Photographer, educator, and writer on photography Jo Spence (London, UK, 1934–1992) worked on deconstructing and critiquing the family album, visually and textually, from the mid-1970s until the end of her life. In many ways, her whole oeuvre could be seen as one big, multi-layered, “alternative” family album made not only for herself, but to share with others her insights into the potential of photography as a tool for personal and political change. She reworked existing family photographs and images from the media, and also made new ones, to visualize experiences that family albums don’t usually show – work and strife, domestic drudgery and illness, unhappiness and powerlessness, but also joyfully unruly bodies that do not conform to dominant standards of beauty. Inspired by the consciousness-raising practices of the feminist movement and by egalitarian co-counselling techniques, she developed “photo therapy” across several projects in collaboration with Rosy Martin and others, to demonstrate the importance of understanding the power of images over us. This article analyses some of her work under the rubric of the “album” to highlight the continuing relevance of its lessons.
Patrizia Di Bello (Wed,) studied this question.