Giles Price - Remote Documentary: What is it to Document Virtually?

Remote Documentary: What is it to Document Virtually?

The work Phantom-Pro looks at the aftermath and reconstruction of Mosul, a city captured by ISIS in 2014 and subsequently destroyed in the battle to defeat them. It utilises the focused collection (in-situ) and interpretation (virtually) of digital photographs using consumer drone and photogrammetry technologies now used in war and construction industries.
The last decade has seen an intensification of conflict within vertical space - the politics of verticality - with the development and availability of mass-produced consumer drones. This new hybrid drone warfare has affected peer on peer state conflict - the war in Ukraine - and allowed non state groups - ISIS and individuals - the ability to operate and effect new types of outcomes within the vertical paradigm.
Phantom-Pro explores the tensions within dual use technologies, and challenges and extends traditional approaches to documenting conflict and aftermath while also commenting on the cyclical histories of the region.

Bio: Giles Price’s work looks at situations of exception and extremity by exploring the boundaries of documentary practice (experimental documentary). This includes using different types of machine vision and other lens-based technologies for effective visual story telling. Price has BA Hons in Photographic Studies from the University of Derby, UK.

Presented as part of 'Photography in Virtual Culture', a two day conference in May 2024 to develop a communal discussion, and inform critiques and thinking on the making of ‘virtual photography’. Organised by the University of Westminster and The Photographers' Gallery.