Paper short abstract:

Perhaps contemporary photography’s most futile debate is whether it is possible to take humanist pictures if one doesn’t portray humans.

Paper long abstract:

My works ‘Guantanamo: If The Light Goes Out’ and ‘Control Order House’ engage with issues of state censorship and representation to explore the hidden experiences and spaces of control and incarceration in the ‘Global War on Terror’. Many of my pictures are unpeopled, dismal stage sets for unseen trauma. I will talk about tracing ideas of presence, shared humanity and otherness through the documents, possessions and environments of my subjects.