"He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard". Hannah Kozak
Hannah Kozak was born to a Polish father and a Guatemalan mother in Los Angeles, CA. She worked as a stunt double for celebrated stars like Cher, Angelina Jolie, Lara Flynn Boyle and Isabella Rossellini. For nearly twenty-five years, Hannah’s work provided the opportunity to work with notable directors such as Michael Cimino, David Lynch, Mike Nichols, Tim Burton and Michael Bay. On every set, Hannah took her camera to work, capturing candid, behind-the-scene pictures that penetrated the illusion of Hollywood magic. Hannah has turned the camera on herself, her life and her world. She continues to look for those things that feel honest and real, using her camera as a means of exploring feelings and emotions. After decades of standing in for someone else, she now is in control of her destiny and vision. Photography has the power to heal and to help us through difficult periods, something Hannah Kozak knows first hand from personal experience.
Hannah, congratulations on first prize for the Julia Margaret Cameron Award 5th edition for Female Photographer of the Year and Julia Margaret 6th edition – 1st prize for documentary photo of your mother from “He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard”! I know that you are also one of the 12 finalists for the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography for 2014. I would like to start our talk from the question – when and under what circumstances have you started to take photographs? What does photography mean for you?
Thank you. I started making photos when I was ten years old. From a younger age, I always understood that everyone in my life would eventually die. I began to photograph all my family and friends at ten years old, almost as if I was storing my memories not only in my brain but also with my photos. I dated each photo and kept all negatives and prints in order of when I made the photos.
Death in the Western world is indeed hidden away. I have siblings who refer to this event as “The D word.” I have always been fascinated with the topic. You might say I was a bit obsessed with death. There are no stakes if we could go on forever.
Photography became a way for me to have a permanent record, something tangible, that I could hold onto in moments of loneliness or just missing someone.
Let us discuss your project “He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard”. I know the dramatic story((“When I was nine, my mother abandoned my family to have an affair. The man she left us for turned out to be violent; he beat her so badly that she suffered permanent brain damage and had to be moved into an assisted living facility where she still lives today; the longest living resident of thirty-three years. Of her five children, only my younger sister has visited her regularly over the years” (from the artist statement of Hannah Kozak).)) behind it from your artist statement. But I would like to know why did you start to take photos of her? Is it intentional auto-therapeutic photography?
I started to make photos of my mother during and after I graduated with my masters degree in spiritual psychology((Hannah Kozak studied spiritual psychology at University of Santa Monica.)). My mother left when I was nine years old. After watching her being abused for five years, she wound up in intensive care from a blow to her head by her second husband.
I went back to school in my late forties to study spiritual psychology. A dear friend of mine had completed the program so I knew the second year curriculum included healing a damaged relationship. My relationship project in school was my mother. I started to photograph my mother because I was trying to heal our broken relationship. My feelings were so overwhelming to me and my camera provided me a connection point and a separation I needed. In the early photos, there is a great disconnection between my mother and myself. As time went by we grew to actually know and love each other and the photos start to show those feelings. I enjoy our time together. She doesn’t nag me or tell me what I’m doing wrong, as I’ve seen in many mother-daughter relationships. She tells me how much joy I’ve brought her or how much she loves me or how pretty I am. My camera removed the barrier between my mother and me and enabled communication, finally, between us. Photography was and is a stabilizing anchor for me, my entire life.
I never planned to show these photographs when I was making them. It was not intentional auto-phototherapy but the process proved to be healing for both my mother and myself.
What is the most important for you when you shoot, if you would have to choose between composition and emotions, what would you choose?
There are so many elements that are important when I photograph. The light is of critical importance as is composition. What’s most important for me as a storyteller is telling the truth so I love the emotions my mother shows. Most people are self conscious when being photographed. My mother is so in the moment, there isn’t anything else for her but the present. I can’t choose between the technical aspects of photography including light and composition vs emotions. Lisette Model said we search for truth and sometimes find beauty. I agree with this.
My mother so honest, like a child, she doesn’t hide her real feelings like most adults have learned to do. In that sense, she’s a breath of fresh air to photograph. She knows I am doing something that is part of who I am and she lets me be who I am. I have shown her some of the photos and the book I have made. I am working on a self-published book of the same series and she likes to see what I’ve made of her. She understands how important she is to me and the photos, together in a book, express that clearly to her.
I saw your statement and understood the idea, but I would like to discuss it from another point of view and analyze the photos — sometimes something can reveal in pictures unconsciously. When I am looking at some photos from the project I have a feeling that they somewhat might be a kind of «revenge» for you. Have you ever thought about that? Taking pictures of her in these hard circumstances in order to have a kind of revenge for leaving you when you were a kid… I do not mean that you are making it deliberately, maybe just unconsciously… At some photos she seems to be very vulnerable, I guess, she wouldn’t like other people to look at her at those moments. That does not imply that it is the only reason or the main idea (be it conscious or unconscious), but I find it possible that there is something like that present in the project. What do you think?
No, revenge was never any part of my feelings. Revenge would be appropriate for someone angry, someone who wants to cause intentional pain. That’s not how I feel about my mother. By the time I graduated with my second degree, I had done a lot of inner work. I had forgiven myself for judging my mother as a bad person. I felt compassion for my mother, not revenge. Yes, she is vulnerable and I have asked her if it would help someone else to see my photos, would that be okay with her. What is present in my project is to show that anyone can be forgiven, no matter how much time has passed by and that truly the only person you have to forgive is yourself, for judging the person in the first place. My mother didn’t set out to hurt me, she fell in love with someone else. You can’t help whom you love. And I think my mother has suffered quite enough for her choices. It doesn’t help anyone to further judge her. I know she has judged herself quite harshly. She told me “everything was a mistake.” Who hasn’t made mistakes in their life? My mother continuously inspires me to live from the heart, not from the head. I think the truth is always better than clever fiction. I know my photos can be emotionally jarring. Art has the power to disturb, to make one feel & think. To drop masks, persona, falseness. That’s what Diane Arbus, Maurice Sendak did and I resonate with their art. Arbus went to the bottom of the night as Auden said of Yeats.
It is interesting, she looks helpless and naive like a child on these photos. Other people take care of her: there are a lot of touches, care, tenderness. And, at the same time, when I look at the photos, I start to remember that she abandoned her own children. Especially, the photos with a baby-doll reminds me about that. For me, there is more than just a particular unusual story about a relationship between your mother and you. It is also about the phenomenon of parentification (the process of role reversal whereby a child is obliged to act as parent to their own parent), isn’t it? Have you ever had this feeling — that she is a kind of your child now?
Oh, gosh, Yes, she is like a child in some ways, as I mentioned. She’s completely helpless. She has to have her diaper changed, her food prepared and fed to her. She has to be bathed, she can’t brush her teeth.
Oh, it surely is a role reversal. I’ve been trying to move her to a different facility for years, I make sure she is seen by her doctors. I’ve spent many evenings in the emergency hospital with her. I stop by late at night just to tell her I love her. She is a child in many ways. Now especially more than ever as she is aging, she seems more like a child than before. I surprise her with dolls quite a bit and the joy I see in her face when for example, I bring her a doll from Guatemala, is priceless. She hugs the dolls I bring her, she speaks to them as if they are her friends.
Have you ever seen the projects by other authors about their elderly parents? They are also about compassion, about love… But, in my point of view, your project is very special. In fact, other photographers shoot in order «to save» someone «disappearing», while you taking photos of someone who was already «died» for you for many years. Some other photographers would like to save, but you, somewhat opposite, try «to meet» or «to find» your mother via photography. To what extent do you agree with that?
Yes, I’ve seen Aline Smithson’s Arrangement in Green and Black, Phillip Toledanos’ Days with My Father, the portraits Richard Avedon made of his father’s last 7 years. I found that with each project, we are given entry into the lives of aging parents in a dignified manner. As someone who has photographed both my parents intensely for the past four – five years, I understand how aging and death affect us on a personal level and my parent’s aging journeys, has helped me understand my own mortality.
Yes, this is accurate. I didn’t know my mother when I began to photograph her. All I had were snippets of memories like her wearing a pretty, orange dress to my 2nd grade open house night and of course, memories of her being abused. I moved to Israel when I was 20, in part to remove myself from the difficulties of the emotions I had in regards to my mother. Photographing my mother helped us both. I was trying to find my mother, in that sense, it was deliberate. I feel now as if I’m trying to make up for lost time we had. I have photographed her obsessively for 5 years, I am working on publishing a photo book (my heart is in books as well as photography) and creating a short video project. I feel madness sometimes because of the demands I put on myself to complete this series.
How long are you going to continue this project?
Excellent question. I never tire of photographing my mother’s face. She’s a book I can read endlessly. I have memorized her face. I think I’ll know either when my intuition tells me, or I start to repeat photos or when either my mother or I take that last breath.
You told me that you hope that this project can help others who have struggled or are struggling with the emotional effects from loss and abuse. Could you please elaborate how could it help, in your opinion?
I’ve had photographers tell me that my photos have made them think about their relationship with either a mother or father that is damaged and even though they cannot forgive today, that they hope they can in the future. Isn’t this how the process of forgiveness begins? A seed is planted by seeing that it is possible to forgive, no matter what the injury. My mother’s ability to forgive is remarkable. In her shoes, many could be unforgiving, bitter and angry. She’s a rainbow of light.
I have to photograph my mother so someone is witness to her life. I’m deeply invested in being with my mother as much as possible. Perhaps my photos will make someone pause and question who they are.
I’m a lover of classic movies, of film noir. I’ll leave you with a favorite quote of mine from Intermezzo, an Ingrid Bergman, Leslie Howard 1939 film, a classic tale of romance where someone falls in love with someone else, someone they are not supposed to love, just like my mother did.
“We expect the people we love to behave like gods.
But then we realize, we’re none of us gods.
We’re all human, tragically human.
You may understand this one day and
When you do, you may understand what it is to forgive.”
“Intermezzo”
Interview by Natalya Reznik
What to do at Paris Photo? A short guide
Is it a first time you are going to such big well known photo-exhibition as Paris Photo; remember the Russia saying “You have to see Paris before you die”? Don’t be in a hurry to die – better read this guide to know what proper photographers do in Paris. It is not only about exhibition, you know?!
- Book a flat via AirBnb (preferably, book for several people at once, turn the flat into art-hostel), you might also try couchsurfing or better yet write on Facebook to all your friends asking for a place to stay (best done few days before you leave to Paris, so that your post have the most attention, being something like «My dear friends! I am urgently looking for a place to sleep for 3 night from 14 to 17, don’t let me sleep under the bridge!”). Undoubtedly, you will find someone who will take responsibility for your life, people kind and fair are everywhere. Staying in a hotel is not cool (and anyway you spent your last money buying photo books, right?). Hanging out together – that’s cool!
- Dress as creative as you can – you are going not just for the sake of exhibitions, you are going to show yourself to the world (and maybe your works, if you are lucky).
- Take along your last photobook (try to publish it by all means so that you have something to take to Paris Photo), keep it always with you in a big shopper-bag. You never know when you might be able to slip to famous curator while drinking champagne at some closed party. By the way, don’t even think about taking your huge prints with you — every curator will immediately know what are you here for, moreover it is difficult to lounge about at exhibitions. Keep it at home, you will need it next spring when you will go to Houston portfolio-review!
- Don’t waist time speaking with other, less known than you, photographers. Your aim is curators!!! No time waisted with those fortune outcasts, you have your day full already: at ten – a breakfast with the editor N., at one – lunch with the curator K., at seven – opening of yet another photo-festival from the parallel program (it might happen your breakfast will be cancelled because editor N. had a blast at a party with curator K., and will at best text you 10 minutes prior your meeting that he’s not able to come due to some important business).
- You don’t drink? Shame, that’ll be tough, really. All events start after six and never pass without a glass of wine. Be ready for an afterparty, and a party after afterparty… Last time I saw a photographer with a plastic cup in his mouth while turning over pages of photo book.
- When attending events, don’t forget to check-in in every museum and gallery you visit. You’ll be dead tired and won’t be able to perceive any new visual information, but you colleges photographers, who stayed at home in the middle of nowhere in Russia, should see your success and activities. Shoot everything on iPhone and post to Instagram with a cross-post to Facebook. If you don’t have energy left to watch the exhibition, you will be able to have a second look at home at the photos you shoot.
- Try to creep at at least one private party, that’s very cool (i should not remind you to take your photobook, right?). An event will be something alike a New York parties from «Sex and the City» – a big empty flat with a view to Eiffel tower, stand-up party, you’ll hear «O my God!» from all around and people laughing. In order to feel comfortable at such events, you need to be able to speak about anything in English (learn about small talk). Make acquaintances, try to guess who might be important for your career, creep in and start talking, draw their attention on yourself (that’s the time to take your recently publish photo book out of the hand bag), exchange business cards. Tomorrow, perhaps, they will not remember you, but this is another story. It is same as a one night sex – even if it was great yesterday, tomorrow you won’t necessary recognise each other. Don’t forget to make a selfie with a curators, for any case.
- Know by heart a description of your most important project (keep in mind that after several drinks you might forget the genius concept of yours). You might want to polish your skills in advance at some porftolio reviews where you would keep telling the same story 25 times in a raw in two days. You can also train at any book fairs, go to the stand, introduce yourself and start talking about your project (don’t care about the reaction, you are training, right?). Obviously, the description should be in English. Also keep in your sleeve another project you just started to work on. Don’t need to learn the whole description, just tell in couple of phrases what is it about. Keep it mysterious and don’t forget to add that it is very personal project, no kidding! Promise to send previews by email when the project is ready.
- Buy all photobooks you have money for (if in troubles – borrow some money). Prefer cheaper books to have more in total! Keep an eye on the total weight, you don’t want to pay extra in airport, you already spent your last cents on books, right? In worst case – ask your friends from your hometown to carry some of your books. The books will inspire you for new projects and will give you a chance to show off in front of your colleges, who will respect you even more. Later you could also make an exhibition from your photobooks, or even the whole book festival in your home town. That is a chance to start your career as a festival curator.
- When you are back to home, have a rest for a week, write couple of reviews about Paris Photo and give them to some popular internet magazines. Languorously complain that everybody show the same things – you saw half of that rubbish this year in Arles and last year at the photography month in Bratislava. It should be a shame to show old black and white photography, which is of interest to collectors only. At the end of your review, don’t forget to mention that photography is in crisis, nobody needs new ideas and everybody try to please curators. Don’t expect money for your article (magazines are also in crisis, if you did not know), but negotiate to add a link to your portfolio page. Now you can add to your CV that you write for popular magazines, not to mention curatorial work (recall photo book festival based on your collection).
You have a feeling that these advices are injurious? Very likely, but if you are serious about photography and career all the time – you can go mad very quickly 😉 I also go to festivals often and live, partly, this exciting life – i recognise myself in two of advices above 🙂 Ok, three of them! ) If have some ideas what to add, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below, I would be happy to add the best in the “Update” of this article. 🙂
Performance “Dead End” by Camila Cañeque:
6th photobook festival in Kassel
I was lucky to spent last week-end in Kassel (Germany) at the Photobook festival. It is really nice, small and cozy festival. Documenta-Halle which is already familiar to me, this time was full of stands with photobooks and behind them were also known faces of curators.
The first person, who met all the guests close to an entrance was Andreas Mueller-Polle, an editor of a magazine «European Photography», which is known to me from Moscow Portfolio review. Next were Klaus Kehrer (Kehrer Verlag, probably the most known German publishing house with stunning photobook quality), Camera Austria Magazine, publishing house Peperoni Books and its owner Hannes Wanderer from Berlin and many others. The festival had very pleasant, bohemian, but business-like (so German!) atmosphere. One could not find there nor crowds with its brownian motion, neither queues in front of the entrance (I was afraid of that from the beginning, remembering long «pleasant» hours spent outside during Paris Photo last year!). It seems like this festival appeals real lovers of photobooks only as well as publishers and young emerging talents — I’ll explain this point a bit later.
This festival was dedicated to Daido Moriyama — a cult photographer of Japan avant-guard. He visited the festival in person, but was rather quiet, all the time accompanied by his manager, he signed copies of his books, purchased by his funs and sometimes allowed them to take a photo with him (but, quite unwillingly and wearily, in my point of view).
I became a lucky owner of his book Marrakech, which was praised by a Japan publisher, who was very nice and mentioned that «when you are turning pages over, you can look by Moriyama’s eye!». The book is really amazing — it looks closer to the cinema than to a book. The captured reality there is changing all the time like «optical unconsious» by Benjamin (probably, exactly this reality was seen by Moriyama, wandering across Tokio’s streets and making his lomographic shoots). Unfortunately, my book was already signed by the author and the publisher told that tonight Daido is «a kind of tired from signing». Perhaps, It is slightly unfortunate that I can not show to you my photo with Moriyama signing my book… kwell, it is really a pity, actually!!!
I comforted myself by a very interesting excursion by Marcus Schaden who is a well-known German curator and photobook’s expert from Cologne. The curators managed to draw the whole Moriyama’s life on the wall supporting it by book covers, important photographs, names of Daido’s friends and colleagues. Mr. Schaden made the excursion along this wonderful wall, trying hard in order to out-voice the noise of a photobook fair (he had no microphone). In spite of me not being able to hear everything he was saying, the excursion was very impressive. At the end the curator claimed that prints are good, but a photobook is the best form of existence of photography, photostory, statement. I rather agree with him, except an exhibition which has of course temporal character, whereas a book is something which accompanies you all the time.
One more book I purchased was suggested to me by amazing and inspiring adviser Hannes Wanderer (owner of Peperoni Books). It is called «One Circle», made by Fred Huening and published by Peperoni Books. The book is a degree-work of the already mature man, who decided to go study photography in his middle-age. It is a book about love, happiness, pregnancy, death and loss of hope and new birth. Hannes mentioned that he does prefer very personal projects, which are firmly connected with the author’s life, his feelings and emotions. «You can not think — what project shall I make next? It should be strongly connected with you! It goes naturally!». Therefore, Hannes is not much interested in cold concepts and experiments and the books which Peperoni books publish, must be interesting to him. By the way, we recorded a video-interview with Hannes and it’s coming in this blog soon!
At evenings in a hall, which was something in between of a bar and an exhibition place DJ played music and the atmosphere was very cool. For me this feeling was very unusual (usually I feel bored after 5 minutes when I am in a bar!), but this was the first time when I loved being in such a place (with good photobooks nearby all obtains sense!).
Among the books chosen by curators for competition I would mention as outstanding the following three – Mike Brodie «A Period of Juvenile Prosperity», Edmund Clark «Control Ordered House» и Bryan Graf «Wildlife Analysis». There were a lot of books with an experimental design — for instance, with randomly situated photos, a book with fluffy fur cover, two books under one cover and so on. At the beginning I was fascinated by these experiments, but experienced Hannes Wanderer sceptically mentioned that the design must reflect the idea of the project. «How it is connected with the idea?… It is just a kind of formal experiment!». And he was absolutely right, though I am curious about these experiments. They inspire me to make my own ones. Clearly in contemporary photography the ideas sometimes are not so important like formal experiments. And I think it is a pity.
It was a great pleasure for me to see and turn over the books of Russian young photographers (alumni of Rodchenko School) such as Ekaterina Anockina and Igor Samolet. These books seemed to be extremely popular there (have a look at the photos of them), I saw them all the time in hands of the purchasers.
On the stand of a competition Photobook Dummy Award there were the best books published this year — among them was the book by Julia Borissova «The Farther Shore», which is already well-recognized by world-known festivals and competitions. I’ve seen that the winners were chosen from 483 books from 34 countries, but to me not all of them were really compelling. Though, there are some special books such as a book of Carlotta Poloni «Demens». And of course the book of Borissova is also interesting – have a look, although I guess all of you have already seen it!
The rest of the books nominated to the prize can be found here (at least try to download it, because I could not download everything).
By the way, couple of days ago the winners were announced! It is an interesting coincidence, that all of them are Germans: a designer from Berlin named Norman Berendt (alumni of University of Applied Science in Pottsdam) with a book Burning down the house; Kyrgistan-born German photographer Artur Krutsch with a book «Thule» and an emerging photographer from Frankfurt Robert Beyer with a book called «Fartenschwimmer». Interesting, in the support of the Hannes’s statement, the winner of the third place has a very personal family story, Even though the author made it as a study project under the supervision of his professor W. Loeper.
I was a bit surprised that young authors can use the festival place not only for promotion via their books presented there by publishers, but also in person! We met a couple of young photographers from different places (even countries!) which came to Kassel in order to promote and sell their own books in person (direct sales), visiting stands and showing the books to collectors and publishers. And it seemed like they succeed- some were lucky to sell several copies even to Daido Mariyama himself! One of these young authors gave an interview to us (he was a member of Joop Swart Masterclass and came to Germany for the festival from Madrid, Spain). Why he was there and what kind of book he brought will be covered in the video, please just wait a bit! )
All in all, the festival gives a very positive impression — sorry for the repetition, but I must say that I absolutely love small German photofestivals, which are not so well known and appealing to the audience like Paris Photo or Recontres de Arles, but the atmosphere sometimes is much better – more intimate and suitable for communication with interesting people. Everyone can be seen there, every book can be scrutinized calmly (which is impossible during a huge event), one can not only see, but also feel, touch and explore a book. For me it is really important, because this year I got a scholarship for publishing of my own photobook with the project «Secrets» and I need new ideas and inspirations!
p.s. More details will be covered in video which is coming in this blog very soon! 🙂
Images of Elderly People in Contemporary Documentary Projects
In this essay, I explore the representation of ageing in contemporary documentary projects and discuss projects that mix documentary and fictional approaches.
In contemporary documentary photography one can observe a variety of images depicting elderly people, their daily lives, their habits, attitude towards life, and relationships.
It is clear that this “intimacy,” so much because of Nan Goldin, is widely accepted as we move further into the twenty-first century. There are a many projects showing people during personal intimate daily activities, where, for instance, they are naked or half-naked, showing their bodies in detail. At the same time, when elderly people are depicted (half) naked, the image seems unacceptable and provocative. When these images are shown, the viewer may feel the artist is ridiculing his or her models (only by the mere fact of showing such images, regardless of the way he/she photographed them).
Because we are conditioned by seeing glamorous, glossy young faces and bodies (youth ideology), we are more reluctant to look at depictions beyond it. Even some elderly people themselves are convinced that old age makes them not worth to be photographed, which may be illustrated by a phrase said by an elderly woman during the shooting of “Zapis Socjologiczny” (A Sociological Record) by Polish photographer Zofia Rydet.
The woman tried to refuse to be photographed by saying: “I am so frumpy, old, nasty, why are you doing this?”1.
Often when photographers create stories about their elderly relatives, they depict very simple, intimate moments from a daily routine. It is important to note that the photographers, being a relative, are “insiders,” able to observe the very intimacy of the daily-lives of their models, which is absolutely impossible for a stranger.
The topic of ageing and death
First of all, let us discuss why the topic of “ageing” (and death) is so crucial for photography today.
From the 1970s death became a legitimate subject for photographers whose outlet was the exhibition gallery or the published monograph. For the first time on any significant scale, art photographers in the West began to focus on death. There were many factors influencing this significant shift in attitude. In the urban and industrialized areas of the Western world most of us had relatively little first-hand experience with death…. 2.
Death as a phenomenon disappeared from daily life in the Western world; dying people were displaced into hospitals and hospices, the deceased were hidden in morgues, and cemeteries were moved outside of cities. Linkman mentions in the book Awareness of Dying 3, it is crucial for there to be an alteration of the attitude to death in society. The authors encouraged doctors in America to break from their rule of silence and inform patients if they are dying, suggesting that the patients make their last end-of-life choices. Within this context, photography becomes a tool for relatives (or even the suffering themselves) to depict those days via camera and, therefore, save the memories about him/her.
Documentary projects which deal with this topic often have the same structure irrespective of the reason of approaching death (be it cancer, AIDS, or ageing). The plot of such projects consists of a depiction of monotonous, event-free, everyday life. Indeed, the central drama here is a life that fades away. Photographers initiate a visual discussion about identity and sexuality change, decay, and individual dramatic confrontation with mortality.
Projects on Aging and Dying
Projects around ageing and dying relatives can be created in a classical documentary style (Philip Toledano, Daniela Kapralova), in a genre of art-photography (Vesselina Nikolaeva), include elements of staging and theater (Aline Smithson), as well as be an entire reconstruction of the real story (Dru Donovan).
I will now focus on two projects which, in my opinion, constitute the two main approaches to ageing representation – the classic documentary and conceptual.
A son’s photo diary, Days with my father by Philip Toledano, tells a story about his ageing father’s last years and the relationship between the father and the son. After the death of his wife, Philip’s father lost his short-term memory. He could not accept her death and, therefore, his memory extruded this information. Philip started a blog in which he posted photographs and accompanying reflections on his father’s changing state. During three years until his death, Philip took and posted everyday life pictures of his father.
An opening photo in the project shows an elderly man sleeping in a chair with a funny sleeping-mask on (a mask with closed eyes embroidered). He looks touching and helpless. This sleeping mask connotes a return to childhood; people of an older age become childlike (they demand care, help and attention). Despite the very realistic way of shooting, which shows us the change of skin texture with age, corporality is not shown as repulsive. Rather the viewer’s attention is drawn to the character’s fragility and vulnerability, as he is a weak and a feeble man, in need of care and protection.
In Toledano’s diary, which serves as a project’s description, he describes how he attempts to protect his father from the external world by creating an artificial one, with nothing bad and dreadful. The son aims to create a secure, childhood-like world.
In this project, there are many close-up portraits of the father. A viewer may approach the character from very close, from an “intimate” distance 4. The viewer (or reader of the visual text) is, thus, involved in what is happening, not as an observer but as a participant. With certain portraits, the father looks directly at the viewer, into his or her eyes. That kind of contact (eye-to-eye) of a viewer and a depicted person is defined as “demand” 5. That is the demand of attention, participation, and a direct challenge from a depicted person, fully aware (s)he is being photographed. (S)he directly communicates with a viewer, who is forced to interact.
The sequence of Philip Toledano’s photographs does not have a classic plot (rising action, climax, falling). The narration is straight forward-a viewer follows the daily life of an elderly man through his portraits and fragments of his environment. There is no evident collision. The character remains in the same place, in his room, and the environment does not change; it is only his emotions that change.
It is the permanently oppressive anticipation of the end that builds a plot of the project – every day for the son (and every next photo for a viewer) turns into a painful subconscious expectation ñ “When? What if this was the last one?” That painful, restless process turns into suspense for a viewer, involving him/ her in an endless state of anxious expectation of the inevitable.
After viewing the entire project, the title picture with the mask gains a new level of understanding. It becomes a metaphor of the father passing to another world, and represents sleep as death. But death also becomes a “departure to Paris” (according to the story Philip made up for his father, the mother “flew to Paris and is now taking care of her brother”). Toledano consciously chose this photo as an opening one- a man, sleeping in the chair resembles a plane passenger. “Now he’s gone to Paris to meet my mum” is the last note in the son’s diary, which concludes the story about his father.
In her photo project Arrangement in Green and Black, Aline Smithson photographed her 85-year-old mother. This project lies somewhere in the space found between documentary and conceptual photography. The compositional framework is mimicry of the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother by a Victorian’s epoch painter James Whistler. For two years, Smithson was looking for and buying different clothes and framed pictures at eBay and charity shops. Using Whistler’s composition as a “modular grid,” Smithson filled her photos with different props, always ironically playing with styles.
In these portraits, the mother is a “signifier,” as a sign she refers to different epochs, events, or styles. A Japanese geisha, Elvis Presley, a disco-girl of the 80s, a clown, a bride, a ballet dancer, and even a prisoner- all these images resemble “fashion-looks” put on an elderly woman, which transform photos into pop-art works. Smithson also includes, in the composition of her photos, different paintings written in naive-art style – from badly made copies of world art masterpieces to nameless images of kittens, dogs, and horses.
As discussed above, the father of Philip Toledano is an active subject, who is often in a direct visual contact with a viewer; whereas, in the images by Aline Smithson, the mother is depicted half-faced, “offering” herself as an object to look at. The distance between a viewer and the elderly woman photographed is quite substantial and makes the image impersonal. A viewer is not involved into what is happening, (s)he is a detached observer of the “painting,” neither forced to empathise nor invited into the personal space.
That game with pop-culture and theatrical staging can be considered an attempt to “remove” or to “mask” the feeling of dying corporality, while bright colouring looks unnatural and is likely an endeavour to make something almost lifeless “alive.” This is supported by an emotionless, mask-like face of the woman, who looks aloof and indifferent to everything around her. From the project comments, it is clear that Smithson was trying to achieve this facial expression: “As a model she often wanted to be dramatic in the images, and I had to tone her down. She kept laughing as I was trying to focus and I had to tell her to stop smiling so much.”
Even though the photographs of Aline Smithson might look a kind of exploitation of her elderly mother’s appearance, as the mother does not completely understand how will she be depicted in the photos, one sentence from the text, written by her daughter, explains why an elderly woman readily participated in this photographic experiment: “As I progressed with the series, it become more meaningful, especially because I was bringing joy and laughter into our lives when there was plenty to cry about.”
It is obvious that a preparation to and shootings themselves became a new way of communication between the mother and her daughter. The mother took part in twenty shootings and passed away before seeing the result.
The two series analysed above represent a large group of projects where artists photograph their relatives (other examples are Sophie Calle’s “Rachel Monique,” Tierney Gearon’s “Mother’s Project,” Daniela Kapralova’s “Susanka’, Salva Lopez’s “Roig-26”, etc.). Each project is unique, with its own visual language and narrative. Nevertheless, most of them can be called “photo-therapy-like.” In psychotherapy, there exists a term “phototherapy,” which should not be mixed with a therapeutic photography.
Phototherapist Judy Weiser 6 explains that phototherapy is a therapy carried out by a doctor with the help of different photographs; whereas, therapeutic photography is done on one’s own in order to understand oneself, for personal growth and self-knowledge. It is evident that most authors apply therapeutic photography (or its elements) unconsciously. However, in almost every project text, it is clearly said that implementing photography helped authors to cope with the problems, which initiated these projects.
Such projects seldom depict evident process of ageing itself; rather, they touchingly represent sufferings of the person who struggles with age-related alterations and increasing weakness. A spectator cannot follow instantly noticeable age alterations in the character’s appearance. The character does not change much; (s)he is introduced to a viewer as an elderly person and fades away to the end. Ageing is interpreted here as the last period of life, not a phenomenon connected with the entire life-span (when a person can be repeatedly captured from birth to death, representing the flow of time).
Photography becomes not only memory-preserving, but also a means to “save” the disappearing matter in a digital/film form. It also provides a way to communicate with a dying relative, while other ways could have been lost already. Finally, it is a kind of a therapy for both a photographer and his/her elderly model.
This essay was originally published in Vasa Journal of Images and Culture.