Rae, A Pictorial Love Song by Paula Rae Gibson.
Published by Eyemazing Editions. 2016. ISBN: 978-822754-2-1
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Those of you who will have read my review of Paula Rae Gibson's monograph 'Diary of a Love Addict' , published by Kehrer
Verlag, will know that I hold a huge fondness for this artists work. Discovering 'Diary of a Love Addict' led me to explore this artist further and in so doing I also found her haunting musical output and became hooked. I have always found Gibson's oeuvre, be it visual or musical, fearless in its honesty, it pulls no punches and it can be an emotionally existential, agonising experience that can leave one exhausted but also fulfilled. Whilst creating, performing and publishing such work implies that we are being given an open invitation by the artist, one can also feel as if one is intruding, perhaps because the grief is so raw, so laid bare but one cannot stop from turning each page, or awaiting the next track, to discover more – to be allowed in.
So you can imagine my anticipation when a copy of her latest publication, 'Rae, A Pictorial Love Song', dropped through my letter box.
'Rae, A Pictorial Love Song' opens with a very short introduction by one going by the name 'Eyemazing Susan.' From here we are straight into the images and text. As I have stated in my review of 'Diary of a Love Addict', Gibson's photography and approach to her practice, often using herself as model, remind this reviewer of the work of Francesca Woodman; but look deeper and you may well find hints of Duane Michals, Lee Friedlander, Josef Sudek and Julia Margaret Cameron. But there is, to this viewer at least, something else that comes to mind, especially in the haunting, aching sense of love and love lost that permeates each and every image, and that is the music and poetry of Leonard Cohen.
In keeping with her style, many of Gibson's, mainly monochrome, photographs have been first printed, in a wet, analogue, darkroom. Here they are often developed in weak or exhausted chemicals or purposely left partially fixed or stained. The resultant prints are worked upon further in that they are torn, stripped, ripped and put back together or layered over each other. Many have been re-photographed so as to include, as part of the final image, a wall, tape, tissue or other background. Others have what looks like coffee cup marks upon them, giving an impression of contemplation prior to their being worked upon. As with our memories, many of the images are faded and in soft focus or deliberately blurred. Indeed some require effort, on the part of the viewer, to discover the subject. Such effort is always rewarded. In such cases we are, via our own desires, experiences and empathy, filling in the gaps to find understanding. We are encouraged to concentrate and to 'look' further and through the fog of memory.
Handwritten text adds further to create a monograph that is thought provoking, philosophical, challenging and sensual. At no point does Gibson's work become pretentious or self indulgent. On the subject of writing on photographs Duane Michals is quoted as saying that which could equally apply to Gibson's work...
“seeing words on a page pleases me. It is like a trail I've left behind me, uncertain, strange markings, a proof I've been there” “ It is a melancholy truth that I … can only fail. I am a reflection photographing other reflections within a reflection”
I have stated in a previous review that Gibson challenges and questions the meaning of the gaze, both of our own and that of the subjects. It is said that we all bring something of ourselves to a reading of an artwork. With this in mind, I admit to being drawn to many of the questions, perhaps from a different take, Gibson asks within my own working practice in that, due to a disability that attracts constant attention, I also endeavour to explore the question as to what is the 'gaze' and who really 'owns' it? What is its impact upon the one being viewed, 'gazed' upon? I explore this further in this article...
With the wide availability of camera phones and instant uploading to social media, often without thought of the possible consequences, we are used to seeing images of the 'self' and each and every second of a persons day. Thousands of images are uploaded every hour. Photographs that depict what 'make up' we have on, what clothes are being worn, where we are on holiday, what we are about to eat and, perhaps more poignantly, who we have fallen in love with or out of love with. Gibson feels...
“This selfie culture unnerves me. Not with teens, that's a whole different thing, but every time a friend posts a selfie of herself, I think, oh dear, she's at crisis point. She needs to keep seeing her image, know she exists, she feels her life is nothing...that she is fading away.” (1)
As with Woodman, Gibson's oft use of herself as model or subject never comes across as vain or narcissistic – it is simply open, honest and deeply touching; in short – profoundly human. This is art as Therapy – a session we are asked not only to view, but also to participate.
“When my husband was diagnosed with death, our daughter was 20 weeks old. I was the last person on the planet equipped to be a single parent, let alone exist without him, and I started to take photos of myself obsessively. It was an excuse to get dressed, an excuse not to get dressed, it was proof I hadn't disappeared.... been buried with him.” (2)
Given that 'Rae, A Pictorial Love Song' draws from a back catalogue of images made between 1996 - 2016, it is inevitable that some of the photographs would have been included in her previous monograph 'Diary of a Love Addict' but there are many more that are new and those that were previously published take on a new life, as one might expect when a collection of images are curated afresh; so there is every reason to add this book to your library.
In common with her previous publications and musical output, 'Rae, A Pictorial Love Song' is another forthright, intimate,
unashamedly autobiographical monograph that offers up to the viewer a series of haunting self portraits, images of children and loved ones lost, simple personal possessions that carry great importance and text. All are combined and constructed in such a manner so as to create, within the viewer, a deliberate sense of loss, grief, passion, guilt, abandonment, survival, pain; but above all, empathy.
British born Paula Rae Gibson is a Renaissance woman – a photographer, author, musician, singer, song writer who has also worked within film, having scripted 'What Are You Doing Forever?' and both written and directed the short film 'The Price For Feeling Something' She has also found time to author a novella 'Hanging Onto a Thread to Believe in Rare Things' available here
Gibson's music and photography, indeed her entire output, have to be approached as one. Gibson includes examples of her visual art within
the presentation CD cases of both 'Maybe Too Nude' and 'No More Tiptoes' and companion videos made for select tracks. In listening to her music perhaps one is reminded of a mix of 'This Mortal Coil' 'Portishead' and 'Cocteau Twins' with heart breaking fragile music, with a voice that cracks and aches, and are as haunting as anything produced by said bands.
Rae, A Pictorial Love Song is published, by 'Eyemazing Editions', as a 304 page hardback book containing approximately 240 images, with each page being 23.50 x 17.50 cm. Whilst the pages are smaller than 'Diary of a Love Addict' the photographs are reproduced to a very high standard on quality paper. You can purchase your copy directly from the publishers, 'Eyemazing Editions', website here.
'Rae, A Pictorial Love Song' is Five Star work that I can recommend without hesitation. I would also urge you to check out her music and short films via the YouTube links above and here. Gibson is an artist who deserves a wider audience.
Review by Christopher John Ball
*****Rating
*Review Star Ratings If you have a photography related book you would like reviewing, including self-published material, email details to chris@cjballphotography.org.uk and I will happily consider doing so. The review will be hosted, free of charge, on this website and posted via Twitter and Facebook. All I ask in return is that a link be placed on your own site to the review on this website and, if used in any promotional material , I am credited as Christopher John Ball.
July 2024 Several books, featuring Christopher John Ball's photographs, are now available through Amazon or click on an image below to purchase via secure payments on lulu.com
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