I found this work more interesting than other forms of portraiture for example that of Trish Morrissey's. I referred to his website containing a number of images in the "
Washing Up" series. My first reaction was to feel sorry for my poor husband, who does more than his fair share of washing up because he works from home and has more time. As I scrolled through the images I noticed more and more details and questions (dates refer to the date of the image):
- 4/1/2000: The N and the R behind the sink taps - what does that mean? I later realised that the R must stand for Ruth - his wife. Is the N&R a reminder to share the washing up? Why do these letters later disappear? Did something change in the relationship or is this just a meaningless detail? Evidence of Christmas decorations - mistletoe above the kettle - they are an affectionate couple. Photographs on the walls - a couple with memories.
- 28/1/2000 - washing up seems more bulky and clutter; image shot at a much closer distance - no context information in the frame - is he cross? What's "seitan"? I found out that seitan is a vegetarian protein derived from wheat gluten. So they are vegetarian but not wheat intolerant (or worse).
- 30/1/2000 - who is Lillie Donaldson?
- 31/1/2000 - evening shot (so far the others have been daytime). Mistletoe is still up, photos are still there, candles have gone from the window frame and what is that blue thing on the plug?
- 6/2/2000 - bulk and clutter - close up - cross again? No personal details in this shot.
- 7/2/2000 - bottle of wine, had a beer with Jack (social life), why the different vertical format of the frame? Seems to be a lot of washing up for the amount of food prepared...
- 11/2/2000 - has seen Nick - evidence of beers, less washing up than before but still vertical format and one photo in view
- 19/2/2000 - Ruth is out, he's seen Dave - weird plant thing hanging from wire? Back to a wider view. New plant growing on the window sill.
- 16/3/2000 - someone else did the washing up. Different plant on the window sill.
- 25/4/2000 - at someone else's house - presumably the chicken was eaten by someone else? Even away from home, he feels he cannot get away from the washing up.
- 18/5/2000 - different location again - still can't get away from washing up.
- 20/5/2000 - different location again - have they stopped being vegetarian? It's hard to work out who's eating what!
- 27/6/2000 - back home, vegetarian, seems fed up with recording these details.
Exercise questions:
- Did it surprise you that this was taken by a man? Why? No, our generation has grown up with everyone doing the washing up. It's surprising though that he's reflecting on it, which suggests some resentment and the fact that his wife is always out. I'd better be careful...
- In your opinion does gender contribute to the creation of an image? That depends on whether gender is a strong component of the artist's identity and desire to express. In my photography I don't think it is. I have seen very touching and emotional pieces of work by male photographers, so I also don't think the self-portraiture examples in the rest of Part Three by women are gender-specific, although of course men and women experience IVF in different ways. The series "Until we've met" by Shin Noguchi documenting his wife's pregnancy, time in hospital and the premature birth, which very sensitively shows the impact on their older child of "Mom" being in hospital, is just one example of male introspection.
- What does this series achieve by not including people? It creates a sense of mystery about the people. Is Ruth always out? You see evidence of things in the images, that give you clues about the people, but you don't know everything. The captions help, but also add more questions. As a form of self-portraiture, I prefer this method. The result is more challenging - I think it asks more questions.
- Do you regard them as interesting "still life" compositions? No, to me these aren't "still life" (unless he has deliberately set all this up?). In fact, in photography, I'm not sure I like "still life". I certainly don't make it, other than if I have to for a specific OCA exercise. To me, this is documentary work. Shafran is documenting how he feels about food and washing up, and how it seems to be with him where ever he goes. It seems to have a disproportionate weighting in his life.
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