┐ Davide Maione └

© Davide Maione, Reaching

© Davide Maione, Beaten (left) and Appeal (right), from Outlines and Annotations

© Davide Maione, What it takes to keep a young girl alive

“What It Takes to Keep a Young Girl Alive is a diptych of photographs that takes its title from a short story by Jayne Anne Phillips. Whilst being the departing point for creating a link between portraiture, narrative and performance, Phillips’ short story functions as fictional milieu for exploring notions of selfhood and subjectivity.

The diptych seizes on the very essence of Phillips’ story: the repetitive gestures of menial labour, the dead end job when there should be a future and the withdrawal from public space to avoid being looked at.

The juxtaposition of the title of the story with the spare photographs succinctly suggests a life of meagre means and a metaphorical expression of a banal and yet tragic predicament. The young girl in the photograph counts and marks the days in the manner of a prisoner. And yet as she does so, she also creates a picture out of the blank wall -perhaps an answer to what could be a question: ‘What does it take to keep a young girl alive?”

More of David’s work here

┐ Samuel Fosso └

© Samuel Fosso,La Bourgeoise, From the Series TA, 2007

© Samuel Fosso, Self-Portrait (as Liberated American Woman of the ’70s), 2007

“In every photograph the beautiful Fosso is subject, object and creator. Occasionally he includes other people, but their posture and placement relegates them to a secondary position. In one stagy, understated and slightly bizarre image, for example, Fosso, in large sunglasses autographs a book for an anonymous man, who inclines deferentially towards him. In other photographs, like an indifferent, latter-day and urbanised Narcissus, he’s pictured sitting or standing with himself through the magic of a double exposure. The shallow depth of the studio is transformed with flowers, cane furniture and patterned cloth into a parody of a genteel boudoir. Unlike Narcissus, however, it’s impossible to separate the reflected Fosso from the original – like a happily married couple, one ‘self’ co-habits comfortably with the other. It’s interesting to compare these double images with 19th- and early 20th-century ‘before-and-after conversion’ double-portrait photographs distributed by European missionaries as proof of their ‘civilising’ influence on various African colonies. Fosso’s playful fragmentation of the self-portrait creates a clever counterpoint to the continent’s history of photographic colonialism, a form of aesthetic Euro-centrism, which reduced indigenous cultural and social complexities to convenient one-liners.

(…)

Fosso’s combination of a secretive, almost child-like delight in dressing up, doubling and role playing, reiterates the idea that the self is somehow more than simply the sum of one’s more obvious parts. The mocking, secretive self-consciousness, and restless self-absorption of adolescence represented in these images makes them extraordinarily compelling. It’s this exploration of the slippage between personality and type, disguise and displacement that links his work to many of the theoretical and aesthetic issues that concerned photographers in the late 70s and 80s – Cindy Sherman’s ‘Untitled Film Stills’ series, made at around the same time, most obviously springs to mind. Her work has a similarly anti-naturalistic, theatrical quality, that is more about the anticipation, or creation, of meaning than it is about the stating of concrete truths. Photography for both Fosso and Sherman is a medium they can trust to reflect reality’s vicissitudes precisely because they know how appropriately fallible, how malleable it can be.”

excerpt from article by Jennifer Higgie

┐ Ugnius Gelguda └

© Ugnius Gelguda, Solvita and Ieva, from the series Living Together, 2004

© Ugnius Gelguda, Edijs and Madarafrom, the series Living Together, 2004

“The series of these photos tends to question the conception of a contemporary family, the integration of nontraditional families into society, the attitudes and the habits of judgement in society itself. Photographies are being supplemented with textual comments by families which took part in the project. The project has been held in Lithuania and Latvia in 2004 and lots of families were involved. The Lithuanian families with nontraditional sexual orientation refused to take part in the project because of the rough manifestations of homophobia and intolerance to the ‘different’ in our country.”

Ugnius’ work here and here

┐ Alena Zhandarova └

© Alena Zhandarova, Untitled, from the project Cornflower tea and chocolate

© Alena Zhandarova, Untitled, from the project Cornflower tea and chocolate

This series can be seen here

┐ Jo Spence #2 └

© Jo Spence, Untitled, from the series In the Picture of Health, 1982-1986

© Jo Spence, Revisualization, from the series Remodeling Photo History, 1982

┐ Hannah Wilke #2 └

© Hannah Wilke, Brestplate, 1981

© Hannah Wilke, Self-portrait with floer, c.1958 and Hannah and Chaya, 1984

┐ Erin └

© Erin, Perspective, from the series Self portrait Heaven and Hell

© Erin, Brace yourself, from the series Self portrait Heaven and Hell

More of Erin’s work here

┐ Laurence Demaison └

© Laurence Demaison, Bobine n°1, from the series Bobines, 2007

© Laurence Demaison, Photographie n°15, 2005

“The photographic work of Laurence Demaison is exclusively made of self-portraits. Since 1994, she has made of her body and her face the subjects and the objects of the photographic exploration to which she is dedicated with obstinacy. Through the various series, she tries out the means which photography offers to dissimulate, to transform, to deteriorate her own image. There is in her work, a sensitive and singular course, almost obsessional. And her steps are perhaps a lucid and reflected search for identity whose complexity is only a sequence of questions which Laurence Demaison is asking herself. She maintains an attraction-repulsion to her own body which generates a strange fascination in the spectator.”

Robert Delpire, source: Galerie Esther Woerdehoff

More of Laurence’s work here

┐ Katharina Bosse └

© Katharina Bosse, Untitled, from the series A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mother, 2004-2009

© Katharina Bosse, Untitled, from the series A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mother, 2004-2009

“After living in New York for six years, I moved to Germany and became pregnant. Nothing in my career as a photographer and artist had prepared me for this experience. Not only were the physical demands of carrying and caring for the babies demanding. It was a forced change from everything I had learned so far: individuality, ambition and workaholism. I felt like a teenager again, changing rapidly into a new person, not knowing the outcome. I started to look for articles, and images about this process and found lots of advice, but very few actual descriptions of the unsettling shift in identity I was experiencing. And so, over the course of four years, I brought to life two children and eight photographs. I felt compelled to undress (or dress up) and create images of motherhood I had not seen before. I gave up control of the shutter release, and got in front of the camera to extract a knowledge only my body could tell.”

More of Katharina’s work here

┐ Vibeke Tandberg └

© Vibeke Tandberg, Untitled (Tears), from the series A piece of me, 2008

© Vibeke Tandberg, Untitled (Scribble), from the series A piece of me, 2008

More of Vibeke’s work here

┐ Aglaé Bory └

© Aglaé Bory, Untitled, from the series Corrélations, 2006-09

© Aglaé Bory, Untitled, from the series Corrélations, 2006-09

«Corrélations is a series of photographs which portray the daily life of a woman living alone with her child throughout several years during different seasons. Each picture depicts a moment, an interaction, between the little girl and her mother. As they are self-portraits, there is no spontaneity in the photographs, they are all set up and very organized. The shutter release is held in my hand, visible to the spectator in order to indicate the shooting moment, The decisive moment. Even if the photographs seem very silent, they reveal the bond that exists between a mother and her child. The beautiful enigma of the immutable bond. They also reveal the hard task of being alone with a child, the elsewhere, the outside, the World and the invisible solitude that we barely mention. Love. I wanted to show all those little intimate and harmless things that we are repeating everyday and which we like to call life… I felt the need to photograph them in order to be displayed, to be seen and to be looked upon as an attempt to file time. The time of this woman with her child. Women’s time… »

Aglaé’s work can be seen here

║ Andrej Balco ║

© Andrej Balco, from the series Domesticas, 2007

Edgar Peixoto [49 years old] – HOUSEHOLD SERVANT | Sluha
My dream is to see my children graduated. I started to work when I was 8 years old.
Lily Marinho [86 years old]
Total protection for children and the elderly. The discovery of medicines to cure illnesses that kill thousands of people, and the disappearance of hunger which causes so much grievousness to humanity. I don‘t consider what I do as tiring work. On the contrary, it gives me the pleasure of being with people who show solidarity with the work of helping forsaken infants and with cultural activities

“The portraits of Brazilian domestic servants confront both, master and servant, two environments and two characters, the world of reality and dreams. In many of the photographs it’s as if a dividing line has emerged, separating the two very different lives. A sensitive and deep portrayal of the relations with respect to those being photographed emerged, even though Balco’s sense of humor, exaggeration, and even sarcasm are on display. The portraits impress with their dignity and are at the same time monumental. The selected photographs are connected to stories, acquainting us with two different worlds: the luxury of the middle class and the common Latin-American standard, many times interwoven with compositions from life on the street. The detailed severely posed en face portraits are compiled into triptychs where selected “work“ surroundings supplement the confrontation of the master and the servant.”
Lucia Benická, June 2008

A pdf with the complete project can be found here
And Andrej’s website here

 

║ Verónika Márquez ║

© Verónika Márquez, Untitled, from the series Camila

© Verónika Márquez, Untitled, from the series Camila

information on this work can be seen here
More of Veronika’s work here

║ Arantxa Boyero ║

© Arantxa Boyero, Moixa, from the series Wild flowers, 2009/10

© Arantxa Boyero, Bugambilia, from the series Wild flowers, 2009/10

More of Arantxa’s work can be seen here

║ David Favrod ║

© David Favrod, Untitled, from the series Gaijin, 2009

© David Favrod, Untitled, from the series Gaijin, 2009

“It is from this feeling of rejection and also from a desire to prove that I am as Japanese as I am Swiss that this work was created. “Gaijin” is a fictional narrative, a tool for my quest for identity, where self-portraits imply an intimate and solitary relationship that I have with myself. The mirror image is frozen in a figurative alter ego that serves as an anchor point.”

excerpt from statement

To see more of David’s work click here

║ Amélie Chassary & Lucie Belarbi ║

© Amélie Chassary & Lucie Belarbi, La table, from the series Huis-clos, 2010

© Amélie Chassary & Lucie Belarbi, Le lit, from the series Huis-clos, 2010

More of Amélie’s work can be seen here

║ Thorsten Brinkmann ║

© Thorsten Brinkmann, Streefkerk, Berta von Schwarzflug, from the series Portraits of a Serialsammler, 2010

© Thorsten Brinkmann, Streefkerk, Venus del Whitespitz, from the series Portraits of a Serialsammler, 2008

“Enter Thorsten Brinkmann. Here is the confident hand of someone who knows the joke, knows just how to tell it, and, best of all, knows that there is something more to the story than just an easy laugh. Added to the mix is the fact that all the jokes are at his expense since every photo is a self-portrait. Thorsten Brinkmann creates environments. He goes out to the junkyards, flea markets, and dumpsters of the world to find the materials for his art. With those materials he builds walls, floors, objets, and furniture; the full contents of a scavenger’s apartment. Of course every apartment needs something on the walls, so he hangs pictures of himself covered with more of the junk trouvé. Of course, the backdrops for the photos are created environments as well. A mirror in a mirror in a…..

(…)

Brinkmann’s photos poke fun at himself and at these traditions. Yet the joke comes right back at us since he is upholstered behind what we have thrown away. The garish colors, cheap patterns, and texture of “real” vinyl contradict the luxe and private world that portraits like this usually reveal. Far from the castles and mansions that are haunted by portraits posed just like this, Brinkmann shows us ourselves as well. His wit is on display when he obscures himself behind the cast-off material of a consumer society. But behind the wit lies a dead on comment about dignity and individualism. The wit is just the camouflaged skin of a predator poised to go for the kill.”

essay by Evan Mirapaul

More of Thorsten’s work can be seen here

║ Kimiko Yoshida ║

© Kimiko Yoshida, Minotaur by Picasso, from the series Painting, self portraits, 2007-09

© Kimiko Yoshida, Laughing girl by Vermeer, from the series Painting, self portraits, 2007-09

More of Kimiko’s work can be seen here

║ Hasan & Husain Essop ║

© Hasan & Husain Essop, Feeding Scheme, from the series Halaal Art, 2009

© Hasan & Husain Essop, Cape Town (South Africa), from the series Halaal Art, 2009

“Our work questions global and local hegemonies. We explore the influence of Western popular culture and the distorting effects it has on existing religions and cultures. Internal conflicts are expressed through performance.

Most importantly, our work originates from a history that is confined to a specific area, a faith that is universally shared and a critical understanding of the media and modern technology.

As twin brothers we share an identity, a personality and a family. This unique bond that we share enables us to confront and address similarities and differences within a personal and a global context and open up debate around religious, cultural and social correspondences and conflicts.’ (August 2008)

On using their own image in their works: ‘This is our experience. We don’t want to make an objective statement. We don’t want to put words in other people’s mouths. This is how we see the clash between east and west, which exists simultaneously in our bodies. It’s our struggle’. (Hasan Essop, in conversation with Yazeed Kamaldien)”

More of Hasan & Hussain’s work can be seen here

║ Denise Grünstein ║

© Denise Grünstein, Inside looking out, Outside looking in, from the series Figure Out, 2009

© Denise Grünstein, from the series Figure Out, 2009

More of Denise’s work can be found here

║ Lisa Klasptock ║

© Lisa Klapstock, Beige sofa, from the series Living room, 2004

© Lisa Klapstock, Yellow armchair, from the series Living room, 2000

“Since 1998, I have been developing a body of work shot exclusively in laneways around my neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. The laneway is a discrete and relatively uncontrolled urban space where the boundary between public and private realms is mutable. The mutability of thresholds separating public and private space creates an uneasy, but potent ambiguity. A garage door opens and becomes a window into another space that opens into yet another, the backyard. The garage becomes public when the door is raised; or conversely the laneway is privatized as this domain, with its contents and occupants, expands into the lane. My presence as a photographer is largely unwelcome in the laneway, and I am often made to feel as though I am trespassing.

Living Room is a performative occupation of this public place. Encased in protective paper coveralls, I seat myself, uninvited, on a stranger’s discarded furniture, and make a record.

Each image in the series is a unique size. The size is determined by the scale of the figure, which remains identical in every portrait. In this work, I am interested in drawing attention to the act of composing within the camera. I am also interested in subverting the convention of traditional photographic taxonomies that present a suite of images of identical size and scale.

The Living Room images are presented in a white frame that works like a window architrave, framing a view onto the photographed space. In this work, the frame, like the photographic image itself, serves to further ‘domesticate’ the laneway.”

artist’s statement

More of Lisa’s work here

║ Janieta Eyre ║

© Janieta Eyre, Motherhood, from the series Motherhood

© Janieta Eyre, Two pages from my diary, from the series Lady Lazarus

“Speaking of photographs of racing horses, Rodin once said ‘It is the artist who is truthful and the camera that lies because, in reality; time does not stand still”. When Janieta Eyre states that “The media and photography have something in common: they are both more fiction than fact” she is reaffirming Rodin’s reasoning in an up-to-date way. She is also confirming that, despite appearances, she is the heir to a tradition that is far older than is usually realised. In the by now enormous flood of hooks and articles dedicated to the transvestite and misc en scene practices that have recently swept the world of visual arts, above all photography, their origins have often been forgotten. These are to be found in the practitioners of what might be called artistic photography during its greatest period, from Rejlander to Julia Margaret Cameron whose model Mary Hillier was transformed so often into the Virgin Mary as to merit the nickname of Mary Madonna: not bad for faking reality given we are dealing with a modest servant in Cameron’s household.

So the roots of a tendency to counterfeit or reinvent reality in a theatrical way are to be found -not just for Pyre but for Sherman, Ontaili and others – within this tradition (and we should not forget that, both at the beginning and at the end of the century, this involved photography’s emulation of painting: first in order to acquire artistic dignity and later to reaffirm the centrality it had by now gained) Yet if her roots are to be found in this tradition it is also true that Pyre’s work is substantially different just as her results are different, above all because in the meantime some very powerful artists have tackled these themes and have provided further areas for exploration: just think of Ralph Fugene Meatyard’s fundamental The Family Album at Lucybell Grater or of the early self-portraits of Urs Luthi, even though an abyss separates the two artists (both of whom were, significantly, born at the beginning of the Sixties). Furthermore Lyre, born in London in the mid-sixties and now working in Canada, has a markedly different sensibility (and perhaps I should also mention here that the apparently realistic images off the wall are also the result of manipulation as well as being staged).

Above all this sensibility of hers has developed from a cool mixture of high and low culture where allusions to the painting of the past are as frequent as those to cartoons, where Alice in Wonderland refers not only to the book by Carroll (one of Cameron’s circle of photographers, amongst other things) but to the Walt Disney cartoon film, where Greenaway can mix with Waters’ Pink Flamingos with a nod to Fellini’s Casanova along the way, and all giving life to a wealth of images deviated and deviant with respect to the usual pathos of artistic influences. It is not by chance that this also occurs in the most recent series by Tracey Moffatt who crosses Quinta del Sordo with Fantasia. (…)”

Essay by Walter Cuadagnini. To continue reading click here

More of Janieta’s work can be seen here