Photographer and Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman has urged creatives to “reflect the times” in which we’re living through with their work, saying that you can “either be an artist or an entertainer”.
Harriman, who is known for capturing civil rights protests and moments in history, is taking part in Choose Love’s Together For Palestine auction alongside the likes of Grayson Perry, Es Devlin, Charlie Mackesy and leading Palestinian artists.
Their works, which will be placed in an exhibition alongside the online auction, will be sold with the proceeds going to humanitarian organisations delivering frontline relief in Palestine amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Harriman – who was the first Black man to shoot a cover of British Vogue and has photographed Olivia Colman, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, Rihanna and Stormzy among others – contributed to the auction to “be of service as an artist and someone with a platform”.
“Art at its very best isn’t purely educational or entertaining,” he told The Independent. “It’s something that nourishes the soul, whether it’s film, music, painting, photography, dance, and obviously it’s something that I’m trying to use to to do that.”
The photographer submitted his 2024 work Brothers in Protest – showing a Muslim man and a Jewish man on the London embankment, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – for the auction, describing it as “one of the most important images” he’s ever taken.
“So much of the discourse in our press is about keeping us on islands of rage,” he said. “To have a Muslim-presenting man and a Jewish-presenting man standing as brother in arms, asking for peace and anything but bombs, I think it’s so important. I’ve seen people from both communities burst into tears looking at that picture.”
With social media’s increasing presence in our lives, and hatred more rife than ever online, Harriman called for people to embrace the “original human algorithm” of looking at art.
“The angriest place I spend some time online is X and it’s algorithmically designed to make you angry,” he said. “It can be very damaging to one’s mental health and I think walking through a cultural space like a gallery or a museum, deciding how you feel about it, is the original human algorithm.
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“Nina Simone said that to be an artist is to reflect the times that we’re living through. I think you can either be an artist or an entertainer – and I have no interest in entertaining.
“I have a big interest in trying to build bridges through my art and more people need that for their own mental health and their understanding of the very uncertain world that we’re all looking at through our phones, scratching our heads and wondering what future our children will inherit.”
He added that both artists and non-artists alike should use what they have to bring communities together. “Not all of us have world leaders on speed dial but we do have the ability to do what we can with the tools that we have access to. Mine is a camera, for some people it’s a paintbrush, for other people it’s having a conversation at the dinner table or leaving a WhatsApp group that is toxic,” he said.
“We all have something that we can do and I think we need to try and do that in tandem.”
Berlin Film Festival jury president Wim Wenders made headlines back in February when he said that filmmakers should “stay out of politics” – something Harriman, who received an Oscar nomination for his short film The After in 2024, strongly disagrees with.
“That’s an oxymoronic statement,” he said. “The first time I learned about fascism was watching The Sound of Music – the songs may be nice but the von Trapp family were fleeing the Nazi annexation of Austria when he sings, at the very end, ‘Edelweiss’.
“I was a little boy but I realised what was going on there. Even something that is light touch like The Sound of Music is political.
“As I said earlier, Nina Simone said it best – to be an artist is to reflect the times we live in. Otherwise you can be an entertainer, and there’s no judgement on entertaining but do not choose to be recognised for having any of kind of art that is political if you’re not willing to speak about it at the most political time in most of our lives.”
Together For Palestine’s Fine Art Auction runs from 27 March until 9 April, with an exhibition of the works open at HOPE93 Gallery in London.
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