This week focused on
Relationships and Intimacies. We were joined by artist George Saxon who discussed his practice, specifically his body of work
A record of Undying (2013), which was created in collaboration with his late partner D. John Briscoe and uses film and photography to depict death and dying and Saxon’s response to loss.
Key words to think about:
Intimacy - Personal – Knowledge – Representation - Power – Authority – Performance – Privacy - Collaboration
Audio from his talk can be found here:
In preparation for Saxon’s talk the students were asked to research around the following artists:
Tina Barney: (1983-87) Theatre of manners
Larry Sultan: (1982-91) Pictures from home
Elinor Carucci: (2004) Mother
Emmet Gowan: (1970’s) Edith
Richard Billingham: (1994) Rays a Laugh
Nicholas Nixon: (1980) Family Pictures
Sally Mann: (2010) Proud Flesh
Ledare, L. (2009) The Mother Project
Nan Golding (1986) The Ballard of Sexual Dependency
Briony Campbell (2011) The Dad Project
Belinda Whiting (1995) Sophie’s story
...and answer the following questions in small groups, feedback to the group and using
#picbod to tweet discussion points:
- What could be the benefits and drawbacks from an insider perspective?
- What could be the ethical issues when documenting your nearest and dearest?
- How could the choice of camera effect the kinds of images created?
This week's task - A Familial Portrait
(Post on
G+ community page by April 21 for class feedback)
In preparation for the artists talk today you were asked to research a number of artists who have made substantial bodies of work in collaboration with friends and family. You were asked to pose questions about the bodies of work in relation to ethics, benefits of working with someone you know and potential drawbacks of working with someone you know. In addition to which you were asked to consider the effects of the choice of camera may have on the final body of work.
Your task is to create an image or series of images of someone you know well, either a family member, partner and close friend. The image needs to explore the space in the personal relationship.
Consider how this could be visually illustrated? Experimentation is encouraged. What medium are you going to use? Colour? Black and White? What format are you going to use? Do you need to make more than one image? Whose image is it? How did you negotiate the story with the participant?
and some further reading...
Bright, S. (2013) Motherhood
Family Politics (2015) Photoworks: Photography, Art & Visual Culture. Issue 20
Holland, P. Spence, J. (1992) Family Snaps: The meaning of Domestic Photography.
Rose, G. (2012) Doing Family Photography: The Domestic, the Public and the Politics of Sentiment. Ashgate.
Further references and resources are disseminated through
@picbod and
G+ community page
Featured Image: George Saxon