Blog Post for Assessment

Assignment 3 Diary Entry

“Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me” wrote Anne Frank, this is not the easiest for me either, I am not the most articulate of writers at the best of times. Picasso said “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary”. I feel the same way about photography. I downloaded a Diary app (Day One), and once I was in the rhythm, it was good, I could not have believed what my diary entry would turn out to be.

A little back story to my diary and my choice of entry. I am currently six months into a nine month secondment as the official photographer to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. If you have read previous posts on this blog or seen any of my work, that is probably already apparent. This posting to No 10 has been all encompassing, as I am aware that this module is on self portraiture, or at least a reflective look at oneself. Over the course of this diary, it has been extremely difficult to separate myself from this job, it has literally taken over my life. The BREXIT negotiations and now the general election, coupled with the fact, I am the only official photographer for the PM, 18 hour days seem to have become the norm. That said, this is one of the most fascinating times in political history to be doing this job and it is, indeed, an honour to do so.

In my professional career, I have covered many high profile events, from Royal visits to the launching of Aircraft carriers. As a Public Relations photographer, I am always looking to show what I’m photographing in the best possible light, deciding what images show that person/organisation in the most favourable light. Even down to getting a lower angle to make people look more powerful or trying to not make them look isolated and flattering lighting. I’m constantly thinking of all of these things as well as the obvious shutter, aperture and ISO. I’m never looking for the gritty underbelly or embarrassing images, that’s a job for the Paparazzi.

This has been ingrained in me since my early photography training with the Royal Navy, It has always stuck with me, it is almost a subconscious process now, looking for the best angles, flattering poses, looking for powerful messages in my photographs. Working for the government has its own set of challenges. I am supposed to be completely neutral, is there such thing as complete neutrality? We all have our own views, opinions and traits, I believe all photographers’ personality come through in their photos, whether they realise it or not.

Journals or diaries are nothing new, there are some obvious choices for research, most notably, Anne Frank’s. Although this is considered one of the hundred documents that changed the world, I believed it to be too heavy for this project.

Following this theme, I studied Frida Kahlo’s diaries. From 1944-54, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo kept an illustrated diary filled with personal musings, poems and conceptual designs for future works of art. More than any other diarist I researched, Kahlo complemented her personal feelings of loneliness or jubilation with dramatically colourful illustrations. I was drawn to this field of research as Kahlo is famous for her self portraits, a subject we have covered in depth through this module and it was through this self initiated research into self portraiture I discovered Kahlo’s diary.

The diary is both beautiful and tragic, with many of the pages in the later years of her life depicting tears over relationships and her own deteriorating health. What also drew me, particularly to this diary, is that the entries were taken and transformed into another medium like we have in this project. In Kahlo’s case, in 2005, Carlos Fuentes published a full recreation of her 296 page journal, including 76 watercolour illustrations.

Work at No 10 has been very interesting over this period, there have been many events to photograph and blog about, from the Pride of Britain awards to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. One day I took the passport pictures of 30 different members of staff, which, when all put together made an interesting montage of photos that could have made an interesting diary entry.

 The event I chose from my diary, in my opinion, was the highest profile, but also the one that made the most sense chronologically and worked best as a set. This was the Prime Minister, travelling to Brussels, to get the Brexit deal passed through the European Union Parliament.

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Here is my diary entry for that day:

“Today is the day of EU council, after a few false starts this morning we have finally boarded the RAF plane 146 and set off for Brussels. This EU council is a special one, as it is the one where PM Boris Johnson has finally come to an agreement with the Eu Parliament on BREXIT, I don’t think any of the opposition thought he could do it.

Once we landed, we made our way via police convoy, to the Europa Building in the heart of Brussels, safe in the knowledge that a deal had been accepted between both sides.

The official proceedings started with a press conference between Boris Johnson and Jean Claude Juncker, where, they announced that a deal had been reached and ratified by the 27 members of the EU. It was not like normal press conference, the EU don’t want us to leave, to quote Donald Tusk when asked what his message was to the 48 per cent of British voters who supported remain, European Council president, he said: “I regret that it was only 48 not 52.”

 The PM then held bilateral meetings with Chancellor Merkel and President Macron. We then moved to the roundtable for a series of talks, there was much back slapping and congratulations for getting the deal through.

We then held a press conference, where the travelling press pack had their say, I must admit, the press were a lot easier on the PM than I thought. The mood is high as the deal has been reached against the odds, crunch time will be in Parliament on Sat and I’m not holding my breath. The PM is now off to his official dinner and we get to enjoy a meal in Brussels city centre.

We were supposed to leave at 2300 but were delayed until 0230 meaning we didn’t return back to the UK until 0400, these are long days!”

I chose this day as it was the most interesting of all the entries. This is one of the most important days our nation has seen for a long time and I was lucky enough to be there to capture it.

In this project, it is ourselves that translate the diary entry into images, it leads me to consider how challenging it would be to translate somebody else’s work to images much like we have in this module, when translating a poem into images. It is also interesting to see how other photographers see the same situations as you, I was obviously not the only photographer there, seeing how other people view the same situation deserves mentioning.

Although this was seen as a success for our administration, It’s also interesting seeing what other EU leaders said about the deal, as this affects them as much as it affects us.

“It’s a little bit like an old friend that’s going on a journey or adventure without us, and we really hope it works out for them, but I think there will always be a place at the table for them if they ever choose to come back,” Ireland’s Leo Varadkar said.

Chief negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters: “I too very much regret Brexit. I deeply regret it. However, we respect it, it was a sovereign choice of a majority in the UK. I have a sort of Gaullist tendency myself, but I have a great deal of admiration for the UK… We will never forget the solidarity shown by the British in our darkest hour.”

This was a much-needed lift to the administration, however fleeting this victory. What happens next depends on whether parliament agrees the deal, I Don’t believe they will and this will be the catalyst for a much needed general election and an end the stalemate in Parliament.

In retrospect, this was a good project for me, it was a chance for some good self reflection of my style of photography and I’m slowly learning what my style of photography is. Things that have been ingrained or I have taken for granted through my PR background, I now see coming through in my coursework and my professional work.