adam broomberg + oliver chanarin

work by adam broomberg + oliver chanarin from the series 'people in trouble laughing pushed to the ground'. as they explain: "these are photographs taken by professional photo-journalists and ‘civilian’ photographers, chronicling protests, funerals and acts of terrorism as well as the more ordinary stuff of life: drinking tea; kissing girls; watching trains. belfast exposed was founded in 1983 as a response to concern over the careful control of images depicting british military activity during the troubles. whenever an image in this archive was chosen, approved or selected, a blue, red or yellow dot was placed on the surface of the contact sheet as a marker. the position of the dots provided us with a code; a set of instructions for how to frame the photographs in this book. each of the circular photographs shown on the previous pages reveals the area beneath these circular stickers; the part of each image that has been obscured from view the moment it was selected. each of these fragments–composed by the random gesture of the archivist–offers up a self-contained universe all of its own; a small moment of desire or frustration or thwarted communication that is re-animated here after many years in darkness." see more here.

[all adam broomberg + oliver chanarin. 2011. top to bottom: untitled (people in trouble). untitled (man with jackets). untitled (grieving).]