I’d like to capture the rebellious temperament of modern adolescents and incorporate a rejection of the governing law and societal standards as a whole. The project will show a depiction of the liberating and reckless nature the current youth has and the sense of immortality that they approach life with. I want to document the care-free and typically ‘corrupt’ lifestyle that society labels many young individuals as living. I’d aim for it to be relatable to all age groups (excluding that of children) as puberty and adolescence is a stage in life that all of humanity has gone through. It is often an age where experimentation with alcohol, sexuality and illicit substances is normalised and often encouraged through peer pressure and through a lack of understanding and experience.
In order to do this, I’m aiming to carry out still-life photography. Using a home-made studio, I will photograph the objects and substances that are often associated with (and used by) teenagers and young people who are in the process of experimentation. Objects such as alcohol, cigarettes, condoms etc. will represent the corruption of a child’s purity as they mature and try out new experiences. Additionally, I will incorporate a sense of documentary photography which will provide an accurate representation of the modern youth. The ideas behind some of my images may be staged but the actions of my subjects won’t be forced. For example, I would like to incorporate the use of coloured spray cans into some of my shoots as graffiti, vandalism and the spray paint used to create it is often associated with troubled youth and teenagers in general rather than adults. To capture the perfect image in this shoot, I will record on my camera, import the film into premiere and choose the stills that are the most effective.
Presenting the theme of REBELLION through a lack of respect and remorse for the law and the norms of society further allows me to incorporate a theme of liberation. I want to present the sense of release people feel from rebelling against what is socially acceptable. I want to present the exuberance of my subjects when the idea of restraint is removed.
Furthermore, I am going to look into the work of Ryan Mcginley and other photographers whose work incorporate this theme of youth and rebellion. Mcginley’s early work, in particular, shows documentation of his own youth and that of his friendship groups, including the likes of Dash Snow and other who spent their days over-indulging in physical pleasures, causing corruption and presenting their immodesty.
Additionally, I am taking a deadpan approach to the images of my subjects within this project. I will juxtapose these images with the photos from my still life shoot, creating a narrative between the typical use and abuse of these objects and the ordinary and regular aesthetic of the portraits. In between these pages, I plan to incorporate more wide-shot, documentary-style images to develop the narrative and present this theme of debauchery. A plan of the format can be seen below: [O= Object (still life), P= Portraits (deadpan), N= Narrative (wide-shot).]
My final outcome with this project is the production of photobook. I’d like to add some personal touches and an element of mixed media similar to that of both Mcginley and Jim Goldberg, the author of ‘Raised by wolves’.
Goldberg included the personal letters, conversation and stories of his subject within his photo-book. I was inspired by this and wanted to experiment by recording conversations my subject have had with one another or with myself (either in their hand writing or mine) as well as personal images we have of one another, which have not been taken in aim of this project, through Polaroid images for example.
Wanted to make photographs looking like Art and Paintings, the photographic manipulation often showed off the photographers personality and character.
Artists associated:
H P ROBINSON
CHARLES JOB
FRANK EUGENE
JMW TURNER
JULIA MARGARET CAMERON
GEORGE DAVISON
Methods/ techniques/ processes:
Vaseline Smearing on Camera Lense
Paint strokes
Purposely Manipulating Image in Darkroom – “scratching and marking their prints to imitate the texture of canvas, using soft focus, blurred and fuzzy imagery”
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Key works:
Time period:
1960s
Key characteristics/ conventions :
This movement ditched the “painting like” side of photography and chose to take pictures how they were with manipulation.
Artists associated:
Alfred Stieglitz
Paul Strand
Jacob Riis
Lewis W Hine
Dorothea Lange
Walker Evans
Berenice Abbott
Methods/ techniques/ processes:
There was no main technique , just trying and getting the image to look as it does in real life o show of the beauty of the landscape or the harsh reality of the image. They focused on “crisp focus with a wide depth-of-field.”
Over the course of the year, studying Love and Rebellion has introduced me to a wide range of techniques, mediums, approaches, skills, processes etc. This mainly included Tableaux photography where I planned and carefully positioned my subjects to my preference to create an aesthetic image. Tableaux came into play when I was creating my zine; the images were of myself and my partner therefore I had to position ourselves carefully in a specific position in order to get the shot right. Overall though, Tableaux photography was not my favourite approach as I found it quite tricky to position us correctly in order to get the perfect shot that I had envisioned. Tableaux photography occurred when looking at the theme of Love, my concept was how insecurities may influence the relationship and how the good times juxtapose the bad.
These are the Tableaux images that I produced which involved positioning in a certain way in order to get the perfect image.
Working with InDesign came after my tableaux approach, this taught me a variety of skills and allowed me to manipulate my images to my preferences. I had never worked with this application before exploring the theme of Love and Rebellion. Again, this was not my favourite process, however I love the idea of being able to make a booklet or a spread sheet simply on an application. My zine (which I created on InDesign) came out brilliantly and is one of my favourite pieces of work, and without InDesign, I wouldn’t of been able to do that.
Images of how my Zine turned out and also how the editing process took place.
After these processes, we began working on Film Making, I absolutely LOVED this process. This came under the theme of Rebellion. Film Making isn’t something that is new to me, I’ve made short videos a number of times in the past as I love watching aesthetically pleasing videos myself. However, Premiere (the software that we had edited the video on) was completely new to me. I struggles at first to get a grips with it but after the first few stages I felt right at home and managed to edit my video with a number of different layers quickly and efficiently. This was definitely my favourite task within the overall theme of Love and Rebellion and most definitely the one that sparked the most interest and inspiration for me.
Not only did the theme of Love and Rebellion introduce me to new software’s and ways of interpreting my concepts, e.g film making, it also introduced me to different topics that support certain ideas. For example, Culture Wars and Identity Politics were terms that I had never heard of before and most definitely sparked a range of ideas for me. I didn’t realise that things such as abortion, body image, misogyny, gender stereotypes, religious issues, etc were a part of a type of politics and I also didn’t realise that they were taken so seriously as they are regularly overlooked. These topics were overall part of the theme Rebellion, therefore I may look into certain topics more thoroughly within my personal study that surround Rebellion as it seems to spark more inspiration for me.
Interpreting Love and Rebellion
Statement of Intent
My initial idea surrounds my Mum. Several years ago now, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Emphysema. The umbrella term for this illness is COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Emphysema is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath, in my Mum’s case it’s very severe. The air sacs in the lungs are damaged and over time the inner walls of the sacs weaken and rupture – creating larger air sacs instead of small ones. This in turn reduces the surface area of the lungs and therefore the amount of oxygen that reaches your blood stream. When you exhale with this disease, the damaged alveoli don’t work properly and old air becomes trapped, leaving no room, for fresh, oxygen rich air to enter. My Mum often describes it as, she cannot take a breath as she can almost feel her lungs knocking against her ribs due to the trapped air inside, she’s almost suffocating to death slowly. Her disease is a progressive disorder, and at the moment there is no cure except a lung transplant – which is something she is considering and has been to the Southampton hospital for on several occasions. There are other options for treatment that are unavailable to her though, for example, there is the option of lung reduction which involves removing the dead and most damaged areas of her lungs thus allowing her to have more room for her to breathe, however this isn’t an option for her as the doctors discovered there is a lack of blood supply to the area and is therefore too risky to operate on. Another option for treatment are coils – they will be inserted into her lungs and again allowing more room for her to breathe. However, this also isn’t an option for her as she travelled to Southampton for a 5-day allergy test and discovered that she is severely allergic to the nickel which is the metal that the coils are made of. So, after exhausting many options she is now down to the possibility of a lung transplant, a risky operation and years worth of waiting on the transplant list. There’s a possibility she won’t even make it to the day to see a transplant which will ultimately happen at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.
Not only does she have to suffer with this intense disease, there are obviously other struggles that come with it. She suffers with severe anxiety; she constantly worries about going out as she often struggles to walk 100m without getting out of breath and having to stop and use her inhaler, which hardly works also. Struggling to breathe in itself would give anyone intense anxiety and often panic. I have to help her at the shop as she cannot deal with the heavy lifting of shopping items and shopping bags. The pandemic also gives her anxiety, with her having to be extra careful being part of the super vulnerable group, this means I have to shield often and keep my cleanliness to a T. She also suffers with severe depression, I can imagine having a terminal illness is not a light subject and especially not light when having to deal with it. As much as she tries to keep her head up I can imagine how tiring, frustrating and saddening it is to know you are living with a progressive illness. She finds it hard to carry on, which is again, understandable and often feels like giving up. Additionally to all of this, she suffers with insomnia. When I have a cold and when i’m struggling to breathe I find it very difficult to sleep, this is how I imagine it however in my Mum’s case it is obviously much, much worse. Due to her being unable to sleep, she then gets really tired and lacking in oxygen and therefore the flow to her brain also doesn’t help either and she often gets foggy.
Along with her illness she also has to take a variety of different meds every morning. One of which includes steroids that reduce coughing and enable her to be able to catch her breath, however, like most meds do, they come with side effects. Side effects from the steroids include: coughing and wheezing, heart palpitations, nausea, headaches, dizziness and often infections in the mouth as the steroids have to be inhaled. I know for a fact my mum often suffers with severe headaches – again causing her to lose a lot of her much needed sleep time.
My Mum’s illness has affected our family in a variety of ways; it has caused for me and my little sister Mary (14) to become more independent than the average teenagers, and often means we have to cook for each other, clean for each other and give our emotional and physical support to our Mum when commonly it is the other way round for most teenagers. I often do feel isolated from other people in my friendship group, I don’t go out that often as I enjoy spending the quality time with my Mum that I may not have in a few years time, and I am scared to leave the house sometimes as on a number of occasions, if it weren’t for me being there, an ambulance wouldn’t have been called in order to save my Mum from having a severe attack. However I don’t want the focus to be on me and my sister, as this has become the norm for us now, I want something to be dedicated to my strong, beautiful Mother in order to let her know that we understand, we’re here to support and that she is not alone. The topic may be a bit morbid when thinking about dedicating something to my mum, however like I mentioned before, I want to let her know that I understand (often she feels like no one does) and I want to turn a sad, morbid time for us into something almost beautiful and moving.
Overall I wish to show the ‘inside’ of what it’s like to live with a mother with a terminal illness, what you see on a daily basis. Things like her medication, the struggle to walk places, that being in the street or up the stairs, the tiredness she experiences, her appearance, the way her skin looks and how her eyes look. Generally, an inside look at what’s it like living with a terminal illness.
This concept moves between the themes of Love and Rebellion. In one sense I am showing my love for my Mother and the ability to understand the pain and struggle she is going through. But on the other hand it intertwines with Rebellion as she is fighting against the illness with every bit of strength that she has.
There are a few artists that I enjoy looking at that explore the idea of Mother’s in general, sometimes with illnesses, Depression and Anxiety and other family members that have suffered with other things. For example, Richard Billingham, Shannon O’Donnell, Laia Abril, Matthew Finn, John William Keedy and Christian Hopkins. I will go into these artists in more detail in my artist research. There is also a former student, ‘Mattie’ Knapman whose work I really enjoyed about his Mother having a terminal illness.
My aim of the outcome of this project is to push myself and make a book and a film. I feel as though I have the ability and work ethic to produce both. However, I am more confident in making a film and love to experiment when it comes to footage.
For my project I’m thinking of basing it off of mental health and how it rebells against your love for others. The main focus would be anxiety and how this mental illness can cause people to dissociate themselves from life itself. Dissociation being a big part of the narrative, I am looking to create a film/zine where a lifestyle in reality can turn into something quite dream-like and somehow showing a glimpse of what it may be like for someone who has anxiety or a disorder where it causes them to dissociate or even become nihilistic. The way I’m going to shoot this project will be in first person and having self portraiture intertwined within my film/zine. I am planning on representing these dream-like scenarios by cutting out parts of the world and scenery are myself and possibly cutting out the people around me as well to act as the dissociation. I’ve done a lot of research as to why dissociation happens and what mental illnesses can cause this; illnesses such as; anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. I chose to base my project off of anxiety as I have experienced a lot of anxiety throughout my life as many people have and I feel like I can portray the feelings towards life from someone who has experienced anxiety better than any of the other illnesses listed.
Mood Boards of Inspiring Photographers
John Mannell
This photographer is a London based therapeutic photographer using photography to combat depression and anxiety. When looking at Mannell’s work I felt inspired as he usually takes photographs of individual strangers living their daily life but no one knows anything about their background or their mental state. This links into my project as I will be photographing/filming myself therefore I will be the stranger who no one knows anything about and I will be showing a segment of my life through a photo/film.
‘As I was driving along earlier I saw Julian sat in the horribly cold weather and he looked and smiled at me and gave me the thumbs up as he could hear my music playing. I thought not much more of it but then when I went on my coffee break I thought I would walk around the corner to see if he was there as I knew he would make a great portrait due to the white on his face but when I got closer the match sticks in his beard too. At first I felt bad asking for the photo as you are making an image which to some extent plays on someone’s misfortune by being homeless. But by the same coin to not ask him as I would ask anyone else would be excluding him from what has become a people led project. I sat and spoke to him and we had a cup of tea together as he told me how he used to be a professional dancer and his days back in Jamaica when he was younger. Its horrible that he has ended up on the street but I guess what makes it worse is how so many people walk past and just ignore (me included on so many occasions). He was such a nice guy. Christmas is not a nice time for anyone on their own and I guess if we can just give that one cup of warm tea it might help them feel that Christmas spirit we all love.‘
-Photo of homeless man below
‘Every now and then I take a photo of someone that shows them as I saw them not just visually but personality too. I had a really long day at work and had messy hair, dirty jeans and scruffy top. You could think I’m on the sympathy vote but the reference is to try and show the contrast between me and this man named Devine. He is a security guard and has worked as equally a long day as I have but looked unbelievably smart. His demeanour was proud yet calm and he spoke gently. He was kind enough to walk along the street to pose near some light coming from the Morley’s chicken shop to help take the photo. Anyway, I like this one as from the brief chat we had shows himself as I saw him.’
‘When I was at night school my final project for my city and guilds was a look into my experiences of depression. The image is a metaphor for so many experiences in my journey. When I started to use photography as therapy I took photos at night when no one was around. It felt like a daunting and somewhat vulnerable task. I had no way to explain this other than a photo of me taking the fear head on. You feel like there is no end or hope sometimes but step by step you can feel progress even if the end goal isn’t really clear.’
Daniel Smith – Fade Out
Smith’s work caught my eye as it is fairly dream-like and somewhat ominous. His photos consist of landscapes that occasionally have people posing on the distance to create meaning and representation. He gets his inspiration to take these photos by listen to lyrics in music and poems that he comes across and becomes attached to the ideas he creates in his head before he actually takes the photo. When he is taking his images he dissociates himself from what he is seeing through the lens and doesn’t feels emotionally attached to the images until later on when be is editing them. He says that his work links into depression and helps him to deal with his own mental health; it allows him to feels like he’s not alone I. the world when he takes photos of the subjects in the photo as it’s meant to represent himself.
Daniel Regan
I chose this photographer as my inspiration as well, as his work also comes across quite dream-like but also has a sense of reality. The dream-like connotations are from the light pink, yellow ands blue tones associated with clouds and the sky when put together. A lot of his photographs also Remi d me of waking up in the morn ing due to the lighting and what the main subjects of the photos are e.g. coffee, bedsheets, frosty windows etc.
“Something that I’ll take from Maytree into the rest of my life is to never feel ashamed to talk about my difficulties,” Regan admits. “At Maytree we’re not there to fix someone; we’re there to allow people to speak openly about their crises. It can be uncomfortable, but we want people to live because they want to live, not because we want them to. I think the motivation for me is that it is such an incredible privilege to be able to help people in suicidal crisis, particularly because I have been there myself. ”
-Regan talking in an interview about the photograph of the bed and the bedsheets.
For my new personal investigation, I want to explore the theme of REBELLION, and specifically focusing on the sub-genres of: Rebels, Rejects and Outcasts.
Initial inspirations
Karen Knorr:
A rebellion of youth
In the project ‘A rebellion of youth’, Karen Knorr worked with Olivier Richon to create this joint photographic project, which documents the newly emerging punk movement in London during the 70s. The project showcases numerous black and white images, which highlight the contrast between the dark clothing and the pale faces of these ‘punks’. Their aim with the project was to explore rebellion and adolescence, showing the new youth’s rebellion against typical cosmetic beauty and standard societal expectations.
A rebellion of youth, 1977
They aimed to be different in their process of photographing. Their intimate approach to their project separated them from the normal style of photography at the time. They commented:
“We chose a direct confrontation with our subject. This is why our pictures are posed, affirming our presence instead of eluding it. We attempted to achieve such a formal approach in order to emphasise punk symbolism and to make it more readable.”
Joseph Szabo:
Almost grown
In his 1978 publication of ‘Almost grown’, Szabo presents his documentation of the ‘rebellious youth’ in America. The project began by him initially photographing his teenage students within the classroom. Eventually, after gaining the trust of many, he branched out to photographing them on the school grounds, Jones beach and eventually even at their parties.
“…in Szabo’s hands, the camera is magically there, the light is always available, the moment is perceived, seen, and caught.”
Sophie Calle is a French photographer and writer, who often analyses human vulnerability and identity. I will mainly be investigating her series “Suite Venitienne”, which documents her following strangers around Venice, constructing lives for them in her own head. This series in particular was made fairly early on in her career, and was quite influential to the rest of her photographic career and artistic style. Much of the work features one man in particular, who she met at a party and decided to follow to Venice, and she demonstrates a unique capability to intrude so much into a stranger’s private life without actually revealing anything real or personal about their identity.
Calle explains that she feels inspired by works of literature, specifically Charles Baudelaire, drawing on his view of “romantic beauty in the fleeting gaze of a stranger”. She is also inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Man of the Crowd”, in which the narrator follows a mysterious old man through the streets of Paris for 24 hours, never even discovering his name, for no other reason than he was “struck by the absolute idiosyncrasy of his expression”. In a way, “Suite Venitienne” is a re-telling of this story, as the pursuit of the man (named ‘Henri B’ in the project) is equally as unusual and unjustified.
from Suite Venitienne
Christine Macel described Calle’s work as a rejection of the…notion of the “death of the author” by working as a “first-person artist” who incorporates her life into her works and, in a way, redefines the idea of the author.
Sophie Calle, M’as-tu vue. Munich: Prestel Publishing. 2003
Specifically in her “Suite Venitienne” series, the images are very much taken from a first person perspective, as she is using the camera lens as a replacement for her own eyes. The images are from her distinct point of view, and as a result, the onlooker feels as though they are intruding in these people’s lives in the same way that she is, as though Calle is bringing us along with her as she acts almost like a detective on her journey of stalking strangers. They are reminiscent of old French films, and are cinematic in the way that most of the images feature the rule of thirds, which draws more emphasis on the figure Calle is following, and makes the overall series of images more engaging and impactful.
from Suite Venitienne
Much of her work is in black and white, which has been argued to lend a more artistic value to the images rather than purely documentary, and she often uses the exposure to create the illusion of movement within an image. What I like about Calle’s work is that, even though you don’t know anything about the subject and that for the most part you can’t see their faces, they have a distinct and strong sense of emotion. You almost feel as though you can relate to both the person being photographed and the photographer, in that you have experienced being the stranger living your own life on the street, and the stalker watching other strangers out in public.
IMAGE ANALYSIS-
The image was taken in natural daylight, and the exposure was not adequately adjusted so as a result the two figures are somewhat obscured by the bright light coming from outside, possibly reflecting how their true identities are also obscured from us through their anonymity. The image uses the rule of thirds to frame the man – Henri B – as the main focal point. Like the rest of the series, it is in black and white. As colour photography was widely available at the time this was taken (1980s), and it was actually used more than black and white, it’s clear that Calle chose black and white on purpose, possibly to add a sense of timelessness of mystery to the final products.
This photograph, and the whole series, all feature a fairly high tonal range, which is more obvious in other images, but this image has far more midtones and bright whites than most. The lines of the horizontal stairs and the vertical pillars provide a sort of repetition, which contrasts against the two figures walking in the middle, cutting across the pattern. However they do have a sort of symmetry : they are in the centre of the opening, in stark contrast to the over-exposed white light.
The 3D feeling to the image, which is created by the receding pillars from the foreground into the background, emphasises the concept that this image is meant to be seen as if from a person’s own perspective, with the camera lens acting as the eyes. Calle has a very candid approach throughout this series, as the nature of it means that none of the images can be really planned and rely more on the subject’s own personal plans, and this photo clearly falls under the same category. It feels quite simple and normal, the sort of situation everyone has been in, but the act of photographing it in such an artistic manner gives it meaning and significance outside of just an everyday activity.
In what way can the work of Claude Cahun and Shannon O’Donnell be considered political?
Both photographers works are considered to relate to identity politics which is a term that describes a political approach where people of a particular sexuality, gender, race or other identifying factors form exclusive socio-political alliances, moving away from broad-based coalitional politics (political parties that formed an alliance). It aims to support and center the concerns, agendas, and projects of particular groups, in accord with specific social and political changes.
Claude Cahun was a Surrealist photographer whose work explored gender identity and the subconscious mind. The artist’s self-portrait from 1928 epitomizes her attitude and style, as she stares rebelliously at the camera in an outfit that looks neither conventionally masculine nor feminine. with her photography one of her many skins is gender-defying as she gives this photograph a very neutral look that leaves to question ‘What is this persons gender?’ this was one of the many question that were going through my head when I first saw this photograph.
I think she is trying to show us and tell us that it really should not matter what gender she identifies as because she is still going to be this quirky photographer from jersey and her gender does not identify her. She is the main focus point in this image which is quite symmetrical is a way as she has a heart on both sides of her check and her hair is styled the same and gives it an even more symmetrical look. I am pretty sure this image has been taken in the studio as she is sat on a chair with what looks to be a curtain for a backdrop.
Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, she lived most of her life on the island of Jersey with her stepsister and long-term love, Marcel Moore.
Themes of melancholy, futility, and uncertainty run deep through Cahun’s career. Cahun’s exploration of self is relentless and at times unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with abundance.
Shannon O’Donnell is an artist born in Jersey, Channel Islands. Her work explores themes around the gendered experience with a focus on femininity and masculinity as gendered traits. She studied Documentary Photography at the University of South Wales, Cardiff.
Her area of photography is in the genre of contemporary filmmaking, performed and documentary photography and is based around the claustrophobia of gender binary. She explores this through deep sociological research, with historical references, a mixture of archival images, a contemporary interview with specific demographics that enlighten her conceptual and visual approach to image making. She explores the self and identity. Her work lies with questioning society and challenging traditional views of gender through my work. “My work is informed by my personal experience.” Is one of my favourite quotes from her. Shannon O’Donnell’s work focuses on the sociological understanding of how gender is viewed or challenged within mainstream society.
That’s Not The Way The River Flows (2019) – Gender is being reconceptualized. Our experience of gender is changing, transforming from being solely male and female, opening to a multitude of subcategories including gender queer, non-binary, transgender and gender fluid. As we unpick the complicated narrative of gender and the generalizations that it encapsulates, we are forced to re-imagine what it is that makes us who we are and what we want or can identify as. The beginning of change starts with the self.
It is a photographic series that playfully explores masculinity and femininity through self-portraits. The work comes from stills taken from moving image of the photographer performing scenes in front of the camera. This project aims to show the inner conflicts that the photographer has with identity and the gendered experience. It reveals the pressures, stereotypes and difficulties faced with growing up in a heavily, yet subtly, gendered society and how that has affected the acceptance and exploration of the self.
Francesca Woodman’s life was short but very productive, as even though she was only 22 years old when she died she was still able to produce over 800 images, quite a large amount in those days. She was born in 1958 in Colorado, US, to two fairly artistic parents, meaning she grew up in a household where art was a central focus, where she was raised to question everything and find beauty in everything as well. She was inspired by both Surrealism and the Conceptual art movement, and the majority of her work features the recurring themes of death, sexuality and the human body. Often, she would include mirrors, skulls or representations of ghosts in her work, creating a recognisable style throughout her whole body of work. This theme of death has been interpreted by some as a sort of foreshadowing to her death: as a result of a lack of success in her work and a failed relationship, she killed herself in Manhattan in 1981.
“I would rather die young leaving various accomplishments, some work, my friendship with you, and some other artefacts intact, instead of pell-mell erasing all these delicate things”
Francesca Woodman, in a letter left to a friend before her first (unsuccessful) suicide attempt.
Woodman only published one photography book during her lifetime, called “Some Disordered Interior Geometries”. It was released in 1981, a couple days before her death. It’s printed on an antique Italian geometry exercise book, is 24 pages long, and includes some of Woodman’s own drawings and handwritten notes. One of Woodman’s friends described it as “a very peculiar little book indeed,” with “a strangely ironic distance between the soft intimacy of the bodies in the photographs and the angularity of the geometric rules that covered the pages.”
She is often described as haunting, eerie and delicate and her work mostly reflects this, with the majority being mainly bright and the focus being on the subjects and their body language – which is usually distorted and odd, in unusual positions. She manipulates her own body to be, not inherently sexual, but more a reflection of her internal thoughts and feelings. Even though a lot of her work features nudity, it is never very sexualised, and she seems to be objectively presenting her body as it is, in a variety of different and odd positions or situations rather than in the traditional poses most commonly seen in artworks containing nudity.
Her use of exposure is also quite particular and fairly well-known, often using excessively long exposure to intentionally blur herself or her subjects, creating a sense of movement and, in some cases, emotion in the image. She uses black and white almost exclusively, with only a very small selection of images produced in colour.
IMAGE ANALYSIS-
This image was taken in a setting with natural lighting, as can been seen by the shadows coming in from the right. The image is clear and sharp, demonstrating a high shutter speed, and as a whole it feels fairly cold. The image is in black and white as an conscious artistic choice, because colour cameras were widely available when Woodman was alive. The image is fairly light and there is almost a pattern in Woodman’s figure in the background and the chair in the middle ground. There is a feeling of repetition in the image, as the woman’s arms outstretched above her are mimicked in the two V-shaped bars on the back of the chair. Woodman was still a teenager/young adult when she produced the majority of her work but even so, her images features themes of depression, isolation and death, as well as commenting on femininity and the constraints of gender roles in the 70s. Her photographs provoke self-reflection and questioning about body image and identity. The form of the image is reminiscent of Christ’s crucifixion, as Woodman is in a similar position and the pattern of the door is in the shape of a cross. It also may symbolise someone hanging themselves, as Woodman did suffer from depression, however the young woman’s strong and toned arms suggest strength and athleticism; contrasting the hopelessness found in the modern depiction of suicide.
