Feedback from J. Sybylla Smith 9th December 2021
During the initial lockdown here in New Zealand I had been pointed in the direction of J Sybylla Smith and her photobook conversations and I wrote about a number that I attended during BoW but I also attended her discussion with Donna Ferrato ‘Holy’ [https://www.jsybyllasmith.com/know-about/donna-ferrato accessed February 2021], a very personal project covering violence towards women. The images were/are extremely raw and passionate and deeply moving.
I also follow Smith on social media and so when ‘Black Friday’ offered a deal to procure an hour review I took the opportunity and booked a time. This would be a zoom session and to say I was a little nervous was an understatement. I had expected to send through my work and questions prior but there was no opportunity to do this, but I prepared my portfolio and questions well in advance and waited for the allotted time.
The meeting started with me giving a brief overview of myself, where I was on my journey as a photographer, the degree and then the project and the questions I really wanted answering. I’m so glad I had the hour despite the cost as the time just seemed to go so fast. It was a good job I recorded the discussion (well had a few technical issues and managed to only record her voice and not mine!) as there were so many comments:
- Good composition and sequencing of the images that works well;
- There’s a lovely dialogue between the use of the black and white images and the those of colour, there is a flow without any jarring;
- A clear sense of rural and living from the land and sea;
- There’s a feeling of domesticity, but style within the homes of these women;
- I’m left with a large number of questions, how? why? where?
- Some form of sound scape from the location would work well, this would help engage with the location more, think about the tractors, sea, elements such as the wind, surf;
- There is a contradiction of the rural environment and then the images that include fine china;
- There isn’t a strong feeling of manliness from the images and maybe this needs to be explored more if that is your aim;
- There is such a juxtaposition between the environment and the beauty of their homes;
- What is the glue here? What’s keeping it all together?
- The text spoke of your approach and the community and that came across in the images but what are the social constructs?
- You have bought the viewer into this community with these images but I need to know more, how was it formed or how does it sustain itself? There is a clear age gap between these women how is that addressed? I’m left with too many questions;
- I’m interested in how they accepted you as a photographer, what was their understanding?
- I think you need to explore your own experience of when you were taking these images;
- You have a lot of work that engages the viewer and you have highlighted a number of tensions;
- There are layers to this that deal with domesticity, creating beauty and home;
- What you are presenting is respectful and engaging, but I feel that you are just giving the viewer interesting and beautiful photographs, but I want to know about is the 39 residents, these women, their life, otherwise it’s just another story about a seaside place. I feel you are getting something else, but you are not giving it to the viewer;
- Look at the work by Odette England (see below);
- What is your way into this community? There is something that needs to be questioned here?
- What is the entry point? You have engaged with empathy, but you need to show the different cultural aspects between what has been read/heard and what is seen and lived. You seem to have already been searching for evidence of this;
- Expose the contradictions that are respectful but also real;
- You say the women are the glue to this community but how/why/in what ways?
- These people are living on the edge, there is a feeling of the conceptual understanding from our conversation; but this needs to be shown in your images;
- You gained the trust of these people and you show that in the images, but I’m struggling with what you want to say. You need to infuse your heart and soul into the project. You have it but you project doesn’t yet. The missing piece is you, your reaction to the work, without that the project is about the images and not the community;
- There is a timidness in the presentation, there’s too much that isn’t being shown, your voice needs to be in the work;
- Sound would help, but it’s you that’s missing.
Reflection and Research on Feedback
I have to admit that I was so glad I recorded this session – even with the technical issues of only recording her side of the conversation it was of value to revisit the session to just capture all the points raised. The one point that stuck with me following the session and after listening to it again was the comment of ‘where is your voice in this?’ My aim with this project was one of an observer, to capture the essence of this rural community, to show to New Zealand that yes there are issues around mental health and these need to be addressed but here in this remote corner of the world is this small group of women holding it together through thick and thin. That have the strength to go about living and working without show, without social media ratings and expensive handbags.
I’m glad that the mix of black and white and colour seem to work, however from a number of the comments I may need to consider how I follow the maleness through the book either in the page design or within the layout. I liked the idea Helen Warburton suggested around texture and page colour to represent the male v female and think that I need to produce a series of different drafts to see the results – experiment with my voice.
The questions Sybylla had around the location, history working life will be addressed in the text that I have been working on with Jim Graydon the author of ‘On the Edge’. The book was a strong influence in this project. I do however need to address the issue around isolation and show this more I think. Following a discussion with some fellow students (Rest of World Group and L3 Support Group) I plan to return to Ngawi and go with a plan to shoot images that reflect isolation.
The suggestion to include sound has been raised before during both peer and professional reviews in BoW and following my initial discussions at the start of this course. My intension was never to make this an audio/visual display but that of prints and a book. The production of the video was purely due to the COVID situation around the world and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to send physical copies of the book or prints for assessment. As the direction for assessment now seems to be fully digital then this may need further investigation and on the return trip to undertake new images, I could also capture the sound of the place.
Following this and the review by Helen Warburton and other students I think I need to keep getting reviews and experiments more with the layout, textures and directing this towards the final submission. What will that look like, book? Prints? Exhibition?
Odette England
As suggested I reviewed the conversation between J Sybylla Smith and Odette England [https://www.jsybyllasmith.com/know-about/odette-england-dairy-character accessed 11/12/21] and conducted some additional research around the project ‘Dairy Character’ (2020). This project was over ten years in the making but just twelve months to finally design and print. Why you ask? Well she had been gathering images for that period of time, the last five of which were of her daughter without really a theme or idea in mind, she just knew that by keeping these images on the wall and adding to them the penny would finally drop into place. That penny took the form of a trip back to Australia and the family farm and the discovery of an old farming manual that once belonged to her father.
The manual was a guide to a confirmation assessment – a term used by farmers to describe and assess the physicality of dairy cows. England found that the images were “nasty dot-grained, black-and-white photographs of cows” which focused on their udders, vaginas, legs and rumps. The manual included text to describe the animals used terms that are “sexist, derogatory, and similar to the language used in pornography. ‘That’s it!’” says England. “That’s the thing that anchors all of this work I’ve been making.” (1854 Photography 2021) and so the project fell into place.
Her book consists of images from the manual, archive images from her childhood and those images of her daughter. The work has been described as uncomfortable and suggests a ‘reductive way of seeing both cows and women’ and a kind of objectification of women. As she goes on say in the 1854 interview:
“The ways in which cows are presented in this manual is very invasive,” says England. “They focus on the parts of the body that relate to production and reproduction, and the parts that aren’t as interesting are removed. You very rarely see photographs of the head or face in any way. When I’ve been photographing my daughter, I’ve been thinking about how the rest of the body is cut off, and I’ve thought a lot about what it means to hide the face.
I can understand why Smith suggested I look at this work. There are strong similarities between the communities, both are remote, male dominated physical environments where the men do that hard labour and the women are there to make the home and produce. In England’s work the language is based around cows in mine it’s the cray industry. In both very few women survive the conditions and are expected to make do and not speak out.
The use of archive manual images against the softer ones of her daughter are confronting and highlights her point of objectification, but this wasn’t my aim. Mine was to show the strength of these women despite the male influences. I didn’t grow up in this country so I don’t have the same experiences as England and so I can only ever be an observer, but what I can do, is to try and show their strength and determination and the trust they placed in me to do them justice.
Bibliography
Accessed 16th December 2021
https://www.1854.photography/2021/04/odette-england-dairy-character/
Michele Usher 