‘I had a dream’ 

My starting point for my work was a story that I heard from a friend, called Adrian, a few years ago. It  was about a near death experience prefigured by a ‘warning’ dream. An edited version of an audiotape of my interview with him was the framework for image taking and the slide show.

The theoretical framework for my work lies in the relationship between moving and still images.  Several authors in ‘Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving image’ and  a review of this book by Guy Lane are helpful (Green and Lowry Ed, 2006; Lane, 2007). Laura Mulvey observes that the “still image is the bearer of ‘pastness’ and by extension death.” This recalls Barthes viewing of his mother’s image (which we do not see) which induces thoughts and feelings about  his own future death (Barthes, 1982). Hirsch referring to Barthes, in another source, points out that this is “the mother’s death and the son’s mourning, his anticipation of his own death…” (Hirsch, 1997). These ideas resonate in my work which is about death, it’s anticipation and resurrection. Christian Metz, in ‘Stillness and time’ makes a useful comment about moving images which he says suggest ” a sense of ‘presentness’ as opposed to a still image which suggests the past (Green and Lowry Ed, 2006).

There is also an indexical element in the halted image within the slide show. This is Laura Muley, again referring to Barthes, “The halted frame, the arrest…allows the time for contemplation that takes us back to the brief instant that recorded ‘the real thing’ (Green and Lowry Ed, 2006, page 153). Halting the frame also has the benefit of giving the image prominence “the performance of stardom” rather than being ‘swept away and denied’” as might happen with moving images (Green and Lowry Ed, 2006, page 153).

Personally, I think the there is something powerful about this story. For me it is primarily about resurrection and rescue from death - a Lazarus moment. I am also struck by the ‘“beautiful” experience of almost dying, that it is not a fearful experience: maybe my passing will be like that. 

References

Finn, T. (1993). Protected. Before and After. http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Tim_Finn:Protected, Lyrically.

Green and Lowry Eds (2006). Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving image. London, Photoworks/Photoforum.

Lane, G. (2007). “Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving Image (Review) https://www.academia.edu/5697845/STILLNESS_AND_TIME_PHOTOGRAPHY_AND_THE_MOVING_IMAGE_EDITED_BY_DAVID_GREEN_AND_JOANNA_LOWRY_DESIGNED_BY_LOUP.”The Art Book 14(3).

Barthes, R. (1982). Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. London, Jonathan Cape.

Hirsch, M., (1997) Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory.  Harvard

Audio

Interview with Adrian Smith; Recorded 30th September 2016 by Morris Gallagher.

Wave music; ‘Summer waves at Charmouth beach in Dorset’ https://www.freesound.org/people/konakaboom/sounds/203156/download/203156__konakaboom__summer-waves-at-charmouth-beach-in-dorset.wav. Accessed 2nd April, 2017

ECG sounds; https://www.freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/32329/download/32329__freqman__heartmonitor-ekg.wav, https://www.freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/32329/ Accessed 2nd April, 2017

I am have been thinking about ‘Whistleblowers’ for some time. I am a doctor in the NHS and also work for a social enterprise. I am the clinical governance and quality improvement lead for my service. I am angry at the way in which people who point out problems with the NHS are bullied, abused and side-lined by an uncaring management. I realise that is a very binary view, ‘Whistleblower’ versus ‘Managers,’ but I want to find out for myself what happened and perhaps more importantly, what happened to the people who blue the whistle. 

I am not sure how easy or difficult this will be as a photographic project but you will see whether I can tell their story or not.

“Search for the hero inside yourself, search for the secret inside.” (M People, 1998)

Super-heroes in contemporary culture are framed as destructive, socially dysfunctional ‘beings’ with extra-ordinary CGI enhanced super-powers.  An example would be the characters in the ‘The Avengers’ Marvel action hero franchise. Sometimes their ‘machismo’ is ameliorated by a kindly persona (as with Clark Kent) with hidden frailties (Kryptonite), but in characters like Iron Man, Tony Stark exhibits the ‘Dark Triad’ characteristics of personality; narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Jonason et al, 2012). ‘Niceness’ is not their virtue and ‘saving the world’ is their vice.

Here is my ‘stable’ of anti-superheroes. They don’t have a collective noun because they don’t want one and are content to live ‘below the radar’ as they live their ordinary and extra-ordinary lives amongst us.

M People’ sing about the “hero inside ourselves” (M People, 1998). Kaufman constructs a fantasy novel where everyone has an ‘ordinary’ super-power apart from the main protagonist  (Kaufman, 2006). My theoretical framework for this assignment was an exploration of Jung’s ‘shadow’ and ‘anima and animus’ aspects of the psyche (Hopwood,  2008). As in the song, Jung finds the “masculine” aspects of the psyche such as autonomy, separateness, and aggression and the “feminine” aspects such as nurturance, relatedness, and empathy, are found in most people  (Hopwood, 2008). I asked my sitters to explore and describe their visible and hidden positive creative attributes that they could imagine fantastically in supernatural form. My discussion with my subjects led to an awareness of the gendered and non gendered forms of their special skills and super-powers. This shows itself overtly in the character names chosen by my anti-heroes. ‘Mrs Green,’ for example, who is female, identifies herself as ‘feminine’ but ‘Visio-Spatial,’ who is also female, has no gender.

What I found in this work is that this group of sitters smiled and talked a lot. This is not thought to be a good thing in contemporary photography, but it is a reflection of their innate positivity and hopeful demeanour. This is something which we can find in most of us (Kaufman, 2006). 

References

M People. (1998). Search for the hero. The Best of M People, M People Records.

Peter Jonason, G. W., David Schmitt, Norman Li, Laura Crysel (2012). “The Antihero in Popular Culture: Life History Theory and the Dark Triad Personality Traits,” Florida Review of General Psychology 16(2): 192-199. http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/normanli/JonasonWebsterSchmittLiCrysel2012.pdf

Hopwood, A. (2008). “Jung’s model of the psyche.” Retrieved June 6th, 2016, from http://www.thesap.org.uk/resources/articles-on-jungian-psychology-2/about-analysis-and-therapy/jungs-model-psyche/.

Kaufman, A. (2006). All my friends are superheroes. United Kingdom, Telegram.