Anthony Luvera is an Australian photographer whose work with communities lead to the creation of the photographic technique he calls "The assisted Self portrait", this was developed during his time working with homeless people in London. He applied a multi-faceted approach, compiling research to show in the gallery space alongside his pictures, and making use of sound recordings from interviews and other events he attended alongside his subjects. Altogether this offers an in depth and immersive experience for the viewer, adding layers of realism on top of the imagery. All this conveys Luvera's understanding that while we may use visual media, the problems for these people are not just visual.
"my primary interest ...is more to do with exploring the possibility of presenting the viewpoints of the people I work with, alongside my own" Luvera, 2016
The self assisted portraits were created by teaching his subjects how to use camera equipment, and then allowing them choose there pose and their background. This offered an unusually amount of control over the final image to the subject, allowing them to present them self's to the viewer, rather than being represented. When dealing with personal and difficult subjects, this seems to me a very elegant way of dealing with the issue of representation, shifting the focus away from the photographers point of view, removing the filters of the trained photographic eye, and really putting the audience into the mind of the subject.
It comes as no surprise that Luvera would work in this fashion, given that he is openly very critical of the use of art with communities from a state perspective. At ‘The Subject of Study – Collaboration in Research and Artistic Practice’ conference in November 2016 (Salon Film, 2017) Luvera asks who really benefits in such situations, when the art is edited in a such a way to only show what the state wants to be shown. In addition to this, Luvera ask's "Its not enough to consider only what is in the image, it must also be asked "What does the artist do with the photograph"" (Salon Film, 2017), going on to describe how the practice of working with other people images involves "dialogue, exchange, compromise and trust". The problem, he states, is that any kind of representation by an outside observer will always be reductive by some degree, so it is interesting then when later on in the conference he comes to talk about his work with LGBT communities in Brighton, as this is a community that he himself also belongs to, just as I belong to the community that use the spaces I photograph and explore.
"But the thing is, I am myself part of this community. So is the collaboration less about representation, and more about a comparison of my own ideas with the rest of the community I claim to belong to" Luvera, 2016
Luvera put a call out and 11 people responded, he was in Brighton looking to do a project that involved members of the LGBT community. He asked them to bring three photographs that told their story, and they discussed them as a group. He found people found people brought very very personal photos with them.He created a poly-vocal blog that they all had equal access to use and contribute to named "Not going Shopping", which then became the name of the project. Continuing with his subject led methodology, they, as a group, created Photobooth style portraits, and a staged an outdoor exhibition in Brighton. in addition to this they brought together a newspaper explaining the exhibition, containing images and background history of what they had been doing. it was also shown in Bristol, again out on the streets, and also at a photography festival in sweden.
It seems that people, at least those Luvera worked with, can be very open to discussing their personal life when in a situation where they have control over how its represented. I am reminded of a talk I attended recently by Stacey Dooley, where she mentioned a system of protection for vulnerable people when creating documentary, where by the person had the ability to remove themselves from the project at any point, even just before it went to air, and indeed this did happen. It meant losing a lot of work, but most importantly it protected that person (Dooley, 2020).
I am now beginning to think that this project should view fetish and exploration of sexuality from the viewpoint of the community as well as my self. I may not be the only one to think and feel the way I do about these spaces. By working with communities Luvera tapped into a far more involved and multi layered project, one that served a wider purpose than simply self exploration of the photographer. A communities own self exploration.
Another quote from Luvera during this conference struck me as particularly relevant to my work, "Projects that facilitate the production of images by children, or other spoken for or dis-empowered individuals, consideration of issues around intention, context and representation become particularly heightened". While I wouldn't necessarily say my subjects were Dis-empowered or spoken for, I would say that the world of casual sex and fetish is still very much a taboo subject, and even in today's more liberal and open society, could lead to difficult, and potentially damaging situations for an individual should the wrong information be made public. So the concept of allowing the subject to specify their own level of representation becomes very important in this project as I begin to introduce real models, real people.
"Pictures will always find there way into a project. Any project can be a photography project... Every project is a photography project."
Dooley, S., 2020.Conversations With Stacey Dooley.
Salon Film. (2017). 'The Subject of Study: Anthony Luvera (with slide show and QnA)' [Online Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibuFcwwnYxk [Accessed: 10 February 2020)
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