Foreword

Wittgenstein said ‘A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.’ Research is the pull that allows me to get out of the room and into the street, into what’s actually happening in the world. There are as many ways to research as there are artists. From words read in the silence of the British Library to words read on placards while taking part in a demo, it’s research.

Researching reality for me involves ripping photographs out of their context to bring the perpetrators of war and poverty slap bang into the same space as their victims. I want to act as an early warning system, be the canary down the mine. Imagining through images the end result of the direction in which we are heading and picturing people struggling to find another way. I look through thousands of photos, from picture archives, magazines, the internet, newspapers to scraps picked up on the street. I am a picture scrap merchant.

Through the use of photomontage I try and connect single clicks of the camera shutter to create a visual language that can be understood globally. Two clicks of the camera shutter can be brought together to create a third meaning that exposes cause and effect. Breaking down elements in photographs, cutting them up and reconstituting them allows a critical narrative of opposing forces to be presented visually. This encourages the viewer to think critically about the consequences of our actions on an asphyxiating planet.

That is my research method and the resulting image is a conglomeration of fragments. It’s therefore easier to say what my research isn’t rather than what it is—one thing it isn’t is an acceptance of the bombardment of corporate images we are in danger of drowning in everyday. One thing it is, is an attempt to stem that ceaseless flow.

To temporarily dam that bombardment with my researched image fragments, sometimes, in my studio, I’m waving not drowning. It’s at those moments when I’m able to pull Wittgenstein’s door open just enough to throw light on the hidden critical connections locked away in the un-researched flow of the everyday.

Peter Kennard, Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain at the Royal College of Art, London