What a summer it has been!

A wonderful mixture of teaching, training, exhibitions and getting full steam ahead once again with my Masters.

Over June and July I went along to a short course at The Photographers Gallery London (TPG – a great space if you haven’t already visited).  Part of my Masters year 1 review was that I needed to include more critical analysis in my literature review and to develop how photographic theory relates to my practice (yep I was a bit stumped too!).  What I have found studying Photography and Sociology at Masters level particularly through research is, I’ve had to develop a quick but intense way of learning.  Undertaking a Masters by Research is largely self directed learning (no lectures which is a bonus!) with some elements of knowledge sign-posted to you by your supervisors, both subjects not being my Undergrad focus has also been a nice little challenge.  The short course on ‘Photography as artistic research’ came at exactly the right time.  Led by Wiebke Leister provided weekly readings specifically on photography and the analysis and criticality to practice.  Readings focussed on such visual artists/writers as Dion, Flusser, Barthes, Rose, Richters.  These sessions gave me a greater understanding of the artists reasonings behind the projects, not just what they may have appeared to be on face value, using such theories from Berger and Barthes in the ways of seeing, that part of the overall understanding/appreciation of the project was mainly in the eyes of the viewer not the author, sometimes the initial intentions can be misinterpreted, not in a negative way but that ‘art’ can be a very subjective thing and varying interpretations will naturally be made by different people.  Hey but isn’t that the fun about it?

The final session provided an opportunity with the group of like minded photographers and photography enthusiasts to critique any projects we were all working on.  This is where I took along my Medway Open Studios exhibition work, which was a visual pit stop of where I was with my Masters research.

The work I presented was a mixture of archival family photographs and photographs I had taken either in response to the archive or interpretations of my need to remember my family.  These were presented in either large 16×20 black frames, or the majority in 6×4 prints in cardboard frames, assembled on a rope washing line with pegs.  I later thought of the washing line as being a private and public domestic item, where the private (items of underwear for example) become public (in the garden), this could be said for the photographs that I presented in that they are private family photographs being display in public, hanging out the laundry for all to see!

I am in the process of finalising my research title which will be on the lines of  ‘Personal Loss, Memory and the family’ this will give some context into the following feedback I received from the group:

• they (the photos) aren’t all taken by the same person
• it represents two sides of a family (this was the case of the Main (my maternal side) and Price (my father))
• there are flowers at the start and end of the line (poppies)
• the artist is remembering something
• there are self portraits, and photos of the artist
• there is a strong maritime link
• there is a sequence of growing up along the photographs
• there is a sense of growing up alone in the photographs
• a sense of the artist being alone
• the Facebook screen shot of the ‘missing father’ on fathers day
• a suggestion of removing the frames, to see more of the photographs, and move from domestic to exhibition
• a suggestion of including other members of the family to put this work together, using a red piece of string to represent the umbilical chord connecting the family
• a suggestion of having 3 family photos within one frame to change the aesthetic (move from domestic to exhibition)

This was a great experience to have such critique from peers, especially as I was mid way through my Medway Open Studios 2018 (MOSAF18) exhibition.  For the final weekend of MOSAF18 I decided to take the suggestion of the group, and remove the photographs from the frame.  I felt a bit strange doing this as I didn’t want the photographs to become misshaped and dented by swinging freely with the peg at the top of the photo.  I know I was probably playing it too safe, protecting the photographs from damage, but I later thought this is part of the photographs journey, the photograph as a changing physical object.

MOSAF18 was very similar to that final session at TPG, in that it is always a great experience for visitors to share their thoughts and ideas on your work.  Throughout my exhibition I was pleased to see how open visitors were about sharing their experiences of family photography and artefacts following a bereavement.   I also appreciated having a small dialogue to accompany the photographs (even if it was just my oral story), the photographs became a platform that opened up that conversation.  I was conscious however to not offer up too much information about the photographs when they first arrived as I wanted to get their immediate raw responses.  To include some theory here, many of my visitors showed responses to my photograph to that of the ‘Punctum’ (as coined by Barthes), something within the photo that pierced or connected to them and evoked a memory, for example on seeing the photograph of my Grandad, one visitor commented on how the photo ‘reminded her of her father, in that he always wore shirts with high collars and a tie’.  I was quite taken in that visitors weren’t afraid to have an emotional response to my work, was this something to do with my home environment,  and I wondered would the photographs have evoked a different reaction if I had displayed them in a gallery?

Some visitors searched for something of a ‘Familial Gaze’ (Hirsch), that familiarity in how families are represented within photographs (in contrast to the idealised portrayal of family) for example many could identify with the ‘father and new born’s home coming’ photograph (below) as typical of a familiar scene within a family album.  The same visitor appeared to combine both Hirsch and Barthes theories in connecting to the photograph and remarking how her family ‘used to have that fireplace’.  Are we automatically making connections (through links to memory) and generate understandings of our life within the act of looking at photographs?

MOSAF18 was a great experience for me, although daunting at the start, and probably was the most nervous I have been for any of my exhibitions, it has been a reaffirming experience.  I am proud that private (family) photographs help stimulate conversation about others individual experiences following a bereavement.  It is about the stories and the memories of and about those who have died, which can be an emotive subject, but my hope is that it is more about us thinking about our legacy,  the symbols, icons, objects and good memories we make now, to be left for others and cherished when we are no longer here.  I am also so thankful for those visitors who are interested in being interviewed as part of my research studies next year.

Over a few months before the summer I had the opportunity to do some informal photography teaching within a school.  It was such a privilege to share my knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm for photography with young people.  It was also a good opportunity to try out ideas for workshops with adults that I am developing this year.  The young people loved Sun printing, comic book writing and then acting out their ‘scenes’ with each other then photographing them, chalk drawing scenes and photographing themselves, making a face mosaic’s similar to the Queen project, macro photography,  ways of seeing nature (bit of a nod to Berger’s Ways of seeing there!),  and working with them to develop their own styles and thoughts about photography.  I had many thank you’s from the young people as well as some incredibly sweet conversations with some who ‘really appreciated learning about photography and will carry on taking photo’s’, this really hit home to me as my interest in photography started when I was around 7 or 8 years old.

It was so heart warming to know that my interests have gone full circle this summer in where I am now with my family photography research and leaving legacies, it starts with young people (and adults) having an interest in and being enthused by the possibilities that photography gives us for recording, making memories, remembering stories, rethinking our approach to the world.