Fragments of Reality.

Interview with Mário Macilau

Mário Macilau is a photographer (of fragments) of reality. Macilau is a teller of stories and as he narrates he meditates through his images on the social, political and economic environment in his country and in the world, which he explores in its unfeigned naked and raw form. As he states himself, he does not stage or create the photographic moment. His images are instantaneous. He does not seek them, he finds them. Camera in hand, he approaches the countless anonymous people who appear in his work – it is the movement of contemporary man and his relationship with space that interest him. The unadorned body thus becomes the protagonist of the realities he captures. In the instants, there is a silence that presents itself and holds our gaze. This silence  allows us to penetrate the intensity of the images and the power of the themes. Macilau’s photos recount distant and specific stories as if at random. Through his images, he reveals to us a little of the World. Of one part of the World.

Photo by Mário Macilau.

Sílvia Vieira [SV]: Mário, how did you first start taking photographs?
Mário Macilau [MM]: I never made a conscious decision to become a photographer, it just happened and I went with it. Through my photography I believe I can at least contribute something to the world; not just because I have talent, but rather because of the characteristics of our space. I use photography as a means of creative and active expression. My life is photography: sixty seconds a minute, sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, thirty days a month and three hundred and sixty-five days a year. I am always thinking about photography and the pictures I’ve taken! I didn’t choose to become a photographer. I don’t know if you can call it fate,  in fact I don’t know if I really believe in fate.

SV: Your photographs are always a mirror of your anxieties and reflection on mankind. Would you agree?
MM: I explore the movement of man in time and space. I don’t know what I’m going to photograph tomorrow. My mind functions like a camera.

SV: Most of your work focuses on poverty and hardship. Why? Doesn’t anything else interest you? 
MM: That’s a very interesting question. People choose what they want to see and I see people as people and not as poor. I want to talk about my people, those who have no voice; those whose voice has been forgotten.

SV: Before shooting, do you create the situation or do you improvise for the camera? 
MM: What interests me is reality. The situations you see in my photographs are captured naturally.

SV: How did the idea for the The Maziones series come about? 
MM: I work as a photographic assistant and some people, mainly Europeans, want to take photographs of Mozambique but they need a consultant, or an assistant, or a translator, or a guide. One day, an English photographer wanted to take some pictures on the Costa do Sol, in Maputo, before daybreak. When I arrived, the beach was alive, full of people wearing colourful clothes, crosses, animals, shouting, and I saw what I thought looked like a baptism and took some photographs because it was so interesting. The English photographer said, “Why are you photographing that? Nobody’s going to be interested!” But for me that moment showed another side of life. I don’t take photos because I think people are going to like them but to give people who have little voice a chance to speak out.

SV: Did you try to talk to them?
MM: It is essential for me to establish a relationship with the people I come in contact with. They become a part of me and I become a part of them… Then I take their picture, juggling the interplay between light and the lens.

SV: Many critics and scholars regard photography as something fictional, as the photographer’s interpretation of the reality s/he observes through the lens. Would you agree?
MM: It is my eye on reality… I use photography as a means of social intervention. I’m interested in exploring the reality of space and its movements. It reminds me of what Steve McCurry once said: “Many of us are in a position to help others, but few of us are aware of what we can do – or what a difference our contribution can make. I hope my photographs help people become more informed.” I explore photography naturally… I want to create message after message!

Photo by Mário Macilau.Photo by Mário Macilau.

SV: What was it like going to Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria, where you shot the Wood Work series?
MM: My trip to Nigeria was great but at the same time very difficult, mainly because of the “area boys” (also known as “agberos”). Lots of neighbourhoods of Lagos are controlled by these gangs of adolescents who roam the streets extorting money from people and selling drugs and other services. But before I left for Nigeria I did some research on what I wanted to do and so it was easier to come up with some strategies. I dressed in rags, soiled my camera and met and talked to a lot of people so as to make friends, including some local area chiefs. And after that everything went smoothly… The most important thing is to show character and to be nice to people. I’ve met a lot of photographers who like to think they’re special… I see that attitude as an obstacle to working with people in general.

SV: Do you find the situations you photograph troubling? 
MM: It’s not the situations I photograph that affect me. It’s what I’ve seen in general. The world keeps moving everyday and I’ve analysed this movement to try to understand where it’s going. We lead strange lives; the majority of people don’t seem to care what happens to others, or to the world as a whole. Man is full of hatred. Racial hatred and political and economic struggle. Have you noticed just how different we are? Have you ever imagined the difference that one US dollar can make to someone’s life? In my photos I look for lives, beautiful soulful faces. I like to show the world the faces of people who aren’t usually seen.

SV: In some series you use black & white and in others colour. How do you decide? 
MM: We think about things in different ways. When I think about the past, I think in grey. Things change, places change… Now I think more in colour, I see things full of life.

SV: So when you photographed the Wood Work series in Nigeria in black & white was it because it took you back to the past? 
MM: Yes. I photographed those people in Nigeria because they live in miserable conditions. They have absolutely nothing, not even a piece of land. I looked and photographed in black & white – it was just spontaneous.

SV: What does the “other” mean to you? 
MM: What would the “other” be without me, or what would I be without the “other”? Man is what he is because there is another man.

SV: The titles you give your photographs are objective and direct. Don’t you believe in the power of words?
MM: I believe in the power of words, but I also believe in the opposite, that one picture is worth a thousand words. To me, photography is the poetry of immobility. It is through photography that instants reveal their true selves. It is through photography that people learn something about realities that they had never even imagined. It is through my photographs that I construct verses and stanzas; through the way the light reflects… I tell stories which at times are very familiar to us but which we can’t see. Photography allows us to perceive and reflect on reality more closely.

Photo by Mário Macilau.

SV: In some photographs, you adopt the role of a voyeur. Do you agree?
MM: Not at all. I never take photographs at a distance because I like to create a relationship between the camera and the people I shoot. I don’t steal when I photograph. I talk to the people, enter into their lives and forget about my own. I take close-ups, using a 16-35 mm or 18-55 mm wide-angle lens, and on rare occasions a 70-105 mm lens (only when I want to cause an effect on the sides and in the background).

SV: What criteria did you use to select the photographs for this exhibition and catalogue?
MM: I made a very personal selection of some of my work, based above all on the message. They are images of situations that are largely unknown. I want people to look and think about them. In the first part of the catalogue, I’ve included a series I did on the Zionists (popularly known as the “Maziones”), members of a traditional religion of some importance in Mozambique. Most of its members live in rural areas or on the outskirts of large cities. In general, they don’t have access to hospitals and that is why they invoke the holy spirit and the divine cure through the actions of miracles. They perform ceremonies such as baptisms and practice rituals involving animal sacrifices. The Zionist Church is based around the figure of the pastor (mifundisi, in Tsonga), who has various talents and presides at ceremonies. The second part of the catalogue consists of photographs taken in Makoko in Nigeria, a slum in Yaba, in the suburbs of Lagos. In this oil-rich country, a plot of land can cost millions of dollars. So large numbers of homeless and poor have created a community of wooden and corrugated zinc huts on stilts in the sea. The polluted water is their only means of communication and boats are their sole means of transport. Their lives depend on water and wood. But logging and water pollution cause serious environmental damage, mainly due to the systematic felling of trees. In general, I also focused  a lot on specific technical aspects. The light is very important in this context.

Photo by Mário Macilau.

Photo by Mário Macilau.

SV: How do you see your future as an artist?
MM: I can’t say. To be honest, I’m more concerned about the present than the future and what really matters to me is my work. Despite all the problems that crop up from time to time, I’ve put everything into it. As the old saying goes: “You reap what you sow.”

SV: Is there a central idea in your life?
MM: We are not truly alive when we live only for ourselves; we are who we are because of others. Sometimes we sense that we should do something like plant a tree, even if we know that we will never eat its fruit or sit in its shade. Or we discover that we should devote ourselves to something more than just our own petty problems, and rebuild the ruins that we see around us everywhere. It is at times like these that we grow as people. And that we are  true to ourselves as never before.

Vilamoura, 15 November 2010

Published in the catalogue of the exhibition BES Photo 2011, Co-edition Banco Espírito Santo / Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon, 2011.

by Sílvia Vieira

Why More And More Students “In the Hood” Are Out of Control

Why More And More Students “In the Hood” Are Out of Control

by Mark Naison | Fordham University

During the last year, I have gotten more and more reports from the best teachers I know in Bronx public schools, that their students“are out of control.” We are not talking about Ivy League Teach for America types who grew up in wealthy suburbs, but tough, charismatic, physically imposing women graduates of New York City public schools, with formidable classroom management skills and a great sense of humor.

At first, I found these reports hard to believe. The women I am talking about are not only physically strong, they are incredibly innovative in their pedagogy- the best of the best! If they can’t control a class of Bronx 11 or 14 year olds, who could?

But then I started thinking about their work in a much larger context than one suggested by discussions of curriculum, class management, or graduation rates. And I came up with a startling conclusion- that students living in America’s poor neighborhoods, even by age 10 or 11, already know, intuitively, that the schools they are in are unlikely to get them out of the world of poverty and hardship that surrounds them. As a result, they see what goes on in classrooms--especially all the tests they are bombarded with--as fundamentally irrelevant to their lives!

And they are not wrong in their assessment! If they look around their neighborhoods, they see precious few people who have used education to better their lives. For every person in their hood who gets out by pursuing higher education, there are five who leave by going to prison or joining the armed forces. In their world, there is little real life reinforcement of the message schools preach--that the way to success in America is by passing tests, graduating from high school and going on to college. Those who do manage to jump through all those hoops, when they get to college, find the path is long and treacherous, both economically and academically, and if they do manage to get a college degree often can’t get jobs at all, or can’t get jobs that allow them to pay off their student loans.

The current economic crisis has only made the path of self-denial and academic effort seem more problematical. At a time when even middle class college graduates, from top private colleges, have trouble finding work how are you going to “sell” the proposition that education is the path to success in South Bronx neighborhoods like Morrisania or Hunts Point?

The bottom line is--in a city where the top 1 percent of the population monopolizes 44 percent of the income--you can’t. The deck is already so stacked against young people growing up in poverty that no legerdemain or trickery or classroom magic can convince them that the things they are learning and being tested on will have any positive effect on their lives.

So why shouldn’t they fool around? Why shouldn’t they act out? Why shouldn’t they try to enhance their reputation as a thug, a comedian, or a flirt by making the classroom their private theater? After all, those traits represent real life social capital in the world they inhabit, as opposed to the math problems, history lessons, or sentences they are given to construct.

Some people attribute the phenomenon of poor kids acting out to the stress they are under outside of school--reflected in issues ranging from poor diet, to lack of sleep, to gang violence, to physical abuse in their places of residence. All those are undoubtedly contributing factors. But let’s not discount the “rational” element in student behavior, reflected in their very real understanding that the schools they are in are simply unable to deliver on the promise of a better life they use to “sell” their pedagogy.

Given that cold reality, there is absolutely no reason why a student in a place like the South Bronx should defer the joy and status of being a class comedian or “thug in training” for the prospect of participating in an endless round of test preparation and taking which for people in their neighborhood is truly “A Race To Nowhere.”

***

Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

Fringe Society Contest

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Shannon

When things take a turn for the shady, it’s a fair bet that someone at the top is pulling the strings.

This week’s contest is inspired by the dark and dubious world of Darren Shan’s City of the Snakes. Write a story about the underbelly of a (real or fictional) society and the person who controls or rules it. Entries must be 1400 words or fewer.

How to Enter:
1) Read the Contest Rules as stated on the bottom of this post
2) Create your gritty, underbelly-y piece
3) Email your entry in the body of an email to fringesocietycontest@figment.com
4) Follow Fringe Society Contest on Figment

Entries must be received by June 10th, 2011 11:59pm EST. Moderators and editors will be selecting the top semi-finalists, followed by a round of voting (by you!) to determine a winner.

Our winner will receive not one, not two- but all three of the books in The City series, in addition to having their story read and reviewed by Darren Shan!

Contest Rules

1) One entry per person, please.
2) To preserve the blind voting process please refrain posting your entries on Figment until the contest ends.
3) Works must be submitted to the above email address between the announcement of the contest and the closure of the contest.
4) The rules of the contest are both strict and open to interpretation by a moderator.

EOB National Writing Contest

The producers of The Eyes of Babylon have launched a national writing contest to promote the play’s Off-Broadway run, June 14-July 3, 2011 in NYC. Submission deadline is June 14th, 2011.

Genres

• Drama: Play/Screenplay,  up to 15 pages, double spaced | Judge: Del Shores
• Prose: Fiction/Non-fiction, up to 15 pages, double spaced | Judge: Aimee Bender
• Poetry: up to 3 poems, or 8 pages max, no more than 1 poem on each page | Judge: Timothy Donnelly

All submissions must be previously unpublished.

 

Prizes

—> Winners will be announced by July 15th.

GRAND PRIZE $1000 (one overall winner chosen by all three judges)

• Publication on The Eyes of Babylon website
• Trip to New York City to meet Jeff Key  
• Read for a New York audience at a gala for the play
• Swag bag and art/memorabilia from the play

1ST PRIZE $500 (1 per genre) & 2ND PRIZE $200 (1 per genre)

• Publication on The Eyes of Babylon website
• Two tickets to the play
• Swag bag and art/memorabilia from the play

HONORABLE MENTION (2 per genre)

• Two tickets to the play
• Swag bag and art/memorabilia from the play

 

Background

Playwright Jeff Key joined the Marines in 2001 as a 34-year-old gay man. The Eyes of Babylon is the transformation of his Iraq journal into a stunning, raw, funny and indelible solo performance about going to battle, being gay in the military, and finding peace when you are at war with yourself. Jeff now runs writing workshops for veterans, manifesting again the ability for words to heal the wounded and perhaps even the sea of restless bystanders.

 

Contest Themes

With this contest, we hope to to further explore the play's themes of war, the memory of war, and our individual and collective forgetfulness about being at war. We hope to start a broad social dialogue about how art is both a celebration and a critique of our citizenship, patriotism, love of country, and allegiance to values. The play is as much about the process of searching for answers as finding answers themselves, and contest entries should consider the battles we wage both internally and externally, and the role of writing, creativity, and art in the fight for peace, change, and self-examination.

 

Submission Fee

Entry fee is $15. Multiple entries are welcome, and will be considered as anonymous separate entries. The fee is $10 for each additional submission. Follow the submission instructions below for each separate submission. Use the same email address to submit all entries.

 

Submission Instructions

—> Submit work by June 14th, 2011.

—> Your submission should include:

1. Cover letter:
   • Name and Contact Information, including email
   • Title
   • Genre
2. Submission:
   • Title, Genre (as a header)
   • Your name should not appear on any pages of your submission

 

Submit via the postal service

—> Please mail cashier's check with your submission to:

Babylon to Broadway
c/o Jennilyn Merten
107 N 1st ST 4C
Brooklyn, NY 11211

—> You will receive an email confirmation once your submission has been received.

 

Submit via PayPal

—> Important information about the PayPal process:
After you have paid, PayPal will provide a link saying "Return to Babylon to Broadway LLC." Click this link to go to the Submit Your Writing page on our website, where you will be given instructions on how to submit your piece.

Poetry $15.00 Prose $15.00 Play (Short) $15.00 2nd Submission $10.00

 

Questions?

For further inquiries, please contact jennilyn@theeyesofbabylon.com.

Where was the media hunt

for Ratko Mladic?

We ask if the notorious general was able to go undetected for so long because journalists failed to do their job.

04 Jun 2011

GO HERE TO VIEW VIDEO 25-MINUTE VIDEO REPORT

On Listening Post this week: Ratko Mladic finally arrested. Where was the media hunt? Plus, the former IMF chief, sexual assault allegations and France's privacy laws.

Last week, a 16-year long manhunt ended with the arrest of alleged war criminal Ratko Mladic, bringing the former Yugoslavia back into the headlines. Accused by the International Criminal Tribunal of crimes against humanity, Mladic was one of the world's most wanted men.

While critics question both the Serbian government's efforts to catch him and the timing of his arrest, we ask: Where was the media on this story? How did the notorious general manage to elude its spotlight for so long? And how has the Bosnian media been treating the story? Because when the person widely blamed for instigating the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War is hiding undetected in your backyard, someone is not doing their job.

In Newsbytes this week: A Pakistani journalist is found dead after a report that suggested ties between al-Qaeda and the Pakistani armed forces; journalists get caught between Georgian police and anti-government protestors; there is a reported plan underway in Tehran to disconnect Iranian cyberspace from the world wide web; former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is fined $34mn for cutting the country's mobile phone and internet services during the protests earlier this year; and France 24's correspondent in Bahrain gives a harrowing account of her ordeal in prison.

When news broke that Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been accused of rape, images of the handcuffed former IMF director flooded the international airwaves and column inches. But as the breathless reporting of the "future president of France's" incarceration died down, the debate - especially in France - turned to the blurred lines between public interest and a person's right to privacy.

DSK's fondness for the opposite sex was no big secret in France. But France's privacy laws and Parisian journalists' self-imposed code of conduct over these issues kept DSK's open secret out of the media. Listening Post's Adnan Ahmed looks at the legal tightrope French journalists must walk and whether it let loose "Le Grand Seducteur".

Our internet video of the week looks at three dubstep performers and their almost inhuman dance moves, in a genre which emerged from South London in the late 1990s. Three quarters of a million hits on Youtube prove: This is the kind of thing you DO want to try at home. We hope you enjoy the show.

Listening Post can be seen each week at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0830, 1930; Sunday: 1430, Monday: 0430.