‘Intimate Photography is also a reconstitution of the subtext in our family snaps. We can all find signs of the undercurrent of specific family relationships in our private photographs. Who stands next to whom in the group portrait? Who is absent? Who is taking the photograph? And with hindsight, we search for visual clues to later events, as evidence of predestination: can we see signs on the wedding day of a later divorce? Or something in a Childs posture that predicts antisocial behaviour in adulthood? Similarly, intimate photography is an exercise in pathology, and editing and sequencing of seemingly unguarded private moments that reveal the origins and manifestations of the subjects’ emotional lives.’ (Charlotte Cotton. 2004, pp138)
Interestingly, this quote seems to be very accurate to how I am feeling and the thought process I am experiencing whilst going through all of these old family photographs. I have found a number of images in which I was very confused as the who the subjects were next to people that I do know, and wonder who they are. I find it fascinating how one’s life can be completely documented through photographs and files as each and every photograph has a big and very important story behind it. Looking at the image of Jake’s nan at her wedding and learning about the events happening beforehand, where she was willing to give up the nice dress, the veil and my other things but not the car and the nice flowers. When I saw the photo, I had no idea it was her wedding day as the outfit she was wearing seemed very abstract compared to the stereotypical wedding outfit, I feel this shows, as Charlotte Cotton states, signs on the wedding day of a later divorce. (Charlotte Cotton, 2004) It is rather interesting how much we can direct from a photograph once we know and understand the personality of the people in it.
As documented in Charlotte Cotton’s book, Colin Gray’s book ‘ In sickness and in health takes on a long term family-based project where he has been documenting the life of his parents but more recently he has been demonstrating the life-changes they have as they have gotten older, his mother had a stroke and so this has caused her to be a bit more impaired into what she can and cannot do and so the role of his father has also been adapted based on the needs of his mother.
Gray describes this project as ‘a way of engaging the viewer in his own quiet agony of being essentially helpless at the decline of his loved ones.’(Charlotte Cotton, 2004) Even though I did not know Jake’s nan personally before she was diagnosed with this horrendous condition, I relate strongly to this quote, seeing how she struggles through her day and seeing how she once was through researching into her history. ‘Photography is used here to communicate the shared experience of gradual personal loss, as well as being a means of catharsis for the photographer’ (Charlotte Cotton, 2004) I feel that this project is more of a way of me helping her to feel ‘catharsis’ as this project is a way for her to feel important and purpose instead of just dealing with her condition and accepting it, she is helping me create a project out of her life and I think she is enjoying that very much.
Reading through a couple of these projects, it has helped me to understand collaborative projects a lot more and how they can help both the photographer and the subjects to complete these projects. I feel this project has helped me to understand Parkinson’s Disease a lot better and so understand how Jake’s nan feels and why she is unable to complete certain tasks. The bonus for the subjects is that it can be helpful for them to feel as if they are a part of something for example Larry Sultan’s father stated that he was happy to help him with the project and so he posed and dressed up for the shots and so this was probably a way of him connected with his son on a new level and getting to know him better through the images he takes. In terms of Jake’s nan, I know that she is flattered that I have completed a project for her and it has, as I have mentioned many times before, helped her to feel purpose and she is also learning a lot about herself that she didn’t know. I think this project has also helped me to come to terms with my condition, Fibromyalgia, which is one of the reasons I wanted to complete it, as I have noticed how similar some of the symptoms can be to those of Jake’s nan ( no where near on the same level, but similar) but not only the primary symptoms but the secondary where the conditions can make you feel really low due to not being able to do what we once did, Jake’s nan and I have connected a lot over this and so we have been able to feel more connected and less isolated as a lot of people struggle to understand what it can be like without having it themselves.