ISBN: 9781907946042

Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Mack, 2011
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 20.8 x 3 cm

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have been collaborating for over a decade. They have produced six books which in different ways examine the language of documentary photography.

Belfast Exposed was founded in 1983 as a response to concern over the careful control of images depicting British military activity during the Troubles. It contains over 14,000 black-and-white contact sheets, documenting the conflicts in Northern Ireland. ‘People in trouble laughing pushed to the ground’ is a collection of almost 200 circular photographs lifted from the archive. These photographs, taken by professional photo-journalists as well as ‘civilian’ photographers, chronicle protests, funerals and acts of terrorism as well as the more ordinary aspects of life such as drinking tea and watching trains. Whenever an image in this archive was chosen, approved or selected, a blue, red or yellow dot was placed on the surface of the contact sheet as a marker. The position of the dots provided us with a code; a set of instructions for how to frame the photographs in this book. Each of the circular photographs shown on the previous pages reveals the area beneath these circular stickers; the part of each image that has been obscured from view the moment it was selected.