In What Way Have Richard Billingham and Matthew Finn Photographed People Who Are Close to Them?
“An inside position allows engagement, participation and privileged knowledge.” (Abigail-Solomon Godeau: Inside/Out)
In this essay I will be evaluating the different ways as to how Richard Billingham and Matthew Finn have photographed people that are close to them, in this case, their parents. My area of study in my personal project is documentary photography. This is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events. Specifically, I am looking into filmmaking using a documentary approach. I am positioning it around my mum, particularly, creating a documentary film in order to expose the hardships and complications that she faces on a day-to-day basis while struggling with a terminal illness – Stage 4 Emphysema. My overall aim of my project is to create a hard-hitting film that triggers powerful emotions for the viewer. Since I am also filming someone who is close to me, I feel as though looking into Billingham’s and Finn’s methods will add greater knowledge to my personal work and allow me to potentially take notes from the methods they have used when photographing their own parents. Billingham started off by taking images of his parents (with no prior experience) for reference so that he could paint them, as his main aim before photography was painting. His images of his parents then got noticed and became a huge success. The images exposed his tough life living in a tower block with his alcoholic Dad, Ray, and his overweight, temperamental mum, Liz. The exposure of his parents was intriguing to viewers and he eventually led on to create several documentary style films surrounding his parents. Matthew Finn took images of his Mother for over thirty years. His father did not live with him and he stated that his first intentions were not to create an archive of his mother, but to create stability, the photographing eventually became a habit. The more Finn discovered about his father, the more he wanted to protect his mum and be the person/man that would never let her down. The fact that his mother was wanted and needed to be in his photography, formed a strong bond between the two and she played a huge role in the making of the photographs. Years later, she developed dementia, and could no longer recognise Finn or herself even, thus, all he had left were these archival images.
Contextually, Abigail Solomon-Godeau published an essay, Inside / Out, that became incredibly successful. She discussed what she refers to as the inside/outside position of photographers in relation to their subjects. Referring to the opening quote above, she believes that an inside position (when you are close with your subjects and have a personal relationship with them) “allows engagement, participation and privileged knowledge” (Solomon-Godeau 1994: pg 2). It’s an intimate, trusting and engaging role for photographers and their subjects that often allows authenticity. She then goes on to say that an outside position can often be objectifying, distant and unsympathetic – since there is no personal relationship with their subjects and no ‘inside’ point of view.
Consider this image above taken by Diane Arbus of transvestites. She often depicted people who were seen as ’different’ at the time e.g., gay people/people with disabilities etc – Solomon-Godeau, in her essay, criticises the work of Arbus. Arbus specifically takes an outsider’s point of view to photography and has often been accused of basing her photography on ’distance and privilege’ rather than using her photographs for positive effect. She has often been described as having a ’guilty pleasure’ when it came to photographing people who were different and was accused of being voyeuristic in her approach. Thus, an inside perspective to photography can be known as the” good position” as an outside position can be very controversial and used for the wrong reasons. However, having an inside position also has its pros and cons. One con is that having an inside position can be very socially sensitive, and sometimes may be over personal, gritty and brutal. Due to Richard Billingham and Matthew Finn being very close to their subjects – their family members, they most definitely have an inside position to their work but are they using their positions for the right reasons and how is their position revealed through their work?
As mentioned earlier, Richard Billingham revealed his tough life with his unique family members, specifically his parents Liz and Ray. His photos and films were extremely intriguing as they were extremely high in ecological validity and gave us a truly real experience within his images – no set up composition, no plan, just simple, raw images that exposed his own life.
Take this photograph for example, within this one image, there’s a number of things that maybe other photographers wouldn’t see as visually pleasing: slouching, food stains, a generally messy frame, an obese Mum and a drunken Father. Billingham, quite clearly, takes an inside approach to his work, since the circumstances he depicts would only be seen privately in your own home. Billingham is one of the only people that would’ve had access to his parents in this way. This is what made his photos so unique and special, the lack of accessibility to these kinds of photos, showing a lower-class life and the events that occur within it are fascinating and hard-hitting. Billingham’s insider position is what brought his images to success. Due to his close relationship with his Dad, Billingham stated ’I don’t think he took any notice,’ [when filming] – this emphasises the rawness of Billingham’s images and films as no behaviour was exaggerated and all was an accurate representation of his life. Richard’s overall aim wasn’t to expose his parents in a negative light; therefore, he didn’t use his inside position to objectify or to distance himself. After all, his first intentions were to paint the images of his Mother and Father in the style of Post-Impressionist art. On the other hand, you could argue, that after realising that the images of his parents were the key to his success, he then continued to use them to his advantage in order to gain more attention. Similarly, he has been accused of over-exposing his parents, and that filming his parents in a vulnerable position was unethical. Like me, Billingham takes a documentary style approach to his images and films, he claimed, ’I didn’t want images of the tragedy of the situation. I wanted them to be emotionally very moving’ (Richard Billingham: Photoworks, 2007). This then, suggests that his insider position wasn’t used to expose/objectify his parents, but to create an emotional effect for his audience.
Matthew Finn, took pictures of his Mother for over 30 years, exposing the shift from middle-age to old-age. His work is described as a ’poignant body of work, filled with warmth yet conscious of the fragility of life’. Like Billingham, Matthew’s work also takes a documentary style to his work, representing an account of life, a deeply humanistic response to a set of human circumstances. Since this project with his Mother was so personal, Finn also clearly took an inside perspective when it came to photographing. There is no objectivity or distance within his photographs since one of his intentions were to create presence [of his mother] within his work. His images show the definition of an inside perspective, allowing ’engagement, participation and privileged knowledge’. He used this position for positive effect, since he gathered these images over a long period of time, and only published them when his Mother essentially disappeared due to the onset of dementia. The photographs are those of remembrance and respect, which demonstrates the advantages of an insider’s perspective; to look back on personal memories that the photographer and subject experienced in real life. His inside perspective also outlines other pros; he was able to photograph his Mother over a long period of time. This, as mentioned, showed the shift in her life and preserved her beauty. An outsider’s perspective wouldn’t have that kind of opportunity and makes Finn’s photographs interesting and raw. Additionally, due to his personal perspective, he was able to capture his Mother doing mundane, everyday tasks, which again isn’t accessible from an outsider’s perspective. His images provide the true bond and trust that Finn and his Mother, Jean have.
Comparatively, it is apparent that both photographers demonstrate an insider’s perspective when photographing their family members. Often, an inside perspective is criticised due to its over-exposure and social sensitivity. However, both photographers’ aims are clearly not to objectify their subjects. Billingham clearly wanted a factual and raw take to his work to create an emotional response to his audience, and had no intention at all to create negative connotations surrounding his Dad’s drinking etc. He stated, ‘I didn’t want to illustrate alcoholism or make a documentary about it’ (Richard Billingham: Photoworks, 2007). This again shows that he wasn’t using his perspective to expose his Father in any way and used his photography positively. Billingham also has stated that he had no specific aesthetic in mind when it came to visuals, and again just wanted footage that was 100% true to his life that he experiences. Matthew Finn had an extremely close bond with his Mother, especially after his Father left and secrets were revealed. Like Billingham, Finn had no intention of publishing the images that he had taken. Overall, however, his images show a very close, positive relationship between the two. Finn obviously had no negative intentions when it came to photographing his Mum, instead, his photos reflect great admiration and love for her. One difference between the two artists is, Billingham’s relationship with his parents seems somewhat distant. He has stated in the past that he hated growing up in a tower block with his parents. In some way, Billingham reveals the emotional turmoil that appears often in their flat. The behaviour seen in his images and documentaries, especially from his Father, often impact the audience so much because of how shocking it was. It is difficult to imaging the effect that, that environment had on Billingham. On the other hand, Finn’s images reflect love, memory and closeness with his Mother. Although the images were documentary style, he always seemed to capture his Mother in her best light, and the images have been softly adjusted, creating an atmosphere of admiration for the closest person in his life. In conclusion, the relationship to their subject’s is clearly very different.
In conclusion, my analysis of both artists’ perspectives has inspired the methods that I will use when filming my own Mum. Since Matthew Finn’s perspective is a little more personal and reflects the bond that the two had I will most likely be referring a little closer to his methods. I, overall aim to create a respectful, loving video for my Mother, showing my appreciation for her and my understanding of her illness. My perspective will evidently be from the inside, since I’m uncovering details of mine and my Mother’s personal life that only we have access to. However, Billingham’s documentary-style, film-making methods are what I will be looking to when it comes to visuals. I want to capture, raw, real-life footage of my Mum and the experiences we go through. This will be more hard-hitting for the audience, in my opinion. Unlike Billingham however, I’m not wanting to capture my Mum in a negative light, as this will essentially defeat the point of my project. I enjoy the fact that Finn created a large archive of his Mother before publishing the images. This inspires me to add older, archival images of my own Mum in order to reveal a ‘shift’ in her, going from healthy, happy and lively to ill, tired and struggling. Overall, an inside perspective allows me to have access to footage that no one else would and gives access to a wide range of information about my subject, thus forming an authentic, detailed movie that shows a close relationship between me and my Mother. My close relationship with my Mum and my inside perspective also allows me to have empathy with her whereas an outsiders perspective may be objectifying and may not show the true effects of her illness.
References:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-tips/portrait-photography-tips/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/23/richard-billingham-ray-and-liz-interview
https://saatchigallery.com/artist/richard_billingham
https://photoworks.org.uk/richard-billingham/
https://www.getty.edu/publications/resources/virtuallibrary/0892363223.pdf
https://www.mattfinn.com/mother
https://www.photopedagogy.com/insideout.html
https://www.photopedagogy.com/uploads/5/0/0/9/50097419/week_5_abigail_solomon-godeau_inside_out.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jul/26/diane-arbus-photography-sideshow
Re-size images to be visually larger in the blog post