Peacehaven in III Parts Critical Report November 2010
Amelia Shepherd
Evaluative & Contextualised Summary
For the MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, LCC, University of the Arts London
Peacehaven in III Parts
Critical Report: Peacehaven in III Parts 1. Introduction 1.1 Title 1.2 Subject 1.3 Aims, Objectives & Concept 1.4 Outputs 2. Rationale 2.1 Background 2.2 Rethink project Passing Through 2.3 Related theories 3. Research 3.1 Visual methodology and photographic approach 4. Audiences and Context 4.1 Audiences 4.2 Context; Presentation, form, medium 5. Logistics and assessment 5.1 Synthesis of practical and theoretical issues 5.2 Critical assessments 6. Bibliography
Peacehaven in III Parts 1.Introduction
Fig.1. Amelia Shepherd Badge design
1.1 Title The title chosen, Peacehaven in III Parts, represents the three chronological phases of the town’s development; the past, the present and the future. This concept of three parts runs parallel to various components of the project such as the installation taking place in two physical locations-Peacehaven and Brighton and a further third virtual location on www.ameliashepherd.com. This can be extended to the three participative audiences this project combines, consisting of its subjects, the visual audience and myself as the creator and facilitator. This could succinctly be defined as theirs, yours and mine. 1.2 Subject The town of Peacehaven and its people are the subjects of this project. Initial research indicated there had been a precedent towards a sporadic, somewhat accidental approach to presenting the town’s history. Despite initial frustrations with the inaccessibility of historical references that this resulted in, I decided to work with this idiosyncrasy and incorporate a miscellaneous methodology in my research and documentary approach. The results of this led me to document a diversity of scenarios and people within Peacehaven merging “Intelligent still-life” (Fraser, P. 2010), portraits, landscapes and archive materials; rethinking the complexities of how we choose to represent man’s relationship with home and the place where he or she lives. As such Peacehaven in III Parts is a project about representation.
Peacehaven in III Parts 1.3 Aims, Objectives & Concept Concepts driving this project have been interwoven with the intended outcome - an installation - from the outset. Using the installation as a visual investigation between the subjects represented and the methods of representation deployed would provide insights into whether the chosen democratisation in visual approach resulted in an increased understanding, empathy and insight into the subject matters. An aim was to reveal any juxtaposition between preconceived notions about Peacehaven and its people versus post-installation opinions. I also aimed to convey aspects of vernacular culture and to transfer this into an ‘essence’ of what people of Peacehaven were like. Within this process of presenting an insightful, engaging and diverse installation experience, I intentionally focused on presenting its history in an exploritative and innovative way, mirroring my own process of documentation and information gathering. A key concept driving the project is a belief in the danger of trying to tell the single story (Adiche 2009) meaning there is never only one version of a story. Placing the installation within the set up of a mockup living room alludes to the spaces where the histories revealed have been taking place. This is reiterated on another level once this living room is installed in Peacehaven’s oldest public house. It presents an environment ‘outside time’ combining a set of rich, diverse and multi layered narratives where no single part is larger than the whole. Past and present are merged referencing a non-linear approach to story telling. There is a long, established and successful practice of documenting The British and this project aimed to approach this seemingly well-trodden topic another way. To use the words of Fig.2 Amelia Shepherd at Peacehaven opening
Peacehaven in III Parts Daniel Meadows in The Bus, it was an “adventure in documentary photography”.(Meadows 2001: 43). My interest lies in ordinary people and how the documentary photography tradition might involve them within their own representation. 1.4 Outputs The principle outputs of this project comprise of the following: • An installation. The focus of which was to explore my own, the communities’ and the visiting audiences’ relationship to the town and people of Peacehaven. In presenting my documentary findings within a domestic mockup living room setting this would enable my audiences to either re-engage with their town’s past in the context of the present if they were from Peacehaven and to offer insights into a little known community should they not be familiar with it. • To record aspects of vernacular British culture presenting the everyday and the banal with insight and warmth. • To present an engaging and innovative insight into the meaning of ‘home’ in the personal and public sense, with a commitment to engaging new audiences. • Through synthesising original archive and primary source materials in combination with contemporary images, interviews and ephemera, to provide a present day archive re-presenting the history of a town and its people. • To run portrait sessions within the installation for members of the public resulting in these photos being attached to a ‘people’s wall’ consolidating the notion that this installation would create a modern day ‘living archive’ of the town and its people. Fig. 3. Portrait of Andy taken at Peacehaven installation
Peacehaven in III Parts 2.Rationale 2.1 Background The journey began in January 2010 when I visited Peacehaven on an assignment initiated by a course tutor to ‘travel somewhere new’ and take photographs. The function of this exercise resonated with an approach which is a powerful force behind my photographic practice-that is to photograph one’s subject in a new way. “Just about everything has been photographed” (Sontag 1977: 3) however the urge to say something in a different way, according to my own subjective experiences, continues as a key force behind my practice. It is this creative desire to transform the visual, that which I see, into something that others may feel and know. I returned from that day back in January with a handful of intriguing photos and a genuine curiosity to find out more about a town about which I knew nothing that was located practically on my doorstep. This marked the start of my major project. Above the town’s neat avenues, cookie-cutter bungalows and quiet, treeless streets sat flocks of birds whose soft chirps reverberated in hushed echoes through the empty streets. This generated feelings of isolation but which were offset by the welcoming and homely ambience these nurtured houses with their attentive gardens enthused. Driven by the “intense curiosity” (Williams 2002: 9), which Williams states lies beneath much of the documentary genre, this singular experience of that day (which I never felt was repeated) drove my investigation of its history and what it had become today within the context of the Utopian ideal of Suburbia. Fig. 4. Amelia Shepherd. Birds
Peacehaven in III Parts 2.2 ‘Rethink’ project Passing Through The book project Passing Through (‘Item 1’ in the archive box) reflects much of the initial research elements of Peacehaven in III Parts. It re-presents them in layouts and spreads making transparent the variety and range of historical documents and primary source materials which have been accessed. The editing and sequencing of the layouts presents a coherent narrative but also reflects the variety and occasional inconsistency of those sources. Passing Through’s loose chronological structure traces the town’s founder’s aspirations to create, as the Daily Telegraph put it at the time, “ a garden city by the sea” (Payne 2000: 127). Town plans, maps and bungalow plots can be seen alongside aerial views of the undeveloped expanse of cliff top that was fast becoming Peacehaven. The assertive and bold early marketing, press and advertorial campaigns promoting the purchase of property and settlement there can be seen in the wider context of new-town planning and the creation of suburbs. The New Towns Act only came into existence in 1946 and Peacehaven acts as a very early example of a town’s expansion being sporadic, haphazard and an example of the “uncontrolled coastal development before the second World War” (Harris 2007: 8). Subsequent research into this community via West Sussex County Council’s reports suggests that the town’s ‘failure’ to become a “Wonder City of the South Coast” (Payne 2000: 93) can in part be explained by its un-unified development strategy. My aim within my own Critical Report is not to provide an enquiry into this aspect of the town but is mentioned for background purposes only. It was this discrepancy between the ideology of the perfect suburban town and the actual town it has become that captured my interest.
Fig. 5. Peacehaven bungalow
Peacehaven in III Parts 2.2 Related Theories
William Stott (Professor of American Studies and English at the University of Texas) stated that social documentary is “a radically democratic genre” (Stott 1986: x) which “dignifies the usual and levels the extraordinary” (Stott 1986: 49), which to an extent defines my motivations behind Peacehaven in III Parts. Although documentary in its nature, my project does not present itself as an objective historical account of life and lives in Peacehaven. It does however strive to use another approach at documenting life in a British town. In relation to this, parallels can be drawn between my own subject matter and that of other key British documentary photographers. To borrow the chapter heading from William’s and Bright’s How We Are: Photographing Britain (Tate Publishing: 2007), “The Urge to Document” acts as my reference point throughout my project. Politically engaged and socially conscious documentary projects were key research influences for this project. My own documentary net was cast wider, with more general aims, than the specifics which ensue with more tightly focused politically engaged projects about which I refer to next. Exit Photography Groups’ Survival Programmes (Open University Publishing, 1981) presents the photographers’ in-depth and insightful interviews along side their gritty black and white reportage of life within some of Britain’s major inner cities. This is an example, of a simple juxtaposition between image and text - representing the voices of the photographed - which has influenced my work on Peacehaven. Although harsh in nature these images were also hopeful with an overwhelming sense of community.
Peacehaven in III Parts Daniel Meadows’ Free Photographic Omnibus (1973) and Nattering in Paradise: A Word from the Suburbs (London, Simon & Schuster, 1988) presented energetic, positive and alternative approaches to documenting people in Britain and my own project was stimulated by this experimental approach. Meadows’ respect of his subjects and inclusion of their interview transcriptions reflects his intentions to instil a vitality and real voice to his subjects. He claims of his work that it is “an entertainment too, of a gentle kind – the kind which brings a flicker of recognition that many of the experiences, hopes, attitudes and fears related by the voices in its pages are duplicated in the life of the reader”. (Meadows 1988: 11).
Fig. 6. Daniel Meadows 1973
Peacehaven in III Parts Rather than attempting to emulate an existing photographic approach my project was driven by multiple theories and photographic influences across decades of practice within the documentary genre. In relation to these British documentarians of the 1970’s and 1980’s working in black and white, (Tony Ray-Jones, Daniel Meadows, Chris SteelePerkins, Chris Killip), it is equally relevant to mention photographers beginning to work in colour at this time such as Martin Parr and Paul Reas. The sardonic comedy of Reas’ I Can Help (Cornerhouse Publications, 1988) and Parr’s The Cost of Living (Cornerhouse Publications, 1989) dealt with (somewhat controversially at the time) aspects relating to British culture during the Thatcher years such as consumer culture and mass consumption. These photographers had honed various aesthetic devices such as using films which emphasised the punchy and defined colours they were shooting and they highlighted these scenes with fill flash further thrusting them at their audiences. Other critics understood that this bold new style was simply a mirror to uncomfortable realities of the era.
Discussing Parr in more general terms in Val Williams’ retrospective of Parr’s work Martin Parr she describes Parr’s approach as “a reflection of intense curiosity, deriving much from the American photography… William Eggleston, Bill Owens, Joel Meyerowitz, Garry Winogrand” (Williams 2002: 10). Shooting as a documentary photographer in 2010, I am constantly aware of the impressive and deeply rooted canon of documentary photography to which ones work always references and to which we are all indebted. However, with reference to an earlier point that Peacehaven in III Parts aimed to work with multiple narratives it is relevant at this point to reiterate that this project embodies multiple styles and approaches yet is completely defined by its own particular subject matter rather than being defined by any attempt to replicate or emulate anything which has come before it.
Peacehaven in III Parts 3. Research
Fig. 7. Various portraits
3.1 Visual methodology and photographic approach After deciding to adopt a particular methodology, in collating and reworking archive materials in the completion of the research phase of with the ‘Rethink’ project Passing Through, there were two further methodologies used. To surmise, the first of theses approaches would be portraiture, with the aim to obtain a series of portraits and interviews from people of the town. The second of these approaches would reflect my own personal engagement with the town embracing a diversity of visual approaches among which were landscapes, “Intelligent still-lives” (Fraser 2010), event reportage and street photography. Within the final installation these three loose methodologies (incorporating the archive and re-worked images of Passing Through) would compliment each other. Firstly I will consider the portraiture element of this project which will in turn provide greater insight into my photographic strategy. The development of my photographic practice has been grounded in collaboration with my subjects where notions surrounding their representation have been key. Frequently this has led to a relationship being developed between my subjects and I, where multiple visits, interviews and photo shoots ensue with the aim of providing the key components required for me to subsequently re-tell their stories with insight and depth. This isn’t always practical logistically. I therefore decided to employ some of this strategy to the Peacehaven portraits, aware that I would need to define this approach and sharpen the skills required. I would need to work with confidence and efficiency in order to succinctly obtain the trust of my subjects without sacrificing technical competence and in-depth
Peacehaven in III Parts interview material- elements which the final installation were reliant upon. To some extent my approach with the portraits was to unite a photojournalistic approach, teasing out the stories from these visual encounters, and combining this with the editorial approach of a portrait session. I allowed time at the start of portrait shoots for my subjects to feel comfortable with me and conducted an informal interview before turning to the camera. This provided me with a much greater insight into these characters, additional material for the project as well as acting as an icebreaker.
Fig. 8. Spread from Home is where the heart is
Visually I have always been attracted to the more seemingly incidental nature of the environmental portrait and conceptually, since my project is concerned with the people of a place, Peacehaven, I felt that this would be an appropriate methodology to adopt during the portrait sessions. Staged portraits were firmly not on my agenda although I accept there is always an element of role-play within ‘conscious’ portraiture where subject and photographer are both aware of the situation. Choosing a portraiture format which fitted both conceptually and methodologically wherein I could find my own voice was the challenge. I cannot explain my subconscious will, least to say that I feel it drives part of the creative force and part of the decision making process whilst I take a photograph. To quote from John Szarkowski’s seminal introduction to William Eggleston’s The Guide, I would admit that I am an ‘artist’ who was “uncertain as to what part of the content of his work answered to life and what part to art, and was perhaps even uncertain as to precisely where the boundary between them lay” (Szarkowski 1976: 5).
Peacehaven in III Parts The ambition within my portraits was to provide a two dimensional expression of my subjects that also left space for questions. I wanted to capture an essence of these people and capture some aspect of British culture today. I felt my portraits should communicate whilst simultaneously hold back demanding that the audience walk away from the encounter enriched yet asking for more. “The photographer hopes, in brief, to discover a tension so exact that it is peace” (Adams 1974). The portraits I took would be exhibited within the installation space on the wall (see ‘Item 3’, archive box) as well as forming a large part of the book Home is where the heart is (see ‘Item 2’, archive box). I had been interested in how other photographers tackled similar subject matter as previously referred to in section 2.2 Related Theories. Bill Owens’ 1972 book Suburbia acted as reassurance that other photographers combined a variety of visual approaches whilst documenting the inhabitants of suburbs. He pairs quotes with environmental portraits, shots of life’s daily rituals and interiors to communicate an amusing and occasionally absurd view of life in the suburbs. The second of these further two methodologies employed, where I would record my own engagement with town and the people, further reflects my eclectic and inquisitive photographic outlook. Within my aims of presenting a case study of a British town and its people there is also a subjective fascination with the vernacular and a desire to record and communicate this. The early summer months in Peacehaven were to provide plenty of opportunities for me to attend town events and shows and mingle with the local residents. Typically I would try to photograph as an onlooker, adopting a more hands-off and detached approach to documenting, but the events I photographed at frequently involved liaising and co-ordinating with official organisers who I would brief on my project beforehand and whilst shooting. This highlights the difficult and contested area of a photographer being an objective observer.
Peacehaven in III Parts Perhaps an early development in Martin Parr’s career can be used to illustrate this problematic scenario. It was the dichotomy between the urges to journalistically immerse himself within the Crimsworth Dean Chapel population, having gained their trust as a member of their congregation, set against their realisation that Parr’s motivations were not spiritual but ultimately aesthetic and commercial which forced Parr to keep himself distant from his subjects in the future.
Separate from the people I photograph […] however close and intimately you feel that you can work with people, ultimately, you’re never part of the thing; you’re always entirely separate, and your different background, your different cultures, sep arate you out. (Williams 2002: 78).
A vital part of Peacehaven in III Parts was my own reaction to my subject matter since this is the base from where all else began. The photographic observations resulting from these encounters and events were an intrinsic element to the project and form another layer of the narrative. I was beginning to see the installation of Peacehaven in III Parts as a medium where the various ideas and experiments, which my photography consisted of, could unite. Although parallels between this strand of my work and some of Martin Parr’s work could be drawn I was unaware at this point of Parr’s Manchester Diploma show ‘Home Sweet Home’. Here he built a room set and decorated and adorned it with documentary images, ephemera and completed the ambience with kitsch music. This reflects the creative ‘magpie’ affect, which runs throughout most artistic processes whether conscious, or not.
Peacehaven in III Parts
Peacehaven in III Parts 4. Audiences and Context
4.1 Audiences Whilst working on Peacehaven in III Parts I developed the opportunity to incorporate my project with the larger Brighton Photo Fringe 2010. Since my project’s destiny was to be an installation it became evident that I would need to develop the necessary platform to achieve this and the Brighton Photo Fringe became that platform. This event is an opportunity for any lens-based practitioner to hold an entirely self-managed exhibition with the support network of Brighton Photo Fringe and in partnership with Brighton Photo Biennial. As my relationship with Peacehaven and some of its residents progressed and developed I decided to tour my installation so that Peacehavener’s and Brightonian audiences could engage and visit resulting in there being two installations, one in Peacehaven and then one in Brighton. Initially I pursued my ambition to host this installation actually within a Peacehaven bungalow by contacting local commercial and residential property agents as well as private landlords and property developers. After exhausting these possibilities and unable to find a collaborator I came across Peacehaven’s oldest pub (c.1928), The Dew Drop Inn. The current landlords Jerry and Lyn Dudeney have been there since the late 1960’s. Its key location is just off the South Coast Road on Steyning Avenue which is historically and geographically important to the town. The building can be identified in early aerial photographs, which feature in Passing Through. The old-fashioned set up of the dual-roomed pub with a ‘lounge’ and separate ‘bar’ resonates with the crucial domestic interior set-up of the installation.
Peacehaven in III Parts Pubs are social centres where stories are exchanged, where people come to feel at home and this setting would therefore strengthen those concepts this project engages with. Audiences would already find out about the installation via the Brighton Photo Fringe’s website and brochure campaign yet additionally, during the weeks leading up to the opening of the Peacehaven installation I secured promotion within regional newspapers (Brighton’s Argus and the Sussex Leader), various listings magazines and via the web (see www.ameliashepherd.com ‘Stop Press’). Additionally, a local poster campaign and flyer distribution were carried out with a small team of local residents, town councilors and the Peacehaven Mayor to ensure the town was aware of the exhibition. Hosting this event in a pub ensured that the local pub-goers, the ‘incidental audience’ were automatically engaging with the work too. An interview with the pub landlord addresses this and can be viewed here at www.ameliashepherd.com ‘Peacehaven in III Parts’. The Brighton based installation took part the two following weeks (November 5th-14th) at The Old Co-op Building where my installation shared the first floor space of this abandoned department store along with a number of other independent shows. (See ‘Item 5’ in the archive box for photographs of both the Peacehaven and Brighton installation spaces). The recorded visitor numbers into the Co-op building during my exhibition’s duration was 2500. From having personally invigilated I would estimate that approximately one sixth of this footfall stopped within my installation and engaged with the space. Typically, my installation space was one of the busiest on the floor illustrating most importantly the relevance of such installation work and its ability to engage new audiences in its utilisation of a variety of mediums presenting an engaging subject matter. Fig. 9. The Dewdrop
Inn
Peacehaven in III Parts 4.2 Context; medium, form and presentation Decisions surrounding the final form and methods of presentation of my work relate directly back to section 1.3 Aims, Objectives & Concept. Here I discuss the democratisation in visual approach. I believe that I carried this approach through from the conceptualisation of the project, through to the methodologies whilst shooting and then finally into the presentation space of the installation. The installation space comprised of a range of visual elements from photo-books to wallhung portraits. Each of these installation elements is referenced via a photograph of it in-situ in ‘Item 6’ of the archive box. Visually and psychologically I wanted the audiences’ experience at the installation to mirror my own journey over the past nine months. Similarly to the way in which I had been visually and aurally collecting, documenting, gathering objects and meaningful references for Peacehaven in III Parts I intended to emulate some of this for the audience. It was therefore self evident that the installation would be a reflection of this in the diversity of formats presented and methods of presentation chosen. Primarily the project had become about people and their stories. A major element of the work was the portrait photographs. I chose to house these portraits of people coupled with their own voices and intimate anecdotes from their lives within the format of a book where I could control and direct the narrative through layout and sequencing. The final structure of this book, Home is where the heart is, (‘Item 2’ in the archive box) is the result of a series of carefully considered options and choices. Introducing each person with a Polaroid shot of the outside of their house (suggestive of the research phase of the project), tagged with their name, provides an instant juxtaposition between an object appropriated with a human name. This plays upon the interrelationship between people and the places they inhabit. Beneath each Polaroid shot lays the A-Z reference for this house. This reflects the systematic nature of which my early documentations of Peacehaven relied upon as well as
Peacehaven in III Parts referencing the numerous maps and town plans which appear in Passing Through. The reader then encounters a series of portraits and interior/exterior environmental shots coupled with a measured first person narrative aimed to provide a real sense of the place and the people. Included within this are the subjects’ own photographs, scanned and laid out against my own portraits, again adding to the incidental nature of documenting and the diversity of elements involved in story telling. The second half of Home is where the heart is provides the space for my own observational and personal engagement with Peacehaven and its people. Each of these two elements (portraits and observational shots) were additionally displayed on the installation space’s walls. The portraits (see ‘Item 3’ in the archive box) were displayed frameless, pinned to the wall in a linear structure and were printed on high gloss, emulating the sentiments of a professional family portrait one has paid for and then displayed on the living room wall. The observational shots (‘Item 4’, archive box) were framed in kitsch brown with gold trim wooden frames and hung in a scatter-fashion, directly against floral wallpaper above a mantle piece, referencing a collection of prized ‘family favourites’.
Fig. 10. Detail from exhibition
A selection of mainly black and white archive reprint photos taken from Passing Through were selected for the installation space and were hung directly against the Art Deco style wallpaper, pinned up with a single bulldog clip (‘Item 7’, archive box).
Peacehaven in III Parts An old photo tin at the installation contained a combination of original and re-printed photographs from the people of Peacehaven who contributed them as an addition to the project. A photograph of this can be found in ‘Item 6’ and an example of these photographs is ‘Item 8’ in the archive box. The installation props were variously sourced with attention to choosing mainly 1930’s objects reflecting the main development period in Peacehaven’s growth. Additionally, business cards mocked up as postcards (‘Item 9’) and badges (‘Item 10’) promoted the installation and were displayed as items the audience could take away with them.
Peacehaven in III Parts 5. Logistics and assessment 5.1 Synthesis of practical and theoretical issues At the beginning of 2010 I was striving to reconcile what it was I wanted to communicate and how would best do that about the town and people of Peacehaven. I placed this project within the context of the rest of my work and in relation to the broader contexts of others’ photographic practices. What I have come to understand is that my urge to document is largely about representation. Peacehaven in III Parts would not exist in isolation and however I chose to present my subjects would have bearing on their future representation. As I accumulated stories and visual evidence (the fates of which were in my hands) what each of these ‘documents’ would become, started to feel like a series of problemsolving exercises.
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Peacehaven in III Parts was an opportunity as well as a challenge for me to work on a long-term project, which combined a variety of skills, nurturing those I already had whilst teaching and developing entirely new ones. Selecting a town close to my home facilitated easy and frequent visits. Accessing a town’s history through archive and primary sources other than photographs engaged my awareness of the complicated role the visual image as a document plays within our culture and society. I was pushed out of my comfort zone in choosing to shoot portraits and conduct interviews with strangers.
Peacehaven in III Parts Developing a budget for the production of the project and subsequent installation compelled me to apply for funding and pitch for sponsorship providing direct experience of real-world scenarios related to embarking upon and completing a self defined long-term project. I created and managed my own marketing and promotion from designing postcards, flyers, adverts and press releases to managing relationships with sponsors, town councils and local journalists. Selling the concept of a photographic installation to a pub landlord in Peacehaven became an opportunity for me to insist that it would also increase his own sales and broaden his pub’s appeal. Fused with the above examples of some of the key logistical elements of Peacehaven in III Parts were the varied and diverse theoretical concerns previously discussed in this report. Since successfully producing two installations I have had some opportunity to reflect more deeply on some of these theoretical concerns and these will be addressed in the following section 5.2 Critical Assessments. 5.2 Critical assessments Whilst critically assessing the affectivity of any creative project it would be short sighted to solely measure its success against the initial stated ‘outcomes’see section 1.4 Outputs. Whilst measuring against these outcomes is a constructive and valuable exercise, the very nature of creativity and creative output denotes we leave space for the unexpected, the incidental and the unplanned. Having already spoken about the various successful executions of each of the elements of the installation I would now like to turn my attention to areas which would benefit form being developed. On the subject of budgets and funding, although being successful at raising fifty percent of the total budget spent through sponsorship, earlier submission of my application to The Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme would have resulted in full funding for this project;
Peacehaven in III Parts “Feedback to the applicant needs to reflect that the panel felt this was an eminently fundable project but that the application would have benefited from an earlier submission� (Harrison 2010). Although the installations were popular in both locations I believe the historical archive material was of more relevance to the Peacehaven audience. With this in mind, to further enhance its appeal when installing again, I would tailor various elements in order to show case them. For example I would dedicate more wall space to portraiture and print the portraits larger. Budgets prevented me printing larger in the first instance, and larger prints hung with more breathing space would in future do justice to these images and further validate their power. It is perhaps the last, most enduring comments I would like to make in assessing the successes of Peacehaven in III Parts that are the most complex and problematic. On the subject of the ethics of representation, which is where this report began, it has occurred to me that in trying to be all things to all people, in trying to democratise the image and what it is representing, it is possible to dilute ones own voice. In this instance my voice does not become lost, but potentially it isn’t as clear and succinct as it might be across certain areas of the installation. The last section of Home is where the heart is begins to engage the audience with this voice but arguably this is a small element over all. Yes, there is a power within the portraits and a definite photographic style exudes but some of their force and relevance is obscured within the installation.
Peacehaven in III Parts From the concept to the output of Peacehaven in III Parts there are many key successes to note. The fusion of conceptual, theoretical and practical elements is demonstrated on many levels in the production of the installation. I have learnt that there is also a danger in trying to tell too many stories in the quest to tell more than one. It is this aspect I will focus on during the next opportunity I have to exhibit this work with the aim to tighten the edits, sharpen my voice and say more with less.
Peacehaven in III Parts 6. Bibliography Adams, R., 1974. Denver: A Photographic Survey of the Metropolitan Area. USA: The New West. Adiche, C., 2009. The Danger of a Single Story. TED Blog, July 2009. Oxford: TEDGlobal Duration: 18:49. [Sound recording: Pod Cast]. Bright, S. & Williams, V., 2007. How We Are: Photographing Britain. UK: Tate Publishing. De Botton, A., 2006. The Architecture of Happiness. London: Penguin Group. Fraser, P., 2010. Tutorial Session. UK, online. June 2010. Harris, R., 2004. Peacehaven Historic Character Assessment Report 2004. UK: East Sussex County Council. Harrison, N. 2010 Email Feedback, 11 November 2010. Personal email to: A. Shepherd (ameliashepherd@yahoo. co.uk) from N. Harrison, Arts Council England. Eggleston, W., 1976. The Guide. New York: Museum of Modern Art. Meadows, D., 2001. The Bus. London: The Harvill Press. Meadows, D., 1988. Nattering in Paradise: A Word from the Suburbs. London: Simon & Schuster. Payne, T., 2000. Peacehaven. Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing Limited. Roberts, S., 2009. We English. London: Chris Boot. Sontag, S., 1977. On Photography. London: Penguin Books. Stott, W., 1986. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Williams, V., 2002. Martin Parr. New York: Phaidon Press Inc.
Peacehaven in III Parts
Our love of home is in turn an acknowledgement of the degree to which our identity is not self-determined. We need home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for our vulnerability. (Botton 2006: 107)