“This way of working helped us to get to know each other and me gaining his trust”
Plan
Read up on the work of portrait photographer Erin Hoyland. Then look at her latest series ‘Brother-Sister’. Make a blog post on findings, and then make a photographic response.
http://www.bjp-online.com/2015/12/elin-hoyland-brother-sister/
About Photographer
Elin Hoyland is a Norwegian documentary photographer, based in Oslo. Hoyland bases much of her work living and photographing old people in Norway who have lived unusual and interesting lives. She is best known for her publication of two books, ‘The Brothers’, 2014 (Winner of the Documentary Book award at Moscow International Photo Awards 2014), and ‘Brother-Sister’, 2014.
Hoylannd will often live with her subjects for weeks at a time, gaining their trust and making very revealing and personal images from this. Hoyland has a very subtle and poetic style, evoking the themes of isolation and loneliness in way she photographs mysterious, old fashioned ornaments and sparse, barren landscapes. This is done to highlight the emotional day to day experience of her subject manner, haunted by memories of the past and dealing with missing sometime, whilst having to cope anyway with the day to day challenges of ageing.
She specialises in still-life photography, revealing a story through details and close-up aspects of relevance to her subjects and were they live.
Mr Toft showed me Hoyland’s ‘Brother-Sister’ as inspiration for my personal study. The theme of this project going in the house of an old person who lives alone, photographing them and were they live, is exactly the same theme off my project. I hope to resonate this through my own photoggraphy over the upcoming few weeks.
What is it?
The story ‘Brother-Sister’ is very much a retrospective look into the past. It examines the bond between twin brother and sister, Edvard and Bergit, who lived together since birth in a village in SW Norway. The twins lived in an old fashioned farm house with horses, cows, pigs and hens. Bergit recently died, which meant the livestock on the farm had to be sold and rented out. Edvard, unmarried like his sister was therefore very much alone.
Originally, Hoyland was commissioned as a photojournalist to document the cottage, as it is over 200 years old. In the process, she struck up a friendship with the occupant, Edvard who told her his story. Over the course of a few weeks, Hoyland lived with Edvard, photographing him and his house. The photographs taken during this time make up the series.
It looks at Edvard’s daily life; day to day activities, the way he lives, struggle with loneliness, and the constant reminder of his late sister evoked within his house. Many the photographs are still-life images of the house, areas including the bathroom, garden and bedroom of both twins. These image make up a story exploring their retrospective relationship, traces of Bergit are throughout the story and her presence it very much sensed.
Analysis
This photograph is a still-life image of a bathroom dresser. I find this image to be very strong and effective because of its strong colour contrasts, texture and use of reflection to evoke a mysterious atmosphere. From this photograph it is clear that the bathroom is of a traditional Scandinavian style, being therefore very personal and subjective to the subject.
The style of the wallpaper is bright red with a flowered pattern, a classic Nordic style. This bold and abrupt style gives the image a strong presence and texture, and a somewhat harsh tone. The presence of red in images often evokes strong themes, such as death, sacrifice and danger. Subsequently the presence of this colour creates an energetic and somewhat unsettling atmosphere. Therefore the viewer is very drawn into the atmosphere, however it is not inviting as it would be for example, if it was a blue colour, which is much calmer
Along with the traditional wallpaper, the incorporation of dolls connects the style of this dresser to be old fashioned. As mentioned it has a very Nordic style, and this adds to it. I find this is effective because it gives a certain character to the image. The use of this image in the photo-book is very important because it is a visual illustration of both and age, as well as culture of the subject. The two dolls are perhaps symbolic of the subjects relationship with his late sister.
The mirror immediately links to the idea of reflection and perception. It is a metaphor both of the subject looking back in their past, as well as the present, as they look into the mirror everyday. This idea is conveyed in a very subtle very as the viewer assumes that the mirror is just an objective photographer of the mirror. However it cannot be ignored that the mirror is fogged up – this draws emphasis to the mirror and therefore conveys as sense of contextual/symbolic relevance.
This is a photograph of flowers on a table. In the background is wallpaper of flowers. The theme of flowers is clearly therefore very important and relevant to this image.
The theme of flowers establishes the subjects interest in growing/collecting flowers. This is a very simple concept to accept however it is not clear straight away why. Because this is a photograph exploring the absence of Evard’s sister, it is logical to assume that the theme has relevance to their relationship, perhaps a symbol of Bergit’s death, or a hobby they did together. The emphasis of flowers invites the viewer to ponder this thought themselves . The fact it is not clear what the meaning of flowers is, is an example of Hoyland discrete and subtle style.
Visually, this is a very unusual image. It has a strong, bold and direct pattern. The flowers merge in the wallpaper, giving a flat two-dimensional perspective. The visual merging together of different components of the image create a sense of depth and complexity. The is something very imaginative and dream-like about this image, and the symbolic theme of flower adds to this sense of mysticism. It is up to the viewer to absorb themselves into the image and to come up with their own interpretation of its meaning.
The soft lighting makes for a tranquil mood and atmosphere to be evoked. This extends the dream-like theme established through the theme of the flowers and provides the image with a sense of calm and order. This gives a sense of lightness and to image, balancing out the more forceful presence of the flowers.
Evaluation
This is a very interesting and insightful series which looks at the theme of grievance and loneliness in a very subtle and poetic manner. The images are very ambiguous in meaning and it is up to the viewer to come up with their own meanings and interpretations. The context of this story is emotional charged, enhanced by the photographers ability/access to photograph the subject in a personal, intimate and revealing manner.
This project will be a good study to inspire my own personal study exploring the absence and symbolic presence of my granddad. In the photographs, the ghost-like presence of Bergit is present, this is similar to the signs of my Granddad at Nana’s, an invisible presence.
Other Images in Series
Still Life: Lamp Post which traditional hunting head.
Portrait: Candid portrait of Edvard, sitting on his bed.
Still Life: Ghostly, haunting image of a childhood doll.
Still-life: Edvard’s Kitchen.
Landscape: Barren, isolated landscape conveyed.