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 ›Written on the Forehead
on 06 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!
When I heard the opening with its Middle-Eastern war setting, I
thought of using black and white photographs I had taken in similar
conflict zones. Mixing them with the scenes of quiet desperation of
England came later. I didn't know that the young woman standing and
crossing her feet in a crowd, or the jet trail in the sky, would
end up where they do or even feature in this or any of the films.
Call it random, but usually the pictures themselves suggest what
works together. The music has a lot to do with the choice and a
sympathy between them develops. It ended up as a way to show how
different are all our lives, 'Us and Them', and a reminder that we
are all connected as humans, all vulnerable with human emotions.
Shooting pictures makes you observe in a detached way, whether in
the West Bank, Mogadishu or London's Waterloo Station. Afterwards
you try to make sense of them; they will mean something uniquely
personal to everyone. The opening with PJ Harvey's lyrics spoken in
Arabic was shot in a pub on the Portobello Road.
PJ Harvey Web Site
England Photo Essay by Seamus Murphy