Entry Title: " Guantanamo: If the light goes out"
Name: Edmund Clark, United Kingdom
Category: Professional, Book


Entry Description: This is a study of three ideas of home: The complex of camps at Guantanamo where the detainees have been held; the naval base which is home to the American community and the homes, new and old, in the UK and Middle East where former detainees are now trying to rebuild their lives. Interspersed within these images are Letters To Omar, a selection of cards and letters sent to one detainee at Guantanamo. The dislocated narrative of the book aims to evoke the process of disorientation central to the techniques of incarceration and interrogation at Guantanamo.

Edmund Clark is best known for his imagery exploring the consequences of control and incarceration. After studying for a degree in History and French at Sussex University and La Sorbonne, Paris, he worked in international research in London and Brussels before gaining a postgraduate photojournalism diploma at the London College of Communications. Monographs include Still Life Killing Time (2007) and Guantanamo: If The Light Goes Out (2010). He was nominated for International Photographer of the Year in 2010 and 2011, and awarded the Royal Photographic Society Hood Medal for the most outstanding photography for public service in 2011. Other awards include Editorial Photographer of the Year at the International Photography Awards/The Lucies (2010), The British Journal of Photography International Photography Award (2009), a Terry O’Neill/IPG Award for Contemporary British Photography (2008), and a Gold Pencil at the One Show Awards in New York (2003). Guantanamo: If The Light Goes Out won the Best Book Award at the New York Photo Awards (2011), the International Photography Awards/The Lucies (2011) and was chosen as one of the best books of 2011 at the International Photobook Festival, Kassel. His work has been acquired for national and international collections, including The National Portrait Gallery, London, The Imperial War Museum, London, The National Media Museum, Bradford, The George Eastman House, Rochester, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He has worked as an Artist-in-Residence for the National Trust in Britain.