Shooting the Darkness
| Director | Tom Burke |
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There’s darkness everywhere, all the time, and a lot of photos are taken in the dark. Here, it’s Northern Ireland, and the distinctive feature of this film is meeting war photographers who didn’t set out to be war photographers. Who’s never set off in search of adventure with a camera slung over their shoulder? So here, it’s less a question of their personal and private motivation (“what on earth would make someone leave the comfort of their home to enter the lion’s den?”) and more about the brutal soul-searching of those who, involuntarily, found themselves plunged into a conflict. Fear, empathy, the possibility of becoming immune to the horrors… But also the photojournalist’s key question: to what extent are they responsible when the warring factions themselves understand the importance of images?
Jérémie Jorrand
Tënk's Editorial and programming Director
There’s darkness everywhere, all the time, and a lot of photos are taken in the dark. Here, it’s Northern Ireland, and the distinctive feature of this film is meeting war photographers who didn’t set out to be war photographers. Who’s never set off in search of adventure with a camera slung over their shoulder? So here, it’s less a question of their personal and private motivation (“what on earth would make someone leave the comfort of their home to enter the lion’s den?”) and more about the brutal soul-searching of those who, involuntarily, found themselves plunged into a conflict. Fear, empathy, the possibility of becoming immune to the horrors… But also the photojournalist’s key question: to what extent are they responsible when the warring factions themselves understand the importance of images?
Jérémie Jorrand
Tënk's Editorial and programming Director
