IN CONVERSATION
Rook Lane Chapel | Bath Street, Frome BA11 1DN
EXCLUSIVE PHOTO|FROME EVENT
Frome resident, magazine editor, and arts journalist Ash Khandikar hosted a conversation with world-renowned filmmaker Ken Loach, acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, and professional film & television still photographer Joss Barratt. They discussed how photography serves today’s important issues, be they through fiction or journalism.
It was a fascinating evening, insightful anecdotes, and a sharp-witted exchange from some of the best exponents of their art. Enjoy the video!
Saturday 12 April
18:30–21:00
After the discussion, there was a book signing by Susan of the newest edition of her groundbreaking publication, ‘Nicaragua‘. Then the audience mingled with artists, curators, and photography-loving visitors – and enjoyed a private viewing of the exhibition.
The Rook Lane Chapel exhibition featured Joss Barratt’s photography taken whilst working on set with acclaimed director Ken Loach. Loach is known for his focus on marginalised communities, this includes ‘Carla’s Song’, images from which we paired Susan Meiselas’ breakthrough colour reportage from Nicaragua. By juxtaposing fiction and reality we explore common themes but from totally different angles, giving new perspectives. The work of Jim Brogden, Nick Hedges, Tish Murtha, Roland Ramanan, Paul Seawright, and Fast Forward: Women in Photography (curated by Anna Fox) was also featured alongside other Ken Loach films.
Speakers
Ken Loach is a critically acclaimed English filmmaker whose work is imbued with humanistic spirit and considered a landmark of social realism. This unwavering focus on social issues, the oppressed, and everyday folk marginalised by society is evident in numerous television programmes and the 28 feature films Loach has directed, dating back to career that began in 1964.
He is a two-time recipient of the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival and holds the record for the director with the most films screened at Cannes (15). His most recent – and reportedly final – film, ‘The Old Oak’ (2023), is a drama about Syrian refugees living in a neglected community in the north-east of England.
Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York. She is the author of Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997), Pandora’s Box (2001), Encounters with the Dani (2003) Prince Street Girls (2016), A Room Of Their Own (2017), Tar Beach (2020), and Carnival Strippers Revisited (2022).
In the latest news, Susan is recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography title of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025. Susan is well known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her photographs are included in North American and international collections. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow, received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and most recently the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019) and the first Women in Motion Award from Kering and the Rencontres d’Arles. Mediations, a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to the present, was recently exhibited at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Jeu de Paume, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, Kunst Haus Wien, C/O Berlin, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, and FOMU in Antwerp. Susan has been the President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, with a mission to expand diversity and creativity in documentary photography.
Joss Barratt is an experienced professional photographer whose 35-year career has principally focused on shooting stills for the film and television industry. Originally a photojournalist, his quick eye for storytelling pictures blends a personal approach with the particular demands of film sets and varied commercial assignments.
He has worked with many different directors including Richard Eyre, Pawel Pawlikowski, Dominic Savage, and has worked on over 20 films with Ken Loach. “Whilst working on set my pictures can arrive from anywhere, I try and stay constantly connected to the space and the energy of the people I’m working with to catch fleeting moments of truth in a make-believe world.”
Ash Khandikar was born in India and raised in the United Kingdom. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from Oxford, where he was a choral scholar, and went on to train as a journalist on the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
Currently a Director of C Sharp Media, he has worked as a journalist and arts consultant with a wide range of music publications and cultural organisations in Hong Kong, India, and the UK, including a 25-year stint as Editor-in-Chief of Opera Now magazine.
Ash lives in Frome with his civil partner Michael and a dog named Dash.