photograph | The Anatomy Of Life & Death

Family Portrait is actually a song! I’m kidding. To me, I have a very simple definition of a family portrait. A family portrait is an image that document a family at a particular moment of time or space. Talking about family portrait, I suddenly thought about a photo that I took when I was in London 3 years ago. It’s a photo that frames a photograph taken of the UK Royal family at an event. It seems its taken on a balcony or some sort. Anyway, you can identify the Queen, her husband, Prince Charles, his two sons, Harry and William. There are also 3 other individuals who is not familiar to me but it seems to be of close ties to be able to stand near to the Queen. While this is not an official family portrait, but I feel that it could be. It shows a particular moment of time and the absence of Princess Diana might tell us that this photo was taken after 1997.

London, United Kingdom. Taken on 14 September 2012

One famous family portrait that immediately comes into my mind is actually the Addams Family! I remember watching the film and the cartoon way back! But I always remember the family portrait they showed right before the show starts, in the introduction video. As you can see the in image below, they look very surreal and weird but thats what the show is. Looking at the family portrait, it seems they are very close as family.

The Addams Family, 1991

And the next family portrait that comes into my mind was also from the Kardashian Family. I don’t watch reality tv but I do see some images of them in magazines or online. Anyway, this photo below is a good documentation of a particular moment of time. Compare the photo below and now, there is 2 divorced couples and another one broke up and ONE sex change. Caitlyn Jenner is what Bruce Jenner is now known as. I like how the documentation of celebrities family portraits changes over their time. To me even though these photos are not famous portraits, they are relevant in my lifetime.

The Kardashian Family

But if you are talking about a really Famous family portrait, then we have to go all the way back, back to paintings. Despite many family portrait of royals and the rich, I actually couldn’t connect with those painting and choose one because I don’t feel comfortable talking about paintings that I am not familiar with. But I do have a famous family portrait in mind actually. In a form of a photography by Dorothea Lange.

Migrant Mother(1936) – Dorothea Lange

This photograph depict my definition of a family portrait. The woman, Florence Owens Thompson is seen with his two children facing behind getting comfort in their mother’s touch. This picture was made famous because it represented the Great Depression. She became an iconic image and figure soon after this photograph was publish. Even though this picture did not have all of the family member to be a ‘family’ family portrait, I still categorise this as one as it shows a very specific moment of time in the world which contains human emotion and a human subject. Below, is a photo taken 43 years after Migrant Mother. Again, this is also a family portrait.

Thompson (seated) with three of her daughters, (from l. to r.) Katherine, Ruby and Norma, in 1979—43 years after Migrant Mother

But I feel that family portrait have changed through out the years in terms of being symbolic and representation. In family portraits painting we discuss in class, for example the Palmer Family in readings by Johann Zoffany. There are so many things we can talk about in terms of posture, eye contact, position of the body and more. However, looking at modern family portrait, there isn’t all those anymore. No more symbolic hidden meaning. Family Portrait was mean to be an important thing back then but now, its just another jpeg file I feel. If you compare the Kardashian Family portrait above and The Palmer Family, you can see a big difference in terms of composition and meaning as well.

The Sapiees, 2011

So here’s my family portrait at a specific moment of my life, finishing my Basic Military Training, at the Passing Out Parade. As you can see, I am right smack in the middle however, I am slightly at the back compare to the rest of my family. This is to represent that I am in the centre of the attraction but however, not to forget that I won’t get through this phase without the support of my family. See, composition.

Anyway, this photo was taken by my girlfriend who was there with us as well. Even though there are the invention of the selfie stick, I am totally against using it for a family portrait. It’s either on a proper tripod or asking someone else to take it for us.

How have artists made us think and feel about labor? Well, artists knows that they are labour themselves and their works is a reflection of that. Ok Kidding.

Labor is a very broad term and one of its synonyms is Employment. However, when we use the word Labor, I feel there is a very negative connotation attached to the word ‘labor’. Don’t make me even start with Hard Labor!

But anyway, labor is one of the favourite topics artist likes to tackle actually because of its relevancy to the current time and it reflect how the economy is doing. For example, I have one local artist on the top of my head when the topic about Labor came in. Jing Quek. He is a commercial photographer by practice and he also have this series of labourers/workers posing in a very interesting manner below.

As you can see through this series of his, it seems that Jing Quek is actually glorifying these mens and their jobs. Yes, it seems that all these people are holding blue collar jobs and for the lack of terms, hard labor. These jobs require a lot physical strength and also they come from foreigners especially from India or China. They can be seen posing in their working environment, holding their tools of trade. I really like the above photo featuring the grass cutter. The composition is really nice and the contrast colour of green and their red uniforms really make the photography pops out.

This photo however, might not be talking about glorifying the role of a maid though. I feel this photo tells the sad reality of a maid actually. They can be seen doing many things for example, taking care of a baby, ironing clothes, vacuuming and the list goes on. Even though you can say that it is glorifying the job, it is not necessary in a good way and this photo has a really good layer in terms of its message and visual.

This photo is also interesting in terms of featuring the locals trishaw drivers. Again, all the subjects in the photos are pose to make them look important and matter in life. The artist have actually brought up the topic of labor by making the subjects behave in a very unlikely manner. The message pertaining labor is brought up through the juxtaposition of its subjects and content. Being in Singapore, these people is a very aplenty in our everyday lives but we always ignore them and the topic of being invisible is relevant here. So Jing Quek is bringing them into the limelight and let us viewers see that they too are humans and hold beautiful colours in our lives.

Another artist that pops up in my head that speaks about labor is none other than the great Banksy.

In this introduction video to the Simpsons, Bansky speaks about Labour in it. From using child labour to animal abuse to even killing animal for the sake of mass making products. This video I feel might reflect the accuracy of the mass market right now. We all know that child labour is being used in those poor developing countries to make goods. And that is why unicorns no longer exists in this planet. Plus, I feel this medium of using animation and video can easily reach to the masses and the message Banksy is trying to tell can be watched by millions of people who are watching The Simpsons.

Another work by Banksy is this mural at a wall located at Wood Green, London. It depicts a child labour sewing the union jack flags in masses. The work was a protest against the use of sweatshops to manufacture Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics memorabilia in 2012. Afterwards, the wall was actually removed and it was sold for $1.1 Million dollars at an auction house. It was a very controversial topic because Banksy made the mural for the public but yet it was removed and sold. Being that controversial story that it is, I feel that the controversial took over the message of the artwork actually. Nonetheless, you can get the sense of labour being depict here in a form of a boy and the sewing machine.

Slave Labour (2012) – Banksy, Wood Green, London

Labor is essential to the economy and nation building. There are 15 definition of labor in an online dictionary. I cannot imagine number 11.

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Week 6: Family Portraits

Week 5: Labour