Nigel Shafran is a fine art photographer and uses his personal life as his subject. He does not appear in any of his images, but he communicates his habits and daily routines. In the series ‘Washing Up’ he takes photos of his sink are before and after meals and accompanies the image with text captions describing the meal.
The course notes state that it is intimate, beautifully lit and composed. Really? Dishes and utensils around a sink? I have looked at his other series and they appear more of the same and I am struggling to understand the artistic merit. It appears to be the photography equivalent of reality TV, or a Facebook post from someone you vaguely know letting you know what they had for tea.
The questions to this exercise provide some additional context relating to gender. I don’t see that a series such as this would be favoured by either a man or a woman. If anything it is about what utensils were used in the making of the food. By not including people he is not attributing stereotypes to the act of domestic life. Maybe it was more profound at the start of the 21st Century but I don’t feel that this series carries much weight on gender politics.
I also struggled with the change in portrait landscape choices. The scenes drain away any emotion from me as a viewer. I imagine there is more context that I need to research. Something about the artists that means that the kitchen is a significant place for them or some reason that these tasks are difficult.
I have seen similarly composed images by Wolfgang Tillmans of items on his desk. I accepted these fairly easily but I think that was because I was aware of his other work and the subjects he chose. His range of subjects and methods add gravitas to the work he produces. If that was the only type of work he produced I would probably struggle to understand it but as a series looking at the workspace of a photographer I found interesting.
Maybe I have more against kitchens and dishes than I had realised. If I like looking at an artists desk why do I dislike looking at another artists kitchen? What would I feel if it was Wolfgang Tillman’s kitchen?
This has been quite an interesting exercise and has drawn out more passion than I had before writing this piece.
Martyn Rainbird 