About
In a new exhibition at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, South African born and UK based Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin bring together three powerful series produced in the past four years. People in trouble laughing pushed to the ground (2010), The Day Nobody Died (2008) and The Red House (2007) are all located within zones of conflict – Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.
At times hauntingly beautiful and engagingly uncanny, People in trouble laughing pushed to the ground was produced by Broomberg and Chanarin in response to an invitation to work with the Belfast Exposed photographic archive in Northern Ireland. The archive, established by photojournalists around the beginning of the Troubles in the early ’80s, is equally concerned with protests, funerals and acts of terrorism as it is with the more ordinary stuff of life – drinking tea, kissing girls, watching trains. In each instance, the presence of the archivist is discernable through a range of marks and incisions on the contact sheets. Broomberg and Chanarin acknowledge and thank the original photographers Mervyn Smith, Sean Mc Kernan, Gerry Casey, Seamus Loughran and all other contributing photographers to Belfast Exposed’s archive.
The Day Nobody Died was realised by Broomberg and Chanarin in June 2008 during a trip to Afghanistan, where they were embedded with British Army units on the front line in Helmand Province, arriving during the deadliest month of the war. On their first day a BBC fixer was dragged from his car and executed and nine Afghan soldiers were killed in a suicide attack. The following day the number of British combat fatalities was pushed to 100, with casualties continuing until the fifth day when nobody died. In response to these, as well as a series of more mundane occurrences, Broomberg and Chanarin turned an armoured vehicle into a temporary darkroom, producing a series of peculiar abstract forms modulated by the heat and light, presenting an alternative to the photographic documentation of war.
The Red House is a series of 27 photographs of wall drawings and graphic marks made by Kurdish prisoners held in the former headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist party in northern Iraq. After the 1991 Kurdish uprising this notorious place of incarceration, torture and sometimes death, remained as a monument to the cruelty of war. Cropped and isolated, there is no visual information other than these curious markings, revealing an unexpected bout of expression amidst the monotony, solitude and terror of captivity. “History presents itself as a palimpsest” writes author David Campany. ”The traces recorded by these photographs may relate to past events in the history of the Red House but nothing is settled in Iraq yet. While the photographs are fixed forever, these may not be the last marks made on these walls.”
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have been collaborating for over a decade. They have produced six books, which in different ways examine the language of documentary photography; Trust (2000) accompanied their first solo-show at The Hasselblad Center; Ghetto (2003) a collection of their work as editors and principal photographers of Colors magazine, was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum; Mr. Mkhize’s Portrait (2004) documented South Africa ten years after apartheid and accompanied a solo show at The Photographer’s Gallery; Chicago (2006), an exploration of contemporary Israel was published by SteidMACK in conjunction with a solo-show at The Stedelijk Museum; Fig which was published in Autumn 2007, also by Steidl, to accompany solo exhibitions at the John Hansard Gallery and Impressions Gallery, UK. The Red House (2007) is published by Steidl Editions. Broomberg and Chanarin regularly teach workshops and give master classes in photography, as well as teaching on the MA in Documentary Photography at LCC in London and the MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. They are the recipients of numerous awards, including the Vic Odden Award from the Royal Photographic Society.
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Women grieving), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Man grieving), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Two boys standing), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cmm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Hand with microphone), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Car on fire), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Hand in eye), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Chair balancing on stick), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Three women two smoking), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Bright light), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Man falling or pushed to the
ground)
, 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Legs arms and wrist-watch), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 inches Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (people in trouble), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 inches Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Girl looking), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Two curves), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Legs in trapeze), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Hand waving), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Young women hiding), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Boy running with barrel), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 inches Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Boy on tip toes), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Balloon’s escaping), 2010 Fibre 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Laughing hiding pulling), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Girl in bathing suit), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Boy falling), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Young dancer), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Man in the dark), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Trees), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (Woman's clavicle), 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin Untitled (People saluting) , 2010 Fibre print 8 x 10 cm Edition of 8
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Broomberg & Chanarin April to August 1993/ Sheet 2, People in Trouble, 2011 C- type print 188 x 150cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin 27September1996/Sheet27/Frame9, 2010 C- Type print 188 x 150 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Culture3/Sheet72/Frame3, 2010 C- Type print 188 x 150 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin 42 Sheet 3, 2010 C- type print 8 x10 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin The Press Conference, June 9, 2010 76, 2 x 600 cm
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #1, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #15, 2006 C-type print 150 x 120 cm Edition of 3
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #10, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #2, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #4, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #3, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #9, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Broomberg & Chanarin Red House #7, 2006 C-type print 100 x 76.6 cm Edition of 5
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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Installation picture [Broomberg & Chanarin / 2011]
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