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Photograph

1985 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Jo Spence was a feminist artist and activist who explored themes of gender, class and self-identity. After Spence was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982, she made several series of self-portraits documenting her battle with the disease until her death from leukaemia a decade later. The photographs expressed her physical and emotional state. Her doctor and collaborator Tim Sheard explained, ‘Spence is representing the honest emotions felt living in an unruly body that cannot conform to the pressures of female perfection expected and idealised in Western society’. With Rosy Martin, Spence developed a co-counselling practice they called 'phototherapy', which aims to resolve emotional issues, anxieties or past traumatic experiences through role play and photographic portraiture.

Jo Spence (1986) Putting Myself in the Picture, London: Camden Press.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Colour photograph
Brief description
Photograph by Jo Spence, 'Untitled', C-type print, 1985
Physical description
Colour photo, headshot of woman looking to the right.
Dimensions
  • Height: 91.4cm
  • Width: 60.8cm
Credit line
Given by Terry Dennett and The Jo Spence Memorial Archive
Summary
Jo Spence was a feminist artist and activist who explored themes of gender, class and self-identity. After Spence was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982, she made several series of self-portraits documenting her battle with the disease until her death from leukaemia a decade later. The photographs expressed her physical and emotional state. Her doctor and collaborator Tim Sheard explained, ‘Spence is representing the honest emotions felt living in an unruly body that cannot conform to the pressures of female perfection expected and idealised in Western society’. With Rosy Martin, Spence developed a co-counselling practice they called 'phototherapy', which aims to resolve emotional issues, anxieties or past traumatic experiences through role play and photographic portraiture.

Jo Spence (1986) Putting Myself in the Picture, London: Camden Press.
Collection
Accession number
E.389-2010

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Record createdApril 6, 2010
Record URL
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