Det er selvsagt en meget stor ære å bli annerkjent som en av de store innen britisk fotografi. Arbeidene er fra en serie som heter Sites of Memory som også har vært utstilt på Imperial War Museum.
Chris har bodd og arbeidet i Oslo siden 2001. For mer info: www.chrisharrison.no
Linker:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2065853,00.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/howweare/
Chris Harrison on Sites of Memory
When I was a child I wanted to be a soldier same as any other child, and in our part of my hometown Jarrow was a WW1 memorial. I thought this was amazing as people from my area had been proper soldiers. It was a connection to something that had happened elsewhere.
Fast forward to 1995 and I was looking for a project that I could do in my own time and at my own pace. Something that didn't require organizing. I started to look at war memorials and where they are now. I was fascinated by the fact that they seemed so cut of from their original meaning and purpose. Often times they were even moved from their original prominent site to some place less conspicuous. I have always been interested in those things which are hidden in plain sight,
I could never do a project that involves a journey to some place I don´t know. Its the familiar, the personal that I look for and which I am most interested in photographing. For me it has to be honest, I have to have some connection with what I do it has to be meaningful. I hate trivial Art or Art that seems to just want to provoke. It seems fairly teenage. I suppose that comes from my upbringing in a non artistic working class home in Jarrow. Seeing my father on the sofa after a 12 hour shift in a factory made me realize that if I was going to make Art then it had to be as honest as possible.
The War Memorials project was something that I didn't want to be systematic about,. It wasn't a survey it was personal and hopefully if you are honest with yourself you reach some kind of common ground with the rest of humanity. I took the pictures while I went places for commercial jobs or on holiday or just to visit friends and family. Often times people would suggest places. I wanted to get across the universal sense of loss that no place was left untouched by that war. I was very aware that it would be easiest to just photograph the classic ones, but there was something about the less well known that was more telling. I didn´t want to go to France either its not about the actual place it is as with my latest work about those left behind.
I chose to do it in colour because I wanted the work to look beautiful. I didn´t want it to be in B&W so that people thought oh yes memory old sepia etc. Its not about remembering the past in that way its how memory is here now. I remember as a child seeing photos and film footage from the WW1 and everything was B& W I honestly thought that was how it was, turns out 1st of july 1916 was a beautiful summers day (my birthday co incidently) I used really slow film 32 asa because of the Luxurious colour (its used in Advertising a lot) but it had the added advantage that I had to use long exposures, Its a lot about stopping and really looking, something I tend to do.
I have always felt that Photography is about time not light. I wasn´t after the decisive moment, those memorials are collections of thousands of decisive moments of which I have no comprehension. One thing I do know is that everyone looks for their name on a memorial.
Chris har bodd og arbeidet i Oslo siden 2001. For mer info: www.chrisharrison.no
Linker:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2065853,00.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/howweare/
Chris Harrison on Sites of Memory
When I was a child I wanted to be a soldier same as any other child, and in our part of my hometown Jarrow was a WW1 memorial. I thought this was amazing as people from my area had been proper soldiers. It was a connection to something that had happened elsewhere.
Fast forward to 1995 and I was looking for a project that I could do in my own time and at my own pace. Something that didn't require organizing. I started to look at war memorials and where they are now. I was fascinated by the fact that they seemed so cut of from their original meaning and purpose. Often times they were even moved from their original prominent site to some place less conspicuous. I have always been interested in those things which are hidden in plain sight,
I could never do a project that involves a journey to some place I don´t know. Its the familiar, the personal that I look for and which I am most interested in photographing. For me it has to be honest, I have to have some connection with what I do it has to be meaningful. I hate trivial Art or Art that seems to just want to provoke. It seems fairly teenage. I suppose that comes from my upbringing in a non artistic working class home in Jarrow. Seeing my father on the sofa after a 12 hour shift in a factory made me realize that if I was going to make Art then it had to be as honest as possible.
The War Memorials project was something that I didn't want to be systematic about,. It wasn't a survey it was personal and hopefully if you are honest with yourself you reach some kind of common ground with the rest of humanity. I took the pictures while I went places for commercial jobs or on holiday or just to visit friends and family. Often times people would suggest places. I wanted to get across the universal sense of loss that no place was left untouched by that war. I was very aware that it would be easiest to just photograph the classic ones, but there was something about the less well known that was more telling. I didn´t want to go to France either its not about the actual place it is as with my latest work about those left behind.
I chose to do it in colour because I wanted the work to look beautiful. I didn´t want it to be in B&W so that people thought oh yes memory old sepia etc. Its not about remembering the past in that way its how memory is here now. I remember as a child seeing photos and film footage from the WW1 and everything was B& W I honestly thought that was how it was, turns out 1st of july 1916 was a beautiful summers day (my birthday co incidently) I used really slow film 32 asa because of the Luxurious colour (its used in Advertising a lot) but it had the added advantage that I had to use long exposures, Its a lot about stopping and really looking, something I tend to do.
I have always felt that Photography is about time not light. I wasn´t after the decisive moment, those memorials are collections of thousands of decisive moments of which I have no comprehension. One thing I do know is that everyone looks for their name on a memorial.
