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Upcoming Exhibitions
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Articles> Photo-ID
All images
published with permission of the artists
Photo-ID
is part of Contemporary Art Norwich 09 and will be held at The Forum in
Norwich from 1 – 29 August, from 7am to midnight daily.
Visit
Photo-ID's official website for
further details.
Clear
your mind and think: ‘Identity’. Do you find yourself immediately
remembering back to the intimate moments of growing up; to when, as a child,
you were surrounded by friends and family, enjoying jam sandwiches and playing
conkers?
Or do you take a more global perspective and concentrate, for instance,
on nationality and ethnicity?
Or perhaps you have found yourself focusing on the issues of nature versus
nurture, pursuing a scientific line of thought?
Twins, ancestors and cemeteries. Portraits. A Butlins Holiday Camp, with
a twist. These are some of the ideas that have been developed by ten international
photographers for this year’s Norfolk Contemporary Art Society’s
summer exhibition, Photo-ID: Photographers and Scientists Explore Identity,
which will be free to the public throughout August in Norwich, Norfolk.
Fascinated by how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive our ‘Photo
ID’ - or Identity Card - society, the organisers of the exhibition
considered the works of some 250 applicants from 33 countries before settling
on just ten candidates from six countries, each of whom was then presented
with a £3000 commission to produce an entirely new body of work for
this exhibition.
‘The selection panel’s decision was remarkably unanimous,’
says curator, Keith Roberts. ‘The final candidates are all people
who are clearly professional. And they represented a wide range of approaches
to identity already; they had pre-existing interests in ID issues and all
had very interesting proposals.’
Combine photography with personal and social identity and the subject matter
is both vast and exciting: ID politics, ethics, surveillance, nationality,
immigration, gender issues, faith, language, status.
‘There are a huge number of issues in the media at the moment which
are actually about how we see ourselves and how others see us,’ explains
Keith. ‘And photography is the art form that is by far the most closely
wrapped up with those sorts of debates.’
At the moment, the most common way of proving who we are is by presenting
a photo ID. ‘You’ve got the person right in front of you, but
somehow the photo ID has become the real bearer of identity,’ says
Keith. In fact, he adds, photography has over the past 150 years become
the gold standard of identity, but with the rise of digital cameras and
image manipulation, this standard has begun to erode. We can no longer verify
the authenticity of an image, and thus the issue of identity has entered
its next phase: using DNA fingerprinting; biometric data.
‘But are we really just our DNA?’, asks Keith, who has for the
past 30 years been a bestselling author of science textbooks Molecular Biology
of the Cell and Essential Cell Biology. ‘The answer is no, I am not
just my DNA, I am a product of both nature and nurture. It’s important
to understand that identity and identifying are two different things. Identifying
is something the state does. Identity is something you as a human being
construct for yourself and is based on a whole range of things. It’s
mobile, it’s evanescent, it moves around, and it changes with time.’
Having presented the winning photographers with the challenge of exploring
these issues, the resulting exhibition is extremely varied; some pieces
are instantly accessible to the public; others are deliberately challenging.
Others still are scientific in nature – and not strictly photographic
– and inject intriguing educational activities into the exhibition.
The public will be able to access an interactive terminal, for instance,
to find out where their surname originated from within the UK.
‘You’d be surprised how local names are,’ says Keith.
‘Even a name like Brown. The research shows there hasn’t been
as much spread of names as you would expect, they’re still not homogenous
across the country. Surnames are like a male inherited gene and by studying
surnames, you are following back a male line.’
There will also be a vending machine filled with 1000 undeveloped rolls
of photos of Norwich by one of the artists; for £1, a member of the
public can own a roll of original Marlene Haring photographs, to do with
as they please. They can develop, print and sell them; or they can hold
on to the undeveloped film and be forever intrigued by what the images have,
or have not, captured.
‘The essence of photography is that it’s about forgetting and
memory,’ says Keith. ‘It’s a way of immortalizing things.’
Kim
Cunningham (Republic of Ireland)
Angela, Nigeria
Fuji C-Type Archival Print on Dibond, 51 x 51cm
In 2000, the Irish government turned Mosney, once a Butlin’s Holiday
Camp, into a refugee centre which now houses nearly 900 asylum seekers.
It is, according to photographer Kim Cunningham, a surreal environment with
a ghostly atmosphere of happier times.
The photographer John Hinde photographed the camp in the 1960s/70s; followed
by Martin Parr in the 1970s/80s. Hinde’s over-saturated, carefully
composed images presented an idealistic view of British working class culture
at that time. Parr’s snapshot style reflected a more realistic approach
in observing those elements that were concerned with the identity and culture
of a changing society.
With these concepts in mind, Kim Cunningham's approach to the topic of ‘Identity’
was to photograph her subjects in an attempt to examine their identity.
'Identity has deep roots in culture, with nostalgia and memory playing a
huge part in the notion of who we are,' she explains. 'Connecting with those
around us is imperative in determining our identity, but it can also highlight
feelings of isolation and segregation and the fact that our identity is
determined by more than cultural or social elements. It is also fascinating
how those outside a particular culture or society either embrace elements
of their new environment, or their own national and cultural identity becomes
more prominent.'
Kim Cunningham has an MA in Documentary Photography from the University
of Wales, Newport.
Carl Jaycock (UK)
Darwin and the Same Emotions 215 x 170cm
Pigment inkjet on Kodak semi gloss paper strips
Having lived or travelled in various parts of Europe and South East Asia,
Carl Jaycock’s artwork is his response to the ‘power’
that a passport embodies; and the liberty and freedom a passport, particularly
a British passport, affords those who carry one.
This image combines the Union Jack with Darwin - a man who refuted the prejudicial
idea of his time that certain peoples were more superior to others - and
uses strips of passport photos to further explore the theme. As a result,
Carl’s photographic and digital printing practice makes use of micro
and macro imagery combinations in order to entice the viewer to look at
the work both closely and from a distance.
Carl Jaycock has an MA in Fine Art from Birmingham University.
Joanna
Kane (UK)
Untitled Time Composite. From the series
Data Profiles: Fragments from an Invisible Archive of 21st Century Identity,
C-Type Digital Photographic Print, 85 x 60cm
Joanna Kane’s exhibition consists of 3D-generated portraits in which
the surfaces
are generated photographically but the geometry and poses are entirely mathematically
3D-generated and illusory.
Joanna is interested in finding a visual form for the personal data profiles
which are often stored in 'data warehouses' and analysed using 'data mining'
techniques.
‘I'm currently exploring how I can correlate something equating to
actual data, from example consumer profiles, to generate a fictional 3D
portrait.’
Joanna Kane has a BA Hons Photography (Ist Class Honours) from Napier
University, Edinburgh.
Marlene Haring (Austria)
Marlene Haring Choosing is Losing,
2009.
1,000 24-exposure 35mm Kodak Gold films shot by Marlene Haring (not developed),
numbered and signed
Capsules, vending machine
Armed with a thousand rolls of Kodak film, Marlene Haring went around Norwich
prior to the Photo-ID exhibition, photographing areas of interest. These
rolls of film have been placed in a vending machine and will be on sale
to the public for £1 a roll. Throughout her journey, she questioned
how, and if, it is possible to record identity or if it might be a never-ending
task, since identity is something that continuously redefines itself.
Marlene Haring has an MA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Simon
Terrill (Australia)
Rosary Cemetery, From The Lure
of the Cemetery: Framed for Posterity
120 x 150cm
Simon’s exhibition consists of two enormous photos of assembled crowds:
one at Abney Park in London and the other at the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich.
‘What kind of social space is a cemetery?’ he asks. ‘What
do these places reveal about identity and how we choose to remember the
dead? How is memory enabled through the tending of plants, paths and gravestones?
Why are these places often in urban areas, surrounded by homes of the living?
What is it the attraction of a cemetery?’
Simon Terrill has an MA from the University of Melbourne and is currently
a Graduate Affiliate of Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
Åsa
Johannesson (Sweden)
The Boats, Moheda, Sweden, May 1984.
From the series The Twins, 2009
Inkjet on HP heavyweight matte paper 50 x 35cm
‘The idea of role-playing and costume fascinates me,’ says Swedish
photographer Åsa Johannesson. ‘With The Twins I am interested
in how our identity and gender is decided by the gaze of others.’
In Photo-ID, she presents photos taken of her and her fraternal twin by
the only male involved with the photography, their grandfather. These nostalgic
photos were taken in Sweden in the 1980s and through them she explores the
issues of childhood, gender roles, and the ‘dobbelganger’ myth.
‘In the photograph we become someone else in many ways…I scrutinize
the face that was once mine and I try to remember how I used to perceive
myself.’
Åsa has an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.
Evi
Lemberger (Germany)
Castle, Mukachevo, 04 April 2009
From the series, Ein Nichtort, or The Fairy Tale About the
Galoshes of Fortune
70 x 70cm Digital C print
Transcarpathia is a region in the west of Ukraine which, over the past 100
years, has belonged to seven different countries. In 1991 it became Ukrainian
and today the region has some 16 different nationalities living within its
borders. The official language is Ukraine but, according to photographer
Evi Lemberger, most Transcarpathians cannot speak or understand it. There
is also, she says, an 80 to 90 percent unemployment rate.
‘On paper people have a job but mostly the payment is so low that
the people are forced to have two jobs and also have some fields and animals
in order get their own food.’
Intrigued by the problems caused by the division of the former Soviet Union,
Evi’s work explores identity in a community connected not by language,
history or culture but by geography.
Evi Lemberger has a BA in Photography from London College of Communication.
Mark Edwards (East Anglia, UK)
Strumpshaw (Evening) 2008
Lambda print, 100 x 122cm
Sitting in the V & A Print Room studying some of Constable’s drawings,
Mark Edwards came across a familiar picture: View at East Bergholt over
the kitchen garden of Golding Constable’s House c.1812-16. Made from
an upstairs window at the back of the family house, the gardens and the
landscape beyond were places of familiarity for Constable, imbued with memories,
family history and ‘melancholy pleasure’.
Mark felt a close affinity with the picture since his own work explores
the nuances of familiar motifs. ‘The landscape has long been associated
with both our national and personal identity…Gardens, tended and cultivated
over time, also define and sustain a sense of self-identity borne as they
are from personal needs and experiences. Within the scope of this commission
I wanted to explore these layers of identity by depicting gardens and spaces
that exist on the peripheries of the broader landscape. While some allude
to a form of permanence and others an ephemeral presence, all are fostered
through human toil.’
Mark Edwards has an MA in Photography from De Montfort University.
Paul Sucksmith (UK)
Untitled
42 cm x 59.4 cm
Paul Sucksmith’s images consist of six prints that have been chosen
because they show the lighter side of a jovial night out, and a slide show
depicting the darker side of alcohol intoxication.
‘The work started out of amusement at just who was passing by my window
in the early hours of the morning, and keeping me awake,’ says Paul.
‘It soon evolved when I realized that the intentions and expectations
of what people hoped for on a night out, never really happened. The pursuit
of the individual to create their own identity ended up being squashed on
the pavement like a chip wrapper.’
Paul Sucksmith has a BA Honours in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University.
Dave Lewis (UK)
Notting Hill Carnival '08
Contact sheet from Identity, The Making Of…
Dave Lewis’s images do not attest to being absolute definitions of
Identity. Rather, he states, ‘They seek to act reflexively by allowing
the viewer to imagine their own affinity with the processes of photographic
collection and production. In the age of total surveillance and mass accumulation
of personal information, anonymity is traded for alleged security benefits
and promises of safety and protection, largely through surveillance, by
the State. Science is implicit in this act. The processes of capture, reproduction
and copy are inseparable from photographic rituals that record the minutiae
of identities.’
Dave has a BA in Film and Photographic Arts from Polytechnic of Central
London (now University of Westminster).
This is only a small part of the article.
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