Compare Francesca Woodman and Mary Ellen Mark’s representation/documentation of mental illness.

Introduction: 346

For me, photography is a way to express perhaps more negative emotions in a non-judgmental medium. Perhaps people interpret the meaning in the wrong way, but the act of capturing the image gives a sense of control over the emotion behind it. That’s part of the reason that I wanted to explore mental illness via photography. After struggling with depression and anxiety in the past and at the time not really having a way to express how I was feeling, I wanted to explore and remember past emotions to educate others on mental illness, while additionally finding a new way for me to cope in the future. I am particularly fascinated by the work of Francesca Woodman. The young photographer was herself suffering from depression and her images are often seen to reflect this as a result of her suicide. The images are surreal at times and often have a dream-like quality to them. While now related to her suicide, Woodman’s images were an exploration of her own identity and gender, often showing a lack of the former by obscuring the subject’s face. Individuality is important when it comes to mental illness; no one experiences it in quite the same way. Woodman expresses her illness in a way that is very personal to her and it’s interesting to gather an understanding of someone else’s experiences. However, I also wanted to see how people, who have never experienced severe mental illness, view mental illness. In contrast, Mary Ellen Mark spent 36 days inside Oregon State Hospital on Ward 81 and created a documentary book of work that captured the essence of such an institution and its patients. Mark was tasked with photographing the ward’s occupants along with journalist, Karen Jacobs who wrote a piece on their experience. Mark was primarily a photo journalist, however her Ward 81 project was a follow up to meeting the patients while photographing for 1975’s ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’ In contrast to Woodman’s images, Mark gives a more realistic view of mental illness by photographing what she observed of others.

Historical Context: 383

Documentary photography was a way to capture event often related to history. These can be personal in the form of family albums or more large scale. Larger scale documentations often appear in news outlets as an aid for written information. However, it can be used to tell a solely visual story. For example, Mary Ellen Mark’s documentation of Ward 81. While this doesn’t show an obvious narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end, it does well at showing the main aspects of life on the ward. A criticism of some documentary photography, including ‘Ward 81’ would be whether the images are socially sensitive. This means that the images may cause unjust discrimination or social unrest. An example of this would be propaganda. Propaganda is designed to sway opinions in a certain direction, perhaps leaving people to believe something which is untrue or exaggeration in order to prompt an unjust response. However, Mark’s work may cause an unintentional negative response. During the 1970’s in America, misdiagnosis caused by the outdated DSM-II and sexist doctors resulted in the institutionalisation of many, especially women. Mark’s work may have been socially sensitive at this time due to the representation of only female patients. This may have reinforced the stereotype that women were often more prone to mental illness as a result of their apparent increased emotional responses. As result this may have increased discrimination against women who were more emotional and may have even caused them to become institutionalised. A second important ethical consideration for documentary photography is integrity. In modern society it is very easy to manipulate images with the use of editing software such as Photoshop. However, is it ethical to deceive audiences when presenting documentary style images? An article for photographylife states that, ‘…it is only ethical when such imagery is provided without ANY manipulation whatsoever.’ I have to agree with this. Since documentary image are often used as part of news features they can help shape people’s opinions and influence their actions. This comes back to social sensitivity. In addition, the constant manipulation of image without the knowledge of the desired audience may damage the reputation of the photographer or the co-operation they work for. The audience may lose trust in them or in series cases the individual responsible can be prosecuted.

Francesca Woodman: 605

Famous for her self portraits, Francesca Woodman preferred to work alone, but there’s more to her images than a representation of herself. At only age 22, Woodman threw herself out of a window in New York. This leaves her images forever tainted, in the sense it’s difficult to view them without wondering whether they’re a prediction of Woodman’s fate. In 1977, Woodman worked on ‘On Being An Angel’ while staying in Rome. The title in itself suggests a surreal approach to self portrait as the word ‘angel’ suggests the presence of a higher celestial being. While it is possible that the title could indicate that Woodman believes herself to be this celestial being, it is more likely that this refers to the faith, love, hope, strength and intelligence that angels often symbolize. However, this is a clear juxtaposition to certain extent. The images are in the black and white, mirroring the aesthetic of Woodman’s other works while also showing a darker undertone that suggests that Woodman sees herself as more of a misunderstood angel. It was not secret that Woodman was struggling with the lack of success and recognition her images were receiving. It had been clear to those close to her that her images were some of the best, so why didn’t others see that? One such image from ‘On Being An Angel,’ shows Woodman in a derelict building, her preferred location to shoot in, with two white sheets behind her as she leaps up in front of them as if flying. It is obvious that the sheet represents her angel wings and the image as whole suggests that Woodman wishes to take flight, to escape perhaps. Another striking feature present in this series is Woodman’s often completely bare chest. She has her breast thrust out, however, this is not by any means sexual. She had previously explored her body in several of her other works and had grown comfortable with it. Woodman wanted to show a certain rawness and maybe even innocence to the images one would find when thinking about angels. As for the idea of flying, Woodman has also previously referenced the theme of weightlessness in some of her other works taken in Rome. It seems perhaps that Woodman was toying with the idea of angels taking flight while also thinking about how she might like to do the same. The reasoning behind this, some would suggest, comes down to her death. In 1981, Woodman threw herself out of a window in New York. The similarity between her chosen method to end her life and the images of flying is astounding. An article in The Telegraph suggests that Woodman’s images are ‘…coloured by her suicide.’ However, I find myself disagreeing with this to an extent. Is it really plausible that Woodman had been predicting her end since age thirteen? Of course not. She was simply just a girl that was doing what she loved while exploring and learning more about herself and where she fitted in the world. On the other hand, I think that some of her work during the last few years of her life may have had some kind of warning to it. Some of the images Woodman took in Rhode Island between 1975 and 1978 are captioned with almost foreboding messages. For example, one image is captioned, ‘I stopped playing the piano.’ Assuming Woodman stopping playing through lack of interest could suggest the beginning of her depression as the early signs of such mental illness often includes a sudden lack of interest or enjoyment of activities that may have even been a person’s favourite thing to do.

Mary Ellen Mark: 378

In 1975, while photographing on the set of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, Mary Ellen Mark was given the opportunity to talk with the patients of Oregon State Hospital’s Ward 81. She returned a year later with writer, Karen Folger Jacobs. The pair spent 36 days on the ward. While known for her documentary style projects that have a clear narrative, Mark took a slightly different approach to how she presented her images from the ward. In an interview with American Photographer about her time on Ward 81, Mark said, “Instead of the 1-2-3-4 of a picture story, I was interested in doing pictures that would stand alone.” This is to perhaps represent the isolation of each patient, while also giving them a sense of individuality that they may not get on the ward. Ward 81 consists of a series of images that give an insight into the side of mental illness that people had never seen before in the 1970s. Jacobs wrote ‘At first glance, they could be almost any group of women in any institutional lounge or day room,’ (Folger Jacobs 1979:) and for the most part that was probably true. The lock ’em mentality of 70’s America was the main reason many of the women of Ward 81 were where they were and once they were institutionalized it was hard to introduce them back into society without seeing them return to the ward not long after. This is perhaps one of the reasons why Mark wanted to spend so much time with the patients while photographing them. She had always thought it vital to build a relationship with the people in her images so she could understand them. The image titled ‘300B-011-005’, perfectly captures the idea behind the project. It shows a girl sat on her bed. At first glance she could be considered a normal teenage girl with clothes that show more skin than her parents would like and posters and pictures above her bed that show the things she likes. That’s what you’re supposed to see first. However, you soon notice the cuts on her arms and the phrase ‘I wish to die,’ written on the wall. While on the ward, Mark recorded in total 4,800 images on 200 rolls of film.

My response: 329

I was heavily inspired by Woodman’s images, more so than by Mark’s work. I liked how Woodman made her images very personal by photographing herself and wanted to demonstrate the same thing for my images. Her surrealist take on mental illness was especially interesting for me because I thought it would be a good way to communicate the thoughts and emotions I felt when I was suffering. I was fascinated by Woodman’s portrayal of angels and the idea of weightlessness. I had always struggled with finding some sort of freedom from my feelings and could recall instances when, usually with my friends, I didn’t even think about how sad I had been or how I might that way again, it was as if nothing else mattered except that small moment of enjoyment and weightlessness. With this image I thought I showed this idea pretty well. While responding to Woodman, I decided that I would mimic some of her techniques including her use of long exposure. I used a shutter speed of two seconds and made small movements to create a blurred look. For this image I explored weightlessness by creating what could be considered wings by wearing a skirt around my shoulders and moving my arms gently up and down underneath it. Again, similarly to Woodman, I wanted to create a ghostly look to the image. To do this I not only implemented the blur created by the long exposure but also exposed the image further and increased the blacks to make the image appear more striking. My choice to blur the image had multiple purposes. The main purpose was to mimic Woodman’s exploration of lack of identity. I thought that this would work well with my images as it represents the invisibility often felt by people suffering from depression as well as the isolation I had felt. I think that I have responded well to Woodman’s ideas and it’s clear that I have taken inspiration from her work.

Conclusion: 183

To conclude, both Francesca Woodman and Mary Ellen Mark show a deep understanding of mental illness as demonstrated by their image. Woodman, while originally exploring identity has come to draw people to her work with her tragic story, but has continued to keep people interested whether that be by instigating theories on how her images relate to her death, her clear exploration of gender, identity and feminism or simply the darker, gothic surrealism displayed in every image. She demonstrates, for me, the thoughts and feeling behind depression and clearly used her creativity to give herself a release while giving the impression that she knew what was happening to her was not her fault. In comparison, Mark gives a meaningful insight into the women of Ward 81 by allowing herself to really get to know them and understand them on a personal level without tainting her opinion with their mental illness. Her book tells the story of those 36 days by showing all aspects of daily life without censorship and maintaining her integrity. This results in Mark presenting the women as just that, women.

Bibliography:

Bailey, R 1978, Mary Ellen Mark’s poignant scrapbook, American Photographer, viewed 11 February 2020, <http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/american%20photographer/911T-000-001.html>

Folger Jacobs, K. (1979), Ward 81. New York: Simon and Schuster

Mansurov, M 2019, The Importance of Ethics in Photography, photographylife, viewed 11 February 2020, <https://photographylife.com/the-importance-of-ethics-in-photography>

Salter,K 2012, Blurred genius: The photographs of Francesca Woodman, The Telegraph, viewed 11 February 2020, <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9279676/Blurred-genius-the-photographs-of-Francesca-Woodman.html>