So to choose an image for this without forcing myself to shoot family meant going back to images I had taken in lockdown. The image I have chosen is actually something I had pretty much forgotten about as I was unhappy with it. I still am really, but in a way the part I am unhappy with (my own reflection) actually adds something else. My decision to use this image was fixed when I tried editing it and brought the shadows up. All of a sudden the reflected garden was completely visible, it was this with the other details in the image that gave the image a voice which after researching empathy made me use it.
Iris is an 89 year old member of our community (rightly described as village royalty!) and not only has she had to deal with living on her own during lockdown but also with a broken hip. I had asked to take pictures of her through her living room window back in April with the idea being to use them for another project which didn’t come to fruition. I deliberately asked her to stand behind the windows that way to enhance a look of imprisonment (she didn’t like being deadpan though – normally always smiling). When I looked back on it for this project more details began to show through. The card in the window whose staccato words are a private hug of encouragement and love from someone in her family. The reflection of the outside (including me) which she cannot venture into and people she can’t easily interact with, even the flowers on the windowsill echoing something she can’t touch outside and finally the upward looking expression – I want to be out there. None of these were considered at the time the image was taken but researching and reflecting on this topic helped me to consider this. We all had our own stories of how lockdown made us feel but looking back at this now it must have been especially hard for Iris.
Here are a few others taken on the day – none of them have the same impact to me or contain the same amount of information / meaning.
Bibliography
Andrea (2017) The distance between us: Exercise 5.1. At: https://eyvlog.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-distance-between-us-exercise-5-1/ (Accessed 20/11/2020).
Art and Empathy (2019) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOW4YVEaTKI (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Briggs, H. (2020) ‘Surprise discovery of rare plant at Norfolk ‘ghost pond’’ In: BBC 28/11/2020 At: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55104153 (Accessed 01/12/2020).
Empathy and Photography (2017) At: https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/empathy-photography/ (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Empathy and Photography (2018) At: https://vivasocialimpact.com/2018/12/18/empathy-and-photography/ (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Empathy through the Lens | Raghuraman Rangarajan | TEDxSSE (2015) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzkYpDo9xHg (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Guggenheim Symposium – Empathy, Affect, and the Photographic Image (2013) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFeBRCk3xns (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Mourning FDR: In a Classic Photo, the Face of a Nation’s Loss (2013) At: https://www.life.com/history/mourning-fdr-in-a-classic-photo-the-face-of-a-nations-loss/ (Accessed 12/12/2020).
Nan Goldin – ‘My Work Comes from Empathy and Love’ | TateShots (2014) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_rVyt-ojpY (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective (s.d.) At: https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/rineke-dijkstra-a-retrospective (Accessed 03/12/2020).
Sea Garden – Susan Derges (2019) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmm5e8Zm6K0 (Accessed 01/12/2020).
The New School (2013) The Photographic Universe | Photography and Political Agency? with Victoria Hattam and Hito Steyerl. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqQ3UTWSmUc (Accessed 20/11/2020).
The Psychology of Emotional and Cognitive Empathy (s.d.) At: https://lesley.edu/article/the-psychology-of-emotional-and-cognitive-empathy (Accessed 20/11/2020).
Lee Abbey OCA Photography Degree 
One thought on “Exercise 5.1 – The Distance Between Us”