To what extent can we trust documentary photography to tell the truth about reality in Sian Daveys Work and Maja Daniels? Introduction: "Reality, witness and point of view can actually blend into one another." (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019:18) The quote above displays how all these factors can be completely separate from each other, a point of view from one side of a story can alter the true reality of an event, however, can align as well. Documentative photography has been around since photography began. It’s used to chronicle events and environments that are significant to everyday life, history and historical events. Documentary photographs aren’t just produced by professionals; family photo albums and phone albums can provide an insight from the everyday to the historical world of an individual. Whether it’s a photo taken of someone blowing out the candles on their birthday cake, or the fireworks on bonfire night. However, although those images are captured in a moment, often candid, how do we really know that the photographs aren’t staged? After practitioners established photography as an art form, there was “a need to define which images were based on ‘objective’ reality (documentary) and which were instead the creations of an artist’s ‘subjective’ sensibility (art)” (Rosler 2003; Sekula 1982; Soloman-Godeau 1991b; Walker 2002: 21-21). For my project I will be focusing and capturing my identical twin sisters. There is a cultural fascination with twins, people are confused by their striking symmetrical features and their unearthly connection towards each other. Many claim to know what each other are thinking and feeling and their undeniable bond creates curiosity towards the uniqueness that surround the ideology of twins. As their older sister, I know my sisters extremely well as we also have a close bond, however, I recognize that I could never have a bond like Phoebe and Scarlett’s. Although we sometimes describe them having a love-hate relationship, they are each other's best friend and always seem to know what the other is thinking and feeling. They have deep empathy for each other rooted in them and always defend each other, even if someone is only joking about the other, they will always back each other's corner. They often tend to copy each other when the other twin does something. For example, Scarlett cut her long hair to shoulder length and the next week Phoebe cut her hair to shoulder length as well. They also have extremely similar grades and are in the same classes as they both have the same intellectual ability. Guang Guo discusses how researchers believe that the reason identical twins have do similar actions is because of their genes. “If a physical or behavioral trait, like hair color or success at math, is shared more often by identical twins than by fraternal twins, researchers reason, genes must have played a role in developing the trait.” (Guang Guo, 2005). The artists I will be analysing will be Sian Davey and Maja Daniels. They both do capture twins, Daniels having a whole project on Mady and Monette: twins who both work together and dress the same. Davey’s work doesn’t feature around twins, but her stepdaughter Martha is friends with twins, and they do feature in Davey’s work, in particular, her project Martha. Both of the artists can be viewed as documentative photographers, although, because of the similarities between Mady and Monette, Daniel’s work looks more staged, whilst Davey’s work looks more naturalistic and candid. I will discuss the extend of reality portrayed in both of the artists work and the difficulties to truly believe they are authentically documentative. Historical Context: I will be incorporating both realist and pictorialist photography into my project. Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term is associated with skepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality. Postmodern art questions the notion of authenticity and embraces 'hybridity’, blurring the lines between high art and popular culture. Postmodern photographers are particularly interested in the selective, constructed nature of the photograph. Realism is not so much a style, but rather one of its fundamental qualities. From its beginnings in the 1830s and 40s, photographers and viewers of photography marveled at photography’s ability to capture an imprint of nature. Photography’s capacity to depict people, objects and places realistically made it suitable for trying to record and document individual likenesses, scientific discoveries and foreign places – concerns that were of particular interest for 19th-century Europeans. The time period for pictorialism was the 1880’s – 1920’s. Pictorialism is an approach to photography that emphasizes the beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality. I would describe pictorialist photographs to be very dreamy and reminds me of fairy tales. They focus on the dream world and oppose documentative photographs. They tend to focus on nature; however, they do also feature cityscapes. They also tend to have fog or low clouds which gives it a dream like effect. Reacting to the widespread commercial and domestic uses of photography for recording people, events and places, pictorialist photographers sought to evoke emotional sensations and states of mind. They depicted commonplace scenes in ways that suggested psychological and spiritual meanings. Modernism began in the late 19th century and lasted to about the mid 20th century. Industrial revolution kicked off modernism as machines were being standardised for production in factories. The industrial revolution started in 1760 and continue onwards. Modernism was a broad movement encompassing all the avant-garde isms of the first half of the 20th century. Although different modernisms were often incompatible (and occasionally antagonistic) they all rejected the dominance of older movements such as Classicism, Naturalism, and Academicism in favor of new experimental ways of producing art. Early modernity is characterized intellectually by a belief that science could save the world and that, through reason, a foundation of universal truths could be established. The common trend was to seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature of art and human experience. Modernity imbue all aspects of society and are apparent in its cultural forms including fiction, architecture, painting, popular culture, photography. Artist 1: Sian Davey Artists that I am interested in are Sian Davey, in particular, her project on her stepdaughter 'Martha' and her other book “Looking for Alice” which focuses on the life of her daughter who has down syndrome. Davey's is able to capture the lives of both Martha and her friends who are transitioning from child to adult. Davey's also captures a set of twins who are Martha's friends. Davey tends to use a documentative approach to her photography, capturing the natural essence of Martha's development in life. Although they look very similar due to them being identical, the audience are able to distinguish that they do have some different characteristics e.g. their different hairstyles and clothing choices. I want to study Davey's work in particular because of her approach to photographing the teenagers, she isn't trying to sugar coat or emphasize their actions, but just want to capture what they do together and how they interact with each other. The image below is from Davey's book "Martha". It is called "Twins". It features one of the twins staring directly into the lens and the other gazing down. The audience may have to question Davey's image and whether it truly tells the truth about the reality of the scenario that is occuring. Is Davey, truly capturing the essence of reality? Did the twin happen to glance up at the camera or did Davey direct and stage the photograph? Just because an image looks candid and authentic doesn't mean that is the true reality.
In response to Davey’s image “Twins” I wanted to capture my sisters in a different location but doing similar things. Both the twins in Davey’s photo and mine are looking in different directions and are in beach/swim attire: Davey’s twins feature one in a surf brand jumper and the other in a bikini/bra. Whilst my sisters are in their bikini’s and one of them wearing a sarong. I also used natural lighting in my photos but wanted to make my photo a bit lighter to replicate the airy and beachy aptmosphere that was there when the photo was being taken. The difference between the subjects of our photos is that in Davey's photo, one of the twins is staring into the lens, meaning she is aware the photo is being taken, whereas my sisters were unaware that the photo was being taken, making the image candid and authentic to being documentative. The truth behind the reality of the photos can be questioned as both Davey or mysef could've directed our subjects to act and present themselves in a certain way, however, the natural looks to the images can infer to the audience that you can trust the documentative images produced and that they are portraying a true reality.
Artist 2: Maja Daniels When Daniels discusses first talking to the twins she talks about “When I finally approached them I found out that they had long stopped celebrating their birthdays and that they defy any pre-conceived notions related to growing old. I then thought that the twins could make an interesting project that could somehow comment on questions regarding ageing in today’s society a bit differently.” Daniels work can be seen as unique as there aren’t many photographers who capture adult twins. There is a fixation on identical twins, particularly when they are children, maybe because as they get older many grow out of wanting to look similar and want to lead their own lives. Although Daniels is capturing and documenting the lives of Mady and Monette and what they do, the truth about reality can also be questionable. In the image below, both the twins are aware of the camera presence due to their stare into the camera. Although the truth is that Mady and Monette are identical twins, Daniels credibility can be doubted with the twins' dresscode: matching. Just because Daniels claims that the twins choose to dress identically doesn't mean that it is true. The audience would have to ask Parisians who either personally know Mady and Monette or who see them often whether it is their personal choice to present themselves in their particular style, or whether Daniels has been able to construct a narrative and persona for the twins. Daniels uses natural lighting in the image below and the colour palette of the photograph is very similar. It can also lead the audience to question whether the scene itself is constructed due to the perfect coordination with the clothing colour to the walls, or their bright red hair to match the scooter. Although Daniels is capturing the twins out on a walk and although she is not taking the images deliberately in a studio, the truth behinf the reality of her images can be questionable to whether she is truly and authentically documenting the twins or whether she is planning her shoots and directing what is happening.
The image below is my photographic response to Daniels work. Although I documented my twin sisters in the sandunes, both playing and then sunbathing (what they're doing below) I directed the images and ensured I got the shots I wanted. For example, I ensured that theyboth would wear identical outfits and wear their hair the same to enhance the similarities between them. I decided to go for an earthy tone with the image, with the fresh white to juxtapose the tone. After Phoebe and Scarlett started to sit down, I ensured that their faces were looking up in a similar direction and that they both have a similar facial expression. Although I am documenting what the girls are doing, I am constructing a reality and manipulating the truth behind the image. Although Daniels work can be viewed as truthful and just happens to document the twins at the right places at the right time, I wanted to deliberately display that the truth behind the reality of an image can be confusing and misleading.
Conclusion In conclusion, documentative photographers, such as Maja Daniels and Sian Davey will be documenting a reality. However, there is a grey area to how truthful and authentic the images are, and whether a narrative and reality is being deliberately and misleadingly constructed. Both Davey and Daniels manage to capture a set of identical twins, their methods and subjects juxtapose eachother. Mady and Monette are portrayed as extremely similar in Daniels work due to the matching outfits, hair and the way they present themselves. As they are older they do tend to wear makeup and manipulate themselves to how they want to be portrayed in their reality. Whereas Davey's work has a more natural approach where the twins similarities aren't forced upon the audience, the girls are dressed differently are are doing different actions. Both of the artists are documentin the realities of the twins in their images, the realities the artists portray are extremely different. Davey portrays them more as individuals whereas Daniels tends to enforce the similarities between the twins and treat them as almost a collective. I took inspiration from both of the artists and I believe I managed to portray a truthful reality of my twin sisters, they are individuals and are unique in their own right, but there are also extreme similarities between themselves and they can act as a collective. Bibliography - Bright, S. and Van Erp, h, (2019), Photography Decoded, London: Octopus Publishing House - Stephen Bull, (2010), Photography, Oxon, Routledge - James Cartwright, (2012), Photographer Maja Daniels' wonderful Monette and Mady series explores our fascination with twins, viewed 07/03/2020 https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/maja-daniels - Guang Guo, (2005), Twin Studies: What can they tell us about nature and nurture?, viewed 07/03/2020 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ctx.2005.4.3.43
