Shooting the Darkness Darragh McManus
A new documentary, Shooting the Darkness, , looks at the experience of the brave photographers who recorded events during the Troubles. Darragh McManus talks to Alan Lewis, a photographer who was there
on a major new documentary that looks at the experience of photographers who recorded events during the Troubles
Northern Ireland’s con ict feels like a world away now, 25 years a er the IRA cease re. Even at the time, it felt like a world away for many in the Republic. It’s a shock then, to be reminded that a vicious con ict took place, just over the border, not so long ago.
A new documentary, Shooting the Darkness, goes behind the camera to delve into the memories of the photographers who captured images of murder, mayhem, madness and misery. One of the lm’s contributors, Alan Lewis, who now runs Pacemaker Press photo agency in Belfast, talks about his time at the cutting edge of a warzone.
Have you seen Shooting the Darkness yet?
I have, I came to Dublin for a screening at the IFI. It went very well. Myself and the other photographers had been asked to do something like that before but none of us had really embraced the idea. But with Tom and omas (director Tom Burke and producer omas Kelly), it felt like they were the right people to do this project. Collectively, we all decided to do it. We normally stay behind the camera, so it was a bit of a sea-change.
What was it like to look back on the Troubles from this remove?
Well, there’s still ongoing trouble here, just not at the same level and without the same publicity. We still have serious terrorist incidents, so it hasn’t completely gone away. But yes, by and large, we’re in a much better place than we were. Back then, this was happening all around us. You’d be having dinner and hear the rumble of a bomb, somewhere in the city, and know immediately you were going to get a call. Your life really wasn’t your own. You were on call 24-7.
The work you were doing was important – the first draft of history, as they say…
Yes, but we didn’t look at it like that at the time. To us, it was hard news. Looking back, obviously our collective work is an important historical document of that period of history. But we were just thinking, get the best picture for the front page of the newspaper the following morning.
Did the job help you to distance yourself mentally from the craziness around you?
I wouldn’t say we distanced ourselves mentally from it. You were seeing things rst-hand that really you shouldn’t be seeing. Some of the things I saw down the years were very shocking and if you fail to be shocked by them, there’s something wrong somewhere. At the same time, you’re there to take the picture and do your job. We got the chance to re ect on them at a later stage.
But it was pretty relentless. You’d listen to the news rst thing every morning, check with police and army press o ces, emails from Sinn Féin, various other sources. You’d frequently have to decide which murder, of three or four, to cover. Making brutally hard editorial decisions in a short space of time. Which murder was likely to have most impact? It intensi es your thought processes. Sometimes you could even be on a job and get a call saying something else has happened, and you’d drop that and go somewhere else. Or get one of a network of local photographers to do it.
Were you ever afraid?
ere were times when I was afraid, yeah. ere were physical dangers. We’ve all been threatened, sometimes held at gunpoint, during the early days of the Troubles. I’ve been hit three times by plastic bullets. Several other photographers were hit by plastic bullets, some badly injured. You were also aware there may be a secondary device in the vicinity. But if you dwelt on the dangers you wouldn’t do the job. A bit of madness came into it! Instead of running away from these things, we were running towards them.
Do you ever look back on the young man you once were, doing this insane job, and think ‘Who was this person!?’
I look back and think, I had hair then! No, I didn’t really see it as going into a warzone or anything – it was a job. And to be honest, it was exciting. We got a buzz from being on the big stories. ere was an adrenaline rush. You wanted to get the best picture and compete with the other guys. ey were rivals but also friends; there was great camaraderie, even though more than once we’d have literally pushed each other out of the way for the shot. At the end of the day, we’d have a beer together. We all faced the same trials and tribulations.