The Photos

The idea for a photographic element as a timeline for Cradle to Grave came about early in the discussions between Liz Lee, Susie Freeman and myself about the overall concept of the work.

It seemed to us that the personal nature of the piece could be well expressed by asking people to contribute images from their own family albums, the receptacle of our collective memories usually of either happy or significant events in our lives. The timeline is implicit in the pills narrative, covered by Liz Lee’s description, but we felt it could be enhanced and broadened by visual clues, objects, documents and images.

Our discussions included settling the nature of our artistic approach to the theme of Health and Well-being as experienced by many people in the UK today. We decided to follow the thread begun in 1998 in the Pharmacopoeia work, namely focussing on individuals for the drug narrative, and our own collective experience of the issues raised, along with an extension of this experience drawn from friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances.

On this basis we drafted a general letter covering the background to the project and asked people if they would like to contribute some real family album pictures to the piece. The letter was adapted to the recipients along with a personal note and sometimes an image of earlier work for information. 450 letters with return sae’s were sent out to family, friends and colleagues. 89 individuals responded with a total of over 400 photographs.

The photos were colour copied twice. Once for a reference archive and once for trimming and use as a trial selection and arrangement. Early in April 2003 the three Pharmacopoeia collaborators each went through the photography making initial positive choices from our own point of view. This first broad selection was then put together, each person’s choice often overlapping with the others, into a long-list numbering about 150 for possible inclusion.

The initial selection was laid out in random order. A second process was then applied, arranging the entire selection from the youngest person represented, born at 24 weeks, to the oldest, 103 and counting, with the gradual increases in age between. A third process was then applied to this selection, separating the single body of photographs into two sections with a Male or Female bias, while retaining the young to old flow.

Both selections were then pinned up separately for further thought and possible additions from new arrivals. At the long list stage, a selection of 12 images were picked for high resolution scanning and digital reproduction in draft arrangements, including high quality test prints on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper with an estimated image life of 150 years.

Labelling

The issue of labelling was discussed throughout, and at an early stage several trials were carried out. Everyone who had been sent an invitation to take part was asked to write a brief descriptive caption to their photographs on an A4 paper we had sent out with the letter.

On reflection, these hand written notes often carried more weight than any attempt to paraphrase or type out the words in another form. It became a pivotal issue to arrive at an acceptable method of displaying the depth of feeling expressed by these notes, both in words and form, based on individuals’ handwriting and choice of words.

From the 12 test examples, the text was subjected to the following procedures:

Having observed in practice the results of the above procedures carried out on both images and text.(i.e: actual photographs and actual writing), we then moved on to test the layout, framing grouping and order of images.

Having started with a simple idea of a timeline of photographs, the reality of considering actual pictures takes on a narrative thread of its own. Concurrent with this is a series of connections which grow out of the images themselves, impossible to predict, but powerful in its voice once seen.

A first idea of a continuous connected line of photographs starting at birth and ending at death was considered. It was passed over without a practical trial on the basis of

  1. 6"x 4" photographs continuous for 13m, approx. 100 x 2 sides for male and female = 200. The sheer concentration, connection and number of this seemed unhelpful to the drug document and equipment narrative.
  2. A second idea was to give space for objects and documents by setting individual photos in glass block frames at approximately 33 inch intervals. This would yield space for about 35-40 photos per side of the case, or per male and female. The double glass block frames, gave the photographs an object like quality while separating them from their surroundings in a clear, uncomplicated way. However the rigid spacing and separation of images also created an uninteresting and rigid staccato layout. The possibility of following links in meaning between photographs, and associated objects and drugs, was limited.
  3. A third reading of the photographic narrative suggested grouping photographs along with their hand-written text on a single translucent backing sheet, under two layers of glass - photo under (1) upper layer, text under (2), lower layer on base level with the glass covering in one sheet all collected images and text in each single group.

This became the working position on which we based the final stage of image and text development and manipulation. All long list photographs were scanned at high resolution with the following procedures carried out.

Working with Geoff Pickup and other museum staff, Pharmacopoeia carried out several practical sessions, testing arrangements of images for content, relationship, reading and layout to arrive at the final selection.