Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .

• 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, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.

Essay Question

• Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
• Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.

possible-essay-questions-to-investigate

Some examples of Personal Study essays from previous students:

Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure

• Essay question:

How have concepts of childhood, loss and memory been explored in the photo books of Yury Toropstov and Laia Abril?

In what wat is identity and autobiography expressed in the work of Chino Otsuka and Tom Hunter?

In what way does Justine Kurland and Michelle Sank explore youth and femininity through their work?

To what extend is autobiography explored in the work of Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence?

• 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. 
• 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 –

Wells L. (1998). ‘The Photographic Gaze’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.

Kelly, A. (1998). ‘Self Image: Personal is Political’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.

Jansen, C. (2017). Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. London: Laurence King Publishing

Goldberg, J. (5 `May 2005) A Completely True Work of Fiction: Jim Goldberg’s Raised By Wolves. Magnum Photos: (https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/jim-goldberg-raised-by-wolves/). [Accessed Date Accessed]

Goldberg, J. (2 June 2021). Fingerprint: Tracing the Roots of Jim Goldberg’s Raised by Wolves. Magnum Photos: (https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/fingerprint-tracing-roots-jim-goldbergs-raised-by-wolves/) [Accessed Date Accessed]

Jim Goldberg – Coming and Going

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/01/jim-goldberg-magnum-photographer-coming-and-going-book-raised-by-wolves-interview

Bull, S. (2009), ‘Phototherapy: The Family Album and Beyond‘ in Photography. London: Routledge.

Kuhn, A. ‘Remembrance: The Child I Never Was’ in Wells, L. (ed) (2003) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge

Martin, R and Spence, J. (2002) ‘Photo-Therapy: Psychic Realism as a healing art’ in Well, L. The Photography Reader. London: Routledge.

Jo Spence Memorial Library. London: Birkbeck: University of London.

Dennett, T. (2008): Jo Spence’s camera therapy: personal therapeutic photography as a response to adversity European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling (Volume 11, 2009 – Issue 1: Phototheraphy and Therapeutic Photography)

Heath, C. (2017). Work, Politics, Survival, British Journal of Photography

Weiser, J. (2005) Remembering Jo Spence: A Brief Personal and Professional Memoir… PhotoTherapy Centre

Jansen, C. (2020) Is Photography An Effective Form of Therapy? Elephant

Dennett, T. (2013). ‘Jo Spence’s Family Album’ in Family Politics, Issue 20. Brighton: Photoworks

Essay writing: Here is a link to another blog post which will provide you with guideline about how to structure each paragraph in your essay.

ESSAY WRITING

Essay introduction (draft)

To what extend is autobiography explored in the work of Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence?

Opening quote: use something Goldberg or Spence has said from any of the key text in your bibliography

Autobiography, as a theme in contemporary art, allows artists to reflect on and question the intersection of personal experience with broader social, political, and cultural contexts. In the work of photographers Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence, autobiography is explored not merely as a form of self-reflection but as a tool for social critique and identity construction. While both artists engage deeply with their personal lives, their approaches diverge significantly in terms of methodology, subject matter, and intent. Goldberg’s work blends documentary photography with personal narrative, using text to reveal the intimate relationships between himself and his subjects, thus embedding his autobiography within a larger social commentary on class, power, and marginalization. On the other hand, Jo Spence’s autobiographical exploration is overt and personal, often focusing on her own body and health, particularly through her struggle with breast cancer. Spence uses photography as a means of self-representation and self-exploration, engaging in a performative act of reclaiming her identity in the face of illness and societal expectations. This essay will examine how Goldberg and Spence each explore autobiography in their work, considering the ways in which they both navigate the personal and the political, and how their approaches contribute to a broader conversation about the role of the self in art.

My area of study is into identity, mainly focusing on how you can present yourself differently to everyone and looking into the anxieties of a teenage girl, especially in my life.

I will be analysing Jim Goldberg and Jo spence in this essay, I am looking into them as they also do a lot on identity. Jim Goldberg mainly as a child, and jo spence into womanhood, I also like their creative aspects to their photography that I hope to also use. I will be responding to their work by making some similar photos which I will later use as a comparison, i will the respond to this essay question by first giving my introduction on them both, then having a paragraph each to how autobiography is especially explored in both their work, then maybe having paragraphs on similarities and differences and finish with a conclusion.

Essay Paragraph 1 (draft)

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. 

The primary theme jotted down in a life writing is to give life and include autobiographical statements on photography works done by Jim Goldberg and Jo Spence and the general drift in photography and visual culture towards the personal narrative and subjective experience. During the 1970s and 1980s, the artists’ practices were largely identified with the postmodernists, who were always critiquing the aspect of objectivity and universal truth within the realm of art. Photographs as self testaments through Rich and Poor (Goldberg 1985) or through The Picture of Health? (Spence 1982-86) reveal photography as a medium to discuss identity, class, and the politics of representation. “I was politicized by my own experiences. I use photography as a means of exposing and dealing with the hidden politics of everyday life, including my own.” – Jo Spence. While both referring to the traditions of documentary photography and conceptual art, they interrogate the power relations in image-making, reminiscent of what theorists wrote about photography claiming neutrality and truth. This is because by integrating a handwritten text with the portrait, Goldberg found an interpretative space within which to situate both image and subject, while including genealogies of feminist critique and psychoanalysis in an autobiographical view, drawing a portrait of many critical experiences in the lives of these authors. “My work is a collaboration with the people I photograph. Their words, their voices, are as important as the image itself.” – Jim Goldberg. In other words, both artists, through their personal experiences, render the self an object of contestation, critique, and ultimately, alternative approaches to autobiographical writing in visual culture challenge the traditional narratives surrounding it. This personal-contextualization is what then situates their work in the line of a socially engaged art: in history, using methodologies adopted by historians and critics that value context and ideology over form.