Off Ground

Off Ground
2011
Photographs by Stephen Gill
Words by Iain Sinclair
Edited and sequenced by Stephen Gill
Design by Melanie Mues
Published by Nobody in association with the Archive of Modern Conflict
25 black and white photographs
12 pages
280 x 400 mm
Printed on newspaper stock
Cotton saddle-stitched spine
Printed at the Newspaper Club
Edition of 2000
Published in 2011
ISBN 978-0-9556577-7-1

The pictures were made in response to the London riots that took place in August 2011.  I had a strong urge to respond and try to make sense of what was happening in London and in this case the Borough of Hackney. I was concerned too knowing that so often by the very act of photographing and filming can also fuel and add to the problems.  I feel this was particularly felt with the TV and press coverage and the fast modern dissemination of images that amplified and distorted the events giving so much oxygen to the violence. I collected stones and rocks that were thrown during the riots and took them to my nearby studio to photograph them in a detached descriptive way without colour. I see such studies as starting points for reflection that are pinpointed to a certain time and place. 

A short text, written yesterday after a walk with Stephen Gill, and a visit to his studio. It is intended to accompany a series of photographs Stephen made of bricks and rocks picked up in the aftermath of the recent Hackney riots. I thought this was a fascinating angle of approach, which somehow shifted the context and moved the whole affair into plural time, rather than the neurotic heat of news reportage.

Iain Sinclair