Art & Activism: Shannon O’Donnell presentation NOTES

  • Studied documentary photography
  • Claude Cahun is a big influence on Shannon
    • Claude Cahun was a Jewish Lesbian woman
    • A rebel and did thing she though was right
    • Wore mens clothes in a lot of photos
  • Also Influenced by Duane Michals
    • displays images like a film real
  • Casa Susanna
    • A place where transgenders and LGBTQ people went where they could be free and not come under attach.
  • Walter Pfeiffer
    • Colaborates with subjects to document how the subject wants to be percieved
  • Adi Nes
    • Israeli Photographer
    • Creates staged images of men breaking the ‘manhood’ stereotype
    • ‘Questioning ‘Male Provado’ in the context of war.
  • Key theorists:
    • Judith Butler – “Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.”
    • June Singer – “Androgyny is not trying to manage the relationship between the opposites; it is simply flowing between them.”
  • ‘Shrinking Violet’ (2016) – One of Shannon’s projects
    • Looking at feminism and her mom’s place in the house.
  • ‘Abort Mission’ (2018) – First university project
    • Started with an encounter anti abortion protestors
    • Started thinking about woman’s health and how woman are viewed from society.
    • Shannon read pretty much the whole bible
  • Shannon likes to put juxtaposing images next to each other
  • Forming sequences using colour, wide shots and tight shots
  • ‘By Your Bedside’ (2018) – Personal project
    • Her mum went into a coma
    • Shot it on Medium format
  • ‘The Cat and the Mice’ (2018) – University project
    • Suffragette movement – militants
    • Documented places that were key during the time
    • Documented activist alive today
    • Created a group of activists
  • ‘That’s Not The Way the River Flow’ (2019)
    • Heavily influenced by Judith Butler
    • Lots of layers: Photos, videos, sound, poems
    • Not taking yourself to seriously

One thought on “Art & Activism: Shannon O’Donnell presentation NOTES”

  1. Well done, this is great to see…taking notes and developing conscious thought and ideas whilst engaging with a guest practitioner…keep up the hard work!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *