Strangeways Prison Siege 1990
Photographer Denis Thorpe
It attracted my attention because I remember the incident well being a member of the Prison Service at the time and having spent some time at Strangeways in 1980 doing a project. What particularly drew my attention was the barbed wire at the bottom of the picture. Strangeways is a Victorian prison with the usual high wall and there is no visible fencing and certainly the security fencing used within the Prison Service no longer has concrete hockey-stick posts. My first reaction was that it was a composite but on giving it more thought I realised that the photographer could have placed himself behind the fence in a property a little away from the prison and composed the picture to include the barbed wire (yes I know - technically it is known as razor wire). If I am correct then the photograph is 'honest'.
I had been working on part 4 of DPP so I was more than usually conscious about dishonesty in photography. The picture is 'honest' but is it deliberately misleading? It is difficult to judge the photographers intent from a single picture but I presume he thought that the inclusion of the wire would add drama to the picture and increase its saleability because it makes it different from the many others that were shot at the same time. Personally I have no ethical problem with the picture. If it is deliberately misleading then it is mild deception that is no more than a bit of artistic licence. Others may differ.
I 'blogged' this image because it shows another point on the continuum from the completely honest and the obvious cheat. It also illustrates that context is all in deciding ethical issues.
For those that are interested I understand the the Royal Photographic Society will shortly be publishing 'Portfolio Two' and details of this can be found on the RPS web site www.rps.org.
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