The shot that acquired me a police beating: Rod Morris’s greatest {photograph} | Photography

In 1993, {a photograph} I’d taken of a bus driver in Luxor, Egypt, gained a contest. The prize was some cash, a digital camera and a return ticket to anyplace on this planet. I selected Chile. The digital camera was an all-bells-and-whistles mannequin: I offered it to a taxi driver at 3am. I’ve at all times most well-liked working with gentle 35mm cameras.

After three months in Chile, I caught a practice that rose as much as the excessive Bolivian Altiplano plateau, leaving me with a splitting headache solely relieved by some coca tea. I had an open-ended fee with the Financial Times to supply pictures from monetary areas of the South American cities I went to, so whereas my predominant purpose was to wander round photographing thrilling issues I got here throughout, I additionally made certain to go to the monetary district and authorities quarters within the metropolis of La Paz, which is the place this was taken.

This was the 12 months Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was elected president of Bolivia, and my go to coincided along with his marketing campaign. As the election loomed, there was an actual sense of apprehension within the metropolis. There had been a great deal of troopers and police round; there have been rumours that any unregistered land could be sequestered by the brand new authorities, and I feel that’s why the individuals on this image had been queueing with their papers.

There was no strategy to be discreet once I took it. My digital camera was fairly loud and you’ll see one of many individuals wanting proper at me. People’s bemusement at being photographed whereas they’re simply going about their lives is one thing I’ve encountered rather a lot. This wasn’t a marriage image or a contented event: I collect that the claims needed to be filed earlier than a deadline which was most likely fairly shut. But I wasn’t completely certain once I took the image what was taking place, solely that it was essential to those individuals and there was a really tense ambiance. That’s the sense I needed to seize.

Then I used to be approached by some plainclothes cops who bundled me into the again of a automobile and drove me to the native station, the place I used to be questioned for a very long time about why I used to be there and what I used to be doing. I instructed them I used to be a vacationer taking pictures for myself however they nonetheless tried to take my movie. Happily, I managed to fob them off with some unexposed rolls. On the way in which out, I needed to stroll down a line of police who took turns to punch and kick me all the way in which to the door. That was my warning, however additionally they instructed me I’d be adopted and watched. I didn’t dangle round.

This picture is one in every of many who weren’t printed on the time however now type a part of a sequence I name Still Films, which pulls on my background in each photojournalism and film-making. I’ve at all times been drawn to black and white, filmic pictures, and scenes I come upon that look as in the event that they’ve been arrange. The sequence delves into the interaction between cinema and images: nonetheless pictures that evoke a story that transcends the body.

There are a great deal of footage I took in La Paz that I really like, however as quickly as I noticed this one on the contact sheet I recognised that filmlike high quality. There’s rigidity within the composition, because the figures create a series main in the direction of the open doorway guarded by a soldier, but in addition a level of ambiguity. I feel that’s one thing all my favorite footage have in frequent, my very own and people by others. I don’t like my pictures to be too inflexible or instant, I would like them to be imbued with the identical sense of pleasure and surprise I felt once I pressed the shutter.

Photography is subjective, and I’ve at all times been reluctant to go someplace and attempt to inform a narrative as an outsider. I arrived in Bolivia with out foreknowledge or judgment, and what was happening on the time is absolutely type of irrelevant to the picture. I feel the very best pictures present extra questions than solutions.

Rod Morris’s CV