Miniclick: ‘amuleto’–Dr Shawn Sobers in conversation with...

Miniclick is a monthly series of curated photographer talks, normally with free beer and networking, but temporarily online via Zoom. It is curated by Sadie Catt and hosted by the RPS. 

Photographer Ben Roberts and writer Francheska Melendez will be discussing their collaborative work, recently published by Here Press. Shawn Sobers is an Associate Professor of Cultural Interdisciplinary Practice at the University of the West of England, Bristol. While teaching photography, filmmaking, Research Methods, MRes and PhD; he positions his own work primarily within the discourses of Anthropology. 

These three practitioners will be coming together to discuss ‘Amuleto’  as a conversation between image and text that draws parallels between the pandemic, immigrant experience, and the global human rights movement. Ben Roberts made the photographs in an area that borders the Guadarrama Mountains, 50km north of Madrid, while Francheska Melendez assembled a text based on her own words and fragments of others’ voices gleaned from both private and public conversations.

2020 should be remembered for two things: the disrupting effect of Coronavirus sweeping through the world, and the murder of George Floyd.

‘I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe. Ah! They’ll kill me. They’ll kill me. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.’

George Floyd’s heartbreaking final words revealed a mind and body fighting for its last gasps of air, and serve as an uncanny echo of the respiratory failure common to Covid-19.

At the start of the pandemic, notions of community were amplified through a shared experience of suffering. When a few weeks into the collective panic and isolation, a man was forcibly suffocated in Minnesota under the knee of a police officer, our support for each other was challenged.

No longer were we able to believe that breathing freely is a right, as there were signs that it was becoming a privilege. The mask began to symbolise either altruism or oppression; to signal publicly where an individual’s support was likely to be placed.

http://www.herepress.org/books-prints/amuleto

http://www.shawnsobers.com

http://www.wordsbyfran.com

http://www.benrobertsphotography.com

This event is free but requires booking. 

Your Zoom link will be contained in PDF document sent with your confirmation email and emailed immediately after you have booked.

Please note this Miniclick event is not being recorded. 

Image: © Ben Roberts Text: © Francheska Melendez