Family photography: Archives, albums and groupings
Going back this weekend to finish ‘Phototherapy and Therapeutic Photography in a Digital Age’ (Ed Loewenthal) I read an intriguing chapter by Rodolfo de Bernart, who is professor of Family Therapy in Psychiatry at University of Siena (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrynb86fxK8)
The essay, entitled ‘The photographic genogram and family therapy’ discusses techniques de Bernart has devised for students and clients of family therapy involving selecting and working with groups of family photographs for the purpose of tracing the ‘internal image of the family’. De Bernart discusses the ‘visual channel’ – the power of images, and the potential in using them (photographs, specifically in this case) in therapeutic situations.
The techniques involve asking individuals to select around thirty photographs from their personal family archives which represent the dynamics of their family in across at least three generations. Selecting a group of images over time, suggests de Bernart, allows for a longitudinal observation of an individual and their place within their family. De Bernart talks about the analysis of non-verbal behaviour being useful in uncovering the ‘unofficial’ story of the family – and searching for what is ‘not shown’. Using this method, patterns and repetitions can be identified and create ‘hypotheses on family members’ roles and functions, and emotional links in the family’ can be identified. Omissions, absences, and proportions of photographs at certain ages, gestures, all help to build a significant picture of a family, to be brought to use in therapy.
Reading this chapter reminded me of my recent visit to the National Photography Collection at the National Media Museum in Bradford where I viewed a number of family albums from the 19th early 20th century from the Kodak Collection. I was struck, by the varying ways these albums were constructed and presented: the sequencing, editing, annotation and visual style presentation, as well as gaps and omissions, all gave a vivid and intriguing picture of the album maker and the narratives they were telling of their family. Ranging from hand-made albums with drawn and painted backgrounds (a fantastically elaborate and witty example is Catherine Mary Woods’s album from around 1860 – a page can be seen here http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collection/P…) and detailed and precise annotation, to scrawled notes and half empty pages, the albums spoke clearly across time of their makers. What also interested me was when there was deviation from the conventions and rules of each album.. when captioning is abandoned, or there are changes in the kind of photographs shown, or gaps, or photographs removed.. the album suddenly becomes more human, idiosyncratic, revealing. A story begins to happen.
I was especially fascinated by ‘no.114 Kodak Album: Cabinet 13 Drawer 2’ – a hand made album presenting a dual history of Phyllis and Neville from birth to age 17. Phyllis on the left, Neville on the right hand page: at 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, then a page for every year until 17 years. The album had been made, captioned and put together with great care. Some images contain visual echoes in posture/gesture/environment. In contracting the album in this parallel way, what story was the maker telling? Were Phyllis and Neville siblings? Was he/she aware of, or even commenting on cultural gender differences and the differing representation of boys and girls? Why were some photographs missing, particularly of Neville, in his later teenage years? The album seems poignant in ways I can’t put my finger on.. and I plan to come back, and look again.
How these albums collections are sequenced, organised and presented and the impact this has on meaning, brings me back to what I’ve been doing with Nana’s archive of photographs from our family – experimenting with different sequences and themed groupings and pairings (eg single sex groupings; siblings; family meals; gestural groupings) in my studio, and also on the private blog I’ve set up to share the archive with the rest of the family.
The narratives and stories we can make with our family photographs…what they can mean, what they can do..
