Johnston Drew, Liz (2024) Constructing visibility: British social documentary photography and eco-criticality during the fossil economy circa 1970-2020. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
|
Text
Johnston Drew L, final thesis for library.pdf - Full Version Download (8MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This is a thesis about British social, documentary photography as emerging and developing over the last fifty years. A period that has seen the escalation of interrelated ecological and social erosion on an uneven global scale. I analyse three examples that have an overall aim to give agency to those who are less seen and heard. All three share objectives to achieve this aim, which are to be as collaborative as possible and to employ the photobook as an apposite form that has the potential for wider distribution; beyond the gallery or museum systems that are not readily accessible, in a meaningful way, to the majority of those depicted in such works. I question if we can view social documentary photography, as a mediated realism that can have any real efficacy, in the face of the unequal experience of social, political and physical environments. I use an ecocritical approach to position these examples as attempting to counter generalising, therefore repressive narratives on ‘ordinary’ people and places impacted by imposed change. I refer specifically to change as part of the fossil economy that has escalated over the same fifty-year timespan in play. The consequences of this economy have “tentacles everywhere”, as Lucy Lippard said of a global capitalism that has become dangerously dependent on this economy that it has created and nurtures. “Everywhere” in my thesis meaning ways of living, working and being, as well as a sense of place. My research is situated in work on documentary projects and debates, that speak to this through a focus on local environments and communities. Due to personal experience, I’ve focussed mainly on the North East of England and the North Sea (off England and Scotland) as exemplar sites. My three examples are projects from Newcastle-based photographer, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, cofounder of the Amber Film and Photography Collective, working in the Tyneside region from 1969; a collaboration between the photographer (and environmental activist) Fay Godwin and the socialist writer (and journalist) Mervyn Jones, engaging with North Sea oil workers during a portentous heatwave in August 1975, a weather event that is often overlooked as it was quickly superseded by the prolonged heatwave of 1976. Also, contemporary work from artist-activist Mark Neville, as engaged with changing working environments, injustice, and conflict in the North and beyond. My theoretical framing is informed by methodology found in art history. Also drawing upon the energy humanities as more recently emerging from the wider environmental humanities. My analysis is informed by work that allows for expanded interpretation and agency, for documentary past and present. My examples are examined for new insights into their significance as political, pedagogic, and cultural activity.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Nov 2024 11:19 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Nov 2024 15:39 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/54535 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00054535 |
Statistics
Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.
Archive Staff Only (login required)
