“Between Frontier and the Back-Garden”

Deconstructing Environmental Photographers

Simon Norfolk

After Steffi Klenz lecture we got a task to select one of the seven contemporary photographers given on the list and do a research. I selected Simon Norfolk. The video that was shown on lecture “Burke+Norfolk: Photographs from the war in Afghanistan” - inspired me a lot.

Simon Norfolk was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1963 and educated in England, finishing at Oxford and Bristol Universities with a degree in philosophy and sociology. After leaving a documentary photography course in Newport, South Wales, Norfolk worked for far-left publications specializing in work on anti-racist activities and fascist groups, in particular the British National Party. In 1994 he gave up photojournalism in favor of landscape photography.

            As Norfolk himself writes, in a short but profoundly interesting text called Et in Arcadia Ego: "These photographs form chapters in a larger project attempting to understand how war, and the need to fight war, has formed our world: how so many of the spaces we occupy; the technologies we use; and the ways we understand ourselves, are created by military conflict." 

            The images I have selected come from series: “Beirut: How did you come to smell of smoke and fire?” In this series he presents photographs from Beirut, taken following the three-day war of September 2006.

In this picture we see oil-fired Power Station at Jiyeh which was bombed in the first few days of the war. From first view you can find that is nice and beautiful resort near the sea.  But empty pools, putted down umbrellas, chairs in the corner tells to us that is something wrong here  – something happened and viewer can decide it from large plume of smoke.  Smoke contrasts against this unpopulated and beautiful landscape. Natural light is soft and warm because usually Norfolk is taking pictures early morning – that’s why we’re not seeing any people. He’s always trying to pull people out of the pictures because for him people aren’t that important; it’s more about human power and his intervention on the land.

This is a Fidar Bridge, bombed by the Israelis, early on 4 August. In this picture we can see people standing near destroyed bridge and they represent an idea. The bridge is the main motorway running north from Beirut to the border. Again it shows human power and how has ruined the environment and people living in this society too. People are standing close to edge and can’t understand these unbelievable destructions. Maybe they were using this bridge every day? It can be very emotional for them.

And final picture that I select is “The fishing harbor at Quazai”. Image is filled with contrast, where the refuse of destruction disturbs the serene peace of still water beneath waning sunlight. In these images, Norfolk's classically inspired aesthetic captures both the peculiarly abstract and strikingly beautiful, yet all in the shadow of war's horrific effects.