Another Eye: Contemporary Women Photographers – Four corners project – Thursday, October 15, 2020 (Virtual)
Photographers Dragana Jurisic, Amak Mahmoodian and Eileen Perrier discussed their work and issues of identity, Britishness, exile and belonging as well as how their personal histories of migration and exile have influenced them. This talk runs alongside the exhibition ‘”Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 19332″ (ANOTHER EYE: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933, 2020).
Dragana Jurisic – Visual artist who works with image, text and video
- Yugoslavian, with Serb and creation parents, who moved to Ireland.
- Learnt the power of photography over memory
- Influenced by the writings of Rebecca West – Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. In her work “The lost country” she followed the ghost of this writer, who also experienced rejection, isolation, and was expressing her identity. This work freed her from needing a country or national identity.
- Rejects being defined by nationally which is only an accident of birth
It is fascinating how she identified with a writer and followed her ghost for her work.
Amak Mahmoodian -Persian photographer who focuses on the effect of dreams on memory exile and photographs.
- Her work Shenasnameh became known as a political statement, a “representation”, Photos and fingerprints of women in Iran where took photos of people she knew holding photos from archives, concealing their identities, thus was about women society and constructed identities. She used selected historical photographs as masks, asking her loved ones to hold the prints in front of them, framing her own kingdom and centring the sorrow of separation she feels for them because she lives and works three thousand miles away.
- The images are surrounded by fragments of an imagined conversation – between Amak, and Princess Taj al-Saltanah, an Iranian princess who lived at the end of the 19th century. She found a mirror in al-Saltanah; these women find the opportunity to be vulnerable, sharing their individual experiences of family, distance, powerlessness, yearning, and hope.
- A trailblazer for women’s rights in 19th century Iran, she defied her family and government and advocated for equality and democracy.
- Mahmoodian is a curator and through the Ffotogallery touring exhibition Bi nam – Image and Identity in Iran she provided first European exposure for emergent Iranian artists and photographers, presenting work previously unseen outside Iran.
- Has been forced into exile, but doesn’t think she’s lost her nationality
This work, though not relevant to me now, is very interesting; in particular her use of archive material alongside contemporary portraits. Her approach linking into a an imagined relationship with an Iranian Princess is unusual.
Eileen Perrier- Portrait artist, a Londoner of African descent whose work centers around identity Britishness and her roots.
- Used her student loan to go to Ghana 1995/96 and using family photographs she revisited family there and developed this into portraits at home of her extended family.
- Was taught by Anna Fox at Farnham
- Recent commissions post degree: Afro hair and beauty 1998-2006, Grace 2000, her Africa remix work showed on the underground
- When asked if nationality is negative how do you identify yourself? She answered “As human”.
These works focus on:
- Imposed nationalities
- Living with multiple identities
- Women in societies breaking out of their national gender labels
- Not being defined by your origins
- Representations of borders
It was the bringing together of these artists and the discussions on how their work represents their feelings about identity, nationality, gender whilst also attempting to break out of these boundaries which I found thought provoking.
Interestingly they believe they should be assessed as artists free of these boundaries.
Reference:
ANOTHER EYE: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933 (2020) At: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/another-eye-women-refugee-photographers-in-britain-after-1933?s=contemporary+women+photographers (Accessed 16/10/2020).
Photography 2: Documentary 