards April 16, 2019
    I thought that I had posted about Afterwards before, but somehow it got missed. It was one of the first books that I bought, early ...
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  • Towards a Critical Review April 9, 2019
    I am collecting some of the most inspirational and appropriate quotes from my research, as used in various CRJ posts over the past 15 months, with the references or ...
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  • Informing Contexts – Oral Presentation – Feedback April 9, 2019
    From Pierre: Well done video Mick. Good to see your journey from where it began to where it is now.  The painterly influence never goes away, it ...
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  • Informing Contexts – Oral Presentation April 7, 2019
     Partly because of some misguided feedback at the Falmouth F2F, and partly because I felt a need to ‘go back the beginning’ to explain my ...
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  • The University of Leeds March 21, 2019
    I have been a Visiting Professor at Leeds, my Alma Mater, for the last 8 years, working with the Leeds University Business School (LUBS) and ...
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  • Pictures and Words March 17, 2019
    Robert Frank said, ‘Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference, and it is important to see what is invisible to others’. (cited ...
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  • Week Seven Reflections – Webinar with Michelle March 16, 2019
    In the critical reviews at the F2F, Michelle made several comments on the work I presented. On the colour work, she noticed some potential typologies – ...
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  • Responses & Responsibilities March 16, 2019
    James Elkins, in What Photography Is (2011), analyses photographs from 1905 of Lingqi, the Chinese ‘death by a thousand cuts’. (chapter 6, pg 177-220). I ...
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  • The Vernacular Landscape – and Intention March 2, 2019
    I do not consider landscape central to my practice, though like many others who started in photography with a lot of travel images, the genre ...
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  • Webinar February 22, 2019
    It was an interesting webinar yesterday with Michelle. Clive, Vincent and Peng were in the group. I shared two (early) sets of work from this trip. ...
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  • Week Three Reflections February 17, 2019
    As I write this, I am on Day 3 of a two week Cambodia trip, so most of my thought processes are focused on the ...
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  • Photographing the Holocaust – Janina Struk February 16, 2019
    I have just finished Janina Struk’s Photographing The Holocaust. Michelle Caswell’s Archiving the Unspeakable was ‘book of the year’ for me last year, Struk’s might ...
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  • Olympus Infrared Experiments February 7, 2019
    I have just received the converted Olympus OM-D 10, converted to 720nm, as previously noted.  Here is a reference set of images. First, a straight colour ...
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  • IC Week One Reflections February 2, 2019
    It has been a good start to the new module, with a good range of intellectual content, and helpful first online discussions with Michelle and ...
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  • David Goldblatt February 2, 2019
    ‘I suppose at best, I had hoped we might see ourselves revealed, as it were, by a mirror held up to ourselves’ David Goldblatt, 2017. I was ...
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  • Soviet Holocaust Photography January 29, 2019
    I have just been reading a paper written by David Shneer, in the Humanity Journal, 2014, University of Pennsylvania. Shneer discusses the approach taken by ...
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  • Reflections on my Photographic Practice January 22, 2019
    Robert Frank said, “Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference”. I provided  a reasonably thorough review of my photography in my ...
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  • Nine Inspirations January 13, 2019
    One of the vacation exercises is to comment on nine inspirations. So, here goes. 1. Annemarie Prins. I have only recently discovered her work, through conversations ...
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Positions & Practice Posts
Surfaces & Strategies Posts
  • Surfaces & Strategies Reflections – Grades – Where To, Now? September 20, 2018
    Just got the Surfaces & Strategies results – and although the overall result (70.6%) is remarkably consistent with Positions & Practice (70.8%), the internals are ...
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  • RPS Presentation August 31, 2018
    I have been invited to give a talk to the Western Region of the Royal Photographic Society, next Sunday (September 9th). They have advertised it to ...
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  • Book Dummy August 20, 2018
    Now that I have completed selection of images for the Work in Progress portfolio, and finished Landings, it seemed right to update the book dummy. I ...
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  • Surfaces & Strategies Oral Presentation August 19, 2018
     I am exploring the long-term impact of the Khmer Rouge Genocide, and especially its impact on education. This includes revisiting our family history with that ...
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  • Work in Progress – I missed my Mother August 18, 2018
    I have completed the S&S WIP selection. Posts have already been written which explain my rational on intimacy, landscape and negative traces. Some of my fellow students ...
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  • Week Ten Reflections – Landscape, Context and WIP August 12, 2018
    My reflections this week are about my photographic approach to ‘aftermath’. Christian Schwager, a Swiss photographer, made a series My Lovely Bosnia (2003 – 2005), around the still-present ...
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  • Negative Traces August 5, 2018
    The impact of the Genocide of 1975-1979 is still, in many ways, hidden. It is visible only in traces, both physical and psychological. My project is ...
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  • Images So Far July 15, 2018
    A selection of images for the project so far. First, a small selection from my last visit to Cambodia. Second, experimental work on developing ways to show ...
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  • My Friend’s Mother Passed Away – I Missed My Mother July 15, 2018
    The first fully-translated ‘story’ from Sarath. Warning: gruesome reading in parts. …………………………….. It was possibly in 1977, I do not know for sure, but it was a ...
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  • Cambodian Photography – Part 2 July 12, 2018
    As noted in the previous post, Cambodian photography is developing, though it’s clear that the hiatus of the Khmer Rouge years and subsequent Vietnamese administration ...
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  • Showing the Hidden July 4, 2018
    The Landings Exhibition is in preparation, and there is a call for entries. At the same time, I am continuing to explore the idea of ‘traces’ ...
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  • Windows on the Hidden June 30, 2018
    I have found the last couple of weeks most enjoyable, exploring new kinds of imagery, both to learn new techniques and to consider ways of ...
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  • Documentary & Art June 29, 2018
    Had a very good webinar today with Cemre and Yas. Just want to jot my thoughts down here, not in any particular order. Cemre asked about ...
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  • Ghosts, Traces & Stories June 9, 2018
    I am looking for ways to tell today’s story whilst also bringing yesterday’s in front of the viewer. Anyone who has visited a Genocide Museum, anywhere ...
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Sustainable Prospects Posts
  • Sustainable Prospects – Grades – Where To, Now? January 14, 2019
    I have just received the grades for Sustainable Prospects – 70% overall, Distinction level, I assume, which is pretty much in line with Surfaces & ...
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  • Reflections at Year End December 11, 2018
    On Monday, 10th December, I did a presentation at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, noted here. It was entitled Cambodia – Unfinished Stories, A ...
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  • Infrared December 11, 2018
    One of my action steps for 2019 is to explore other ways of rendering my traces / negatives, and that includes infrared. I am particularly ...
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  • BRLSI Presentation December 9, 2018
    The presentation to the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Society is tomorrow evening, and I am putting the finishing touches to the materials. I have created ...
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  • Beyond the Shadows – Judy Glickman Lauder December 4, 2018
    Judy Glickman Lauder married Leonard Lauder, the cosmetics magnate, in 2015. But that is not why I am writing this post. Glickman Lauder is a photographer, ...
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  • Sustainable Prospects Oral Presentation December 4, 2018
     Robert Frank said, “Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference”. Whilst I expressed the same thoughts in my first Oral Presentation, ...
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  • A Prayer from Hell – BRLSI talk December 4, 2018
    I am giving a presentation next week to the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institute, entitled ‘Unfinished Stories from Cambodia’. The subtitle is ‘A Prayer from ...
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  • Week Eight Reflections – Work in Progress Reviews November 17, 2018
    This summarises feedback from Jesse, Wendy and Krishna on my WIP portfolio, and my project in general. Paris (10th Nov) As background, I introduced the project like ...
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  • Mango Flowers and Fruits – Sarath October 16, 2018
    The second fully-translated ‘story’ from Sarath. …………………………….. This is a story about the time just before being liberated from the Khmer Rouge (in 1979). The lives of ...
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  • RPS Presentation August 31, 2018
    I have been invited to give a talk to the Western Region of the Royal Photographic Society, next Sunday (September 9th). They have advertised it to ...
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