Vol.5 No.1
Vol.5 No.1
Features
Witch Way Rod Shone
General Travel Claude Baechtold
Picnic Protest François Daburon
Grime Ewen Spencer
Survival Programmes Exit photographers
Baghdad Garage Stuart Griffiths
A Patch of England Andrew Buurman
Embarrassment of Oil Tim Hetherington
103rd Street Adriana Lopez Sanfeliu
Look Away Andrew Testa
+ more
Editor’s Letter
Welcome to our celebratory birthday edition marking our fourth anniversary and the start of a new volume, 5. We decided with this issue to set aside some space for ourselves, for England, hence the special design to our layout and pagination this time around. It’s good to celebrate our roots in England and in so doing, showcase the new talents in photography, writing and design that inspire our editorial decisions as well as pay tribute to established names already recognised in photography and journalism.
The issue contains more than just the theme of England. As usual, we have chosen stories from around the world that we hope will surprise and work their way into your psyche by etching images full of feeling and resonance in your mind’s eye. In many cases the stories you see here are about revisiting – going back – to see things through the prism of time. Survival Programmes does this by holding a mirror up to modern times so we can see the faces and hear the words from an era which uncannily is not as long ago as it seems. Rod Shone follows the footpaths of rural history as he traces the landscapes which provided the backdrop to the last witch trial in Hertfordshire some 300 years ago, and Susan Meiselas talks about the need to revisit places familiar to her and the purpose in looking again at the events of her photographic past. Indeed it seems that looking back is an essential part of knowing where we are today and the great variety of stories published here all contain a vital reflection on past experiences in one way or another. In the case of Somalia, amid lost opportunities and a still-deteriorating situation, looking back is not a particularly heartening thing to do as David Pratt reminds us. But across the globe, where the residents of 103rd Street, looked like they had passed the point of no return, the way ahead for many appears positive.
It is fitting therefore for EI8HT also to look back over its brief but productive early years, and in the process feel that its much stronger for: a) still being here against the odds and best advice at the time, and b) for knowing where we are today and having fresh ideas with each new edition. It’s the central role of a magazine to take stock of the present and portray it in the future so I hope you will find this a compelling issue of EI8HT today as well as for years to come.
