CJ Clarke is a British
independent filmmaker,
photojournalist and photographer based in
London, England. He is the author of Magic Party Place, a book documenting contemporary England and mapping the roots of
Brexit in the process.[1] Clarke's works have been commended at Ian Parry Award, three
Magenta Flash Forward Awards and two Observer Hodge Photographic Awards.[2][3] He is also the co-founder and director of
Just Another Photo Festival, an Indian photography festival that democratises access to visual media.[4]
In 2015, Clarke co-founded
Just Another Photo Festival (JAPF) in India, with
Poulomi Basu, a
documentary photographer. JAPF is a guerrilla festival that aims at providing the art of photography to mass audiences irrespective of their background.[11] He is also the co-founder of the
crowdsourced activist initiative The Rape In India Project.[12] In 2016, Clarke authored Magic Party Place, a decade-long project documenting ordinary town of Basildon and the rise of the
rights that led to
Brexit.[13][14] The book received critical reviews from several news outlets including The Guardian, Time and Dazed.[7][14][15]Magic Party Place was shortlisted for multiple awards including the Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award 2016, Arles Authors Book Award 2017, Photo Espana Book of the Year 2017 and Photo London Krasna-Kraus Photo Book Award 2017.[16]
In 2018, Clarke produced Blood Speaks, a
transmedia project created by
Poulomi Basu. Blood Speaks investigates normalised physical violence against women. The project was premiered at the
Margaret Mead Film Festival and selected for
Sheffield DocFest in 2018. In March 2019, Clarke and Poulomi Basu presented the project at the
South by Southwest in
Austin, Texas.[17] In March 2022, Clarke collaborated again with Poulomi Basu for the transmedia project, Fireflies, a series portraying relationship between mother and daughter.[18] Currently, Clarke is working on the project Loyalists about post-peace in contemporary
Northern Ireland.[19]
Books
Magic Party Place, (2016) published by Kehrer Verlag and designed by Teun van der Heijden.[14][20]
A Matter of Perspective in Digital Investigative Journalism, (2018) ed. Oliver Hahn and Florian Stalph published by Palgrave MacMillan.[21]