Seamus Murphy
Seamus Murphy began photographing Afghanistan in 1994, and his new book A Darkness Visible: Afghanistan, is a classic on the rise of the Taliban and...
Read more ›Hanging in the Wire
on 05 December 2011Over the next twelve days we will be featuring a new music video
featuring PJ Harvey by Seamus Murphy daily. The accompanying text
by Seamus will give an insight into his thoughts about making the
videos. ENJOY!
It opens with the legendary Ray Jones, bibliophile, wag and
all-round West London geezer looking like Flash Harry trying to
sell you a dodgy pair of nylons. He memorised the lines in seconds,
making them his own. Polly loves Ray's hat. Then pictures from a
small concert in a church in Dorset. The album was recorded here
and it was where the new work was showcased to friends and locals.
The exterior in the snow was shot earlier in the day while the band
was inside rehearsing. I wanted to link the inner mechanics of a
piano with the wires and tripwires of World War frontlines and No
Man's Land. I thought the melancholy of Mick's piano and lightness
of Jean-Marc's drumming could carry it. The birds are in Norfolk,
the misty water scenes are Morden Hall Park in the early morning.
The punt is Cambridge, echoes of war poets and the good life at
home as war rages abroad. Mick Harvey joins the chorus and we hear
John Parish's distinctive ending of the song "beating a guitar
neck, laid on a chair and in A-Minor tuning". Or so I am told.
PJ Harvey Web Site
England Photo Essay by Seamus Murphy