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| Issue 16 Artist's Statements |
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| Patrick McCoy |
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| The People's Taxis. The 'Falls Taxi Association' was founded in 1973. West Belfast men imprisoned without trial under the government's internment policy found themselves stigmatised by their ordeal and upon release unable to find employment. As a response to their situation the internees formed an association with the intention of purchasing a number of black Hackney cabs, shipping them to Belfast from London and running them as an alternative means of public transport along the Falls road. Originally known as "The People's Taxis", the Hackney cabs of the 'Falls Taxi Association' are still a prominent feature of life on the Falls road, 21 years after its conception. Indeed on occasion the black cabs of the "F.T.A." have been the only means of transport between the housing estates of catholic west Belfast and the city centre, bus services being withdrawn at the merest whiff of trouble, since they, more often than not, became smouldering metal barricades across the Falls road. |
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| Despite various attempts by Belfast City Council to stop the service, the F.T.A. now has a membership of over 200 cab drivers. Regardless of the political affiliations of the association or its members the 'black taxis' of the Falls road do provide the people of west Belfast with a less expensive and frequently more efficient transport service than the city bus company. They remain as they started; The People's Taxis. |
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| Gareth McConnell |
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| This series of images entitled 'Survivors' follows from a previous body of work on the theme of anti-social behaviour; a series of photographs in two parts- the first dealing with the scars resulting from punishment beatings and the second the wounds from intravenous drug abuse. |
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| Both have dealt with activities on the edge of society and I have continued with this theme in these portraits, focusing on the sense of life-experience and world-weariness I felt in these people. |
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| Eva Leitolf |
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| German pictures - searching for evidence in Rostock, Thale, Solingen and Bielefeld. From the 22nd to the 24th of August 1992, youths and neighbours in Rostock - Lichtenhagen threatened the central reception office for asylum seekers and the adjoining Vietnamese hostel without being hindered, setting the building on fire. The inhabitants survived because at the last moment they were able to break open a skylight. The police did not intervene for several hours, instead they deliberately withdrew. In Thale, a small town in the Harz region, on the 17th of October 1992 youths (among them two girls, 13 and 14 years old) attacked a Vietnamese hostel while some of them were invited there for dinner. In Solingen, on the 29th of May 1993 five Turkish girls lost their lives as a result of an arson attack on the house occupied by the Genc family. On the 20th of May 1994, youths tossed a Molotov cocktail into the home of Turkish workers, destroying an entire floor. |
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| Andre Zelck |
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| I met the family for the first time during their welfare holiday in April 1992. Norbert, the father, then about 38 years old, had been unemployed for ten years. Three months after I met them he got a job as a lorry driver, but the family can by no means be classed as well off. Waltraud, Norbert's wife, had worked in an unqualified job helping nurses, but now she stays at home to look after their five children. As a family they are very close and caring. There are arguments but they are not unusual in that. |
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| Why did the family agree to be the object of my studies? One of the most important reasons is trust and sympathy, I told them exactly what I intended to do with the photos and promised not to show any photos they didn't want me to. They never used their right to veto, because all I did and do is within our agreed limits. Also, being the focus of someone from outside with a camera, who was using a lot of film to document their lives, might have made them feel that their status was enhanced. Their idea of privacy is slightly different from that of most middle-class families, not only because they have so many children, but also because their door is always open to friends and neighbours and summer days are often spent in the backyard in full view of passers-by. |
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| Padraig Murphy |
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| Why people photograph. At the beginning of the residency each participant wrote an essay on why they would like to be involved in the project. The following answer was most prevalent "I would like to learn how to make a proper photo" - an answer which in a way speaks of the limits placed on photography while also revealing the role it plays in our lives. A proper photo; a gold framed studio portrait, a smiling baby, flowers and a wedding couple, a picture postcard romantic landscape straight from a tourist brochure: all technically correct and reassuring. Armed only with instamatic cameras, an acceptance of such technical enemies as "red eye" was born and a more wayward offensive was called for. This freedom initially insured a very loose, carefree approach, anything and everything was worth photographing, just point the camera and shoot - so what if the result was another quality control sticker! In time this immediacy coupled with the encouragement to home in on their own particular area of interest resulted in the work becoming more personal and more thematic, thus enabling each person to express themselves more confidently. At the end of the residency this desire "to make a proper photo" may have developed into the realisation that photography is a valuable art form, a powerful means of self expression, and a realistic opportunity to communicate one's own personal view of the world. It was my hope that the work of the students would give an insight into what it means to be a teenager in Kerry, in particular in my own parish, Rathmore, in the 90's. |
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