shoot 1- the first shoot I’ll be doing is using the studio and a model. I want to take some clear shots, close ups and full body shots of my model with clear two point lighting and a white backdrop with no backgrounds. I want these images to be simple and in the style of Gabriel Isaks work, so that the model is facing different sides and I want these images to be simple in order to edit a lot over them on photoshop to get clear black and white silhouette figures like Gabriels work.
shoot 2- I want my second shoot to be based in a home, I want to photograph my model facing a mirror and then edit and blur out the face. I also want to take photos of the model laying on her bed and alone in a room to show how you may spend most of your time when dealing with mental health issues. This will be more inspired in the way of Edward as most of his images are taken of himself at home.
shoot 3- my final and last shoot I want to do in a very open natural space, like a field or open beach. Taking inspiration from Gabriel Isak’s work this will represent the mental state of the individual once again. In a very large open space the individual will look quite small and alone which is how you may feel when dealing with your issues. Then i will edit them and turn the silhouettes into dark outlines
What is the relationship between photography and memory?
Barthes, R (1982) Camera Lucida, London: Jonathan Cape https://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf
Overview of Barthes book Camera Lucida in Photo Pedagogy The first half of this article talks about Barthes theory of a studium and punctum. The latter part about a photograph of his dead mother which allows him to think about memory. Commentary on Barthes book https://www.photopedagogy.com/roland-barthes.html
Rereading: Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes Article by Brian Dillon in the Guardian, 26 March 2011 Grieving for his mother, Roland Barthes looked for her in old photos – and wrote a curious, moving book that became one of the most influential studies of photography https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/26/roland-barthes-camera-lucida-rereading
DEATH IN THE PHOTOGRAPH – critical article in response to Roland Barthes seminal book ‘Camera Lucida’ reflecting on photography. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/books/death-in-the-photograph.html?pagewanted=all
Other key texts for you to read around family and memory
What do I remember? https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo20al/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/11/What-do-I-remember.pdf
How can you tell a story? https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo20al/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/11/How-can-you-tell-a-story.pdf
Kuhn, A. Remembrance: The Child I Never Was in Wells, L. (ed) (2003) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo21al/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2021/01/Annette-Kuhn_Remembrance_the-child-I-never-was.pdf
Colberg, J (May 28, 2012) Photography and Memory blogger on Conscientious http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/photography_and_memory/
This book was created because Mary Ellen Mark was hired to work on Milos Forman’s “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest“. The set was filmed in Oregon State Mental Hospital, Salem, in 1975. This is how Mary Ellen Mark came to know the ward, she was given a tour of a Dr. Dean Brooks who was the director of the hospital at the time. Ward 81 was a maximum security ward for women, this meant that the women she photographed were either a danger to themselves or others. Once her work was completed, she returned to Oregon State Mental Hospital in 1976, however this time she stayed for 6 weeks in an empty ward next to ward 81. This way she was able to get to know the women in the ward well.
Layout
Ward 81’s layout is one that was used a lot during exhibitions in the 1970s. This was with a white border as the images displayed were often mounted. However the images throughout are different sizes and seem to have no particular pattern, this could have been done intentionally to help represent the instability of the women in the ward. As you flick through the book, the images become progressively more graphic and traumatic.
Once the final images have been shown, the editing notes can be seen, this helps the viewer understand Mary Ellen Mark’s thought process when bringing all the images together. Her main inspiration was W. E. Smith, he is seen by many as one of the most important photographers in the development of the editorial photo essay. The work that inspired Mark was the “Country Doctor”, one of W. E. Smith’s famous pieces of work.
By studying this analysis, it allows a broader scope of interpretation of Doug’s work to be considered rather than my own biased opinion.
Matt Day uses Dubois’ work to talk about the responsibility photographers carry, specifically the role of considering what story you are trying to tell. Matt talks about how the sequence of a foreword from Donald Antrim followed by the photographic progressive arrangement concluded by the afterword by Doug himself created a huge impact and delivered emotion effectively. This is something I want to perfect by including an essay and a sequential photographic arrangement in my personal study to also effectively entice emotion from an audience. Matt talks about the effectiveness of Doug’s method of shooting over a long period of time in terms of bettering a narrative. The introduction talks about the role of a memoirist in terms of documentation and how photo selection, especially when shooting over a long period of time, plays a role in how we understand a story. He talks about the use of light alongside the detail of the subjects facial expression that Doug uses to capture a mood.
NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction – Pg 70 -76 Tzvetan Todarov – Structural analysis of narrative
Tzvetan Todarov was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, which have had a significant influence in anthropology, sociology, semiotics, literary theory, intellectual history and culture theory. I want to apply his work on narratology to my personal study. His study’s on the structural analysis of narrative would be beneficial to apply to my project as I want to emphasise an impactful narrative through the medium of photography. Todarov states that all effective narratives share a structure that involves movement of one state of equilibrium to another. He describes the notion that two states of equilibrium are separated by a disruption in the narrative. Referencing my photo-shoot-plans I have implemented this idea of disrupted equilibrium – https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo22al/wp-admin/post.php?post=42513&action=edit. This idea is also presented by Kurt Vonnegut – Shape of a story – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ
Useful Quote from this piece of literature:
“The object of our study must be narrative mood, or point of view, or sequence, and not this or that story in and for itself. […] The minimal complete plot can be seen as the shift from one equilibrium to another. This term “equilibrium,” which I am borrowing from genetic psychology, means the existence of a stable but not static relation between the members of a society; it is a social law, a rule of the game, a particular system of exchange. The two moments of equilibrium, similar and different, are separated by a period of imbalance, which is composed of a process of degeneration and a process of improvement.”
Judith Butler – Gender trouble
Judith Butler is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory.
Her work on the gender performativity theory is what I am interested in. This theory presents the idea that “identity is performatively constructed by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results (it is manufactured through a set of acts)”. This can be applied to my project where I will be documenting an individual struggling with performing identity in different environments, overall aiding in answering: How can the medium of photography interrogate the notion of adopted hypermasculinity by individuals who are part of a sporting community, specifically rugby? Judith describes gender as a social construct – masculine and feminine are created through repetition.
“To operate within the matrix of power is not the same as to replicate uncritically relations of domination.” ― Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
“As a result, gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which “sexed nature” or “a natural sex” is produced and established as “prediscursive,” prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts” ― Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
“On the one hand, we frequently assume authenticity and truth to be located on the inside (the truth of the subject), and, at the same time, we routinely – culturally – locate and define objectivity (as in repertorial, journalistic or juridical objectivity) in conditions of exteriority, of noncomplication.” – Abigail Solomon-Godeau
“The whole point of photographing people is that you are not intervening in their lives, only visiting them. The photographer is a supertourist, an extension of the anthropologist.” – Diane Arbus
1. Literary Sources 2. Essay Question 3. Essay Plan
Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography
Harvard System of Referencing
Bibliography: Roberts, P. (2007), The genius of colour photography: from the autochrome to the digital age. London: Goodman
List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, YouTube/ DVD/TV.
In-text referencing:
In The genius of colour photography it states that Vogue ‘had determinedly set publishing trends before and after that date [1932]’ (Roberts 2007,126)
Use quotes to support or disprove your argument
Use quotes to show evidence of reading
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
Given Plan:
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. Link to powerpoints and resources above about art movements and isms.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
My Plan:
Essay Question:
Explain how the photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Laia Abril portray women’s mental and physical health.
“the repercussions are most of the time psychological, so it’s very difficult to visualise it.” In response to how rape is a tricky thing to capture due to it being stigmatised
“Countries which restrict contraception, what about rape, what about accidents, what about whatever? What when people have problems and cannot even have abortions when they have problems with the foetus, it is connected, being able to choose when you are able to be a mother or not. “- in response to abortion.
“I remember learning that society had mandated that getting my period should remain a secret. The same ritual that was supposed to symbolize that I had “become a woman,”“- Menstruation myths (2021)
My Introduction
What topic I am focusing (women’s mental and physical health)
Introduction to photographers
Include quotes from both photographers
Paragraph 1
History on using photography as therapy as well as a documentary
link to the feminist movement and #me-too movement. E.g Emmeline Pankhurst and Tarana Burke. Link to how they could have inspired other women in the world.
Paragraph 2
Analyse Mary Ellen Mark’s Ward 81 as well as her work from Streetwise.
Emphasise the fact that she was unable to control what she took images of as she was in a ward full of women who were only there due to the fact that they are unpredictable.
Mention the fact that the women in streetwise look slightly unphased by everything that has happened to them.
Paragraph 3
Analyse the work of Laia Abril (on rape, thinspiration and menstruation myths )
List similarities between both artists even though Laia mainly used images of objects and not as much of people.
Conclusion
Explain own images and how they link to both artists
Bibliography
PLAN TAKEN FROM BLOG
Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
Use one quote as an opening quote:Choose a quote from either one of your photographers or critics. It has to be something that relates to your investigation.
Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
You got 45 mins to write and upload to the blog!
Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. Or think more philosophically about the nature of photography and and feeble relationship with reality.
You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study e.g.
What are you going to investigate.
How does this area/ work interest you?
What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument?
Whose work (artists/photographers) are you analysing and why?
What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within. Include 1 or 2 quotes for or against.
What links are there with your previous studies?
What have you explored so far in your Coursework or what are you going to photograph?
How did or will your work develop.
What camera skills, techniques or digital processes in Photoshop have or are you going to experiment with?
It was created because many people at the time believed that photography was not classed as art. This led to people manipulating their images to make their work look more like paintings/drawings. They did this by spreading Vaseline on the lens of their camera and also scratching the negatives of their images.
Vaseline on the camera’s lens meant that the image looked blurred creating a stroked effect. This blurred image mimicked the brush strokes of a paintbrush and therefore allowed people to see it as art.
Scratching the negatives gave the images more texture. This meant that the images looked a lot like drawings, the scratches mimicked pencil lines and made the images look like someone sat for hours on end perfecting this image when it was actually created by light and shadows.
Pictorialism was heavily inspired by romanticism. This meant that pictorial images were often made showing love, femininity or elegance.
Romanticism (noun)
A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879):
“Sadness” 1864
“The Echo” 1868
“Ellen Terry at age 16”
Julia’s photography has a running theme of showing women’s feelings and looks. She used Vaseline on the camera lens to give the women that she was photographing a more innocent look. She took images of women to show how sensitive they can be with their long hair and sullen facial expressions. The facial expressions make the viewer feel as though the women in the images are frail and vulnerable. This was a common thought towards women in England, during the 19th century.
As well as focusing on the beauty of women, she liked illustrating her views on religion and different literary works. This is shown with images such as “I Wait (R. Gurney), 1872” and “Beatrice, 1866“
Beatrice, 1866
The image above has been captured to make the model look like Mary, the mother of Jesus. There are many statues of our lady, yet it seems every single statue manages to capture the same gaze. The model in the image looks as though she is looking for hope just like the statues of our lady. Mary is looking to the sky for hope that God has kept her Son safe. Whereas the model seems as though she is looking for help from those on the earth.
This image is inspired by Beatrice Cenci:
“Beatrice Cenci was the daughter of Count Francesco Cenci, a tyrant who terrorized his wife and children. In retaliation for his abuse, Beatrice plotted with her stepmother and older brother to kill him. Though it’s not completely clear who committed the actual murder, an investigation uncovered the involvement of two men along with the three Cenci family members. The two men died before being brought to the gallows. Beatrice, her stepmother, and older brother Giacomo were all executed on the tenth of September 1599. Only Beatrice’s younger brother Bernardo was spared execution.”
The images back story works well with the theme of women’s mental health. It highlights the fact that women have faced domesticated violence and rape for centuries.
Quotes by Julia Margaret Cameron:
“I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.”–Julia Margaret Cameron
“When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavoured to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer.” – Julia Margaret Cameron
My Research:
Feminism
The feminist movement has been around for hundreds of years.
The movement however took off when the Suffragettes began to fight for women being able too vote in the UK in the 1870s, this was known as first wave feminism. Once the First World War began, the men went off to war and the women had to stay behind and help work in factories and build bombs rather than staying in the house doing domestic work. This meant that when the war was over women wanted to have more independence and get their own job away from the house and their husbands. This became an popular opinion, the fact that women over the age of 30 in the UK in 1918 may have had a part in it also.
Both images taken by Christina Broom
The second wave in the feminist movement began in the 1960s and led to the 1990s during the anti-war protests. Instead of focusing purely on the gender inequalities, the second wave of feminists broadened those ideas onto sexuality, reproductive rights, domestic violence, marital rape etc. This was a huge deal as this time it was not only women protesting, men joined in as they saw the injustice in the world . This wave helped enforce the criminalisation of marital rape in 1994 (UK), in 1965 (USA) the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 prevented anyone from limiting a woman’s access to contraception or other methods of birth control.
Format, size and orientation: Portraiture with 315 pages
Binding: hard cover: image wrap with PUR binding
Cover: graphic – outline of a woman’s head with a red background and a black and white image of a man – the woman’s head appears to be the main focal point of this book since it is quite a big outline compared to the rest of the images. This suggests how this book might be talking about how when women are raised by men it feels as though they’re being raised by wolves since they’re quite more violent than women.
Title: Raised by wolves – enforces the idea of youthful sin
Narrative: The Narrative appears to be about a series of mistreated children telling their testimonies / story of how they’re parents treated them. For example, the most impactful image to me in the book was of this woman’s torso with a healed gunshot wound and, the writing next to it says, “My mom was a 15 ye old junkie s**t who i ain’t never seen – My old man is a biker from hell – the f****ed up a**hole shot me in the gut when i was 10 yrs old – aint gone home since or had one.” This powerfully shows how this woman did not have a pleasant father which clearly enforces the theme of the title, “Raised by Wolves.” This being said, the purpose of the book seems to make sure that people are not alone, to give hope to people who are going through similar events.
The artists has successfully done this by making the book a sort of anecdote. It begins with childhood pictures, and a bit of narrative text suggesting that parents were arguing and/or that the child didn’t feel like she had a family. This is because, when in the book she recalls a journey where she climbed a tree and her parents were spectating, she says that “that was the only time I can remember us being a real family.” Having done this, the artist is sharing their story causing the reader and viewer to feel sympathy because we are seeing the artists in a different way and feeling sorry for the artist and if the story sounds familiar to some, it will make the viewer feel hopeful because the artist has gone through stressful, upsetting events but managed to get past them.
The book then moves on to show, what looks like the same or similar girl grownup, but the images make the viewer feel protective this time. For example, one image is of an old man behind a gate, just staring at us causing fear since we are thinking, “What’s going to happen?” and then it moves to a picture of a man neck kissing a blonde girl who looks quite uncomfortable. These images being portrayed in the way they are, one after the other, may produce the idea that women are being taken advantage of by creepy men at times and the artists has produced this book to raise awareness.
Design and layout: images vary as there are a few polaroids
Editing and sequencing: he juxtaposes raw black-and-white images of diurnal life in harbours, on the thoroughfares, in conventions, and in sleazy hospices with rosy filmland from their nonwage, filmland that frequently disguise the brutality numerous of these teens endured at home. Goldberg portrays with shocking candour the varied aspects of the runaways’ actuality IV medicine use, teen gestation, battle scars ( similar as rotting teeth, lesions, the disfiguring scar that covers Dave’s stomach, or another boy’s vacant eye socket), and death. Eventually, there seems to be little stopgap for these kids, although Goldberg does them a great service then by fastening on their plight and giving them voice.
In what way does Carole Benitah explore family archives through her work as a method of understanding identity and self expression?
Introduction Draft
“Photographs thus are not just manufactured memories, they are also expressions of our desire to hold on to something.” (Colberg, J, May 28, 2012)
This extract from the thoughts of Jörg Colberg highlights the topics in which I will discuss in this essay; questioning also how Carole Benitah in particular, explores these past memories in attempt to gain a wider knowledge of her identity. This investigation of identity through archival images resonates with myself, as within this personal study I wish to revisit past memories of the senior generation in my family, in attempt to argue that these depictions often do not recount the whole truth of the past and are in fact a method of regaining control of our identity. Carolle Benitah is an archetype for reshaping the past through the manipulation and reworking of archival materials, due to her emotional attachment to the images and people within them. Furthermore, I am also choosing to look at Bentiah’s work in detail as a result of her multi-media methods she undertakes, in order to create her contemporary commentary of the idealistic family in contrast with reality, using stitching, gold leaf, ink drawings and beading to achieve this. This utilisation of mulit-medias by Benitah can be linked with my previous work throughout the course, such as my use of maps in digital collages for an identity project and recent experimentations with embroidery. I intend to respond to this unique style again, in regard to my personal study by producing reworked images of my family, that centre around my maternal grandparents and the life they have built, that have been both archived and recently captured. The style in which these new photographs will be created, will be mostly staged tableau pieces, with some candid images also. I will achieve this also by using multiple medias, similar to Benitah, such as stitching as well as digital collage.
Paragraph 1
500 words
Historical context of family photography and its development
Photography in relation to memory and identity
Link to contemporary art movement and influence from movements such as Dadaism
Paragraph 2
500 words
Analysis of an image from Carolle Benitah’s photobook ‘Photo Souvenirs’ in relation to identity, self-expression and memory
Explain the significance of the use of red stitching and beading in her work
Paragraph 3
500 words
Analysis of an image from Carolle Benitah’s photo series ‘Jamais je ne t’oubliera’ (I Will Never Forget You) in comparison to the previous image, and in relation to to identity, self-expression and memory
Explain the significance of the use of gold leaf in her work
Conclusion
500 words
Link similarities between Carolle Bentiah and my own work
“I decided to explore the memory of childhood through my family photographs, because it allows me to understand who I am and to define my identity today.”
“The past of a human being, unlike the remains of some ancient temple, is neither fixed nor reconstituted but finished by this”
“It’s like an exorcism. I pierce the paper until I have no more evil.
“I transform my traces of the past.”
“I’m building a fantasy album like a crossing of appearances where I enjoy demolish the myth of the ideal family to let emerge a more nuanced picture”
“The past of a human being, unlike the remains of some ancient temple, is neither fixed nor reconstituted but finished by this”
The photo book Beyond Here Is Nothing is focused on the home life. Through the book it shows El-Tantawy’s journey to reach a tranquil state of mind and her personal experience growing up in contrasting cultures. Her photos explores the unsettling feeling of rootlessness, the mental burden of loneliness and the constant search for belonging in unfamiliar places. The use of words and images the book reveals itself “a living object harmonising with time.” With the over laying photos it displays a mirror of dispositions.
The photobook is a mixed of colourful images with black and white ones too in an A5 square shape book and overlapping pages from the top, left and right. It has a hard cover swiss with an image wrap on the cover and different images on each side of the cover. Throughout the book there are different sentences on plain pages such as “I am lonely sounds like the most sinful confession to make.” Or paragraphs discussing her childhood. All images are full size on single pages that don’t overlap onto other pages.
This is a photo series between 2009 and 2014 from her personal archives. Bénitah was trying to create a dream album where she looks at the idea of the ideal family looking at the themes of memory and loss. The stitches ressemble the conflict, drama and pain of family history that is absent from the images.
The photobook has a mix of black and white images and colour images. Carolle Bénitah worked into the images with stitching which adds texture but not physically because it is her images printed in the book. The book it self is roughly A4 and the images range in size and orientation. The book is a hardcover and has been binded using perfect binding which is when the binding is hidden by the cover using glue and stitching. The cover is made of card and has a single graphic image that wraps around the book and the title of the book is embossed on the front. The title is literal as it is her family’s’ photo souvenirs.
Photos from Photos Souvenirs:
Pomplondin
A la plage, 2009 – at the beach
La Cicatrice – The scar
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
The story seems to be about her family and is told by using old images from her own families’ archive and she has manipulated them by sewing into them, adding a new narrative or adding to the current story/memory told in the image.
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
Throughout the book most images are single page images and often there is one image on one page then a blank page next to it. Some pages consist of a double page spread image that has been sliced in half horizontally taking up half the double page or a spilt in colour, for example white at the top and red at the bottom.
Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
The images follow a journey of her life from daughter to wife to mother, telling the story of Carolle Bénitah.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.)
There is no introduction before the images start in the book. Majority of the images in the photobook do not have any texts linked to them but there is a couple which have texts that Carolle Bénitah embroidered into the images (shown below).
il ne dit pas – he doesn’t say
Demeler le faux du vrai – to sort the lies from the truth
At the end of the book there is one final image which consists of a picture of two frames one with her and her son and the other being her parents with the text, “a mon fils” and “a mes parents” which translates to for my son and for my parents which tells us the book is dedicated to them.
The statement at the end of the book is a summary of what Benitah wanted to portray in the photobook.
Carolle Bénitah was born in Casablanca, she now lives and works in Marseille. Bénitah was a fashion designer before becoming a photographer in 2001, she incorporates sewing and beading into her photography. She often explores the themes of memory, family, desire, loss, mourning and time. in her work.
“I started photography when the fragile dimension of life imposed itself on me and functioned as an existential crutch. Faced with a reality difficult to apprehend”
-Carolle Bénitah
The Photobook Photos Souvenirs is based on her memories of her Moroccan childhood, reinterpreting her own history as a daughter, wife and mother by manipulating images from her own personal archives using embroidery to create an album. She uses the slow and precise process of embroidery as a metaphor of time passing by, and to create designs that break the happiness in the images and deconstruct the myth of an ideal family.
“To embroider my photograph, I make holes in the paper. With each stitch, I stick the needle through the paper. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It is like an exorcism. I stab the paper until I don’t hurt anymore.”
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