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Inge Morath AwardJessica Dimmock 2006 Recipient of the Inge Morath Award
Last year, Jessica Dimmock received the Inge Morath Award which was established to encourage young female photojournalists. She shares with us how she found and completed her award-winning photo documentary 'The Ninth Floor' about several people in a New York apartment living with drug addiction, and why it's important to have an award only for women. How did you find the subject of your photodocumentary? Learn more about the Inge Morath Award What obstacles, in terms of time, interest, finances, personal motivation, did you find in pursuing it? The apartment could be a very awful place to spend time in. It was hard to put the time in and to know when to stay or when to go. Sometimes I spent the night, or several days on end. That could be very difficult and very claustrophobic, but it was an important component to my understanding of what was going on. And at this point I have spent a great deal of time with some of the people from this project and I care about them a great deal. I recognize that I cannot change them, nor save them, but they have been incredibly open with me and there is a lot of trust in our relationship. It is hard to watch these patterns get repeated and to watch the pain that occurs. How did you hear about the Inge Morath award? I don't recall. I believe several What do you think of the concept of having an award only for women? I think it is incredibly important. I have watched the occasional blog discussion where people ask why there is not such an award for men. I would hope that people understand what a male dominated field this is (men are therefore already disproportionately rewarded), and thus it is important to encourage and support women in photojournalism. What was the feedback from people who discovered your work via the Inge What projects are you working on now? I am in the final stages of turning this project on addicts, which I call The Ninth Floor, into a book. I am also working on Keep an eye on the Magnum Blog for an upcoming interview with Claudia Guadarrama who received the Inge Morath award in 2004 for her work on Central Americans trying to cross the border to Mexico in their attempt to eventually reach the U.S.
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Reader comments (19)
once again; thank you Magnum Society for another gem !! You truly show us
very real and alternative views to this WORLD> For this my eternal gratitude. I
think that their surely should be an award just for females. Jessica is WORTHY !!
Comment posted by robert on May 15, 2007
The Ninth Floor also won the F Award for the Concerned Photographer, and there are clues in this interview that Jessica Dimmock was indeed worthy of that award.
I hope you make it a regular feature to get more award-winning photographers to talk about the what when into their projects. Thank you!
Comment posted by Mahesh Shantaram on May 16, 2007
Er zit een erg mooie atmosfeer in deze foto. Zeer goed werk (ondanks dat de foto door een spiegel gemaakt is) !
Comment posted by Tim Freh on May 16, 2007
Well, sometimes the mystic question of getting access is just a question of luck. What you make of it is first and formost a question of dedication. There are hundreds of stories on drug addiction anywhere in the world, but this one is by far one of my favourites.
Comment posted by Daniel on May 17, 2007
No consigo ver nada original en estas fotos. La misma mirada de siempre sobre los derrotados por la vida.
I can´t see nothing new on this pictures.
Comment posted by jorge on May 18, 2007
I love the expression on the guy's face. Thanks for sharing!
Comment posted by Photography on May 19, 2007
Just seems strange that a drug dealer in NY would come up to you & tell you you can photograph him & some of the addicts he knows. If I were a documentary photographer, I’d be a bit suspicious. I looked at the (very big) photos on the website & somehow it just doesn’t work for me. It all seems so orchestrated, almost contrived. I found it hard to connect with these people in anyway. It was difficult to feel any kind of empathy or compassion. A long way from the seminal works of Eugene Richards ( Cocaine True Cocaine Blue) & Donovan Wylie ( Losing ground). I suggest people take another look at these & compare.
Comment posted by James Cox on May 21, 2007
Il est difficile d ' etre sans esprit humain face à la douleur humaine , a mes yeux , certains humains méritent de connaitre le code de l ' appel au secours de l ' humanité. Comment peut on rester sans émotions face à ses images ! Que fais notre gouvernement ! et que font les humains sans humanité ! !Alors sommes nous des etres indignes , sans valeurs humaines ..........
Comment posted by deghia fairouz on May 22, 2007
I am no expert in photography, but that is one of the most interesting and coolest photos I have ever seen.
Comment posted by Andy Booth on May 23, 2007
she was also featured in the Fall 2006 issue of aperture magazine
check it out
Comment posted by cc on May 24, 2007
Deghia suggests that, because of my reaction to these photos, I’m in some way incapable of understanding any signs of distress sent out by my fellow human beings. If I were so insensitive to this kind of thing then why would I suggest that people look at Eugene Richard’s & Donovan Wylie’s work? When I look at their work I do feel the empathy & compassion that most human beings do in front of such a desperate situation. It’s precisely because I didn’t feel these emotions when I looked at Jessica Dimmock’s work that I wrote what I wrote. Her photos failed to bring out these emotions in me. Maybe that’s because there‘s something lacking in my emotional make up or maybe it’s something about her work. I’ll try and explain my point of view. The photos on the site are automatically splashed on to your screen and literally fill it. I can’t describe them all but I think one in particular illustrates my point. It’s a « Goldinesque » shot of a tattooed couple on a bed, having sex. What kind of emotions was the photographer trying to get over when she took this shot and why did she decide to include it in the edited photos? Like a lot of Nan Goldin’s photos, I just felt as though I was in some kind of cheap peepshow. Compare the Ninth floor portfolio with photos taken by Simon Wheatley in Amsterdam (see his personal page on the Magnum website). I’m sure that there are photos that Simon decided not to take or at least to edit out. If you like Deghia there a certain “retenue” & “pudeur” here which is in my opinion is the mark of good humanistic photography. There’s a very thin line sometimes between this & sensationalism. For me, Jessica’s portfolio was on the wrong side of that line. But after all, that’s only my opinion, my reaction to the photos & how they’re presented. The people at Magnum obviously felt differently, so I don’t think Jessica’s going to be giving a lot of credit to how I feel!
Comment posted by James Cox on May 26, 2007
The simple fact of these photographs triggering reactions and oppinions proves them worthy of attention. There is a line from which on photojournalism becomes sensationalism, a very fine and subtle line. I feel that Jessica Dimmock's drug addicts works stand on this line exactly, on the edge of it, and there is where their value begins. Artists such as Nan Goldin and others offered a free transgression pass which is utterly precious, because the filter of fleurs du mal beauty and humanity is dangerous and out of date in circumstances as these. The young journalist made the issue painfully clear for me - it looks as what it is, not as an aesthetised version of it. I'm actually very curious - and maybe Jessica can answer it - how long it took for such degree of trust to be formed, a lot of time or maybe very little (sometimes drug addicts are literally needing to perform their addiction in front of cameras)?
Comment posted by Simona Dumitriu on June 2, 2007
James Cox, I agree with you!!!
Comment posted by Nevermind on July 12, 2007
A very strong photographic compilation of a window to a new (hidden) world or known to few at least. i don't hink it is being sensationalist, there are many humanistic aspects in this work. the couple having sex doesn't bother me at all, it rather opens a further window, i mean sex is human isn't it? maybe not on drugs, but even that has been done for a very long time already.
The most important subjects in these pictures are the humans themselves and their way of seeing life and the sad addiction drugs can get to be. Photography is about looking and seeing.
Comment posted by da-answer on July 23, 2007
It appears critical comments can and are rejected by the original poster. Makes you wonder about the value of this sort of 'communication'. Peter
Comment posted by Peter on August 24, 2007
Peter, you posted a total of 16 comments on various articles on the Magnum Blog. I always appreciate your comments a lot, they are detailed and thoughtful. If you look through the comments you posted here quite a couple of them offered critique and a different point of view than the authors had. Which I find not only interesting but also extremely important and valuable.
I don't however understand what you refere to with "It appears critical comments can and are rejected by the original poster. Makes you wonder about the value of this sort of 'communication'." You never posted a comment to this article by Jessica Dimmock. Or are you refering to comments from other people?
Comment posted by Martin Fuchs on August 24, 2007
I thought that I had. I'm living in a less than perfect electronic environment and must assume that my post never made it to the Magnum blog server. Ergo, ignore my post. I'll re-post my reaction to this blog soonest. Thank you.
Comment posted by Peter on August 25, 2007
My original comment...which disappeared in tech space went something like this: the photographer has entered a private space, and a forbidden one. Depicting behaviour associated with the loss of control of senses...of debased animal like reflexes. And, this is where I am a bit uncomfortable with the display, as if she were the proverbial "priest in a whorehouse". Looking in from the outside and giving me the feeling as if I was looking through the keyhole at it all. Embarrassed.
Comment posted by Peter on August 28, 2007
There is a very interesting multimedia presentation of Jessica Dimmock's The Ninth Floor at MediaStorm website:
http://mediastorm.org/0021.htm
Comment posted by Guillermo on January 23, 2008