‘The Powers That Be’ faces from Poland's 2023 Parliamentary Election will be pasted onto billboards along Brighton Seafront from 13th October to 31st October. Part of BRIGHTON PHOTOFRINGE

The Powers That Be

Chloe Juno, in collaboration with Alan Gignoux

I developed this work with Alan Gignoux during an artist residency in Poland with Sala752. Working with GIGNOUXPHOTOS, I develop, direct, and create creative concepts and explore ways of visualising stories through photography and design. I also collaborated with Emily Stanley James Press on book editing and photobook design.

Alan and I originally travelled across Poland researching and documenting coal and copper mining, exploring how the industrial landscape was changing for his long-form work Bruised Lands and our collaborative project Hard Work and a Good Death.

When we arrived at our residency, our temp home, creativity and work, we were confronted by two enormous political campaign posters displayed on a garden hedge. This became the catalyst for a new direction. We began noticing campaign posters everywhere.

Driving across the country, we stopped at roadsides, outside houses, in fields, near shops, in towns and housing estates, and beside enormous billboards. Most of the posters were in good condition, but so many were ripped up or graffitied. Using a Fuji Instax camera, we photographed the faces staring out from the posters. We focused closely on their expressions, clothing, and carefully constructed appearances. These were the faces asking to be trusted, the faces we were being invited to vote for.

As we photographed, we talked and debated. Who were these people representing? What lay behind the imagery, the corporate structures, the marketing and the propaganda? How were desire, trust, and belief being manufactured? Do we ever really get what we vote for? Who is actually in charge? Who are The Powers That Be?

The project became a way of looking beyond the surface of political imagery, questioning the systems we live within and the rules that govern us. The faces on the posters became a starting point for wider conversations about influence, manipulation, authority, and the power to shape people's lives.

I feel we need something beyond what we already know: an entirely different way of thinking, perhaps one that is difficult for us to imagine from where we stand now. We need to question how humans use the power they hold, who that power serves, and what possibilities might emerge if we began to think differently.

The Powers That Be grew from looking, but became an ongoing conversation about power, representation, and the possibility of change.

— Chloe Juno

BUY THE PHOTOBOOK HERE

In 2023-2024 Alan and Chloe were resident artists at Sala752 in Zaczernie, Poland.

Travelling around Poland researching coal mining we were struck by the faces of politicians beaming at us from colourful political banners wherever we went. It was clear we had arrived in the middle of an important general election which saw the ruling right-wing nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) up against Donald Tusk and the Civic Coalition alongside two smaller parties, The Third Way, and the Left. We sensed a great hope for change from the people we met, who hoped to see an end to the 8-year rule of the ultra-conservative government.

As Alan had some Instax Wide 400 Fujifilm left over from another trip, we decided to use it to document the political banners, zooming in on the features of these potential changemakers. The resulting body of work investigates the peculiar visual language of political advertising – how political hopefuls aiming to stand out from the crowd promote themselves using identical tricks of the trade drawn straight from marketing manuals, hoping to sell their “unique” vision of a better life for everyone. Persuading us to vote for them is an essential step on the road to these would-be leaders becoming “The Powers That Be.” ( text from gignouxphotos website )