Malcolm Hutcheson
Artist statement
Exposing the negative turns present into
past.Unfortunately photography cannot look
into the future. It is primarily concerned with
highlighting the problems not in describing
the solutions. But when it comes to recording
a plainly untenable situation it is powerfully
persuasive. I work in Pakistan with a traditional
handmade wooden camera in which I develop
the negatives at the time of exposure, a sort
of primitive Polaroid. It is time consuming,
an audience gathers, the subject remains
motionless for the exposure, usually over a
second and every photograph becomes an
interactive event. The negative bares the marks
of the camera and of the processing conditions.
There is nothing candid about this work yet I
hope it is revelatory, of the people and of their
lives. Pakistan suffers from an increase in
demand for water and a reduced capacity to
supply it. Compounding this are two additional
problems: a lack of government activity and
ignorance amongst the population as to the
dangers of pollution.
In Lahore people have had other things on their
minds. There have been bombings, political
uncertainty, rising food prices, and the lack
of electricity which causes six hours of power
cuts per day across the entire city. The last of
these problems is due to bad planning and
little investment in the major infrastructure
needed with the high rate of population growth.
A similar situation exists in the water economy.
The result is a poorly maintained, antiquated
sewage system. 90% of Lahore’s sewage,
domestic and industrial, pours untreated into
the local aquatic environment. It flows mainly
into the Ravi River which lies on the edge of
the city.
However, for several months of the year the
waters of the Ravi are diverted for irrigation
and then the waste water collects in stagnant
pools in the dry river bed, the banks of which
are lined with rubbish. It is difficult to think
of a better way to leach toxins into the ground
water reserves. The pollution of this sweet
water is such that the municipal wells have
to be sunk deeper each year. Toxins have
reached as far as 100 metres down into
the groundwater.
Though unaware of the long term risks to health,
it is never out of choice that people work in such
disagreeable conditions. These photographs
show the people who have to work with waste
water, either maintaining the system or making
money from using it.
