The Invisible Empire: Ku Klux Klan

Invisible Empire, The

White-robed figures with a history of violence and strange rituals, there's a continuing mysticism about sinister supremacists the Ku Klux Klan. Photographer Anthony Karen gained access to the organisation after making contact with a Klansman who was a former marine, like himself. For four years he followed different factions of the KKK, recording cook-outs, protests, ceremonies, robe-making and the life of National Socialist group Imperial Klans of America (IKA).

The result is a set of images that don't affirm or condemn the actions of the group, but merely documents them. Pictures of the 'Cross Lighting Ceremony' - where a wooden cross is set aflame to symbolise the light of Christ - are the most immediately dramatic images, but they're overshadowed by the photographs of day to day life. In one sequence of shots we see a young couple getting married in ceremonial robes. Another show portraits of Klansmen, women and children without their hoods. Perhaps the most hard-hitting are those from an IKA picnic where families are covered in racist tatts and the swastiska is always in sight.

The images give a sense that the KKK runs on tribal behaviour, enforced by isolated communities. What's frustrating is that we don't know why these individuals are in the KKK, or what they believe. The closest we get is an interview with a robe maker, who reveals she doesn't share Klan beliefs and needs the money for her paraplegic daughter. Like blindfolded initiates, there's still a lot left for us to discover.

Eleanor Goodman