The latest edition of Granta magazine, no 116, entitled Ten Years Later, was launched at Foyles bookshop on Tuesday night. Tackling the meaty issue of the world and how we see it ten years after the events of 9/11, the event saw the participation of war correspondent Janine di Giovanni, the BBC’s Africa editor Mary Harper and photographer Edmund Clark.
The Gallery, on the third floor of the main Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road, was unsurprisingly packed for this free event. Wine was on offer, as were copies of this Granta issue and Janine di Giovanni’s latest book, Ghosts by Daylight.
The discussion focused on varying elements of the scary ways the world has developed since that shocking day in 2001, and how our preconceptions add to the paranoia. Edmund Clarke kicked off proceedings with a report on his photographic work depicting the reality of life for detainees released from Guantanamo, published in the award-winning book Guantanamo: If The Light Goes Out.
Clarke made a conscious decision to avoid portraiture, instead photographing their domestic spaces, contrasting them with their previous accommodations at Guantanamo. Portraits of these men with beards would, he said, do nothing to humanise them, rather, they would simply reflect our preconceptions of “what a terrorist looks like.” Instead, simple images of bedrooms and living rooms would bring home the idea that these men live in much the same way as everyone else, challenging the idea of “the other.”
The photos from Guantanamo provided a stark contrast, particularly the shot of the force-feeding chair.
Janine di Giovanni began her segment by reading from her report on the Libyan uprising, and the extraordinary outburst of creativity that accompanied the outbreak of revolution in Benghazi. Much like Clark, her work focused closely on the people involved, in this case young street artists who had never known anything except life under Ghaddafi. Her outlook was ultimately pessimistic, born of 25 years of covering wars, from the former Yugoslavia to Iraq. If previous experience is anything to go by, she said, the international community will pour money and grand ideas into Libya’s power vacuum (money that those young street artists will likely never see), all the while building green zones that cut them off from the local population.
Mary Harper focused on Somalia, the largely forgotten front in the “war on terror”. A whole catalogue of wilful misunderstandings and misguided foreign policy has brought about the very situation the West has sought to prevent, she said. Once the most democratic country in Africa, Somalia has become the archetypal failed state – number one in the top ten of failed states four years running – and a haven for jihadis. Yet it’s a story that is very hard to get into the mainstream media, which prefers the equally harrowing but cliched images of famine.
This led into a spirited debate about the role of the media, and its complicity in how the story is presented. That, I suspect, is a debate that will run and run.
Foyles has a full schedule of literary events, the vast majority being free. The Gallery has limited seating however, so it is necessary to email Foyles to reserve a seat.
