Bronwen Hazlett
Shannon Ayres
Concept of Photography
December 10th, 2014
Concept Statement: Narrative of a Marriage Gone Wrong
This series of collages are a narrative about the disintegration of my 17 year marriage. I created this series with a constructed artistic involvement in the sub genre of self portraiture. I photographed myself in still time and from a frontal and eye level vantage point. My self portraits are black and white photographs that are in focus and sharp. The lighting I am using is even but I have exaggerated the contrast so that the plasticity can be varied for emphasis through the different types of printing materials used in the collages. The only color in these collages is on the printed boxes and handwritten statements. The literal subject matter is comprised of self portraits, text I have written to myself, my statements, and statements made by my ex-husband to me.
The actual subject matter I am presenting is about my feelings and reasoning behind leaving my husband. I am the primary subject and have photographed myself self in a corset and a black dress. Corsets are supposed to be something that women use to accentuate the beauty of their figures but it makes the wearer uncomfortable and unable to breathe. The corset becomes a representation of strangle hold my ex-husband had on my life. The wall I have photographed myself in front of is another representation of the ever-present verbal abuse from my ex-husband and is my secondary subject matter.
My collages are assembled on flattened 17” x 23” USPS Priority flat rate boxes. They will be actively framed and mounted on the boxes. The collages themselves will be laid out in a sometimes leveled but mostly sharpened composition with the written statements. These were the kind of boxes I packed and shipped much of my belongings in. I wrote messages on the inside flaps of the boxes to reminded myself of the daily repugnant words and attitudes I heard. Once I left, I did not want to second-guess why.
This project is both linguistic and medium based. In using both photography and collage, I am expressing physically and mentally the process I went through. The painting I am using in some of my photographs is a painting my ex-husband punched a hole through into the wall during an argument. My expressions photographed range from anger to sadness. The situations I am expressing were harsh and over whelming while others were like being in a fog and I, as a person, completely disappeared. My portraits are printed on lutradur (an experimental semi opaque material), matte photographic paper, and glossy photographic paper.
The process of making a collage is a medium based process and it flattens the images spatially. In conjunction with the differently printed self portraits, making these collages is akin to the layering and compounding of emotions in my marriage. In the process of making the collages, I have melted, burned, and torn my portraits to interpret how I felt and to illustrate my response to his verbal insults. I also wrote my statements on the shipping boxes in a different handwriting and voice from my ex-husband’s statements to make whom is speaking very clear. The more I speak out and stand my ground in this series, the more I become sharp and clear.
My artistic intent is for a reflective out come by the observer. I want to make the viewer realize that even a strong and independent woman can end up in an abusive marriage. It is a slow and insidious process where your self-esteem, friends, and family are burned and torn from your life. It is a message to others in similar situations that you can leave and you do not deserve it.
In terms of historical processes, I would have to compare my work to fragments of other self portrait photographers. The wet plate collodion feel of Sally Mann’s work is somewhat similar to this series. There is a soft and blurry fogginess to her work that makes it very personal. Depicting my struggle gives me a different perspective on Nan Goldin. She is fearlessness to put everything on display, for better or worse. I admire the strength in the work of Frida Kahlo. Kahlo had her own tumultuous relationship with her husband. She was not afraid to express her most intimate thoughts and ideas of herself no matter how crazy they were.
Statement of Future Intent
Over the past couple of months my final project images developed into a clear representation of how I felt about my marriage. It was a very therapeutic way of assessing what I had been through so that I could move forward. My final project images appear as they should be represented. Since I was photographing my self portraits, printing them, and then making them into collages, they appear as final pieces. I feel the issues I addressed in this series have led me to prospective ideas I would like to explore for my midpoint review and thesis work. I will keep working in a constructed artistic involvement but it will most likely not involve self portraiture. I would like to explore other heavily weighted issues that have had an impact like, my youngest daughter’s bipolar disorder or my ex-husband’s drug addiction.
My career objectives are to teach and continue to make fine art photography. I have a couple of contacts that I regularly stay in touch with who are involved in teaching college photography. I also am in the process of gaining the certification needed to teach art in secondary schools. When time permits, I will continue to submit work to juried exhibitions and continue to research galleries where I can also submit my work.
