The Frontline Club is pitching a big tent at the BYLINE FESTIVAL of Journalism, held in Pippingford Park in East Sussex on the weekend of 2-4th June. Come and join us!
Subtitled, ‘A Riot of Free Speech’, Byline is Britain’s first ever festival of journalism. There will be a mix of comedy, music, workshops, screenings, activism and debate. A gaggle of the great and the very-funny: John Cleese, Martin Bell, The Blow Monkeys, Luke Harding, Lenny Henry, Tom Holland, Hugh Grant, Jack Monroe and plenty of other people and bands you admire and love, all in one forest clearing. More details here.
Frontline Tent Schedule:
- Friday midday: First Aid Refresher Course for any freelancer
- From 6:30pm: Welcome Party – JJ running the bar
- Saturday Breakfast with Radio 4
- Norfolk Mezze all day
- Photography Portfolio Reviews, Book Signings
- Saturday 6pm: Tent Quiz with John Sweeny
Be warned: war stories may continue all night; the Frontline tent has a license past 2 am!
]]>
The Frontline Club was treated to an explosion of colour, culture, festivity and debate as photojournalist Jeremy Hunter explored the “DNA of countries” through pictures.
Hunter described how he began travelling as part of his job as a foreign correspondent for NIR-TV in Tehran. Although not employed as a photographer he always carried his camera along.
Today his unique portfolio of photographs spans 35 years and 65 countries, and captures images of festivals and cultural ceremonies in some of the most remote regions of the planet.
As he introduced Hunter, moderator Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House warned:
“What he’s captured is dying… what we are going to see is endangered.”
Hunter added:
“I’ve now got an archive of material which I think is…historic because so many of the celebrations I’ve been to…will probably not continue in the near future.”
Hunter’s passion led him to North Korea, one of the world’s most inaccessible and secretive societies. He arrived just before the death of Kim Jong-il for the August Arirang festival.
The slide show unveiled the largest stadium in the world which, he says, has a seating capacity of 150,000. It also revealed “truly extraordinary mosaics” of flags, flowers and even the Pyongyang skyline – created by 50,000 teenagers holding up flipcharts.
The stark images that followed of Ethiopian tribal rituals, ceremonies and festivities – including those of women being whipped and mutilated – sparked a debate on the ethical considerations of paying natives to pose for these pictures.
Hunter admitted:
“The Mursi (tribe) are now become almost a sort of freak show… because people like me have been there, have photographed them and have their put their images on the website and as a result of that, tourism has absolutely grown to such a degree. When I first went there there were only about 2,000 tourists a year, there are now an estimated 30,000.”
Commenting on an image in Ethiopia showing the words “Jesus will never let you down” scrawled across a galvanised door, Hunter said:
“Jesus has definitely arrived…. The missionaries are there, baptisms are taking place… and I think that very soon they will no longer be animist and they will be brought into the church, and at that point I think that some of these practices -particularly the circumcision of the girls and indeed the scarification and the cutting of the lower lip – is all likely to change.”
This encouraged other questions about Hunter’s motives for documenting these remote practices.
O’Connell asked:
“Do you hate the fact that you spoil a culture by photographing it…?”
In Hunter’s conclusion he said:
]]>“The whole… archive of work is called ‘Let’s Celebrate: exploring the DNA of the world’s cultures through their festivals, rituals and celebrations’…. My role has been, in fact, to record these over a period of 35 years and I’m recording … what continues to happen. So actually it’s a…piece of historical and archival material that I think will have a place in the future.”
Artful and anthropological in equal measure, Jeremy Hunter's photographs are a snapshot of a world of truly disparate cultures and their celebrations, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries.
This event will be moderated by Paddy O'Connell of BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House and the Frontline Club's First Wednesday strand.
]]>LET’S CELEBRATE 365 allows us to glimpse the diverse, colourful and sometimes obscure festivals, ceremonies and rituals celebrated around the world.
Artful and anthropological in equal measure, Jeremy Hunter‘s photographs are a snapshot of a world of truly disparate cultures and their celebrations, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries.
Hunter has travelled to more than 60 countries in 30 years, collecting images that explore the cultural landscape of the world that may help to create a better understanding of the essential “glue” that binds all societies together.
Hunter will specifically explore, through their celebrations, the cultural DNA of North Korea, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and India.
This event will be moderated by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House and the Frontline Club’s First Wednesday strand.
Picture credit: Jeremy Hunter, North Korea
]]>