Home Truths: More Thoughts

At the recent Home Truths: Motherhood, Photography and Identity exhibition I had a puzzling conversation with another student. Jason and myself had a difference of opinion over the series 'Annunciation' by Elina Brotherus. He felt that the images looked set up and therefore felt they weren't that truthful. The constructed nature of the images wasn't an issue for me. As I stated in my blog post at the time, the artist is perfectly aware that as well as recording her difficult experience with IVF she is also an artist making art. The reason I used the word puzzled is not that another student would see the same series of images differently from me but because I was curious as to where this difference in perspective comes from.

Then I had a lightbulb moment yesterday. I was reading 'The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes' by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. I was trying to absorb some of the authors ideas around 'the gaze.' The authors Lutz and Collins have broken the gaze down into seven categories - a typology of gazes. It is only two that I am concerned with here. The photographers and the viewers gazes can (as Lutz and Collins explain) mostly be seen as the same thing. The photographer makes an image from a particular point of view and generally the viewer sees it (on a purely visual level) in the same way. It is only when there is an anomaly in the image, a colour cast, a tilted angle, a shadow or foot, that the viewer becomes aware of the presence of the photographer in the making of the image. This is where the gazes separate out.

So, bear with...

When I read the critical essay it seemed to chime with my thoughts and clarify what I was trying to express about the difference of opinion between Jason and myself over the Elina Brotherus work. The sticking point for Jason was that in some of the self portraits a cable release was visible as it snaked out of frame and back towards the camera. He questioned why Brotherus would leave it there. This is where I think the intersection of gazes comes into play. I was looking at the images from the point of view of the combined gazes of the 'photographer' and the 'viewer'. I was consciously aware that the artist was making art around the concept of IVF. And at the same time I was unconsciously switching between the two gazes when becoming emotionally absorbed by the subject matter. For Jason, I think, he may have looked at the work with the single gaze of the 'viewer'. In other words he was fully absorbed in the subject matter of IVF and not considering the gaze of the photographer as artist. So for him the presence of the cable release caused him to be aware of the 'photographer's gaze' creating a disconnect and his analysis that the images were not truthful. Phew... Does that make sense?

If I am correct in my analysis then the multiplicity of gazes and how they intersect at the site of the image can be a very useful tool for analysing and evaluating opinion.

Edit 26th Oct: I made an error in my recollection of the student conversation. It wasn't Jason after all. I think it may have been Jonathan. Please see comment below.



Bibliography:

The Photography Reader by Liz Wells (2003). Part 7 pg 354. The photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. 

Home Truths: Part 2, The Foundling Museum

Tierney Gearon
I wasn't particularly taken with this work when I saw it at the Foundling Museum. Maybe it was because I was tired from the day and the walk from the Photographer's Gallery - I was by then all arted out I suppose. For 'The Mother Project' Gearon has chosen the subject of her elderly mother's dementia and how that plays itself out in the lives of Gearon and her children. The subject sounds interesting enough. I just wasn't particularly engaged by the photographs - that is with one exception. The image of Gearon's mother standing in the snow on a petrol station forecourt is superb - in my opinion one of the best images in the show at both galleries. I love the spontaneity of it. The mother is holding a cigarette (at a petrol station!) and she is grinning, tilted forward slightly, her eyes clenched with laughter. It is a captured moment of pleasure. This image, for me, doesn't seem to sit that well with the rest of the sequence. It feels visually different from some of the other portraits that have very plain backgrounds (green grass, blue sky) and they look somewhat contrived.

Miyako Ishiuchi
The artist has photographed her mother's possession after she passed away. The objects, a couple of lipsticks, a hairbrush in a glass, a dress, etc were framed in small Plexiglas cases. The piece felt quite sterile to me. I didn't pick up a sense of the person that owned and used these things. They obviously meant a lot to the photographer, but not to me. They were just things, in close-up, without any other background or visual clues to a life lived. Again, as with the Gearon work I liked the concept but not the images. Maybe if they had been photographed in another style I would have felt differently.

Ann Fessler

'Along the Pale Blue River' is a video piece that maps the journey of the artist to find her biological mother. The artist shot her own film and has included collage and archival footage too. There is a sense of not quite grasping the narrative as it unfolds. It feels ambiguous and slips away as if time lines past and present are merging and diverging. This was my favourite piece in the Foundling Museum. I thought the film was put together well and visually it held my interest. Fessler is engaged in uncovering the hidden history of adoption in her country as opposed to the official sanctioned view.

Since 1990, I have tried to shed light on this hidden history both through my own perspective as an adoptee and through the stories I have collected from the mothers - women who were shamed into secrecy and rendered invisible and voiceless. (Fessler, 2001)

After the show I was surprised to read on the OCA Flickr forum that the students seemed to hold the opposite view to me - preferring The Foundling Museum. At first I put this down to myself as I nearly always seem to have a differing view to art from the majority for some reason. I thought about the work I had seen and tried to analyse why I preferred The Photographer's Gallery. I thought some of it more challenging and explored the boundaries around the construct of Motherhood more successfully - bringing in unexpected elements of the 'outsider' to the discussion or exploring motherhood from a conceptual angle. With the Foundling Museum, although there were elements that I did like, the work was quite Humanistic, for want of a better word. It didn't really engage me that much except for a few pieces. I was satisfied with this reasoning and then very surprised to read on the Flickr forum a bit later some of the other students re-questioning their preference for the FM too. One student, Eileen, had nagging feelings that she may have liked it more because the work explored concepts that are more 'accessible and familiar'. This reasoning chimed with me and I agree precisely because the FM work to me is not familiar. I enjoyed this study visit. It has raised so many questions about how I and others approach art, the social taboos that make people angry, and what I learnt about myself. All thought provoking stuff.

references:

Fessler, A. (2013) Exhibition catalogue, Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. London, UK: Art Books Publishing Ltd. 

Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity - Study Visit

I really enjoyed this exhibition. From what I'd read it touched on some interesting themes and this was even before the work of one of the more controversial exhibitors had caused quite a bit of discussion on the OCA student forum. This all happened in the days preceding our visit and quite a few different points of view were expressed and countered. I always like to absorb what is being said - giving me time to think and reflect on my own position.

The reason I was so keen to visit the exhibition is that for my critical essay (assignment 4) I have chosen to write about gender representation in photography. The exhibition and discussion will provide a good deal of source material for my research.

Elina Brotherus
The visit was split into two locations, The Photographer's Gallery and The Foundling Museum. At the PG the first piece of work that really caught my attention was a sequence called 'Annunciation' by Elina Brotherus. It dealt with the difficult issue of IVF and the photographer had produced a series of images that portrayed her own journey along this path. There were a number of haunting self portraits showing the artist hunched over in a chair or huddled into a corner, her back to the camera. These images were interspersed with visual analogies to the peaks and troughs of the IVF process - branches of a tree laden with blossom, a bowl of flowers, medical supplies gathered on a sofa, a painted sign of a figure on the road with a small foetus added to it's white stomach. As well as the incredibly poignant story it was the visual language of portrait and metaphor (using mundane everyday objects) that really worked for me.

I had a discussion with another student about the work as he questioned the truth of the images as in some of the portraits a cable release could clearly be seen - indicating the set up nature of the work. In other words how can she be in emotional pain when she is posing for a self portrait and has arranged herself in the room to make the composition? This isn't an issue for me. The photographer is self aware enough to know that in the midst of recording her treatment she is also making art. The very fact of the visible cable release indicates that. There is nothing less truthful about pre-visualising an emotion, and then performing it for the camera. It doesn't make the situation any less real. I would say that as an artist the process is perfectly natural to her. So although the sequence feels very 'real' there is a conceptual element to the work that adds a layer of  complexity. And indeed, the title of the series 'Annunciation' indicates that there is also a religious metaphor. In the catalogue of the exhibition Brotherus writes that:

This is a series of false annunciations. It's about waiting for an angel who never shows up. At first we don't know if he's there, because he could just be hiding behind the doorway. Gradually, it becomes clear that he's not coming. (Brotherus, 2013.)

Leigh Ledare
The exhibition as a whole deals with the construct of 'Motherhood' and gathers together a number of artists that have questioned those cultural ideals. Some of the artist's work has pushed well outside the accepted boundaries that many societies would accept as 'normal' and as such have strained or broken social taboos.

One artist in particular is Leigh Ledare. The artist has photographed his own relationship with his mother. Their story "Pretend You're Actually Alive" told in Ledare's images, video, typed letters, and an old torn out image from a fashion shoot, comes across as having a twisted dynamic that involves a constant struggle between them for dominance and power. Looking at the images, some of them quite shocking, I see a young man that has grown up with a woman that wants to be seen as young, beautiful, successful and powerful. Her own notion of identity puts what she considers to be motherhood way, way, down the list. This in turn has meant that her son has scrambled for ever more attention and the pair have become embroiled in a power play. The mother takes lovers the same age as her adult son and openly exposes him to her activities. By doing this does it make her feel like she is still young? In turn Ledare has photographed their life and held a mirror up - to reflect back at her and expose the dynamics of their relationship.

Alongside the narrative element it is best to not forget that they both have artistic backgrounds. Ledare is a photographer and the mother was once a dancer. So there is definitely an element of performance and staging going on in these images. Some of the sexual scenes are most likely constructed. But undercutting all this is I feel a very real attempt by Ledare to convey an aspect of female identity that attempts to break the stranglehold on the concept of motherhood as only representing a sacred 'earth mother' or 'madonna and child' scenario. Ledare's images portray an aspect of motherhood that he knows from experience to exist - whether we like it or not.

The discussion on the OCA student forum regarding this work was fascinating. Some of the students rejected the work out of hand declaring it as sensationalist or not worthy of analysis. Personally, I found the dismissive attitudes (by some) to be an attempt to shut down the conversation and a real insight into how social taboos operate in society. The comments were almost as interesting as Ledare's work itself!

Janine Antoni
This work was more visually conceptual in nature than some of the others. Antoni had photographed herself suspended from the floor of a room in what appeared to be a kind of straitjacket/corset contraption that had long web-like tendrils that attached to the walls and ceiling. Her feet dangled above the floor of what looked to be a child's room with toys and a play design rug. Around her hips and thighs is constructed a dolls house with its wings open to expose the interior. This image was produced as a digital C type print on a large scale on glass. The rest of the sequence is much smaller and framed. These images show close-ups of the dolls house through which the viewer can see the bare skin of the artist's legs as they extend through the structure. Inside a real spider is constructing its web.

My first thoughts were that the artist is exposing the confining nature of 'motherhood' to be restricted and trapped in a role as it were. Upon reading the exhibition catalogue the artist is exploring a more complex situation in which although there are elements of being trapped she also sees the web as partly a support structure too and the dolls house as a metaphor for providing a place for another being to be grown and nurtured.

Ana Casa Broda
I think the work of the above three artists at the Photographer's Gallery were my favourite. Some of the others were more visually stimulating but the subject matter did not really hold my attention. Ana Casa Broda's 'Kinderwunsch' for example. The images were set out on the wall in a grid pattern and upon entering the gallery space they immediately caught the eye. The panels were without frames and mostly dark colours with a single white one amidst them that created a strong visual impact. The subject mostly seems to be the artist, as mother, sleeping as her child plays nearby. I felt nothing about these images. They seemed to just represent a 'normal' view of day to day motherhood that I couldn't relate to as they are outside of my experience as a child and a childless adult. I discussed this with Jason, one of the other students, and he felt the same about this work and wondered if it was because we were both male. This was an interesting point of view. I hadn't considered that there may be wider connotations - believing that the 'emotional baggage' that I brought with me when I viewed the work was mostly the reason for my indifference. We discussed this further during the coffee break, trying to get at the reason for our apathy. I wondered if I had children myself would I be able to connect more but Jason did and felt the same as me. Then Sharon Boothroyd, one of our tutors for the day joined in. As a woman and mother, Sharon also said that the images didn't particularly engage her - so the 'male' theory was well and truly blown out of the water too.

Interestingly, I was very surprised to read in the exhibition catalogue when writing this post that some of Broda's images represented repressed, unhappy, childhood memories (something I have plenty of experience of!) But, I picked up no evidence of that from the work itself. There was supposed to be some supporting text somewhere which I missed. To me, I think the work gave off a comforting, maternal, vibe. I intend to revisit the exhibition soon so will make a point to take more time with this work.

This post has already become far too long. I think I will break it down into two for the walk to the Foundling Museum exhibition.



references:

Brotherus, E. (2013) Exhibition catalogue, Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. London, UK: Art Books Publishing Ltd. 

Exercise: An essay on reviewing photographs

Instruction:

'Read the essay Words and Pictures: On reviewing photographs by Liz Wells in your course reader.'

I used the skills I picked up on how to analyse an essay earlier in the course and put them to use here. Namely, I read the whole essay through once and then on a second read I noted down the salient points from each sub heading and paragraph as concisely as possible.

Origins of Essay

Wells notes the newsletter where the seeds of this essay were originally published. She acknowledges that the newsletter was 'an initiative to stress 'regional networks' and resist the hegemony of the metropolitan.' By doing this Wells is informing the reader that she is using Postmodern Feminist methods of critique whereby the critic/writer is self aware and acknowledges their own subjectivity, political bias, etc.

Words and Pictures

Wells states that it is difficult to describe visual art in words. Therefore the critic must be aware of his/her responsibilities to the audience and the artist. Once an exhibition is over the review will form a large part of the historical archive.

Contexts

The critic operates in a context of changing ideas of critical art theory and academic study. The art market and gallery also have their personal agendas. Sometimes those values compete with one another.

Reviewing Photography Now

Criticism has been undermined by Postmodernist theory. Feminist theory proposes a constructive role for the critic. To break down the old hierarchies by writing reviews that are self aware, come from many different critical positions, and take into account the artists cultural context.

Taste

Traditional power structures have been assailed by new modes of critical thinking - but they still exist. Moving forwards more enlightened thinking will prevail by not perpetuating a hierarchical intellectual order and bringing about a more creative, many positioned, approach to criticism.


I then looked at my notes to get an overall concept of the essay before answering the following questions:

What is the basic argument of Wells's essay?

That criticism should embrace the Postmodern and Feminist approaches to critique of art in order to break down established power hierarchies. Critics moving forward can be more creative and look at art in its cultural context through different critical approaches. This will 'counter status quo agendas.'


Is the essay's title a fair indication of the essay itself?

It is difficult to answer this. The essay is more about the historical development of the art critique and how critical theories from the time of Modernism have been put under scrutiny in the Postmodern age. How the Modernist theories were found to have been elitist and metropolitan and in the new era a more egalitarian approach is required if the status quo is to be resisted.

This to me is more of a political essay rather than a practical one. From an academic standpoint the title is understandable. It gives a nod to the title of the famous 'On Photography' essays by Susan Sontag. I would say that the title was written for its audience (an academic one) and therefore the title is perfectly suited to its content.

To what extent does the writer rely on Postmodernist doctrine?

I would say that the writer fully embraces Postmodern and Feminist doctrine, approves of it and uses it to illustrate her argument. The opening paragraph, "Origins of Essay' illustrates a self aware methodology and is keen to show us her political viewpoint. In saying this I guess the Postmodernist argument goes that ALL critics should do the same so that we are aware of the thinking behind a critics review rather than them making artistic pronouncements as 'fact' when the critic could possibly be clouded by their own prejudices.

Wells gives a breakdown on the critical development of Postmodernism and how this has affected criticism. She goes on to describe Feminism's suggestion of how criticism can be re-made and used to positive affect using many different viewpoints - explaining that this is to provide a more balanced view rather than an elitist one that entrenches power hierarchies and reinforces the status quo.

Wells also includes some text from Bill Jay's 'Occam's Razor' where the author takes to task the notion of female nudity in art as representing oppression and control by men in a paternalistic society. She refutes this argument putting forward her own ideas using contemporary Feminist theory.

The essay raises the issue of the qualifications and duties of a critic. How important do you believe it is for a critic of photography to have deep knowledge of the practice of photography?

I do think it is important where critics are concerned. We all bring our own knowledge, cultural experience and emotional/social baggage to the photographs that we look at. In some respects it doesn't matter that a viewer may be unaware of the artistic/theoretical intent of the artist. If an image speaks to them and brings about some sort of emotional or intellectual response then that is all that matters. But, a critic's review is another matter entirely. A review is expected to be written with the historical and theoretical underpinning of the work - placing it in a context against that which it can be measured. If that context is not understood then how can a critic judge a piece of work or an exhibition a success?

The duties of a critic as explained by Wells are also clear. The critic should openly make their biases known. This, coupled with their critical knowledge, will allow the reader of such reviews to be able to make a clear judgement on the value of the review itself. For instance, I would always take a review on photography (if there were ever likely to be any) by Brian Sewell the art critic with a pinch of salt. He is well known for his distaste of photography as an art form. He belongs to the old guard of considering painting as at the top of the fine arts with a few old blokes at the top of the tree like some sort of god-like geniuses. This view has been considered terribly old fashioned for many decades and is the kind of status quo power hierarchies that Wells is alluding to. I should imagine that Sewell will reject photography as art with his dying breath - The Postmodernist and Feminist approach takes this bias into account and puts it into context. We are then able to make our own judgement on any reviews that come from such sources.
 

The Solitude of Ravens - Masahisa Fukase

The Solitude of Ravens is an amazing photo-book. I've written a brief description of my impression as the sequence unfolds:

Dark black birds, shadows, glimpses of human shapes in the dark. There is a brooding intensity to the images. The narrative is hard to unpick. As I thumbed through the sequence I had an impression of swirling flocks as they took flight to move across the sky before coming to rest again. The monotone images, often out of focus, show avian shapes, parts of legs, wings. As the birds fly there are other images - of people moving away through the dark, leaving their warm homes, some gathering to huddle at bus stops, almost like the birds as they scatter and settle for a moment in the tree tops. Together but alone. I see images of winter. A single window lit up but oppressed by the dark. Snow covered fields. Out of the mist a small boat is moving towards the viewer and the images change. They become sharper - showing us a town by the sea or a port. The birds flock and gather leaving a mass of footprints in the snow - a solitary bird lies dead in a drift. In another image a cat snacks on remains.

Curiously the sequence changes at this point. We see a naked woman lying on a bed. She poses for the camera but her eyes are closed. Her identity a mystery. An image of a blubbery looking fish, its dead  body swollen and gross. Back to the birds flying over the town by day. Factory chimneys pump smoke into the air as the birds swoop and flock. The town by the sea looks bleak and cold. The day is closing as the people return from work and school - back the way they came. We see images of water. A distant ship. A girl passenger on a boat - her hair caught in the wind.

A close-up of a large jet overhead its under body in dark silhouette. The shadows of ravens on the road as they fly low to the ground over the town. An explosion of debris as some sort of mechanical grabber pulls up bits of paper and earth and vegetation. A man sitting in the middle of a road bare foot and drinking. He's surrounded by rubbish strewn as far as the eye can see. A close-up. burning gloves in a bonfire the flames consuming them. A tramp walks away from the camera his body huddled in a large blanket.

I see two themes here. A personal one that relates to the solitariness of the birds and likewise humans that sometimes, for whatever reason, come unstuck from society - their flocks. These images feel bleak to me. The photographer is well known for missing his wife who divorced him. Apparently he became obsessed with the birds and took the images on many trips back to his home town. I get a strong sense of a man that is or has become separate from society and maybe overcome with depression or despair. He is saying, 'you too, could lose your way, your place. It can happen to anyone. Just like a bird that lies dead in the snow. The birds still gather to flock. They continue. In the end, we are all strangers.'

The second theme comes at the end of the sequence. Surely the plane overhead, the bird shadows in formation as they fly low to the ground, the explosion, burning gloves and aftermath relates to the atomic bombs that were dropped during World War 2. This is a wider theme looking at the populace as a whole - something that must have deeply affected a whole generation and their children.

This is a dark and brooding and above all very intriguing book.