March 5, 2007
Pixelated youth
Simon Wheatley
In an ongoing email conversation with British Magnum photographer Simon Wheatley about photographing youth in different countries, Wheatley also touched upon the fear that the U.K. may be introducing measures that will restrict street photography. He answered a few questions from Malaysia where he is currently working.
Blois, France. 2005. The monotony of another boring afternoon for two youths who have been excluded from school. Simon Wheatley/Magnum Photos
What would be the implications of such legislation for you?
I’m not sure exactly what is being proposed, but if France is anything to go by then it’s very worrying. When you take someone’s eyes away or blur a facial expression you can remove the meaning of the picture. There was a debate on lightstalkers after my story from the banlieue of Blois was placed on the Magnum website. Someone said he mourned the death of photojournalism in France, and I share that sentiment if this is really the way things must go. But France has become very interesting and I do retain hope that the work in Blois might be the beginning of my efforts there. Another comment on lightstalkers said that it would have been more respectful of me to obtain people’s permission before publication, but most of the youths in my pictures from Blois are extremely alienated, and would probably have ripped up any piece of paper I’d ask them to sign. A 14 year old boy of Algerian origin did exactly that with a contact sheet in which he spotted his younger sister, who’d actually asked me to take her picture! I would not expect such a heated reaction in London but I don’t think many of the youth I’ve photographed there would be exactly queuing up to sign releases.
Can you compare your work in Blois and your work about inner-city youth in London?
The two experiences have really been very different. I’ve been around London for some time and the body of work has just emerged, subconsciously. There are some places in east London particularly where I don’t feel like a stranger, and I enjoy good relations with many people in the inner city who are aware of my work.
London, UK. 2005. Members of the E14 movement on Aberfeldy Road. Simon Wheatley/Magnum Photos
Blois, on the other hand, is a small town I visited about eight times in total, consciously aware that I was trying to make a story to reflect upon the suburban riots of November 2005. One person helped me at the beginning, introducing me to an alienated youth of 17, but left me to fend for myself from there. In Blois, I always had the feeling that while I was getting closer, I would never get close enough. Some of the pictures resulted from rather short encounters; the tolerance threshold could be very low. And when I asked people if I could come into their homes they usually thought I was mad. Sometimes I’d wander for hours alone, not finding anyone willing to have me around, and I was always very much an outsider. I decided to end the project when I realised that the only way to go really deep with the youth was to live there and become part of them… but it was a grim and depressing place and it might have taken years before I was truly accepted.
In terms of the issues, what strikes me most is the much greater solidarity amongst immigrant youth in France. Algerians and Congolese are like brothers, for example, they realise they are in the same struggle. In London, however, there is the phenomenon of black-on-black violence while relations between black and Bangladeshi youth in east London are somehow fraught with tension. While I was engaged with the Blois project but back in London I would tell some youths I knew there that they were jokers, strutting around trying to play Mr Gangster, and that in France there really was a war – 18 nights of consecutive suburban violence is surely tantamount to that. In London, a youth can get stabbed just for walking through an estate where he doesn’t live, even though he may have never had problems with anyone there. The violence can be very banal.
There was definitely more alienation in Blois, and a clear concept of ‘us and them’. I felt Ramadan would be a time of peace but the place seemed to be seething silently… and if Sarkozy wins the forthcoming election the banlieue may well explode again - the immigrant youth hate him after what he said about them being scum. Discrimination has become a huge problem in France and I suspect we are dealing with a lost generation, young men who may never find a meaningful place in French society. One guy in Blois, a peaceful and respectful person incidentally, told me he has on occasions been into an employment agency and said ‘bonjour’ only for the French women working there to not even acknowledge his presence.
It’s more relevant to compare the issue of discrimination with the situation faced by Bangladeshi youths because of the Islamic connection. In London if you’ve got a Muslim name your CV might well get passed to the rejection pile, as a Guardian experiment - fictional characters with identical qualifications but clearly different ethnicities applying for the same positions - has indicated. But a young Bangladeshi can probably get a job doing something, a retail position for example. Discrimination probably sets in at about £20,000 per year but in France it may well begin at zero.
Contrary to some perceptions, I think Islam actually provides hope in Europe. Within London’s Caribbean community, the church going tradition of the first generation of immigrants has withered away, and the youth today are generally devoid of any spiritual reference. I feel that a young Bangladeshi caught up in crime may one day see the light that Islam can provide. He has a safety net within his community but the Afro-Caribbean youth usually doesn’t.
I am reminded of when I was in Amsterdam, where the alienated Moroccan youth became a massive issue in the wake of 9/11 and then the slaying of Theo van Gogh at the hands of a Muslim radical. Integration suddenly became the political buzzword as it dawned that ghettoes had formed over 2 or 3 decades in which Moroccans were living far removed from Dutch society. Many seemed to think that Islam was contrary to the notion of integration, but the original schism between the Dutch population and the Moroccan youth had in fact occurred pre 9/11, stemming from delinquent behaviour and criminality. I reckoned that Islam was actually the one force capable of delivering a young Moroccan onto a more civil path within Dutch society and that it could therefore be a positive force for integration. Yes, I’m digressing... but as long as we live according to ever more material principles there will always be severe problems with youth, whether in Blois, London or Kuala Lumpur from where I write.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 2001. Fast food restaurant in east Amsterdam. Simon Wheatley/Magnum Photos.
Are there any parallels between youth in France and in the UK with youth in Malaysia?
The concept of ever more information and ever less intelligence seems to apply everywhere, particularly within lower-income groups where levels of education are low and television can assume a dangerously influential role. And in Malaysia, delinquency is becoming a very serious issue amongst the poorer groups. Technology has also become double-edged because the more creative it gets the less creative young people are often inclined to be. These are universal things that apply beyond the three countries you mention, though I notice them especially in a Malaysia that has undergone extensive modernization recently. And as happened in France and the UK, the youth in Malaysia seem seduced by whatever comes out of the USA. I find that especially sad in Asia where the indigenous cultures are often much deeper and richer.
If I can’t photograph in the UK or France then there’s plenty to work on out here. Nonetheless, we must try and fight the proposed and existing legislation however we can.
Published on the Magnum Blog on March 5, 2007
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