EMOTION AND CONFLICT by SIMON KING
Simon King is a London based documentarian and street photographer. His vision of the world highlights the surreal nature of everyday human interactions. Emotion, drama, and comedy all play a role in his images. Simon teaches a course in Street Photography at UAL, where you can learn about how to see the detail in the mundane and find your own path within the genre.
“The story of these images formed from a collection of images I made during protests in London. I found myself drawn to the extreme moments, whether they were peaceful, violent, or simply passionate. After reviewing some early work I found a theme of emotion and conflict, which I decided to search for in other situations. Following that thread led me to subjects who find one another in a crowd, moments between protestors sharing the space and collaborating in mutual support. From here I moved to document the opposite; arrests by the police, and protests with less mutual support and more individually egotistical, aggressive point proving. When viewed together you can feel the differences in body language and expression between those who would enforce community through passion, and those who would separate it.
The images presented were all shot in 2019, at a range of different events. I'll normally turn up fairly early to each event, then shoot until the majority of the action is complete. For some this can mean only a few hours worth of shooting, and others can mean entire weeks. The Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in April were both the most rewarding and taxing, as the rebels held their locations 24 hours a day for over a week. I had to really keep my ear to the ground in order to know what nights were worth staying up for, and which mornings were worth being up early for. Moment to moment when I was shooting I couldn't really afford to feel anything other than Zen. I had to stay alert to what's going on, but I detached myself from any chaos that could have manifested around me. This meant staying calm and moving quickly through the crowds once I'd identified the scene I wanted to highlight in an image.
I don't think this story is anywhere close to ending - we exist in unfortunately tumultuous times, which means a current surge in action from all kinds of groups and individuals. Hopefully my work will represent a small fraction of stories, and will exist as part of a greater whole, created by photographers from all over the world, all documenting their communities struggles.”
