‘Just So’ Stories  [1]

Chapter 1.

A Grandson’s Account of his Grandfather’s Life and his Collection of Photographs.

Introduction

… an essential constancy of modern art – uniqueness of personality – persists; no longer manifested through facture, the individuality of touch, but through an unrepentant autobiographical confession or fantasy concerning those areas of human activity in which the artists are most singularly personal their literally – private lives. [Pincus-Witten 1977]

[1] Twenty-five years ago, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and biologist Richard Lewontin criticized the so-called adaptationist programme, charging that overeager biologists labeled some organisms’ traits adaptations without real evidence. Many traits, they said, were actually by products, associated with adaptations, but not the result of natural selection. The bridge of one’s nose will hold up one’s glasses, but it’s not an adaptation for such. This so-called science, argued Gould and Lewontin, boiled down to little more than just-so stories–referring to Rudyard Kipling’s century-old children’s fables that offered imaginative explanations for certain animals’ distinctive qualities. URL: http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/mar/research2_040301.html

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SLR Camera made into a slide projector  2003

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The aim of this thesis is to explore contemporary attitudes to photography and the degree to which photography has had an affect on autobiographical memory[2]. The key vehicle for this exploration is my own studio practice which appropriates photographs originally taken by my grandfather, A.E. Ingham, some of which coincide with my own childhood and hence throw an illumine but disconcerting light on my own autobiographical memory. I propose to discuss ways in which autobiographical memory is formed, stored and retrieved, and to move on to consider how these processes have evolved through interaction with photography. The opening chapter initiates this investigation with an analysis of the subject matter of my grandfather’s collection of photography. The collection is a means by which I am able to examine the relationship between my own sense of autobiography and photographs of past events which form a part of that autobiography.[3]

Initially, I am concerned with why, as an artist, I have been using the collection as a basis for my work and theoretical concerns. I begin, therefore, with an autobiographical approach, an account of my own childhood memories and how they connect to the photographs in the collection. Of necessity, this account is both a partial and fragmentary, and is in part informed by photographs themselves, as for example when these have triggered a further associative chain and/or network of memories. This narrative is thus written in a conventional autobiographical form, combining the ‘facts’ of my life with my own reminiscences of actual events.

There follows a biographical account of my grandfather’s life, using the written and anecdotal evidence I have been able to gather about his life, alongside my own personal recollections. It is included to make possible some understanding of his motivations for taking photographs and as a way of understanding my own interests in the collection. This biography is pertinent for the concerns of my thesis as it constructs and interprets a version of the past; as in their own way do autobiographical memory and photographs.

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RMJI Trinidad Fire. Camera Projection. Digital Print. 67cm x 95cm. 2004

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In the conclusion of this chapter I will begin to examine these two modes of description as ways of analysing and interpreting past events, and to consider how these subjective processes of recounting, themselves, can influence memories.[4]

[4] Psychologist M.A. Conway says of this, ‘When a person has the experience of remembering a past event then knowledge drawn from the phenomenological record, thematic knowledge, and the self all contribute to the construction of a dynamic representation which constitutes that memory.’ [Roberts:137]

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 Döppelganger: “Surf’s Up…”. Photographic Print 160 cm x 240 cm. 2005

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AFTERIMAGES

 Photographs as an External Autobiographical Memory System and a Contemporary Art Practice

 Mark Ingham

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Abstract

My proposition developed in this thesis is that photographs have changed the way the past is conceived and therefore the way the past is remembered. Just as the inventions of the telescope and microscope radically changed our understanding of distance and space on a macro and micro level, the invention of the photograph has radically altered our concepts of the past, memory and time.

My starting point is a collection of photographs taken by my grandfather, Albert Edward Ingham, which is used both in my studio work and as a basis for my theoretical writing. My concerns as an artist are with the ways in which familiar photographs and their relation to ideas of personal memory can be incorporated in an art practice.

The written element begins with a reflection into my motivation for using this collection and its usefulness to both my written and studio work. I include a short biography of my grandfather, leading me to consider biography and autobiography, and their relation through photography to autobiographical memory. This is followed by an in depth discussion on autobiographical memory and how it differs from other forms and processes of memory. With this I have placed a discussion of contemporary ideas on photographs. Finally I look closely at ‘external memory systems’ and how these relate to changes in the way autobiographical memory operates in relation to photographs.

The emphasis of this thesis is to explore ways to elucidate my own practice as an artist and to offer a commentary on those issues which have been central to its development over the past several years. This has been, and continues to be, a process of making explicit and of clarifying those influences that have resulted in me pursuing autobiography as the major concern of my practice as an artist.

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Introduction 

The aim of this thesis is to explore ways to elucidate my own practice as an artist and to offer a commentary on those issues which have been central to its development over the past several years. This has been, and continues to be, a process of making explicit and of clarifying those influences that have resulted in me pursuing biographical and autobiographical traces as the major concern of my practice as an artist.

My starting point is a collection of photographs taken by my grandfather, Albert Edward Ingham, which is used both in my studio work and as a basis for my theoretical writing. My concerns as an artist are with the ways in which familiar photographs and their relation to ideas of personal memory can be incorporated in an art practice. Also, how autobiographical memory can be reflected using photographs, and how photographs can have an affect on the autobiographical memory of the spectator.

My proposition developed in this thesis is that photographs have changed the way the past is conceived and therefore the way the past is remembered. Just as the inventions of the telescope and microscope[1] radically changed our understanding of distance and space on a macro and micro level, the invention of the photograph has radically altered our concepts of the past, memory and time.

Image form A.E Ingham’s Photographic collection. India 1966/67

I will argue that photographs, both conceptually and as a form of visual representation, are radically different from other visual depictions. This difference is central to my enquiry into the relationship between photographs and autobiographical memory[2]. Photographs not only have metaphorical relationships with memory, but have also changed how our autobiographical memory functions. They have changed our relationship to – and of thoughts of – the past; and have therefore changed memory itself and the way memory is thought about.

This change is not only due to the increase in available visual information brought about by photography, but is also related to the specific qualities of the photograph, distinguishing the medium from all other forms of representation. These include its presumed objectivity, its ease of manufacture and distribution, and its wide appeal both in production and consumption. It is these particular qualities and their relationship to autobiographical memory that have directed my research.

I have identified through my research a lack of consensus in contemporary photographic theory about the meaning, function and nature of the photographic image. These disagreements make problematic an enquiry into photography’s relationship to autobiographical memory. Some recent analyses of photography overcomes this problem by taking a multi-disciplinary approach, essentially combining the debate emphasising the interpretation of the image [its ‘nature’] with that where the emphasis lies with its context. Such a multi-disciplinary analysis entails looking at a photograph as a text, through semiotics, as well as examining its ‘essential’ qualities as a medium and the contexts in which its meaning is produced and operates. Applying this multi-disciplinary methodology to my grandfather’s collection within this thesis, I will be examining photography’s ability to interrogate and produce autobiographical memories.

The written element begins with a reflection into my motivation for using this collection and its usefulness to both my written and studio work. In this I include a short biography of my grandfather, leading me to consider biography and autobiography, and their relation through photography to autobiographical memory. This is followed by an in depth discussion on autobiographical memory and how it differs from other forms and processes of memory. I have then created a taxonomical analysis of the collection, engendering a greater understanding of the desires and concerns that motivated my grandfather’s photographic practice. With this I have placed a discussion of contemporary ideas on photographs and an analysis of Roland Bathes’ Camera Lucida. Finally I look closely at ‘external memory systems’[3] and how these relate to changes in the way autobiographical memory operates in relation to photographs.

Me drawing Ajanta. 2000