Conference proceeding
Photo Images: Jo Spence's Narratives in, of, and through Her Body
International Sociological Association
01 Jan 1998
Abstract
Explores documentary photographs by British feminist Jo Spence (1934-1992), who was notable for her attempts not merely to deconstruct traditional representations of women's bodies & relationships between photographers & subjects, but to construct an alternative discourse of the body that is more fluid & collaborative. Beginning in 1982, at the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Spence engaged in a series of collaborative projects to construct photographic narratives of her experiences with illness, medicine, & alternative healing practices. How these photographic narratives of living with cancer are similar to & different from narratives produced in research interviews & autobiographical accounts is considered in terms of how Spence put herself into her pictures; in what respects her photographs were produced collaboratively & how these collaborations shaped the images; how structural elements -- themes, plots, characters, moral, & political arguments -- took shape in her photographs; how her narratives are embedded in & reflective of political, economic, & cultural systems; the extent to which her narratives resist or produce alternative relations of power in & beyond the frame in photography, medicine, & women's everyday lives; & what affinities this narrative genre has with other narrative genres.
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Details
- Title
- Photo Images: Jo Spence's Narratives in, of, and through Her Body
- Creators
- Susan Bell
- Publication Details
- International Sociological Association
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Sociology
- Other Identifier
- 991020638506604721