Commercially Unavailable: Distribution as an Activist Tactic

In a context of a wide scholarship on digital methods for the production and distribution of socially engaged photography, the purpose of this chapter is to foreground work from artist-activist Mark Neville who chooses to employ the larger format, carefully printed photo-book, as an appropriate form for his sustained commitment to strategic, targeted distribution. Neville’s work has, over the last twenty years, engaged with the experience of changing environments, injustice, and conflict and has demonstrated close attention to equitable representation. He is committed to achieving this by working together with participants in his projects, often including elements of resistance and celebration, as well as meaningful distribution. His most prominent works include The Port Glasgow Book Project (2004–2006), Deeds Not Words (2010–2012) and Parade (2019). While engaging with conflict and war, Neville also produced The Helmand Work (2011), Battle Against Stigma (2015–2018) and Stop Tanks with Books (2022). The latter was made in Ukraine, to plead for international prevention before, and as, a major conflict escalated into an invasion and war where fossil fuel and nationalism play a central role (Fig. 6.1).