EDMUND CLARK Unseen Conflicts - War on Terror

The award-winning work of British artist Edmund Clark
intensely reflects on historical and political events, as well as
their means of representation through a multilayered
combination of different media including photography, film,
text document and installation. On the grounds of a
photographic, documentary approach, the works of Edmund
Clark focus thematically on systems of power and
mechanisms of state control. In particular, Clark, who counts
among the first to be granted access to the prison camp of
Guantánamo as a member of the British press, concentrates
on the profound changes that Western societies have
undergone since the terror attacks of 9/11.

Photo series such as “Negative Publicity. Artefacts of
Extraordinary Rendition” demonstrate the far-reaching
consequences of the War on Terror, which have infiltrated the
normality of every day life. The series is the result of a
cooperation between Edmund Clark and counterterrorism
investigator Crofton Black, who as a main witness provided
key evidence and helped uncover the CIA rendition
programme before the European Parliament and the
European Court of Justice, resulting in the sentencing of
Lithuania and Poland for helping the U.S. to establish secret
prisons on their territory. In “Negative Publicity” Clark
illuminates cases of “extraordinary rendition”, these referring
to the U.S. government-sponsored abduction and
extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another
that has predominantly been carried out by the United States
government with the consent of other countries. Using
materials such as invoices, documents of incorporation and
billing reconciliations produced by the small-town American
businesses enlisted in prisoner transportation, the trajectory
between concealed places and prisons and the overall
movements of displacement can be traced. In addition,
photographs depict private and detention homes as well as
corporate headquarters and government offices, revealing an
extensive network of „black sites“ which, installed by the CIA,
spreads across the world map. For this comprehensive
project, Edmund Clark, together with Crofton Black, received
an ICP Infinity Award (2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izIPcV2x2-k).

The series “Control Order House” (2012) is the result of
exclusive access to work and stay in a house in which a man
suspected of involvement with terrorist-related activity had
been placed under a Control Order. From this stay in 2011,
which lasted for three days and two nights, more than 500
views of the place emerged. These are quick shots,
uncomposed, with the flash on automatic and the lens on
wide angle, documenting a domestic environment, home to a
prisoner. The numerical order of the views suggests the
closed sequence or a complete and continuous
documentation. However, the protagonist of the site, the man
under surveillance, is nowhere to be seen. Instead of
revealing his presence, the exact depiction of his
surroundings including all minor, albeit personal, items, evoke
his disquieting absence. Just like in a careful search for
traces, the camera enters into every corner and hidden
recess, as if seeking to supply evidence of human life. Clark
offers an oppressive course in which the abundance of details
makes the lack of the human figure appear even more
obvious. The cat, which was smuggled past the authorities,
proves to be disconcertingly visible, freely roaming the realm
of the confined space. The tension of the withheld pictorial
content permeates every single image.

The series “Letters to Omar” (2010,
https://www.fotomuseum.ch/de/explore/situations/30612)
also visualizes the suppression of individual freedom as a
measure of prevention against involvement with terrorism.
Edmund Clark brings together a selection of letters and
postcards, which Omar Deghayes received during his six year
detention at the Guantánamo naval base, where hundreds of
men were detained on suspicion of complicity or intent to
carry out acts of terror against American interests after the
attacks of 9/11. The written documents are in part from
family members, others from completely unknown persons
wanting to provide support to a man whose cause has
attracted worldwide attention. These personal documents
were redacted and copied or scanned – including the backs of
envelopes and blank sheets of paper – officially stamped
and/or given a unique reference number. These are images
created by this bureaucratic process. Omar never saw the
original documents. These manipulated, inauthentic gestures
of solidarity become symbols for methods of state control,
but also come to reflect the increasingly distorted and
deluded perception of an individual, intimidated by constant
acts of suspicion and prosecution conducive to a general
condition of helplessness and disorientation.

In „Mountains of Majeed“ (2014) Clark contrasts photographic
images taken at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan with
simple paintings of a local artist called Majeed. Even though
both depict the area surrounding the base, two contrasting
visions of Afghanistan emerge. One is limited to the view
over the perimeters of the enclave or within its walls, the
other transcends this space and conveys the vision of a lush
and picturesque country with the majestic mountain range of
Hindukush and green valleys and monuments. The shift in
perspectives is further enhanced by the technical means
deployed. Whereas Majeed´s idealizations of the Afghan
country are executed with analogue painterly means, the
high-resolution photographic files emerge from latest digital
technology.

Clark is concerned with documentation, photography,
questions imposed on the image as such, whose inherent
properties – color and form – are never isolated from, but
always resonate with preconceived opinions and biased
notions. Constantly reinterpreted and redefined, image
material cannot be acknowledged as binding, as an infallible
source for objective „truths“. Clark’ s works call for an open
engagement with narratives and processes „that occur behind
the screens and the surfaces through which we perceive
images, recognizing filters manipulating our impressions.“

The current exhibition at Parrotta Contemporary Art Cologne
and Bonn is based in its conceptual approach and the
selection of works on the comprehensive and highly
acclaimed presentation „Terror Incognitus“ (2016) at Zephyr.
Raum für Fotografie, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim.

EDMUND CLARK

The work of Edmund Clark was presented in numerous solo
exhibitions in renowned museums and institutions, highlights
of the recent past include the International Center of
Photography Museum, New York, USA, the Imperial War
Museum, London, UK, and Zephyr. Raum für Fotografie,
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, GER.

Edmund Clark’s works are represented in prominent national
and international collections, such as ICP Museum in New
York, USA, George Eastman House, Rochester, USA, as well
as the Imperial War Museum, London, UK and the National
Media Museum, Bradford, UK.

Edmund Clark has received many prestigious awards and
nominations, including the Royal Photographic Society Hood
Medal for outstanding photography for public service in 2011
and The British Journal of Photography International
Photography Prize (2009). Clark was shortlisted for the Prix
Pictet for theme of Power in 2012. Together with Crofton
Black, Edmund Clark is the winner of the 2017 International
Center of Photography Infinity Award for Documentary and
Photojournalism.

His publications also received widespread public recognition,
resulting in the distinction of „Guantánamo: If the Light Goes
Out“ as Book of the Year at the 2011 New York Photo Awards
and the International Photography Awards / The Lucies
Awards. „Negative Publicity“ was the first winner of the
Photo-Text-Book section at Les Rencontres de la
Photographie, Arles (2016).