Riots in Londonderry

Title: Riots in Londonderry
Date: 1981
Photo by: Peter Marlow
Collection: Magnum Photos
I happened upon this photo in the Magnum Photos collection, and immediately wanted to know about the older woman in the center. She is in the middle of a riot, but a bystander, not a direct participant. She is surrounded by stone-throwing, masked young people, yet her attention is on the target of the riots, not the rioters themselves and she appears more curious than alarmed. It all suggests that she is somehow on the rioters side, despite looking like a working class housewife and not a radical. After looking at the photo, I read the caption, which states: Riots following the deaths of two Catholic teenagers who were accidentally killed by British Army troops who drove into a group of rioters hurling petrol bombs. The rioters throw rocks and petrol bombs and the police respond with plastic bullets. 1981. A local resident looks on at the street battles between the youths and the army. Had the protestors already used petrol bombs when the photo was taken? Did the woman go back inside once the bullets started flying? It is hard to say where the photo falls in the timeline of the riot. I am also curious about the photographer’s intent. The older woman and two of the protesters are in focus, suggesting they were the target of the photo, yet the blurred rioter in the foreground makes the shot. Without him, we are left with figures in a defensive stance, but he shows us the rioters are pressing the fight forward. The blurred figure also frames the older woman in a way that draws our attention to her instead of the riot as a whole. Was this the photographer’s intent? Did the blurry figure move into the shot at the last moment? Whether it was planned or serendipity the framing of the photograph tells the story.