22 May 2024
A powerful documentary-style photo essay has won Harpenden Photographic Society’s annual audio visual competition.
‘You Want It Darker’ by Steve Collins was a creative combination of black and white photographs of the March for Palestine held on Armistice Day last year accompanied by the song ‘You Want It Darker’ by Leonard Cohen. Judges said it was a sombre but magnificent piece of work.
Eleven AVs from seven authors were in competition, covering a broad range of topics with appropriate music including the 60s, jazz, ballet and rock ‘n’ roll classics.
Society members voted for their first, second and third placed favourites, with Steve’s work a clear winner.
In second place was ‘Life’ by Gerry Kelly – a sequence of moody landscapes juxtaposed with lighter images, accompanied by the moody theme ‘House Atreidies’ from Dune by Hans Zimmer.
And coming in third was ‘Macro Collection’ by Paul Johnson … a colourful sequence of images created for the club’s macro special interest group’s monthly topics, accompanied by the equally colourful ‘Sing a Rainbow’ by Cilla Black.
Steve, who is also society chair, said: “There were some incredible AV’s entered in the competition, and so I am extremely proud to have one of mine be chosen as the overall winner.
”The images shown in ‘’You Want It Darker’ were taken at the huge protest that took place on Armistice Day last year, which saw 300,000 pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a Gaza ceasefire marching in central London, and which was the biggest UK rally since the Israel-Gaza war began.
“With very evocative black and white photography, I decided to use the equally evocative Leonard Cohen song, You Want It Darker, to accompany the images. Together they work very effectively, with many of the song’s lyrics such as “I didn’t know I had permission to murder and to maim” or “A million candles
burning for the help that never came”, becoming incredibly moving against the images showing people angry and desperate for an end to the conflict.”
