Absence of Presence review

Last month I was one of a group of photographers who put on an exhibition called Absence of Presence – Photographic Studies of Identities in Flux. The show was held at the Rag Factory in Brick Lane, London and it started with a private view on the 21st July followed by a weekend of display lasting until Sunday 24th July 2011. This was the first time I had taken part in organising such an event and the first time also being a featured photographer in a group show. It was an amazing experience and here is a description of how it all worked out.

Exhibition overview. photo:Tania Olive

It all started back in January, as a module requirement of my BA course (at the University of Westminster), a group was formed, reluctantly and I was full of apprehension of what debates, arguments and nightmares that might follow. Being a photographer is often a solitary, personal and highly subjective experience and to throw seven of us together, all of us rookies, all of us with our own ideas and preferences, it would be an arduous task pulling together a show. The group consisted of seven photographers: Sherry Cuttler, Caroline Doran, Peter Hoare, Laure Martineau, Sarah Janes, Tania Olive and me. After deciding what we would show it quickly became apparent that all our projects were different in terms of content, style and meaning. This would leave us two approaches to the group show: either we use this difference to promote seven different works of seven emerging photographers or we identify a common theme which would bind our work together as a coherent whole. Whilst we deliberated over the theme, it occurred to us that ‘identity’ was a common factor in all our works. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can take any body of photographic work and align it with some concept of identity. Being particularly interested in this development I started to draw together interpretations of our work which could be considered together as a theme. It was based on the idea of a common misconception around the photograph: the belief that it is capable of capturing a person’s identity. This contentious and interesting photographic topic is full of holes and paradoxes. The idea that a single photograph represents the character of a person seems ludicrous, yet we tend to believe that it does. So much investment is taken into the image of ourselves and others: from passport ID photographs or snapshots uploaded and tagged onto Facebook or even surveillance camera frame grabs on CCTV. Bearing this mind we would suggest that although photography can be used for identification, it can at best attempt to represent the change in our identity. A changing identity based on our possessions, experience and environment is nearer to the truth of who we are and what shapes us.

After various group discussions and a couple of debates it was agreed this would be an interesting angle. There were issues around creating an exhibition title and this carried on for a bit longer than it should of. Also, it was not until April that we finally managed to assign individual roles and responsibilities. I was given the responsibility of text editor and due to my IT skills, I would also take a lead in the web/media role. In addition to this I would have to prepare my work for exhibition, help curate the show and generally support the team in various other activities, all of which were incredibly time consuming, sometimes highly frustrating but always necessary. I won’t bore you with the detail but everyone had their own responsibilities in addition to holding down the day job.

From the series 'The Waiting Game, photo: Sunil Shah.

Publicity through the press release and invites was done electronically. It’s probably worth mentioning how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ this can be. In our case we had set up an email address, web url, web blog, Twitter account and a Facebook page. This electronic presence is great and ensures a professional and efficient way in which to publicise your event. However, I must mention how you risk being ignored as spam or seen as pedalling your self-promotion a little too much, and so perhaps there is a fine line in getting it right. We did well through this although, it may have worked against us, as I think at times we might have been ignored, especially without the endorsement of certain industry ‘insiders’ who with a simple ‘Retweet’ or response might have helped our cause considerably. In retrospect, I think you need to ensure you cover all bases and allow time to remind people without forcing it down their throats.

Establishing layout, photo: Tania Olive

Back to the exhibition planning, I chose to show ‘The Waiting Game’, a project I photographed in spring 2010 featuring a soldier returning from Afghanistan. Rob, a friend of mine, completed his second tour and returned home for six weeks leave. He gave me permission to photograph him over that period; a project I consider my first serious documentary work. With this being its first public airing, I needed to think carefully about how to present it. Previously, I had incorporated the picture and text frame together whereby the Facebook captions where appended directly beneath the print using the Facebook font and colours. Although this married the image/text relationship to the social media very well, I felt there was always something contrived or too forced about it. I decided to work with a presentation dynamic which might help reinforce the drama and intimacy of the pictures and this was to create a selection of images placed in a cluster at different sizes. The framing and layout would help convey a homely feel and the sizing would encourage the viewer to move in relation to the image size creating a disruption to an otherwise linear movement across the room. The captions would be re-worked, this time shorter and leaving more to the imagination. One thing I have learned with this project is that it’s often better to leave some images open ended allowing more room for interpretation.

Final layout, photo: Tania Olive

The curation of the work along the long gallery space of the Rag Factory was performed by Sherry, Laure and Peter, with input from the rest of the team. Due to the varied nature of our work, it was quite easy to place work against each others however there were other challenges. Individual layouts and mounting/framing decisions were the responsibility of the artist. Costs generally kept the work to A2 size which was a concern initially as we envisaged large amounts of white space not being filled in the gallery space, not to mention the general feeling of inadequacy, as most photographic exhibitions these days display huge large format prints. With the posters, vinyl lettering and drinks purchased we were ready to rock and the final two days of setting up the display really proved how much we ‘gelled’ as a team. Each of us helped each other and I have to pay special mention to Tania here for helping get my work on the wall, before which I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and also a shout goes to Peter, who’s skills and experience in literally everything helped us and especially me in areas as diverse as DIY and English grammer.

At the Private View, photo: Tania Olive

The private view was possibly one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. The exhibition had surpassed all our expectations and looked very professional. Whether we really succeeded is not for me to say but we all had some good feedback for our work and I guess that was one of the most important things: to get the work seen and to receive some response to it. It was also a huge learning experience in terms of curating, mounting, framing, publicity, sponsorship and many other aspects of putting on a photographic exhibition. So many friends, family and students supported us. We even saw one or two university tutors. It was all truly heart-warming and encouraging. Big thanks to all our team, the AOP Collective, we did an amazing job on our first show. Thanks also to Screencult: Ben, Catherine and Komal for the interviews and video work (coming soon), Silas and the Rag Factory, Heather Barnett and Silke Lange and everyone who came. Biggest thanks to my closest: Alinka, Basia, Tim, JW, Will, Michal and Kuba, love you all.