Investigating the Diaristic Approach
April 5, 2020I spent this morning doing some research on photographers that work within the sub-genre of diaristic photography, and these two online articles proved particularly helpful in terms of broadening my understanding of this style of photography, as well as offering new artists to extend my research into.
I have copied some quotes from the two most helpful articles here, so that I can continue to reference them. I have highlighted key phrases and points in bold.
- “Speaking about work within the diaristic subgenre that has been created in more recent time, I wanted to mention the project titled My Little Dead Dick. This was a year-long collaboration between photographers (also a couple) Patrick Tsai and Madi Ju. The project begun in 2006 as an online diary through which the couple shared intimate moments and everyday happenings from their life. The two photographers first met through a photosharing website. They started dating, fell in love, moved in together and started documenting their lives together. They started uploading photographs to the photo sharing site flickr.com as well as to their own blog and very quickly got a captive audience following their bitter sweet love affair and the ups and downs that characterize any relationship. What differentiated this work from the thousands of digital snapshots on sites like Flickr is the fact that the couple were both skilled photographers developing the project knowing it was an artistic endeavour rather than a collection of randomly posted photos. The images, both portraits and self-portraits were carefully composed and edited. ”
Oedegaard, C 2017, The Diaristic Approach in Art Photography, Academy of Art University, viewed 05 April 2020, <http://www.aaulens.com/ph-692/2017/10/15/the-diaristic-approach-in-art-photography>
- “Rather than disputing photography’s biases, [diaristic photographers] have enfolded its objectivity in subjectivity. Diarists skirt issues of imperialism and objectification by turning their gaze inward: this is MY life, MY observation, MY reality. At the same time, they repudiate the notion of mastery with a pointedly amateur anti-aesthetic.”
- “In late-1990s Japan, a teenage girl who went by the name Hiromix achieved unprecedented nationwide fame with her snapshots of cherry blossoms, puddles, half-eaten breakfasts and, of course, herself, captured either in a mirror or with the camera held out at arm’s length. It’s no coincidence that the nation that invented the haiku – and, not coincidentally, consumer photo equipment – developed such a mania for the snapshots of a teenage schoolgirl.”
- On 35mm: “Because it has long been the equipment families rely on to capture the incidental moments in their lives, its aesthetic has become the universal language of fleeting memories.”
- “Owing to its slightness, diaristic photography has something else in common with poetry: it works best in book form. […]Like a real diary, these photos are simply more affecting in an intimate, portable format. The pages’ sequential nature, furthermore, underscores the work’s narrative element – the cast of characters and their evolving relationships; their everyday joys, pains, triumphs and, sometimes, deaths.
Garrett, C 2003, Coerced Confessions, Papercoffin, viewed April 05 2020 <https://www.papercoffin.com/writing/articles/coerced.html>