- Photography has been used to encourage empathy within the viewer or show a life to the viewer that the viewer can empathise with, but my use of empathy is showing it between us, within the photographer and her subjects, INSIDE PHOTOGRAPHY that is excluding the viewer — Jim, interesting.
- KEY WORDS — Empathy, spectator, passive (potentially surprising characteristics for people when they meet me).
- How much do me and my family know each other? Do I know them better than they know me? Or do I just think I do?
- Masahisa Fukase family portrait.
- Autofocus photography book.
- Mark Durden empathy and engagement book.
I found this tutorial very helpful and engaging, as this was the first time I had discussed the new project with Nick and Jim. I spoke about the origin of the project in ESP1. When I started making work in ESP1 I found myself repeatedly returning to themes of aggression and the effects of male dominance. I included some images that I had made last year after personal experiences with aggression. While these events did not involve my brothers, I felt that there was a connection. I have had a year to reflect on these events, and through this I have begun addressing issues within myself and my past that led me to choices that also involved people who behaved aggressively. I do not want to imply that it is my brothers fault, however I feel that my exposure to aggression had made me more accepting of behaviour that was not acceptable. Through these themes, I have decided to make work exploring my relationship with Rowan and Jack.
The work has started with me looking at our family portraits, that were taken yearly. I feel that this will be an interesting thing for me to revisit, and therefore I will be forced to remember things that were occurring at the time these portraits were made. I discussed with Nick and Jim that during this time I felt like an outsider to my family, more of a spectator to the events occurring that an active party. In my opinion, this had many effects on who I am, and I feel that my over compensating ‘confidence’ may be down to years of being slightly on the back burner. I do not want this project to be a way for me to blame anybody for anything, as I don’t actually know much about the details of my brothers lives when they were growing up. The work I will make will be more of an exploration of themes within our relationship. Themes such as closeness, isolation, competition, identity, control and aggression. Both Nick and Jim were engaged with these ideas, and also surprised by my explanation of being a spectator in the past.
I initially made a self portrait that I felt was an important way to start the work. Myself and my oldest brother have begun speaking due to the work, however it was too soon to make any images. I therefore made a self portrait dressed as my oldest brother. Inspired by Trish Morrissey I thought that this experience would enable me to represent myself as Rowan; become him for an image and therefore try to understand him better. I wanted to represent the border between us, but also the similarities, which are both reasons for our issues.
I would like to next look at more photographers and books on siblings and the different relationships, and hopefully gain more understanding of my own situation.
phoebebowdige.photo.blog 