Progress Update 6 October 2016 and Reflections, with reference to the BBC 2 Documentary 'A World Without Downs Syndrome' (Sally Phillips), Aired on 5 October (9.00pm)

Well, I’ve just started the second and final year of the Photography 3: Advanced course and events have taken a turn for the worse. I had felt reasonably happy with my submission for the 4^th course assignment, having produced a very early draft ‘mock up’ of a photo book incorporating 33 images to accompany text on a ‘one image per double page spread’ basis. Roughly a quarter of these images were new, whilst the remainder had been modified, to a greater lesser extent, or replaced following comments from my tutor after Assignments 2 and 3. I had divided the book up into four chapters and accompanied each chapter heading with a new, very different looking square image (giving me a set of four). I was happy with these new images, each of which related to the content of the appropriate chapter. Full commentary on the submission, my reasons for making changes and the degree of flexibility that was retained was sent as part of the submission.

A few days later I spoke to my tutor on ‘Skype’ (and these discussions are invaluable for me – thanks to him for setting them up) and it was clear that there were problems. He discussed the images mostly in general terms, also picking out one or two specific examples, and listed ‘nine and a half’ as being presentable. Only one of the new images that I had produced was included in the list, so it appeared that my work during the summer months had been of little value. We didn’t discuss why images had been excluded by him nor, in most cases, whether there was anything salvageable from them. That will come later. In the mean time I am left to ponder what I can do with 9.5 images and a load of text that will turn this into a portfolio worthy of submission for assessment.

So why am I struggling with this project and what can I do about it? The first question is difficult to answer, but after some thought I have come up with two main reasons. The answer to the second question is, as Dylan put it, “blowing in the wind”.

Reasons for Struggling Part 1

I am attempting to present my photographic work in a radically different way, blending archival photographs from the time when my mother was alive with either other archival images or (in the vast majority of cases) with images taken by me specifically for the project. The goal was to produce a photo book dealing with my mother’s battle against depression in her later years and how it affected me. My tutor has been very helpful in giving me references to (photographic) artists who blend two or more current images together and also artists who have produced portfolios of work relating to their mothers, fathers and/or other family members or acquaintances who may have been suffering from disabilities. I have been active in finding many other references in these areas. However, I am unaware of any photographer who has combined a restricted number of not very good archival family photographs with current images to try to tell a moving family story. I can’t ask my mother to pose now (in January 2017 it will be ten years since she died), I can’t photograph inside her house (long since sold) or in the garden. I do have a handful of photographs of the bare rooms of the house following clearance (and I have used these in a couple of images). In other words I have very limited resources to put together my montages and this has led to some repetition, particularly in the portraits of my mother that I have used.

Reasons for Struggling Part 2

In the montages I have tried in some cases to depict images that reference events that are described in the accompanying text. Some of the results are, by my own admission, crude and/or naïve. Worse still – and here we have the crux of the problem – they may not add anything at all to the text. The text may promote empathy in the reader, whilst the images leave them cold. If this is the case I might end up having to remove a lot of the images from the book, leaving a lot of text with a handful of images – hardly assessment material for a project in photographic art.

Which of the various art forms moves me the most? Which stirs up the greatest emotions? I have to put music (certain types) at the top of the list, followed perhaps by the spoken word, films (which often have a music sound track) and the written word. Photography comes at the bottom of the list! Not only that, but I am discovering that it is easier for me to arouse empathy and emotion through the written word than through my photography (I’m not a musician, although I do occasionally write poetry). It is no wonder, then, that a lot of my montage images are failing to elicit a positive response.

This issue was brought home to me when I watched the documentary ‘A World without Downs Syndrome’, presented by Sally Phillips, a scriptwriter with an 11 year old child with Downs Syndrome. Phillips argued passionately for all mothers to have the right to choose whether to bring children with Downs Syndrome into the world, having been fully informed about the issues involved at the eight week stage now that recently developed non-invasive technology can be used with a high degree of certainty to detect Downs’ babies at that point. Furthermore, she stressed how sad and isolated people with Downs Syndrome would feel if all ‘Downs pregnancies’ were in future terminated. As part of the documentary she visited Iceland, where currently 100% of Downs pregnancies are (with parental approval) being terminated. She spoke with an Icelandic photographer who had produced a project portfolio of over 30 images of the very few Icelandic people having Downs Syndrome. I thought back to so many exhibitions that I have visited where people from minorities, migrants and people with disabilities have had their portraits taken, the portraits then being displayed in order to make political and/or socio-economic statements. Am I moved by these portraits? Very rarely. Does the accompanying text move me? More often. It is true that the images may ignite peoples’ interest in who these people are and common bond they have. However, the hard-hitting message is in the text or, in the case of Sally Phillips’ case, the spoken word and moving image. Even though I did not feel the desire to take sides in the debate I was moved by this programme in a way that would not have been possible if I had walked into a studio and seen 30+ photographs of Icelandic Downs’ Syndrome people.

What Way Forward?

So, I have identified what I feel are the key reasons for why my project may go ‘off the rails’. Basically, I have chosen a unique but extremely challenging photographic method of describing my mother’s battle with depression and its effect on me and the resultant images have not, in many cases, worked. In addition the prose that accompanies the images is likely to raise significantly more empathy in the viewer than many of images themselves – thus downgrading the images to more of a supporting role. In a photographic project the images should be at the forefront!

I will obviously need to discuss the way forward with my tutor. One possibility might be to remove some images entirely and replace others with montages that do not directly relate to events described in the accompanying text, perhaps focussing on more general issues relating to depression. This would require a lot more work and would mean throwing out much hard work and effort, but might be possible within the time constraints of the project. However, my tutor’s initial reaction to the new square ‘chapter heading’ images, which start to look at this area, was not encouraging.

I promised myself that I would produce a photo book as a personal memorial to my mother and that promise still stands, whether or not it is done within or outside the confines of this course. I am also determined to finish this course within the two years that I have to complete it, submit for assessment and earn a degree.  After that it will definitely be time to move on!

Major Project Influences (9) - Sophie Calle and Book Review: 'Double Game' (Violette Editions, 2007)

Sophie Calle is a French conceptual artist, producing works and installations of a personal and/or autobiographical nature and using photographs to document her art. Her works often take the form of rituals and frequently involve interactions with others on streets in cities, detective work, journeys and performance incorporating arbitrary rules, recorded in intimate detail and in a self-deprecatory manner. However her style is, as far as I am aware, unique and impossible to categorise. I first came across her art at the ‘Walk On’ exhibition in Birmingham a few years ago, where the text and photographs of ‘Suite Venitienne’ (see below) were pasted along approximately forty feet of wall space. Fascinated by her pseudo-detective story, I spent half an hour reading through it from start to finish. The book ‘Double Game’ contains ‘Suite Venitienne’, together with several others of her best known works. The book references American author Paul Auster’s 1992 novel ‘Leviathan’, in which a number of her earlier works are used by Auster in creating a fictional character called Maria. These works are all included in ‘Double Game’. Auster created some additional rules for Maria to follow and Calle used these rules to produce further conceptual works. Finally Calle went to New York and invited Auster to invent some new rules for her to follow, in performance, in the city. The resultant work of art, ‘Gotham City’, concludes the book.

Calle has borrowed one or two of the ideas from Auster’s book and introduced them into her own art, but the bulk of this book consists of the photographs and text from some of her best known art works, including ‘The Striptease’, ‘Suite Venitienne’, ‘The Detective’, ‘The Address Book’ and ‘The Birthday Ceremony’, which are all referenced in Auster’s work.

In ‘The Striptease’ Calle mentions how, at the age of six, she used to undress in an elevator on the way to the sixth floor of the block of flats where she lived with her grandparents and run naked along the corridor to their flat entrance. In 1979, twenty years later, she was performing striptease on the stage of a strip club, not far from her grandparents’ home. The performance was recorded for her on camera (early stage: Image 1).

Image 1 (Sophie Calle)

Why she chose to do this, even as a way of producing performance art, is not covered in the book (although Auster presents some possible causes in his own book, a section of which [relating to Maria] is incorporated into Calle’s book). However, Calle’s audacity at taking on this role, presumably mainly for the sake of art, characterises much of her work.

In ‘Suite Venitienne’ (1981) Calle acts out one of her favourite roles, playing the detective as she visits Venice to find and then follow a man whom she had met at an opening shortly beforehand. Having discovered where he is staying she follows and photographs him as he moves around the city (Image 2). What I find particularly interesting about this work is how the seemingly bland and uninspiring documentary photographs cleverly combine with the text to immerse the viewer in an atmospheric and intense adventure.

Image 2 (Sophie Calle)

In ‘The Birthday Ceremony’ (1980-1993) Calle decided that, every year on her birthday, she would invite the number of people corresponding to her age, including one complete stranger chosen by one of her guests, to dinner. She kept her presents from these occasions, showcasing and photographing them every year (Image 3). However, it appears that the ritual was frequently interrupted, due to her need to attend events elsewhere around the time of her birthday as her fame (notoriety?) grew. She eventually abandoned the ritual on her 40^th birthday.

Image 3: Birthday Presents 1985 (Sophie Calle)

The final section of the book deals with a project, entitled ‘Gotham Handbook’, in which Auster asked Calle to carry out “personal instructions for S C on how to improve life in New York City”. These included smiling at and talking to strangers, performing small acts of kindness towards beggars and homeless people and cultivating and beautifying a small spot on the streets of the city, imbuing it with her own identity. Calle’s interpretations of these instructions, which included taking over and decorating the right half of a double phone booth (Image 4), are described in some detail. The end of the project came shortly after the telephone company returned the booth to its original state.

Image 4 (Sophie Calle)

I really enjoyed reading this book. Sophie Calle stretches conceptual art to its limits (if, indeed, there are limits) in these works and yet makes her art very accessible. She is undoubtedly a ‘one off’, perhaps very difficult to understand or to relate to but also incredibly creative. I admire the bare-faced cheek and bravado of some of her works, which sometimes lead her into deep trouble. She writes well and her photographs, superficially bland, run together with the text describing her projects to create atmosphere and emotion, apparently without effort.

What can I take from this book to inform and enhance my own work? Perhaps the most important learning point is that the intelligent combination of text and a portfolio of photographs can be used to not only document an event but also to provoke interest and emotion in the viewer.