TD 1
– How would you explain your approach to your wor
k and process? On some fundamental level, I think most, if not all of my work exists around the process of ‘access’. I used to only consider my practice in terms of a visual output, but now I realise that my process begins long before any shutter is clicked. Access and accessibility become the cornerstone of all of my research. Early evidence of this was my very first large body of work The Joy [which began as my degree project] in which I spent years inside Mountjoy Prison. From that point onwards, my practice has continued to examine the idea of ‘the institution’ (in a global sense) and the effects of change and circumstance on these institutions and the ideals and functions we take for granted. From examining ‘how we work’ in a global labour market in the time of a global recession [Union], to the future of the global newspaper newsroom, my practice has always looked at the ongoing consideration of the political forces that shape our world reflected through the organisation of social space. This strategy of photography, mostly unpeopled, is made up of interior spaces that I like to think are quietly revealing. There’s a nice quote from Ken Grant in the essay A Seat at The Table he wrote for my Union book, “Space portrays those who populate it.” – Your most recent project Above The Fold is finally out in the world. Can you explain more about the project, how it came about and how you went about making it a reality over so many years? Around ten years ago, I began reading a lot around the western newspaper media’s plans to move online to a subscription based system and not paper. This was probably the origin of the idea and from then I pretty much embarked on what was the beginning of a journey that would witness and document some of these changes and to try to examine what the future holds for these spaces and its people. For most of my career I have focused my camera on workers, workspace and the labour market as a whole, and for me this felt like a logical progression towards a subject matter that has always been close to my heart. Like most of my long term projects, there is a point at which it becomes clear to me that this project should be wrapped up or released. I think 2016 was the turning point for me with ATF. As Trump became president I watched, daily, the overt attempts to systematically undermine the processes of print media and so I felt that the timing was right for me to offer my counterpoint to this troubling narrative. With this in mind I feel that Above The Fold is a story about legacy, and the future of an industry and its workers, through an evolution of technological change and political upheaval in which human input still remains the cornerstone in the production of legitimate news today. These photographs offer us a glimpse into the places where the decisions and policies that affect so many are created. While these places may be separated by geography, culture and politics, they are all inherently linked by one fundamental attribute; the commitment to inform, educate and reinforce the importance of a free and trustworthy press – Why are large self-initiated, narrative driven projects so important to you? This might sound counterintuitive, but I’m not sure that they are. What’s important to me is the subject matter and the evolution of my own learning and research around certain themes and ideas. I consistently try and make work that I want to make and about subjects that I feel are primarily important to me (but, also, of interest to an audience). In a lot of ways, I think I suffer from a creative naivety where I think that my projects won’t take as long as they do. In some ways I’m grateful for this as I always feel that had I known how long it would actually take, I would have scared myself away from trying! So, I don’t really set out to spend years doing one project, it’s just how it always ends up. These kinds of projects are really all I’ve ever known. It’s what gets me up in the morning and what keeps me awake at night too. I’ve never wanted to have to turn work around quickly, it’s not about that for me. I think work needs to have time to evolve and personally I need to learn and evolve with it along the way. – Your projects are huge commitments to a single thought or idea, albeit with many strands, locations and all the associated negotiations, travel and much more, I guess. How do you ensure you keep these projects moving towards a final destination and output over what can be years? One of the important things for me from the outset is not to commit to ‘a final destination’ at the beginning, but to simply lay down a path or a direction. If you commit to an ‘ending’ at the beginning then I’m not allowing myself to learn and evolve with the project and there’s a danger of backing myself into a creative cul-de-sac in which its difficult to get out of. I like to think the conclusion will become evident as the project develops and when it makes sense to the work, not just an arbitrary time frame. Obviously, this is easier said than done. The key to managing projects of this scale (for me anyway) is to have more than one idea on the go. This allows time for reflection but also allows me to continue moving forward with one idea while I may have hit a wall with another. It’s also why I wanted to teach. I like being surrounded by photography and ideas and I find listening to students talk about their work to be inspiring. Opposite page: Above: The Sun Below: The Washington Post. This page: Financial Times Above The Fold is available from noelbowler.com, £45 – There’s something eerie about the fact you took these images pre-pandemic in what were normally busy newsrooms. This seems to take on more significance given the pandemic caused these studios to scatter their teams to the wind when it hit. Do you look at your images now in a different way? I don’t think I see it differently but I’m conscious that other people are beginning to come around to seeing some of the spaces in the same way I always have. It’s definitely made things easier to explain to people. Now everybody can see the relationship we have with space (in this case, workspace) perhaps with a little more layered understanding. 15