An Interpretation of

Industrialization by Jo Spence and Terry Dennett

Dan Foy

BA Hons Photography

Module no.: 10058

Seminar Tutor: Linda Marchant

Word Count: 768

The photograph in question is a black and white portrait of the photographer,

Jo Spence, taken during a collaborative project with her close friend Terry

Dennett, but is essentially a self-portrait. In terms of its internal context,

Spence dominates the right third of the image, despite only half of the subject

being visible within the frame, roughly from her left shoulder to below her left

buttock. Her stance indicates that she is relaxed as she stands in a grassy

field, presumably looking into the distance. Electricity pylons swoop into the

image from the opposite side of the image, and carry the eye out of the

photographʼs depth of field towards an ambiguous town or industrial site on

the horizon. Spence is subtlety lit from one side, and the shadows and tonal

differences emphasize her form in both its natural curves and dimply, wrinkly

imperfections. This is in unsubtle contrast to the dark, geometric lines of the

pylons against the sky. Internally, there is a clear juxtaposition between the

natural and the industrial; however, the purpose of this is unclear without

further insight.

Jo Spence was a socialist, feminist, and British photographer who contracted

breast cancer aged 46, shortly before this photograph was made. Her most

famous body of work, “A Picture of Health?” is a response to her condition,

and to her negative experience within the health system, which she

considered corrupt, probably in part due to her socialist philosophy. She

turned to alternative therapies such as traditional Chinese medicine, and used

photography as a form of therapy in a technique she dubbed ʻphototherapyʼ.

Using this technique, Rosy and I began to work together to give ourselves (and each other) permission to display 'new' visual selves to the camera... We created a range of portraits which were the visual embodiment of our fragmented selves, which still continue to emerge every time we meet to have a photo therapy session.

(SPARERIB 1986: 163)1 Considering this new information, the photograph appears to be less, say, a

protest against the scars of industrialism in open landscape, a more of an

inward reflection of Spenceʼs attitude towards the world as a feminist

reminded of her mortality and who has chosen to distance herself from certain

aspects of modern society. The photograph is a portrait of a nude female, but

is without so much as a nod toward, for instance, fine renaissance art or soft

pornography. Her sturdy, anonymous form dominates almost half of the

photograph and clearly reaches beyond the frame due to the unusual

perspective, and yet despite this there remains a pale air of impermanence –

like the fading grass in the foreground, Spenceʼs noticeably aging body will

eventually and inevitably perish, whilst the bold industrial structures beyond

her will remain.

The original context of the photograph sheds further light on its meaning. The

photograph is from the series ʻRemodeling Photo Historyʼ and is one of a pair.

Its counterpart features Spence lying in the middle of a field, under the shade

of a large tree overhead, and is much more typical of the archetypal study of

the feminine nude. While the subject appears at ease in both photographs,

the reality of Spenceʼs ungainly and aging body gives the photograph a

sinister overtone when compared to her more relaxed and stereotypically

ʻfemaleʼ appearance in its opposite.

This is not the only possible interpretation, but is one that seemed to have

been shared by the National Grid and the PLACE group, who advocate

ʻundergroundingʼ of the national power grid around areas of ʻoutstanding

natural beautyʼ. In a PLACE poster campaign, the two images are each

paired with Steven Spenderʼs negative poem The Pylons, with the image

discussed here as presenting pylons negatively, whilst the other image is

used to show the natural beauty of the British landscape. This is significant

because it highlights the negativity of the image on several different levels: the

unnerving fight for dominance between the pylons and the subject in the

internal context; the struggle between Spence, her illness and the attitude and

process of the medical system in the original context; and its continued use as

a symbolically negative image in external contexts after Spenceʼs death.

In conclusion, although Spence appears calm and at one with nature at an

initial glance at this photograph, when its context is taken into account in

terms of Spenceʼs health, her views on the medical professionʼs answers to

aggressive diseases such as cancer opposed to ʻnaturalʼ remedies, and its

usage in other contexts even after Spenceʼs death, the photograph takes on

more of an air of the unfortunate reality of life.

Appendix

References 1 Jo Spence, February 1986. SPARERIB, no. 163

Bibliography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Spence

• http://www.c4gallery.com/editions/industrialisation.htm

• http://hosted.aware.easynet.co.uk/jospence/jotext2.htm and

SPARERIB

• http://hosted.aware.easynet.co.uk/jospence/

• http://www.p-l-a-c-e.org/artInitiative/index.htm