For this exercise, we are asked to go to Nigel Shafran’s website and look at his series Washing-up as well as his other work.  Shafran’s Washing-up project can be seen here.  The course book talks about the captions that accompany the images in this series, Shafran’s website is royally useless as it does not contain the caption, which are really fundamental to understanding the work – or they are in my opinion. I have done some searching and I have found 3 images with a caption that I have created into a gallery here for casual viewers to understand, although I suspect the assessors and my tutor know this work like the back of their hands.

Did it surprise you that this was taken by a man? Why?

It’s a cultural perception that many of us have grown up with – that men don’t do housework, that cooking and dishes are women’s work. This was never the case in the household I grew up in, nor when I lived in a domestic partnership and as I am now living alone it would be downright impossible as I would just end up living in squalor if I didn’t do these things . Unfortunately there are many household the world over where this perception is still very much alive and well. So does this image surprise me that it authored by a man? No, but not because I have grown up doing the washing up but because it a very male thing to the do record what they do. When I read the captions I see that they possible taken buy man who suddenly found himself in the more domestic of the role in a household and decided to record it.

In your opinion does gender contribute to the creation of an image?

Of course. Men and women see things differently and even if they both photograph the same subject, the end result would look completely different as a result of their different points of view and perceptions. This does challenge feminism in some way but that not the intent. In general, men photographers are more reluctant to show their own image in their pictures – I know I am. Is this motivated by the influence of Western Culture, where the female figure is notoriously more represented in art than the male body? “active looking has been accorded to the male spectator ‘Woman’ becomes the object of his gaze.” (Wells, p.326). This no doubt must influence male photographer, who are influenced old stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity. In my last module Introduction to Film Culture I read a lot about gender and gender representation – what I too form that is that sex is binary, the gender traits we portray are and should be more fluid due to the influences on us from our environment and the modern world is happening more. Shafran’s work echoes to me of a modern man starting to go through this process – he is becoming more domestic but still wants to retain the tradition male matter of fact-ness.

What does this series achieve by not including people?

A mystery created in this series by not featuring people. Even without referring to the captions ( which I feel really are needed for to understand the piece) I am intrigued by the ever-changing scenario around the sink; the variation from natural light to fluorescent or tungsten leaves little clues as to the time of day and therefore meals the washing up is from.

The captions like “16th March 2000. 1.30pm Second photograph of the day. Breakfast crumpets and tea [mine with cottage cheese and honey, Ruth’s with Marmite with Jose and Claudio who I think washed-up]” add a different dimension.  Yes, we are given a description of the meal that we can wonder about, but the caption are so matter-of-fact you know they are from a male. Therefore, you start to wonder why on earth is he taking pictures of a sink. I wish this was my project, I really do.

 Do you regard them as interesting ‘still life’ compositions?

Why not? The images are full of detail they fit well together as a set there is a repetition about them, however, each image gives a little more information on the subject. Within some of the pictues, there are elements that raise questions the “N” & “R” behind the taps does that relate to the artist and his wife, the paintbrush. Also, the sink and location changes did they move house? I said above I wish these was my assignmemt

References

Nigelshafran.com. (n.d.). Washing-up 2000 [2000] : Nigel Shafran. [online] Available at: http://nigelshafran.com/category/washing-up-2000-2000/page/13/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

weareoca. (n.d.). Still Life with Nigel Shafran – #weareoca. [online] Available at: https://weareoca.com/subject/photography/still-life-with-nigel-shafran/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Wells, L. (2015). Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Anna Fox British photographer and professor at the University of the Creative Arts. The video below features Anna Fox talking a little about her major projects so far – that is until the video was pubished circa 2010.

Fox explains in the video, she presented the Cockroach Diary in a very personal way. The work is presented in a sleeve containing two little books. The photographs are featured in a separate book, while the diary itself is in a spiral bound book containing scans of Fox’s actual diary, giving it an authentic feel.

Although the photographs feature cockroaches and their traces, the narrative is more about the family and friends living in Fox’s house at the time and their dysfunctional relationships with comic and sad elements to it.

References

YouTube. (2018). Anna Fox / Cockroach Diary & Other Stories / Impressions Gallery. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S86X0iPO_iw&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Durdan, M. (2009). Anna Fox: Photographs 1983-2007 – FOTO8. [online] FOTO8. Available at: http://www.foto8.com/live/anna-fox-photographs-1983-2007-2/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Fano, N. (2013). ASX Interviews Anna Fox (2013). [online] AMERICAN SUBURB X. Available at: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/06/interview-anna-fox-asx-interviews-anna-fox-2013.html [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Maria Kapajeva is the first artist mentioned in the course notes looking self-absented portraitures.  A self-absented portrait does not feature the photographer in a literal sense. The photographer may choose to use stand-in instead or might choose not to have anyone in the image at all.

Maria is an Estonian born, currently working in of the UK. She emigrated to the UK, leaving her life in Estonia behind to study at University of the Creative Arts – where he is now a tutor. And looking at her work and reading about her I’m starting to understand a little about myself.

As an expat who has lived in 3 separate countries, I can understand to her statement in ‘

It’s not easy to be Other and become someone in a foreign place.’

When you emigrate, you leave behind everything that is familiar and become a stranger, an interloper who has to learn to fit in and learn the culture of the new country. This is not always easy, as English male you try to find an English pub to act as a safe haven.

When  Kapajava talks about who how she works statement regarding methods of working.

I think there are two ways of working as an artist (at least I see these two): one is you start from a technique and develop / master/ transform it. The second way is to start from an idea and find a technique for it.

I am certainly in the former category, I seldom get an idea and develop it I tend to go from what in know and try to turn that into an idea. This something that I need to change.

Her project A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman features portraits of fellow immigrants who are her peers and with whom she identifies. The series of images can be termed self-absented portraits in that Kapajeva has expressed something of her own experiences, struggles and emotions in each portrait. The idea is that the women who are the actual subjects reflect something back to the viewer about Kapajeva.

References

Mariakapajeva.com. (n.d.). A Portrait of the Artist… | Maria Kapajeva. [online] Available at: http://www.mariakapajeva.com/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-woman/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Boothroyd, S. (2014). Maria Kapajeva. [online] photoparley. Available at: https://photoparley.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/maria-kapajeva/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].