To what extent can we trust documentary photography to tell the truth about reality?
"Reality, witness and point of view can actually blend into one onother." (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019:18)
The quote above displays how all of these factors can be completely seperate from eachother, a point of view from one side of a story can alter the true reality of an event, however can alighn aswell. The reality is that I have younger twin sisters, they were born premature and were in intensive care for a month, I have then been a witness into them growing up, from baby to toddler, from toddler to child and now they are transitioning from child to teenager. They are still young, a thirteen year old is often viewed as still being a child, but as they're growing up they're being more and more exposed to the realities of the world and beginning to have a cusp of adulthood. As a witness of their development I have my own point of view, their collective identity as twins, the younger they were the more similar they looked and behaved. As babies if one threw up the other would in sympathy, however the further they deveoped the more individual they have become, one is an introvert one is an extrovert, one loves makeup and one is too lazy to do it so prefers a naturalistic look. As being part of a large family there are multiple points of views, my parents my sister Poppy and the twin sisters themselves. All of our points of views can be merged into one, a collective family identity which further melts into our reality and being witnesses to our development in life.
For my personal project I will explore the lives of my twin sisters and although they're seen to be very similar looks wise and personality wise, they're also drastically different. This interests me because the world percieves my sisters as a collective, as one but I want to present them as individuals, they have an exceptionally strong bond but are so different to eachother.
Artists that I am interested in are Sian Davey, in particular, her project on her step-daughter 'Martha'. 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 is 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 eachother.
Another artist I will study is Ariko Inaoka. During his travels in Iceland, he came across Erna and Hrefna, identical twin sisters. They have an ethereal bond and are incredible close to eachother. They are very similar and in Inaoka's photographs tend to wear the same outfits. I want to study Inaoka's work because he is able to portray how twins live in their own world. His pictorialistic approach is able to display this. However, I also want to have my own approach to Inaoka's photography, using his pictorialistic approach whilst displaying both the similarities and differences between the twins.
Straight photography and realism emerged in the 1840's and its intent was to showcase the realities of life, not to sugarcoat or maniplulate how the world should be percieved. I want to showcase the lives of my sisters how both they and I view their world, meaning I will use a documentative approach. However, I also want to use a pictorialistic approach to demonstrate how my sisters live in their own world, they see it through a different set of eyes.
