Project 2 – Relay in contemporary photography

Examples of relay and contemporary photographic practice include Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field where clashes of understanding or interpretation work together to create a perhaps incomplete but nonetheless enriching dialogue between artist and viewer.

Look these pieces up online. Investigate the rationale behind the pieces and see if you can find any critical responses to them. Write down your own responses in your learning log.

How do these two pieces of work reflect postmodern approaches to narrative?

Postmodernism is the name given to describe art during the second half of the 20th century. Postmodern photography can include atypical compositions of the subject that are either unconventional or absent. This makes the context of the images difficult or impossible to read.

Sophie Calle is a French conceptual artist. Calle received an email from her then boyfriend ending their relationship. Calle admitted, quite understandably that she was heartbroken. However, that quickly diminished and began to think of this as potential art. Firstly she used this as a form of therapy, then art took over.

Calle asks a team of women in different professions to read the email and respond to it. They were all photographed reading the email, including an editor who analysed the grammar.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find much about Calle’s work or her images to go with it.

In my opinion, her work does not end. There is no conclusion. It is up to the viewer to interpret. The interest seems to be around the women who analysed the email than the email itself. I also think Calle including text and imagery creates more of an intense emotion.

Calle had the email and photographs of the woman analysing it displayed in a gallery for others to see.

“Take Care of Yourself,” Installation View Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY (4/9-5/22/09) Photo: Ellen Wilson

Another way to incorporate text into an image-based project is to include interviews or audio.

Kaylynn Deveney is a photographer who moved to South Wales from the USA. In her series, which became her first photo book “The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings”, she captured images of an elderly man living close by. Deveney became friends with Albert and asked if she could photograph him for a project.

Through her work, Deveney was able to learn more about his life aspects, including his experiences during WWII in Britain. She was able to take notice of the way Albert organised his things and his time. Deveney was sure to capture domestic patterns during Albert’s day to day life.

During her time with Albert, he would share thoughts and comments about being photographed which Deveney found intriguing. These made Deveney think about the ways in which the ideas of photography differed for both of them. Kaylynn Deveney asked Albert to capture small pieces of written to help better understand his feelings and reactions. Bert’s caption creates a new context to Deneveny’s images.

Deveney describes her work as highly subjective.