Nearest Truth

Today I listened to a 70 minute conversation / interview with documentary photographer Lisa Barnard. Hosted by Brad Feuerhelm for Nearest Truth, I found it quite interesting in terms of some of the ethical issues raised. The discussions on the reality vs the fiction of a documentary photograph were also particularly engaging. Below I have taken some notes on the points that interested me most.

• “Photography’s relationship to truth is incredibly lax.” Feuerhelm, 2019.
• “What a documentary photograph should try to be about is some representational quality of a story or a truth.” Feuerhelm, 2019.
• “Storytelling is pivotal to any culture.” Barnard, 2019.
• “It’s imperative, in my view, that documentary photographers consider a fictional aspect of their work. And thats what I think separates it out from photojournalism.” Barnard, 2019.
• “Always think about the past when you’re making work in present, and always fictionalise.” Barnard, 2019.
• “It still has to have an element of something that’s real, that’s connected to the real world. And ideally that reality should be something that is ubiquitous, that everybody can relate to and that everybody can understand in some form.” Barnard, 2019.
• Idea of ambivalence as a tool.
• Contradiction, humour and irony of the subject matter is also shown in the work (eg: blue Star Moms, where the work seems two sided, but that reflects the opinions of the subject (the moms.)
• Fly-in-fly-out is not an ethical way to undertake ethnography. (eg: Rankin.)
• Barnard says it’s not possible to stay ‘enough time’ in a community to be completely un-exploitative of subjects. She questions if she should not go to these places, document them or work with those issues in her work.
• “I use that precious and privileged position to point to some of the issues.” Barnard, 2019.
• To be totally ethical means just doing nothing at all. So do we do nothing? Do we not create work?
• Why is there no humour that makes us laugh in documentary photography? We never make the nice, funny work. We always look for things that draw a negative reaction.
• New generation of documentary photographers are doing it form home- using computer. Not putting themselves physically in the environment or at risk.
• “It’s circular, it’s not linear. […] It’s interactive.” - Barnard, 2019, regarding thegolddepository.com

Whilst listening to the podcast, I looked through Barnard’s work on her website. She has an enormous body of work, and what I really like is the way that she includes different types of imagery in her projects (for example, the inclusion of virtual reality scenes used to “help helicopter pilots prepare emotionally for arrival at a location where an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) has been detonated” in her series titled Virtual Iraq. (2)

The above series, Blue Star Moms (3), illustrates Barnard’s ideas of using the work to represent an element of truth in reality. She noted in the podcast that the mothers of the soldiers in the war had opposing opinions about the army, which could change multiple times per day. Sometimes they were grateful for the army taking their child as a soldier, as it helped the soldier stop smoking weed. But then at other times the mothers would heavily criticise the army. Barnard nods to this contradiction in her juxtaposition of very serious, solemn portraits with the slightly comical combination of items in the shoeboxes and bags (the care packages sent to the soldiers by their mothers.) The irony of the situation is reflected in the work.

Finally, I explored the series The Canary and the Hammer, which actually has its own dedicated website (4) called The Gold Depository. This is an absolutely phenomenal website, and a brilliant way to showcase work. The website utilises a scrolling navigational system, but it is ‘animated’ (I’m not sure of the technical term in regard to web design) in that images move in a predetermined way as the viewer scrolls down the page. There are lots of different elements included, such as photographs, graphs, maps, text, and icons. There are areas that can be clicked on or hovered over for more information, and each page has its own soundtrack to add an ambience to the work. Because of the design, the viewer doesn’t know what to expect next, and I think this really breaks the boundaries of a ‘normal’ experience of viewing photography online. Additionally, the order in which the work is viewed can still be determined by the artist, which helps keep the narrative in line with what was originally intended.

(1) Feuerhelm, B 2019, Nearest Truth, Episode Two: Lisa Barnard, Nearest Truth, September 2019, viewed 04 May 2020, <https://nearesttruth.com/episodes/02-lisa-barnard/>

(2) Barnard, L ,Virtual Iraq: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTDS, photographic series, viewed 04 May 2020, <http://lisabarnard.co.uk/projects/virtual-iraq/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/>

(3) Barnard, L 2004, Blue Star Moms, photographic series, viewed 04 May 2020, <http://lisabarnard.co.uk/projects/blue-star-moms/blue-star-moms/>

(4) Barnard, L 2019, The Gold Depository, Lisa Barnard, viewed 04 May 2020, <http://www.thegolddepository.com/>