Photo News – British Journal of Photography launches new iPad app

The British Journal of Photography is launching its iPad app tomorrow – for free, at least for now – and ahead of its launch I got a chance to test drive the Autumn issue. These are my thoughts and initial impressions, having downloaded and played with it for around an hour yesterday on a friend’s iPad.

I am not an iPad user, so I was getting used to the various sweeps, scrolls and swipes required to browse pages, bring up other menus and access specifics articles and images. This meant that it probably took me longer to do everything than a regular iPad user. With this caveat in mind, these are my thoughts.

Photo censorship controversy at Brighton Photo Fringe as photographer claims festival asks him to remove photos

©Miranda Gavin, Herman van den Boom

It appears that all is not quite as it seems in photo land as Belgian photographer Herman van den Boom, who is taking part in these year’s Brighton Photo Fringe festival, claims that the fringe festival organisers have asked him to remove three photographs from his series BETTER IN TUNE. See more of the project, here. And follow this link to one of the photos in question.

British Journal of Photography (BJP), news editor, Olivier Laurent and I were contacted by van den Boom yesterday and met him together after the press tour to discuss the situation.

From Laurent over at BJP: “According to the photographer, when the Fringe’s two directors – Helen Cammock and Woodrow Kernohan – visited the exhibition, they asked the photographer to take down four images, which, they argued, were offending to women, claims Van den Boom. “There’s no nudity at all. It might be an unflattering photograph, but doesn’t that mean that it shouldn’t be shown?” he tells BJP and HotShoe. “These are car-babes. The music is loud. It’s not a beautiful world, but the world it’s like it. I’m just documenting it. They say it’s degrading. They say that these images could offend the public, and contact the landlord of the building and make problems.”

“Van den Boom was able to change the director’s mind on one image, which shows scantily-dressed women dancing in front of a crowd of young men. But, says the photographer, “now I have to interfere and implement a non-artistic value into my artistic work. You can say that it’s only three pictures, but that’s 30% of the show. You can say that it doesn’t matter, but I’m the artist. It matters. The way I select my work, the way I hang, it is crucial…”

After talking to van den Boom, Laurent and I sent a joint email to the organisers Helen Cammock and Woodrow Kernohan to ask for confirmation of the allegation and to find out their side of the story. So far, the questions we emailed remain unanswered. I am pasting them in at the end of this post, as we wait. In the meantime, read Laurent’s post over at BJP where he has a news report, and check back here for updates. We’ll be keeping you posted.

The project, according to van den Boom’s website, is: “All about car tuning. The project received a generous grant from the Dutch Foundation of the Visual Arts and the Sem Presser Foundation… and will be exhibited at Brighton Photo Fringe at the Brighton Biennial October 2010.”

© Herman van den Boom, photo installation of van den Boom's work before he was asked to remove photos

© Herman van den Boom, photo installation of Boom's work after he was asked to remove photos