When documentary photography is mentioned we usually recall images that are reports of significant events, often photographs of people.
There are however several other ideas where photographers document people’s life and behavior through taking photos of their belongings and surroundings. Typically these photos show objects that can give clues about their owners and their habits. Often these objects indicate the occupants' age, gender and beliefs or further more, hobbies and whether if they live alone or in family. Guessing these when we observe photos, in my opinion, makes an interesting exercise on how to read images.
But do these photos always give away that where they were taken?
I started my research with looking for articles on Edmund Clark because I remembered seeing some of his photographs he took in prisons. In his project, 'Still Life Killing Time', Edmund Clark documented the prison life of elderly prisoners, aged between late 50s to 80s, living at HMP Kingston, Portshmouth. This unique environment was the home of a community of violent criminals where, apart from the communal areas, the personal areas were decorated by the individuals. The first thing we can notice is that Clark didn’t use the traditional portrayal technique of taking photos of the prisoners but their personal space which is a trace of their every day activities or, perhaps in this case lack of activities.
“Clark found that portraits of inmates distracted viewers. “All people wanted to know about was the criminality of the people they were looking at, “ Clark relates. “Was he a murderer? Was he a rapist? What was actually more interesting was that the environment they lived in spoke about the nature of long term incarceration and the segmentation of time and space, and the motifs of the passage of time, which were all around these people.”
Conor, R. "The still-open space: British photographer Edmund Clark's new book considers the significance of Guantanamo Bay prison by looking at the living spaces of the incarcerated, of their captors, and those of ex-detainees who were found innocent and released." Photo District News Apr. 2011: 104+. General OneFile. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
When looking at the collection of objects in this series the fact of time passing slowly, the order and structure of everydays are significantly part of their lives. I also noticed some kind of domestic and institutional overlap coming accros from the images; this is represented by showing different areas and details of this environment. In my opinion, the presentation of personal belongings in this uniformed environment de-humanise the person.
Further to these observations I found an interesting point, which is the desire of ‘making it home’ when the imprisoned person surrounds himself with certain objects and the way certain parts of the institution is decorated. This finding surprised me, because I didn’t usually associate the thought of prison with the thought of home. However, it made me realise, wherever we are, and as long as we have a chance, we naturally create our surroundings so we can feel comfortable during our short or prolonged stays. These might be the smallest things, such as a family picture placed on our office desk or a plant, in this instance, on a window seal of a prison's eating area.
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| Inmate's Bedspace Eating area from Still Life Killing Time 2007 www.edmundclark.com |
Following on from these thoughts I extended my research because I was interested in comparing photos that are documents of a traditional family home. This led me to Marjolaine Ryley, whose projects are records of her grandmother flat and family house and through these still life images, her family life.
“Ever since she was a child, the photographer Marjolaine Ryley has been visiting the same flat on the same quiet street in Brussels to see her grandmother. Document her family get-togethers in this small and intense space. Ryley’s photographs record the minutiae of domestic life, focusing on a very smallest of details. In the absence of any explanation or gloss, the viewer is encouraged to try to come up with their own linking narratives.”
"Pick of the week." Independent [London, England] 26 Apr. 2008: 13. InfoTrac Full Text Newspaper database. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
The photographs of ‘Residence Astral’ and ‘Villa Mona – a proper kind of house’ are similar to Edmund Clarks’ prison pictures and they fall under documentary still life, as such, and without the direct presence or in some cases only partial presence of the occupants. My next surprise was when I realised that most of the scenes didn’t give away whether they come from a traditional home or a prison, where personal space is limited. The practicality and simplicity of the furnishing, the warm colour of the chosen materials and textures, the displays of personal memories and reminders of tasks and events, the comfort and familiarity are the same in all of these documentary pieces.
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| from the series Residence Astral http://www.marjolaineryley.co.uk since 1993 - |
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| from the series of Villa Mona - a proper kind of house 2006 http://www.marjolaineryley.co.uk |
Both Edmund Clark and Marjoline Ryles’ projects have got me thinking about the symbolic objects we collect and keep, our natural desire to call a place a home and how we make it our home, regardless where it is, and our need for comfort and structure in our lives.
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