The photographic works Gentlemen (1981-1983) photographed in English gentlemen’s clubs in Saint James’ in central London consider the patriarchal values of the English upper middle classes with text constructed out of speeches of parliament and news. A series of 26 images and texts investigate the values that ally these classes to conservative aristocratic values where primogeniture is still an issue. Until the early 1970’s a married women still needed her husband’s endorsement for any household purchases. Whilst women now have full property rights, they still remain under-represented in key positions of governance and in financial and academic worlds. It is still a boys club in which some women are honorary members.
I wanted to make work that used humour to explore attitudes prevalent amongst the English establishment in the 1980’s. Despite being Prime Minister and head of the Conservative party, Margaret Thatcher as a woman was not allowed full membership at the Conservative Gentlemen’s club ‘The Carlton'. Old Etonians, like the present leader of the opposition David Cameron, still belong to such Gentlemen’s clubs. It is in these clubs that behind the scene influence is still used to influence politics and business.
I wanted to make work that used humour to explore attitudes prevalent amongst the English establishment in the 1980’s. Despite being Prime Minister and head of the Conservative party, Margaret Thatcher as a woman was not allowed full membership at the Conservative Gentlemen’s club ‘The Carlton'. Old Etonians, like the present leader of the opposition David Cameron, still belong to such Gentlemen’s clubs. It is in these clubs that behind the scene influence is still used to influence politics and business.
William Eggleston
Photographer
William Eggleston, is an American photographer. He is widely credited with increasing recognition for color photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display in art galleries
Jo spence - beyond the family album
'My entire life seems to have been founded on conflict. Both within my family and through wider social contexts, it felt as if there were a continual war going on just beneath the surface, threatening to break out if certain rituals were not observed.'
In collaboration with Terry Dennett, Belfast Exposed Photography exhibited Jo Spence's seminal work on domestic photography, Beyond the Family Album, and other work on representations of family relations.
Spence described Beyond the Family Album as a work-in-progress aiming 'to better understand how, through visual forms of representation, our subjective views of selves, and others, are structured and held across the institutions of media, and through hierarchical social relationships.'
Spence identified popular photography as the complex site of ideological negotiation between family, class, gender and social life. She emphasised the need for a 'counter-photography' of the family, one that breaks with the strict conventions of popular photography, to portray a more realistic representation of family life. She critiqued how most family photography is reduced to a limited set of typifying narratives and how much of what constitutes family life remains undocumented. She advocated collaboration between participants, willing to engage with questions of sexuality and family relations.
Lydia Goldblatt
Photographing dyeing dad and the effects of his illness
Jon Crispin
When Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane in New York state closed in 1995, hundreds of suitcases from past residents were found, some dating back to the early 20th century. Inside the suitcases were all manner of things from sewing and shaving kits to photographs and letters, many never posted. Long drawn to the ghostly atmosphere of abandoned psychiatric institutions, photographer Jon Crispin has been documenting the suitcases, which are now held in the collection of the New York State Museum.
In collaboration with Terry Dennett, Belfast Exposed Photography exhibited Jo Spence's seminal work on domestic photography, Beyond the Family Album, and other work on representations of family relations.
Spence described Beyond the Family Album as a work-in-progress aiming 'to better understand how, through visual forms of representation, our subjective views of selves, and others, are structured and held across the institutions of media, and through hierarchical social relationships.'
Spence identified popular photography as the complex site of ideological negotiation between family, class, gender and social life. She emphasised the need for a 'counter-photography' of the family, one that breaks with the strict conventions of popular photography, to portray a more realistic representation of family life. She critiqued how most family photography is reduced to a limited set of typifying narratives and how much of what constitutes family life remains undocumented. She advocated collaboration between participants, willing to engage with questions of sexuality and family relations.
Lydia Goldblatt
Photographing dyeing dad and the effects of his illness
Jon Crispin
When Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane in New York state closed in 1995, hundreds of suitcases from past residents were found, some dating back to the early 20th century. Inside the suitcases were all manner of things from sewing and shaving kits to photographs and letters, many never posted. Long drawn to the ghostly atmosphere of abandoned psychiatric institutions, photographer Jon Crispin has been documenting the suitcases, which are now held in the collection of the New York State Museum.
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