In this first project focusing on protests, Comar had been fascinated by the creativity of the protesters and their way of responding to issues of surveillance and police repression. When protests broke out in Hong Kong in the spring of 2019 against a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China, Comar was intrigued: “I saw the images of the lasers, the umbrellas, of all these young people who are so creative in the face of a system of repression and surveillance that is even more developed than in France. I said to myself, ‘Maybe this is our future’.” At the time, he had been attempting to gain access to the 2019 G8 summit in Biarritz, France, and had been unable to obtain permission. Without having had time to conduct research or establish contacts on the ground, he decided to turn his attention to the events unfolding in Hong Kong. Arriving a few days later he was fortunate to find himself in a youth hostel where a number of young locals involved in the protests helped him to gain access to the events unfolding and he gradually developed a network that allowed him to cover the protests extensively, spending three months in the city.
Over this period he took some ten thousand photographs, which took him several years to digest after his return to France. His dissatisfaction with his few experiences working with the press and the lack of any control over the images distributed in this context convinced him of the need to find a different outlet for his photographs of Hong Kong. As Comar explains, “There are editorial systems in place that often mean that only one image will be chosen. Everything has to be understandable in a single frame, which is a very difficult thing to do. In fact, the system is much more powerful than the content.”
He became convinced that the book was the best form in which to present this material and in 2002 he released How was your dream? published by Mörel Books. Its title comes from the expression that protesters used to discuss their involvement in the protests on social networks, referring to a dream experience to fictionalise their exchanges and avoid incriminating themselves.
Comar’s critical stance on the media representation of the dynamics of protest also informed his choices in the book. The glossy paper and full-bleed photographs are closer to those of a fashion publication than to the media outlets where the coverage of these events normally appears. The printing further heightens the project’s science-fiction-like qualities through hallucinatory, quasi-fluorescent colours. But Comar’s images do not reduce the protests to abstractions or pure aesthetics. How was your dream? still clearly translates how much is at stake and the tension is palpable throughout the project.
When I asked him what differences he noted between these protests and those he had photographed in Paris a few years prior, he remarked: “The violence in Hong Kong is much less visible than in France. The police are less visibly armed and less willing to use weapons against demonstrators.” Instead, it is the looming threat of reprisals that is far more present, a less visible threat of violence after the fact, with far heavier sentences than in France and the possibility of being “disappeared”. As a result of this, it has not been possible for Comar to show the book or exhibit the photographs in Hong Kong, as the potential consequences for those it depicts are too great.
The book carefully develops a spectacular narrative of the protests where ultra-equipped protagonists from both sides—so much so that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the protesters from the riot police—go to battle. Comar also focuses heavily on the surveillance devices and media presence in these demonstrations, either to track the protesters or feed the media machine that is constantly in need of dramatic images of conflict. The many portraits of protesters—a highly delicate exercise in which he had to ensure he did not place them at risk—also illustrate their ingenuity in protecting their identity through masks, glasses and other accessories that seem to be on the verge of a form of cosplay.
How was your dream? effectively breaks the fourth wall, showing us not only what is on stage—the protests themselves—but the extraordinarily developed system of representation that surrounds this “theater of protest.”
Marc Feustel for IMA MAGAZINE
