Saul Williams: A Photographic Review

"I picture a Ganesh-like mirage – Saul with multiple extremities, a central glowing guru, imparting his wisdoms." 

I think about what else the photographic image could capture of a spoken word event – where undoubtedly, the strongest images will be captured with words, and developed in our minds. What is an image beyond the archival document – typically, this would be a close up 1/3 landscape portrait of a passionate face, a microphone and perhaps a couple of fingers, clenched, tensed, empowered in acute rhetoric. How can the practice of photography review a live event that is led by kinesis, words, sound, and the communal movement of an audience’s imagination? 

My housemate Alan tells me about a certain kind of music photography that’s quite common; traces of the artist’s physical trajectory on a stage, the ghostly long exposure in dark light. Yeah, that could do. An aesthetic born from necessity. I picture a Ganesh like mirage – Saul with multiple extremities, a central glowing guru, imparting his wisdoms. 

I had a dream last night that I was so blown away by the whole event that I forgot to take any pictures. I ran back to Saul and asked if he would do it all again. 

"What I do think is possible is to review – to draw attention to the performance through capturing something in between my experience of it, and what is physically there."

In a book of writer to writer conversations The Believer publishes every couple of years, John Banville makes a distinction between the critic and the reviewer – a “reviewer reviews new books that the public has not seen yet. My job is to introduce people to the book and say, “Look, this is worth your attention.” There are enough critics around, enough book reviewers around, who are tearing the guts out of books. What I try to do is get people enthusiastic about books.” This got me thinking – to what extent can a photographer be a critic? I’m doubtful. What I do think is possible is to review – to draw attention to the performance through capturing something in between my experience of it, and what is physically there. 

Given the ever growing number of people with access to a camera, roughly 6 billion at present, it is unsurprising that the foreseeable future will be inhabited by more individuals who can take a photo than read or write. 

Now in the foreground: if photography is morphing into a common language, we need to start learning to read it. The performance begins; Cartier Bresson’s thought comes to mind – colour photography “was too realistic, seriously compromising the element of abstraction (i.e. the distancing effect) that black and white permitted.” Tasked with capturing living metaphors, I decide to shoot in monochrome and see for myself. 

Here is my review of Saul Williams’ event CHORUS – A Literary Mixtape, taken at Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre.