Critique of photography and within photography has historically centred systemic relationships— for example between class, race, and gender. A systemic critique often disinherits the personal agency of individuals who exist within these systems, are governed by them, and in turn, influence the system.
Breaking Bread is a negotiation through and within photography that deals with themes of authorship and personal agency as they exist within a system. Through this negotiation, I offer an alternative economy of looking by considering an image as an event. Thusly, this work seeks to re-negotiate the distribution of power in photography on an interpersonal level by premising ‘looking’ as an extractive act with a focus on the making and viewing of images. In making images, a photographer looks onto a subject; in viewing images an audience member may look onto a work. Consequently, a photographer and an audience member may be considered as privileged.
This series of videos considers two components: one is a work which explores the viewer-image relationship. By premising looking as an extractive act, the work through multi-channel asynchronous videos obfuscates viewing. The installation of screens challenges viewers to labour to view a single image. Additionally, the asynchronized screens offer endless permutations of which images are shown together. Finally, the total length of videos means that a single viewer only receives a small glimpse of the work.
The second work is a performance work where I set up a studio space to photograph a subject. This work shifts the definition of subject, audience and photographer. This performance is a replica for the socially engaged manner in which the videos for the installation work were made.
I am less concerned with what is photographed or the content of the image, but rather how the interpersonal relationships within photography are negotiated. The work is not about the creative output or practice of photography; instead it is a critique into the ways of photographic making and viewing— the economies of which each of us should have a right to negotiate.
Exhibition History