Interesting article. Maybe we could say that peace photography is similar to street photography in a non-conflict zone: people living, working, socialising. “Peace” as a word can imply stillness, inertia, whereas wartime terms such as revolution imply movement. But of course peaceful communities also (r)evolve, and are animated.
Personally, I make photos for three reasons. 1) I’m inquisitive 2) I like to travel and capture what I’ve been inquisitive about 3) It’s a mindful practice and puts me at peace. The last is the most important to me. It’s another facet to the term of peace photography that I know many people share
I love a good challenge. Unfortunately, there's no way to add my view on peace, but I liked your collection of photos. I think I find peace hard to capture, but perhaps the photos might include sky, water and eyes.
Hi Jon, I have so enjoyed waking up to this and hearing about your experiments with the students. I write from Sarajevo and last night I was listening to a fascinating book talk by Amra Abadzic about life during the siege of Sarajevo, she was saying how the images of running from shells and fire were such a small proportion of what they lived and the reality of day to day life was caught up in trying to survive until the war came to an end: securing water and food, trying to keep warm, learning to live with the dark and without electricity etc. The challenge when it comes to visualising peace is perhaps its ordinariness which is a huge test photographically. When war is so visually compelling, how can peace compete? However peace is as you note such an abstract and amorphous concept and I find it helpful to draw on the work of peace theorists to try to pin down definitions of and dimensions of peace to then help us think how it might be photographed. For example, beyond the ordinary stuff of life and those we love, can peace exist without justice?
It makes me so happy to know that your Yr 12 students will be working with younger ones on this subject - in my mind these kinds of collaborations when photography becomes a means for people to exchange and spend time together are part of peace photography which is just as concerned with the process of image making and sharing (and how that can contribute to 'peaceablness' - a term a peace scholar called Elise Boulding uses) as it is with the resulting images. I would love to see the results and also find ways to collaborate further to develop more prompts and resources on this topic. I will be in touch!
Thanks Tiffany. I’ll keep you posted about students’ images and look forward to further collaboration. Togetherness, ordinariness and justice are all challenging, but compelling, themes for young (and older) photographers.
Hi Jon, that's a wonderful piece. No pat answers (as I guess there really aren't any), yet some very thoughtful and challenging questions. I had no idea about peace photography but I love the concept and the requirement it makes on the photographer for careful and mindful thought... Did you have anything specifically in mind re a collaboration as I might well be interested?
Thanks Keith. Appreciate you taking the time to read the post and comment. I don't have anything in mind regarding a collaboration so happy to explore the idea in any way. I recommend having a go at making some pictures with peace in mind. I suppose I'm interested in how the word evokes different things to each photographer and what kind of visual vocabulary emerges from the process. Avoiding clichés is pretty hard, as is the nagging thought that anything (other than war) could be a 'peace photograph'.
Sorry for slight delay but I'm def going to have a go at this. Just downloaded the book and will be perusing and as Tiffany mentions below looking at the work of peace theorists. Have an idea or two myself as well so excited to get started.
Interesting article. Maybe we could say that peace photography is similar to street photography in a non-conflict zone: people living, working, socialising. “Peace” as a word can imply stillness, inertia, whereas wartime terms such as revolution imply movement. But of course peaceful communities also (r)evolve, and are animated.
Personally, I make photos for three reasons. 1) I’m inquisitive 2) I like to travel and capture what I’ve been inquisitive about 3) It’s a mindful practice and puts me at peace. The last is the most important to me. It’s another facet to the term of peace photography that I know many people share
I love a good challenge. Unfortunately, there's no way to add my view on peace, but I liked your collection of photos. I think I find peace hard to capture, but perhaps the photos might include sky, water and eyes.
I don’t understand. I’m intrigued. Why can’t you add your view on peace?
What I meant is that Substack doesn't allow photo comments, but if it did, I would've posted one from my archive.
Ah, that makes sense. I would like to see your peace photographs.
Hi Jon, I have so enjoyed waking up to this and hearing about your experiments with the students. I write from Sarajevo and last night I was listening to a fascinating book talk by Amra Abadzic about life during the siege of Sarajevo, she was saying how the images of running from shells and fire were such a small proportion of what they lived and the reality of day to day life was caught up in trying to survive until the war came to an end: securing water and food, trying to keep warm, learning to live with the dark and without electricity etc. The challenge when it comes to visualising peace is perhaps its ordinariness which is a huge test photographically. When war is so visually compelling, how can peace compete? However peace is as you note such an abstract and amorphous concept and I find it helpful to draw on the work of peace theorists to try to pin down definitions of and dimensions of peace to then help us think how it might be photographed. For example, beyond the ordinary stuff of life and those we love, can peace exist without justice?
It makes me so happy to know that your Yr 12 students will be working with younger ones on this subject - in my mind these kinds of collaborations when photography becomes a means for people to exchange and spend time together are part of peace photography which is just as concerned with the process of image making and sharing (and how that can contribute to 'peaceablness' - a term a peace scholar called Elise Boulding uses) as it is with the resulting images. I would love to see the results and also find ways to collaborate further to develop more prompts and resources on this topic. I will be in touch!
Thanks Tiffany. I’ll keep you posted about students’ images and look forward to further collaboration. Togetherness, ordinariness and justice are all challenging, but compelling, themes for young (and older) photographers.
Brilliant post and brilliant idea Jon - am definitely going to give this a go … for myself and maybe with some of the groups we work with
Excellent. Looking forward to seeing the results.
Hi Jon, that's a wonderful piece. No pat answers (as I guess there really aren't any), yet some very thoughtful and challenging questions. I had no idea about peace photography but I love the concept and the requirement it makes on the photographer for careful and mindful thought... Did you have anything specifically in mind re a collaboration as I might well be interested?
Thanks Keith. Appreciate you taking the time to read the post and comment. I don't have anything in mind regarding a collaboration so happy to explore the idea in any way. I recommend having a go at making some pictures with peace in mind. I suppose I'm interested in how the word evokes different things to each photographer and what kind of visual vocabulary emerges from the process. Avoiding clichés is pretty hard, as is the nagging thought that anything (other than war) could be a 'peace photograph'.
Sorry for slight delay but I'm def going to have a go at this. Just downloaded the book and will be perusing and as Tiffany mentions below looking at the work of peace theorists. Have an idea or two myself as well so excited to get started.
Great stuff!