The thought-provoking nature of Paul Seawright’s Sectarian Murder series is the key to its success. As a viewer we have to engage more thought in the reading of the images – nothing is obvious. The work is more challenging than say, an image made in the immediate aftermath, with police cordon tape surrounding the scene and then reproduced in a newspaper – this would be purely photojournalistic. As he says in his video, this would give up its meaning too quickly, leaving the viewer no room for interpretation, the image would be explicit with an obvious and easy to grasp reading. By obfuscating his images, which become more apparent with added context of the written text – taken from journalistic print – in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, he transforms the images with a greater, more mentally engaging meaning. Add to this his own history to the area and the fact that he was growing up with murders occurring at regular intervals, helping shape his own understanding. This too, adds sensitivity to the work.
The crux of his argument when talking about his series is all about viewer interpretation. Paul doesn’t want the meanings lying within his work to be obvious, he wants the viewer to expend some mental energy in fathoming their own understanding of it. His aim is to give room within it, enabling the viewer to engage fully with it. All art should be engaging and not obvious.
I think that if a piece of documentary photography is defined as art, its meaning is changed. I’ll add a caveat, its definition as art is defined by the creator and their intent. For me a standard documentary image that features in a broadsheet, with easy interpretation does not hold the same allure as an image that is more challenging. Two photographers could embark on making work of the same subject with differing outcomes – one artistic and the other documentarian, I’m sure the meanings would differ greatly when comparing the two works.
Bibliography
Paul Seawright. (2019). Sectarian Murder — Paul Seawright. [online] Available at: http://www.paulseawright.com/sectarian [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Vimeo. (2019). Catalyst: Paul Seawright. [online] Available at: https://vimeo.com/76940827 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Context and Narrative 