Article David Secombe
The London Image Festival (the LIF) is back again with its 8th instalment of the best of photography from around the globe. The photo entries, and ultimately the selection of the 2024 LIF reflected both the beauty and wonder of the natural world, and the ongoing conflict in the wars. These two themes dominate the LIF line up. If photographs could breathe its a selection of the relaxed and the anxious. We live in a time when nature is under threat and that only serves to highlight its intense beauty and that was never more evident than in Jacha Potgieter”s Pelican photograph. Its a shot that breathes a calm sigh. The reflections on the water of the birds bring about a sense of both majesty and tranquility. Its an amazing photo in the nature selection at the LIF. Isabelle Larsson also photographed a bird just before flight called Lift. The photo perfectly captured the energy required for a bird to fly ,and left me feeling the full wonder of the natural world. The photo was taken in black and white and assisted the eye to be drawn to the rapid fire of the wings for take off.
Much as the London Image Festival favoured the lens focussed on the natural world it also reflected the current tensions that exist in the world today. With conflict and displacement happening in both Gaza and the Ukraine, it seemed very important to make us the witness to the chaos just beyond our view. Photographs for many of us are our only experience of war. However the photographs at LIF this year were not of the war in the external sense but the war and its effects on the internal world of the photographer. It is like the camera has entered the very private world of those displaced both physically, and emotionally, by war. This was brilliantly portrayed by the Ukrainian photographer Serhii Diedushev in their photo entitled , After the Missile. It captures those looking at a dystopian future that has undertones of the effect of global warming. They face a blinding white light with the rising water all submerged in the menacing darkness. The category it was entered in was Documentary which makes it even more poignant as this is not a constructed reality, but simply reality.
The London Image Festival rests on the photos entered. And this year you could see the polarisation of the world through the lens and feelings of the photographers. There is an unease in the world at this period of time. If there is beauty it seems fragile, and conflicts rage without resolution. Its a difficult time and its never been more important to stop and reflect. Photography allows us to stop, catch our breath and ponder the world through another’s eyes. The LIF allows us to appreciate photography in a world where scrolling images on platforms like Insta have disconnected us from the power of photography. Photo contests like the London Image Festival help us to value photography as a valid form of expression and art.
