Ivor Prickett, 2011
Untitled
Created by Ivor Prickett in 2011. The artwork is a c-print and displayed at 79 x 79 cm.
At first sight, the four figures in this photograph appear to be waiting calmly in a row. But their gazes and the crowd in the background reveal a tense situation. 25 January 2011 marked the start of the Egyptian revolution that culminated in President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation on 11 February. In his series Days of Anger, documentary photographer Ivor Prickett documented the mass protests on Tahrir Square in Egypt’s capital city, Cairo. Rather than the chaos that dominates in the heat of the battle, Prickett is intrigued by the moments in between. For instance this moment, at which a group of anti-government protesters stand guard at a make-shift barrier to prevent any Mubarak supporters from entering the ‘liberated’ Tahrir Square. This unique approach is what distinguishes Prickett’s work from the many journalistic photo reports from conflict areas. Although the tensions and traces of the revolution are clear to see in Days of Anger, the photographs emanate a sense of serenity through his use of light and colour.
© Ivor Prickett, courtesy of the Foam Collection