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image: Only When I Got to Fifty Did I Realise I was Cinderella ,(03) Jo Spence
in collaboration with Rosy Martin
All images by Jo Spence © The Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada

 

Arnolfini present a major retrospective of the work of photographer Jo Spence (1934 – 1992), drawn from The Hyman Collection, one of the most comprehensive collections of Spence’s works in the world.

Spence has been an integral figure within photographic discourse from the 1970s onwards. Throughout her diverse projects she is well known for her highly politicised approach to photography and the representation of her own struggles with cancer.

From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy focuses on the intersection between arts, health and wellbeing, celebrating Spence’s work as a photo therapist in which she used photography as a medium to address personal trauma, reflecting on key moments in her past.

Photo-therapy, especially the type of re-enactment therapy that is at the heart of Spence’s practice, is essentially a collaborative process and the exhibition presents works made by Spence in collaboration with Terry Dennett, Rosy Martin, David Roberts, Dr. Tim Sheard and Valerie Walkerdine.

This will be the first time that her thesis will be exhibited and published in its entirety. Entitled “Fairy Tales and Photography… or, another look at Cinderella”, this was a pivotal document, created at a crucial point in Spence’s career. The exhibition will focus on the actual small-scale photographs that Spence used in her photo-therapy sessions as well as the laminate panels that she used for her workshops and touring exhibitions.

From Fairy Tales to Phototherapy charts Spence’s diagnosis and treatment for cancer, juxtaposing humour with inevitable challenging issues. Themes include Cinderella and Fairytales, Remodelling Photo History/Medical History, Childhood Child and Parent Relationships, Libido/Sexuality/Marriage, The Grotesque.

 

About the Exhibition
The exhibition is curated by Keiko Higashi, Engagement Producer at Arnolfini, with Dr. Frances Hatherley, writer, researcher and archivist at the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive at Birkbeck, University of London, in collaboration with the Bristol Photo Festival.

#JoSpence #FromFairyTalestoPhototherapy #ArnolfiniArts

 

Fairy Tales and Photography… or, another look at Cinderella is available to buy from Arnolfini Bookshop or direct from RRB Photo Books here.

 

About Jo Spence
Jo Spence (1934 – 1992) started her career assisting commercial photographers before quickly establishing her own agency specialising in weddings, family portraiture and actor portfolios. Her early experiences led her to an acute understanding of the mechanics of photography from the practical to more theoretical considerations. The early seventies saw Spence’s work shift towards a more interrogative and critical documentary mode which articulated a desire to create photographs that run counter to the idealised imagery offered by advertising.

Alongside a prolific photographic practice, Spence maintained a career as an educator, writer, organiser and broadcaster. For Spence, photography should be informative, and it should be noted that her emergence as a photographer paralleled an increasingly politicised art world.

Following a diagnosis with breast cancer much of Spence’s subsequent work was a response to her treatment by the medical establishment and her attempt to navigate its authority through alternative therapies.

In 1984, alongside Rosy Martin, Spence developed ‘Photo-Therapy’, adopting techniques from co-counselling to invert the traditional relationship between the photographer and the subject. If historically the subject had little control over their own representation, Photo-Therapy shifts this dynamic enabling them to act out personal narratives and claim agency for their own biography.

In 1990, after returning from work commitments abroad, Spence was diagnosed with leukaemia, an illness that would claim her life in 1992. Up until her final moments Spence was still probing at the potential of photography to articulate the ‘unrepresentable’.

Her practice illustrates a way to connect her own intimacies and traumas to a broader public discourse. Affirmation, for Spence was about visibility and autonomy – to say what you want to, when you want to.

 

About The Hyman Collection
The Hyman Collection is the private collection of Claire and James Hyman, which began in 1996 and consists of over three thousand artworks, from across the world, in a variety of media. In the last fifteen years the collection has focused on international photography, from its origins to the present. In particular, the Hyman Collection seeks to support and promote British photography through acquisitions, commissions, loans and philanthropy. The collection includes artists working in photography as well as documentary, historic and contemporary photographs. It has an equal number of works by male and female artists and seeks, especially, to support the work of contemporary women photographers. In 2020 The Hyman Foundation was set up to support photography in Britain through a variety of philanthropic ventures.

With thanks for their support to

The Hyman Foundation

 

Explore From Fairy Tales to Photo Therapy Online

Explore the exhibition in a variety of ways…

WATCH our exhibition walk through filmed by Manoel Akure of Rising Arts Agency for Arnolfini, narrated by Claire Hyman of The Hyman Collection.

Arnolfini are proud to present this film as part of a collaboration with Rising Arts Agency, a community of young creatives aged 16 – 30 at all stages of their careers. Rising’s Young Creative, Manoel Akure’s walkthrough film is the third in a series of commissions from Rising Arts talented pool of artists. For more of Manoel’s work, please visit www.blouhaus.com

LOOK at works in the exhibition with our slideshow:

All images of individual artworks are © The Jo Spence Memorial Archive, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada. courtesy of The Hyman Collection.

All other images Installation Photography by Lisa Whiting for Arnolfini, 2020.

 

LISTEN to our interview with Jo Spence’s niece Lisa Gilbert in conversation with daughter Holly Jo Clode, on their visit to Arnolfini in June 2021.

 

LISTEN to audio descriptions of each of the works in the exhibition (accompanied by images) as well as listening to audio versions of our interpretation texts (including texts about each artist and their practice

READ our Gallery Guide

 

CREATE with free online tutorials from Let’s Make Art to make your own artwork inspired by the exhibition, designed for families and children.

Hidden Self
Drawing With Sounds

 

We also have free drawing resources designed for all ages by UWE drawing and print students (as part of The Big Draw campaign) who worked throughout the Autumn 2020 term to design a range of creative activities inspired by our current exhibitions. You can download these below to try at home, or pick up a copy in the gallery when we are open.

The Big Draw

 

VISIT our What’s On pages to find out more about family events, workshops, talks and films that accompany this exhibition, including online activities arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/ and our wellbeing workshops designed and delivered by our friends at Rising Arts Agency

Wellbeing Workshop