(LEFT TO COMPLETE – DISCUSSION OF ARTIST 2 + CONCLUSION)

 

How have the photographers Matt Eich and LaToya Ruby Frazier explored themes of attachment and detachment in their own family through their work and, in particular, their most recent projects looking at family?

 

“As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people to take possession of a space in which they are insecure.” [1]

 

My interest in photography derives from how raw and truthful an image or series of images are. I achieve satisfaction from photographs which show everything as it is without removing any factor of reality; it as it this point at which imagery loses my interest. I believe that this relates to the beauty that comes from images created from the insecurity from the person behind the camera. Within my own work, I attempt to do this. The space in which I am insecure encourages an emotional and physical urge and a sometimes-unwanted force to venture into a neighbouring space in which I feel less comfortable but more willing to experience more challenging emotions. It is with my camera and in my project looking at the reality of feeling attached yet isolated, that I can explore this feeling of lonesomeness. I am using my mum and dad’s divorce thirteen years ago as a starting point for the development of my series which centres around my experiences with the people closest to me. As I grow into an ever-maturing yet still sensitive man, I struggle to find myself in this fast-moving, fragile world; I find myself unknowingly becoming detached from the people who should be my most dear. I see this project as a way of building lost relationships. Using a subject close to my heart, I have been able to capture a view that feels very poetic, like that of Eich and Frazier’s work. My aim is to make the intangible, tangible by collaborating closely with my subjects to create a meaningful insight into my family with room for interpretation by the viewer – an aspect I have been focusing on heavily for my project – to create something for the audience to interact with (the book) and content the audience can relate with. Taking inspiration from photo-books of several artists, others including JH Engstrom and Anders Peterson and their use of images of several formats and styles, I have generated an immense interest in putting aside much of my time and effort to create a book, paying close attention to design, font, concept and other marginal details. My project is an exploration into my family and myself for personal satisfaction and as a visual documentation to cherish and keep, providing that very possession of a moment in time that can be so easily be forgotten. “Memory is fragile; the moments are fleeting and have to be wrestled into a permanent state.” [2] said Eich in his statement for recent body of work, ‘I Love You I’m Leaving’. It is with my photographs that memories become realised and documenting my own familial circle, like Eich and Frazier, I can provide a structure to my family’s memory that can be built to last instead of a moment in time being brushed aside when forgotten within the busier, more active momentous of life. It is the little moments that require time to step back and appreciate that we should treasure; when I release the camera’s shutter, is an acknowledgement that a moment is significant…

When I hear the word attachment, images of love surface within my mind. I visualise scenes of a girlfriend clinging lovingly to her boyfriend in moments of laughter and intimacy within their new-found romance; young love is what attachment is. Reasoning for this visualisation comes from experience. The knowledge that I am needed by someone else is what provides me with comfort. Attachment is feeling a sense of belonging within this world which can be so harsh in its unforgiving realities. Attachment and acceptance is something I long for in a life that has shown me, face-on and in a time of tenderness at the age of four, the direct implications of what love can do to two adults – unite, yet divide. I have grown up in two different lives, one with my mum and the other with my dad. Through this, I have been gently nurtured into a still-developing young man who has learnt and is still learning the meaning of romance. I have understood the sensation of sibling-love. As well, I have accepted the fact that my parents are no longer together and I will, for the rest of my life, live this life and embrace it, as I have done for the past 18 years. There is a still, however, the underlying reality of detachment which on the other hand, connotes opposing visuals; a lonesome astronaut drifting into a deep, dark existence without anything to cling on to.

Harry Harlow, an American psychologist in the mid-1900s studied, in great detail, the concept of maternal separation and dependency needs. He experimented with rhesus monkeys, an Asian species that adapts easily to living with humans [3]. He carried out an experiment in the laboratory to confirm theorist, Bowlby’s previous theory on attachment; Harlow separated the baby monkeys from their biological mothers and paired them with a surrogate mother in the form of a baby doll. He observed that, although the doll didn’t provide them with food or drink, at a time of feeling scared, the baby monkeys clung to the doll for comfort as it had adopted the roll of mother to them. Harlow used this to verify the importance of a mother-child relationship when the child is very young because it reiterates the idea of unconditional love. I feel very strongly that my own mum and I have experienced this when I was much younger and it has benefited our relationship over the last 18 years. This maternal attachment has expanded into a much more secure relationship as we have both developed into our own selves and, along the way, we have learnt to respect and trust each other, as a mother and son should. With my dad, however, he was the parental figure who was taken away from me. Oblivious to what this would mean to how I would experience future life events, I clung to my mum as a figure of comfort because the next few years of my infancy would prove to be a time of constant change as I moved from house to house to visit my dad wherever he was staying at the time. My project embraces both attachment and detachment and how I situate myself in the centre of it all as I continue to learn the lessons of life both at home and at school with the several people I interact with on a daily basis.

Furthermore, the first 20 years of your life can prove to be the most important and impactful for the years to follow. In this period of time, the most vital events which contribute to self-growth and self-confidence occur. But not everything runs smoothly, as illustrated by my parent’s separation. It is with my camera that I am able to capture memories and when I pick up my camera and release the shutter it is then that I am acknowledging a moment of significance. Joerg Colberg said, in an article published outlining memory in photography, “just like memories, photographs are created with intent” and “all photographs, when used as memories, give us something to hold on to.” [4]. It is this interpretation by Colberg that resonates with my intent as a photographer to capture, consciously, the intimate moments in life. My parents took on this role when I was younger to provide me with the endless photo albums of my 9lb 12oz-self as a baby bouncing around the house I grew up in for 10 years. It is now that I am beginning to take inspiration from my own archival imagery of myself as a young child to capture similar moments of my half-sister, Minnie. As a photographer, I use my camera to collaborate not only with my subjects, but with myself when including myself within the images. Taking inspiration from the work produced by Matt Eich and LaToya Ruby Frazier in their diaristic black and white images for projects looking at family, I have been able to change my perspective from a witness to a performer; from being a witness to the occurrences in front of the camera. I have since found reward from being an actor who performs for the camera and it has expanded my abilities to tell a visual narrative – a skill I have developed from observations of the work of Swedish photographers, JH Engstrom and Anders Petersen. Looking at the books of these artists, I have developed the ability to collate select images which can in-turn have the power to provide meaning beyond the face of the photograph to impact the viewer.

Using the camera as a tool of documentation can provide outcomes that are very real and using these images as a way of telling a visual narrative can make for a much deeper, more meaningful story than that comprised of words, in my opinion. The work of Matt Eich shows this concept in its full affect, especially in that of his recent project ‘I Love You, I’m Leaving’. His imagery and way of composing and presenting images have the ability to work in conjunction with each other to create an obscure, yet very simple narrative in which the viewer is required to decode the sequencing to images to derive meaning – a beauty that I believe photography encourages. This ability to present a reportage sequence which reveals only part of the story and leaves the reader up to the audience’s imagination is something I am attempting to do in my project. By photographing inanimate states such as landscapes or still life, I can provide indirect and underlying representations of the main focus throughout the book. Much like literary stories, photographic stories can use metaphors to explain a meaning beyond the direct face value – making for very interesting outcomes. An object as simple as a car covered by a cloth (an image I will use in my book) can connote a far more captivating significance than its face value and instead, using the context of my book, it can show the affect of a lost identity; the affect of a new beginning; becoming isolated and forcing a withdrawal from the people you love because it seems easier to hide away. It is these inanimate objects that provide substance and body to fill the gaps in my book because the project is an exploration into not only the people present but of the emotions that come with the concept I am covering.

I create all photographs with the intent to create memories so that moments of importance are not forgotten. I am forever holding a camera or a smartphone to capture any point in time in which I may be present and this has come a second nature now I am a big brother to my 5-year-old sister. It fills me with joy to document with my camera the smiles and laughter which glow off my sister’s face every time I see her. As I have seen from my own archives when I was a child, it is a way of creating these important memories that, inevitably lend themselves to never be forgotten, and in-turn manufacture a life-long feeling of attachment to what may have once been forgotten or mentally thrown away. The photo albums which live in my loft are what allows me to experience my childhood again, where I can feel this magical sense of attempt at a point when it was just my mum, my dad and I. These memories, these shadows that I have near to no recollection of become illuminated when I flick through these never-ending photo albums. Mark Alice Durant, in his book ’27 Contexts, An Anecdotal History in Photography’ tells the reader of his experience when he re-lived his parent’s wedding album and quotes “in memory, colour comes alive, and for me it is only blue.” [5]. I feel very strongly about this message; the notion that an irretrievable recollection that, as the years go by, becomes a haze can be re-lived in the form of colour.

Eich’s work has a way of storytelling which affects the viewer to the point which, I for one, begin to feel quite out-of-place flicking through page after page because of the fact that it is a very personal and intimate insight into how himself and his family live everyday life; a concept that is difficult to achieve but, when it occurs, works very effectively because the reader begins to want to see more, even though we get an urge to put the book down. Towards the end of Eich’s book, we are presented with an image of Eich’s wife, and his two children in the bath, looking blankly down the camera lens [6] – an image that I personally find enchanting and is in fact one of my favourites in the book’s entirety because of its ability to connect with the audience – helped by the subjects immense focus on the camera, whether planned or not, it works brilliantly; the audience, although may get an urge to flick past quickly, it is vital to admire the rawness of the photograph and it echoes, again, how the camera can provide a way to tell a story easier than using words. Another image in his book uses a technique that is rarely seen in contemporary photography – a man showing his vulnerability, his sensitivity by including himself in his photographs. We see Eich, sat down and eyes-closed, with his head leant on the support of his wife’s stomach as she stands cradling its weight. Eich is topless and his wife stands in her bra and underwear. It is an image of such grace and elegancy. Images like these are avoided in photography but I admire braveness of Eich to present himself to his own camera as he is doing. Using images which scratch upon the surface of taboo subject matter within photography, and society as a whole; this being nudity and feminism, it is brave but it gives a very raw feel to what we are seeing. In my own project, using my girlfriend, I have utilised the casual time we spend together in my bedroom to use my camera as a way of photographing her in a way which I see her normally. We often lay, lazily on my bed and talk for endless periods of time about anything. At this particular movement, she was lying in a way which looked quite proactive; curled up, in her t-shirt and pair of tights, in which you could see her underwear through – a blue pair of briefs which read ‘WHATEVER, I TRIED’. Her rear pointing to camera, it makes for an image which divides the sequencing of arguably dull, inanimate scenes. This image provides a sense of liveliness, it can be seen as naughty. Moments like these, shown in my project through this one image, Eich’s in his portrayal of an evening with his family as his children get ready for bed, and in Frazier’s through her snapshots of leisure time in their household [7] present this underlying theme of attachment. It is the moments that are thought nothing of, and seen as just part of the daily routine within your own circle of comfort and joy that make for the most truthful representations of what attachment can be. Not acknowledging the presence of the camera is how memories are formed. Yet, referring back to the wording that takes its place on my girlfriend, Lucy’s underwear – ‘WHATEVER, I TRIED’ also connotes visuals of what detachment can be. Romance amongst young couples often brings its petty arguments – the phrase on Lucy’s underwear connotes this – that often she may try to end an argument, but it doesn’t always work and we find ourselves giving each other the cold shoulder – much like her body positioning suggests in this image.

Scanlan [8], in 2012, suggested the theory which provided an explanation to the importance of romantic development in adolescence, much like what I am experiencing as I grow, maturely into an adult, with my girlfriend as a mechanism of support – he said that teenage romantic relationships are, in a sense, a training ground for adult intimacy. He elaborated on this statement and said that romance during adolescence provides an opportunity for learning to engage strong emotions, to negotiate conflict, to communicate needs and to respond to a partner’s needs as well. Both Lucy and I often joke about the fact that we have been together for two years, because, considering we are only eighteen years of age, this is a significant period of time to maintain a relationship alongside all other stresses of teenage life. At the start of our relationship, we both told one another that we would take it slow and see how it goes – because of the fact we were best friends for five years prior to our relationship, we didn’t see it going too far because we were used to living in comfort of a ‘friendzone’. However, now, in retrospect, I am relieved that circle of comfort was broken because she is one of the most important people in my life. I hope to show this in my project, ‘All My Love’ through the abilities of reportage photography and the ability to create sequencing of imagery to tell a story. We are only teenagers and love can be confusing but or relationship is simply a partnership of two alike personalities which coincide with one another to complement one another. In Eich’s work, he doesn’t use his power as a photographer to abuse the relationship he holds with his wife, nor his children, nor his own parents and instead, like myself, uses his control of the camera to collaborate with his subjects that present a truthful picture of the benefits of clinging on to the one you love most. Eich, in a mini-documentary series outlining his work and how he captures intimacy, said “I can articulate myself better with images than with words” [9]. This concept is very relevant to my own work also and is why I love shooting reportage images because it is the moments of intimacy between people, as well as a relationship between a person and a place that form the poetic images that make up my project – I have touched upon the relationship between people and places and the attachment that comes with this in my work through photographing the transition from my old family home to my new one – this process of losing one identity that has shaped your life for so long and generating a new identity that co-exists with the new experiences that come with it. The process of change is something I don’t deal with too well but it is with change that come new opportunities to photograph. Although I see change in any aspect of life as a negative, it is important to embrace it – as I did when my parents split; I had no choice. It emphasises the importance of forming an attachment to what comes with the change even though it is tempting to become detached instead.

Eich, in the same documentary, states that “photographing my family is incredibly important to me because it goes back to the frailty of memory” [10]. Memory is what Eich hopes he can use as a tool to tell his kids that he loves them and that he was there for their important moments of growth, to reflect back on when they are older. I use memory as a tool to do the same – to form a collection of imagery that holds meaning of a moment in time, but instead, as a way to show my half-sister, Minnie that I love her and that I was by her side to capture her moments of tranquillity and bliss. As a figure if authority over Minnie, I feel a sense of responsibility to act as a big brother should and provide her with the moments of fun she longs for when she asks me to play. I use my ability, as a teenager, to connect with Minnie as I watch her grow. She brings fun to my life and it with a camera, and with memory, this fun is everlasting. The colour that glows from Minnie’s personality comes alive in my images, made for her, from inspiration of my old images as a child.

In theorist, Dunn’s research surrounding attachment in sibling relationships in 2007, he stated that siblings serve as companions, confidants, and role models in childhood and adolescence [11]. This study came from the discovery made by Connidis & Campbell that siblings serve, instead, as sources of support throughout adulthood [12]. Although I am 17 years old, Minnie is only 5 and there is a 12-year age gap between us, I would like to think that I serve as a role model for my younger sister, as Dunn has stated is usually the case in sibling relationships. The moment I was told I was going to be a big brother, I felt as a sense of companionship between myself and my unborn sibling because it is such a special feeling – I longed to have a younger sibling during my time growing up. I had encountered in my life, the consequences of my parent’s detachment and I, because of this, became detached from my dad. I wanted that special someone to share a life with as we grew together and Minnie has provided me with that. I hope Minnie sees me as a role model but I certainly do see her as a companion and someone I can confide in.

Eich’s project, ‘I Love You, I’m Leaving’ consists of 64 pages and 46 photos. I have picked out one in particular and will critically analyse this in relation to family and intend to include discussions about underlying themes of attachment and detachment.

This photograph taken from Eich’s series is a very simple yet well executed and elegant image full of character. Because of it obscurity, I believe that is a very attractive and intriguing image that would draw me in to know more about the photographer as well as the project.

The image frames one person – who is unknown and the only part of the subject’s body that we can see is the subject’s feet poking out of the bottom of the silk sheet which falls gracefully, and rather ghostly over the shape and contours of the body underneath which is curled up in a rather, tight clustered ball-like shape, as if the subject is scared. Connotations of ghostliness and eeriness exuberate form this image. It is likely that the subject is one of Eich’s daughters who may be playing hide and seek or may in fact be hiding underneath these sheets because she scared. The audience do not know the whole context of the image but this availability for interpretation is what provides intrigue. The image is very neutral in its formation and structure of greys which provide body to the image. The slight shadows which form from creases in the sheet which drape over the curled-up body contrast that of the harsh, darkened shadow of the feet which projects onto the wall in the background. Furthermore, the silk texture of the sheet provides a certain glow and shine to the overall look. It is a photograph of great skill and is one that I believe works brilliantly in a solitaire state, and does not need the other images from Eich’s work to give it meaning.

Although the little girl may only be playing around with her father as she hides under the sheet in a game of hide-and-seek, it is useful to look further into it to infer and interpret another meaning that could also be realistic. The fact that we cannot see the body underneath the sheet may represent a feeling a lost identity in the new life the family leads. Eich, along with his wife has made the joint decision that it would be best to move away to start a new life, to create more memories. It is likely that the children may have felt a sense of a lost identity that the home they once lived in and began their lives in has now been taken away. I am aware of this feeling from personal experience when I moved from house to house to visit my dad wherever he was staying at the time. After moving out of his, once known home, he had to find a place to live which came as a struggle at the time and as his son, I felt quite confused but found ways to make the most of the new surroundings I found myself in when visiting him. This leads me onto to the notion of children letting their imaginations run free and finding enjoyment out of discovering places in your home to act as den-like nooks; these little places where you can go to sit and do nothing, as I once did. This image may be a demonstration of this.

Alongside Matt Eich, I have also been studying the hugely influential work of American artist and professor of photography, LaToya Ruby Frazier and in particular, her project entitled ‘The Notion Of Family’.

This is an image taken from LaToya Ruby Frazier’s project, The Notion Of Family which is an “incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns. The work also considers the impact of that decline on her communicability and her family.” [13].

The photograph frames both Frazier as a teenager and what looks like her dad/step-dad. The project was completed over a period of 13 years in which, during this time, Frazier and her family grew yet, at the same time, declined due to the economic state of the town they were living in. We see Frazier on the right sat on the edge of her bed and, on the left side, her dad lies, relaxed on his bed in the parent’s room, with his back to the camera – likely oblivious to the camera’s presence.

 

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Bibliography:

[1] Susan Sontag, On Photography

[2] Matt Eich, article published on The Fence

[3] Exploring Your Mind; Harlow’s Experiments On Attachment Theory

[4] Joerg Colberg, Photography and Memory

[5] Mark Alice Durant, 27 Contexts, An Anecdotal History in Photography

[6] I Love You, I’m Leaving, Matt Eich

[7] The Notion Of Family, LaToya Ruby Frazier

[8] The Psychologist – Teenagers In Love, Susan Moore

[9] The Scene (Local & Emerging Art Series) Matt Eich: Capturing Intimacy (Ep.5)

[10] The Scene (Local & Emerging Art Series) Matt Eich: Capturing Intimacy (Ep.5)

[11] NCBI, Theoretical Perspectives on Sibling Relationships, Shawn D. Whiteman, Susan M. McHale, and Anna Soli

[12] NCBI, Theoretical Perspectives on Sibling Relationships, Shawn D. Whiteman, Susan M. McHale, and Anna Soli