Bloggy Blog Blog: Public Enemies: Leo Regan

So I had a 3 hour gap today and after a hungover trip to tesco I decided to spend my time wisely by going to the library at uni. I was suppose to be looking for an image to write an analysis on so I started flicking through some photography books. After a few books I came across this one called 'Public Enemies: Leo Regan'. On the front cover of the book is a nazi symbol and a skinhead talking to his little girl, most likely telling her a story. I'm not really sure why this book caught my eye, or why the images did because the culture of the skinheads is quite an extreme view, one which I don't believe in. But there was something about the images. The images I found amazed me, the main ones of interest I have included in this blog.

Half of the book is pictures and the other half of the book is writing. There is an introduction to the book by a writer called Nicholas Mosley; he starts the book off by describing who the people in the images are and what skinhead culture actually is and what it means to be a part of the skinhead society. As you carry on reading there is an Authors Foreward and then an introduction to the characters in the images. At first I looked at all the pictures (as you do!) but after looking at them I wanted to know more so I started reading the book from the beginning.

I think my favourite part of this book has got to be the interviews section. It contains paragraphs of responses of the characters in the images, simply talking about their culture and life. What I found when reading the interviews was that the images fall into place, its almost as though some of the images match up with the words of the interview, quite clever really. Some stories are shocking, others not so much but what I find most interesting is the way the photographer started the project and the way it progressed, along with his friendship with them.

In the authors foreward Regan states that the idea of the book was originally going to be a magazine article but after tagging along with and making friends with some 'hardcore right wing' activists he carried it on for a few more years... The images in the book were all taken between 1990 - 1992. The result I feel is fantastic; the book overall is a simply put together social documentary of skinhead culture. If your curious or just fancy finding out something different then its certainly worth a look. Another interesting point about the writing and the images as you might see from the images below is that they are in a way set into different sections. In the interviews it talks about how when people see skinheads they walk across the road etc. but this book looks right into the way they live, in a very nosey way. Almost big brother documentary. The sections I feel the book is split into is social, domestic, political. When you look at the images there are a lot of factors which turn the image around and cause great contrast.

Newly Born Daughter (ACAB = All Cops Are Bastards) Milton Keynes Hospital

I have included this image as the first one as this is the image which starts the pictures off after the interviews and writings about the images. Its a simple image and introduces the rest of the images quite well I feel. When you look in the book the caption isn't included underneath the image like I have put it but instead you have to flick to the back of the book to find out the caption. If you didn't know what the A.C.A.B meant then you would be oblivious to the contrasting ideas which this image holds. The image I feel has been captured in a quite a romantic way in the way that the light falls on the young baby. But when you look at the other details of the image like the plane of focus chosen by the photographer and also look at the grimey details like the dirty hands and the tattoo. All of this makes for a very interesting image.

Sunderland Art Gallery

This has got to be another of my favourites, catching the people he met in a academic and arty way in contrast to the images I have selected later on of them at neo-nazi concerts and talks. The main thing I love about this image is the way its split into promenant thirds. In the central third you have the two characters, in their boots, army trousers, bomber jackets and with their shaven heads. Looking and admiring the work of art being displayed in front of them.

Milton Keynes (Definatly one of my favourites)

Once again another image which I thought was brilliant, this time displaying the domestic side of the people he met. Almost trying to suggest that they are normal people and that everyone is different. This image is another which has the great composition. A straight on shot of the sofa, which for most is the heart of the sitting room, where most families spend a lot of their time. Above the sofa are family portraits and images of their children. One of my favourite parts of this image is the child's photograph on the wall which is slightly wonky, this could perhaps be a suggestion to someone who looks at this image without knowledge of the book that something within the image they are looking at isn't quite right.

Milton Keynes

Family bookshelf

Selling the British National Party's newspaper, The Nationalist. Milton Keynes

Displaying the flag of the South African new-Nazi party, AWB. London Underground

British National Party demonstration. Sunderland

Extract from the writing in Ragens book, the middle paragraph was the one that interested me most - about the character changing her look for her kids etc. The writing is all typed out from Ragen's recorder. He took a number of recordings about the people he was 'friends' with during the course of the project.