I have been thinking a lot about how my texts will work with the photographs for the East End project.
I have always thought that the text component would comprise of a title, which would locate the photograph in today’s East End, and a caption which would provide an additional, parallel, stream of information.
I want there to be a disjuncture between photograph and caption which might open up alternative meanings in the mind of the viewer. However, if the text is too obscure then there is a danger that the viewer will simply get lost and won’t get the question I am attempting to raise through the photo/text combination.
For example, I have made a photograph of Adler Street in Whitechapel. It is relevant to my work as it is the location of the racially motivated murder of a young Bengali Altab Ali in 1978. The question I want the viewer to think about is whether we are doing enough to combat racially motivated violence in our society. I have an associated text which quotes a recent study by the Institute of Race Relations on the incidence of racial violence and Government’s response to the issue.
I could simply associate the image with the IIR text and allow the viewer to think about why this particular location is of relevance. The photo/text combination would look like this:
©Keith Greenough 2014
This certainly creates the disjuncture I am seeking. But will the viewer get it?
I am aware of two other photographers who have explored the idea of the photograph as a memorial for tragic events such as the one I am referring to above. Joel Sternfeld’s “On This Site” photographs places where terrible events have taken place, events which have remained in Sternfeld’s thoughts. For each photograph Sternfeld provides a brief summary of what took place there. The disjuncture between photograph and text remains. A sunny scene in the countryside is transformed in the location of a mass murder for example. David Gillander in his series “Uncivilised”, which presents photographs of the locations of Glasgow knife crimes, adopts the same approach. Gillander’s photographs are much darker and moodier, and are in black and white.
If all my photographs were of locations associated with race murders then I could provide context through my artist’s statement, but they are concerned with a variety of issues and so an all encompassing statement is not possible.
An alternative approach is to include both an anchoring text and additional information. As in the following example:
©Keith Greenough 2014
This makes it clear that this is a photograph of a murder site but also raises the broader question of what are we doing about this issue. My fear is that the honest truth is that our society is largely xenophobic – people fear losing their jobs, their homes, their social benefits and their personal security. So do we turn a blind eye to racial violence?
I have still to resolve how I will present the texts. At the moment I am leaning towards the second of the two alternatives. I would be interested in the views of others.
photo-graph 
Eileen
January 12, 2014
For me at least the second would also be a preference. I think having just the general text per the first example and street name is an unhappy hybrid. It puts almost too much attention on the text because one is aware that one has half the clues towards a story and there is then the risk of people treating it like a puzzle that needs an answer (it wouldn’t get them very far in this case as a range of attempts to search on Adler Street didn’t tell me why it was chosen).
Keith Greenough
January 12, 2014
Thanks to both for your thoughts. The split decision illustrates my dilemma. To be honest the work is intended to be documentary in nature and to be viewed potentially in a gallery. So i would not expect the viewer to be Googling Adler Street at the time of viewing. An accompanying catalogue might provide the answers however.
Simon Norfolk’s ‘Bleed’ is another example of the use of the photograph as a memorial of tragedy. He too provides explicit captions but in his book these are placed in an appendix. I would be interested to see what he does in a gallery exhibition. Perhaps the book is intended as a catalogue. He does however sell the prints as standalone art objects.
Carol Street
January 12, 2014
For me I prefer the first option as it made me stop and think about why the statement was there, why it had been specifically chosen and what was the link to the photograph. It intrigued me enough to go looking for the answer (pretending I hadn’t see the second option!). Here though I ran into Eileen’s problem in that a quick search on google didn’t provide the answer. So in a nutshell from me, I prefer option 1 as I like the puzzle element, both on a superficial level of initial curiosity and on a deeper level of connective thought but I think the viewer would need to be able to find the connection between text and image fairly easily.
Keith Greenough
January 12, 2014
Thanks Carol. See joint reply above.
jsumb
January 13, 2014
One of the things that keeps reverberating for me with this image is the amount of text. The street signage, the deep shadows all have connotative strength, even the composition that drags the viewer toward the centre and way from perhaps, the most interesting/disturbing associative text about personal injury. That a trite (in some people’s perspective) service is being advertised at a scene of such personal tragedy is very pertinent I think, in the shadows and lurking – so I am vexed about responding to your question: less text leaves me with the conundrum that Carol moots about the disjunctive connection between the added text and the image or, the conflict between the signage and the explicit tragedy that was enacted on the street.
Gillander uses a very stylised script, I’m supposing have you considered typeface to help develop the narrative?
Keith Greenough
January 13, 2014
Thanks for the input John. The question of how text and image interact and how different presentations lead to different interpretations and meaning is proving both fascinating and as you say vexing….
I had noticed Gillander’s typeface text, which refers to the court records he uses as his source. I have not yet given this much thought for my own work, but I need to.