Falmouth University - MA Photography Project (WORKING PROGRESS)
Police protection, protect the police.
Hands
Hands build or destroy, compliment or insult, heal or even destroy. Touhami Ennadre work above titled Big and Small Hands (1985) enhances the story a hand can depict, young or old, black or white and manual worker or office worker. Hands do so much more and we take them for granted, our health, the sense of touch, love and hate can be expressed through he hand.
Law Enforcement
I joined Humberside Police as a Constable in 2000 and was introduced to a different world in the place I lived. Who would of known theft, robbery, domestic violence, aggravated burglary and murder were happening on the doorstep of the place I grew up, the place I went to school, the shops I shopped in and to the people I lived near to. Who would have thought some one would break my fingers whilst I performed my duties, who would have thought someone would try and stab me and who would have thought I would be sat in the Post-Mortem of someone I knew.
Trust and Safety
The image shows I have fingers missing with limited use after an industrial accident when I was 18. It makes you realise that no matter how safe we think we are and trust that others have your back, a split second later, lapse of concentration, trusting others and accepting that 'it will never happen to me', incidents can change your life forever. I have witnessed police officers injured during arrests that prevent them from ever working again and I have read about so many officers losing their lives in the line of duty.
HANDS
The fascination with hands has directed an eclectic approach to research. In art, it is suggested the hand is the earliest form of painting and has been identified that the paintings of hands in the Argentinian 'Cueva de las Manos' were created between 13,000 and 9,500 years ago. Some hand markings in the Sulawesi caves have been identified to have been created some 40,000 years ago.
Praying Hands
Albrecht Durer (c.1508) The drawing is on blue coloured paper that the artist made himself. "Praying Hands" is part of a series of sketches that Dürer drew for an altarpiece in 1508. The drawing shows the hands of a man praying with his body out of view on the right. The sleeves of the man are folded and noticeable in the painting Desy (2018)
The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Adam is a detail of the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel created by Michelangelo at some point between 1511 to 1512. It depicts the birth of the Biblical Adam according to the passage in the book of Genesis. The hands being a well recognised crop of the original work (Art Pieces, ND)
The Cathedral
Carved in stone and still covered in tool marks, The Cathedral is a combination of two right hands, belonging to two different figures. It was entitled The Ark of the Covenant, before being named The Cathedral, very probably after the publication of Rodin’s Les Cathédrales de France, in 1914. The hands are believed to be that of his own and his lovers (Rodin, 1908)
Culture oControl
​
In the outset this project envisaged communicating the process, training and reality of being a police officer. The safety of the police officer can be better managed with control. In a volatile situation, handcuffing an individual can substantially reduce the risk. This is misinterpreted by the media as a culture of control.
Nick_Drewery Photography
Collaboration and Professional Practice
"Nick Drewery’s Police Protection; Protect the Police is a singularly created photobook, hand made with a policed theme and sustainable production highlighting the training of a newly recruited Police Constable. The book is a dual faceted production that depicts the training process, its importance and the psychological transparency of the statement ‘fit for purpose’ as we question whether there is a suitable amount of training that prepares a police officer for their day to day duties."
Drewery (2021)
IT WAS THEM OFFICERS!
Anti-social behaviour
Cops and Robbers
Cops and Robbers, the images that show the police detaining the robbers and sending them to prison is an unrealistic depiction both physically and visually. Having served as a Police Constable the producer can relate to the role play occurring in the images and how unrealistic these are. The true nature of getting up close during some training highlights the expectations versus the reality and how this can impact the safety of an officer and more controversially the impact of a new constables on a criminal investigation.
WHAT DID YOU SAY?
Police Protection; Protect the Police will lend itself to a longer project that humanises the police constable. They breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food, they also bruise when hit and bleed when cut. They are not super human and do not possess special powers, they have families, loved ones and are loved. Respect the law."
POLICE OFFICERS ARE HUMAN
Drewery (2021)
