COLLABORATIVE PORTRAITURE INSPIRATION

This page is a curated list of photographers who incorporated some form of collaboration in their work. As outlined in Workshop 1 there is no single approach to collaboration and approaches to collaboration are on a wide gamut of depth - with some photographers, for one example Anthony Luvera, taking a deeply collaborative approach, while others, for one example Mengwe Cao, use approaches on the lighter end of the scale. A deeply collaborative approach, for example, may involve participants in the earliest stages to conceive and shape a project brief together while a lighter approach may involve a photographer who is photographing a predefined project working with people on an individual basis to make decisions about their portraits, for example where and how they would like to be photographed.

The timeframe and resources of our project mean that in most cases, approaches to collaboration will be on the lighter scale of things. However, less involved approaches don't mean that collaboration is reduced to tokenism. Lighter collaborative approaches can still be meaningful. It's important however to critically evaluate the collaboration and be clear about its values and limitations.

The best way to develop your own approach to collaboration is to look at the work of others and consider what might be a good fit for the project you intend to work on. This can be discussed in the group, with mentors - and with the people you photograph and refined accordingly.

Anthony Luvera

Anthony Luvera is an artist, writer and educator. His photographic work has been exhibited widely in galleries, public spaces and festivals, including Tate Liverpool, the British Museum, London Underground’s Art on the Underground and National Portrait Gallery London. His writing has appeared in a range of publications including Photography and Culture, Visual Studies and Source. Anthony is an Associate Professor of Photography in the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University and editor of Photography For Whom? a periodical about socially engaged photography.

There is so much written on Luvera's work - as you will see from a brief Google. I suggest the links below to get you started.

1. Anthony Luvera: On collaborative representation (The Photo Ethics Podcast) https://www.photoethics.org/podcast/anthony-luvera. In this episode, Anthony Luvera discusses collaborative representation, his approach to collaborative work, what collaboration means to him, and the interplay between collaboration and representation. Anthony also dives into his thoughts on ethical issues including participant consent.
2. Seven questions with Anthony Luvera (Art UK) https://artuk.org/discover/stories/seven-questions-with-anthony-luvera. This recent interview with Luvera includes a discussion on his latest work, Construct.
3. Anthony Luvera: The Art of Assisted Self-Portraits (Talking Pictures) https://talking-pictures.net.au/2022/04/16/anthony-luvera-the-art-of-assisted-self-portraits. Another insightful interview.

Mengwen Cao

Mengwen Cao is a photographer, multimedia artist, and cultural organizer. Born and raised in China, they are based in New York. As queer immigrant, they explore spaces between race, gender, and cultural identity. Mengwen is a board member of the Authority Collective and a founding
member of Chinese Storytellers. They champion diverse narratives and perspectives in the media industry. Mengwen publishes in spaces for photojournalism, documentary, and art - and does not only work in a ‘collaborative’ manner. Their processes vary from project to project. Sometimes working in a more traditional photojournalistic manner and at other times more collaboratively.

1. I Stand Between https://istandbetween.mengwencao.com. I Stand Between is a long-term project where Mengwen combined photography and audio interviews to build a digital platform about the experiences of transracial and transnational Asian American adoptees. Mengwen says the project was ignited by researching alternative family structures and talks about more nuanced forms of racism. Also with looking at this link which gives some background on the project.
2. How a Chinese Photographer Navigates Queer Identity and Resilience (Aperture). https://aperture.org/editorial/introducing-mengwen-cao. An article on Menngwen's broader body of work.
3. Photographer, Mengwen Cao on Constructing Queerness Across Continents https://www.panoramicthemagazine.com/post/iss03_mengwen-cao? Another article featuring Mengwen and her work.

Esther Ruth Mbabzi

The Ugandan documentary photographer often focuses on rural areas and minority groups, with an interest in public health. Mbabazi’s work reveals varied, nuanced, and underrepresented stories from the African continent. Her project 'As We Are' was made in partnership with the Gulu for Women With Disabilities Union (GUWODU) in Uganda. Mbabazi partnered with seven women on a portrait series to
celebrate individuality and personal expression, together photographer and sitter created a backdrop and outfit for the photo. “They drew a picture of what they wanted, down to the type of fabric”. Participants also selected final images together and there was a common preference for full-length rather than tight crops. Mbabazi explains, “They said, ‘This shows me as I am in my full existence, my full body, as I am.’”

1. As We Are: Collaborative Portraits with Uganda’s Gulu Women with Disabilities Union https://vimeo.com/605838001. This short video shows Mbabzi at work on, and talking about the project.
2. These radiant portraits show women as they want to be seen (National Geographic). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/esther-ruth-mbabazi-portraits-uganda-gulu-women-disabilities-union. This article showcases the project.
3. This Time we are Young https://www.esthermbabazi.com/this-time-we-are-young. I don't know the approach to this project or if it is collaborative in any way. However, I'm including it here because it is a documentation of youth in Africa - and ties into our overarching themes. This Time We Are Young is an on-going documentation of the changing demographics on the world’s youngest continent, with 60 percent of the African population being under 25. The story reflects on what it means to be young in Africa, following the lives of both the youth who live on the continent and those who migrated to other parts of the world. The project is divided into different chapters, each of them documenting a different theme affecting African youth so far in countries like Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, Germany, Belgium.

Sirkka Liisa Kontinnen

Kontinnen's Byker Revisited is definitely worth a look. The project revisits an earlier documentary project, originally published in 1983, where Konttinen documented a close-knit community in Newcastle in an area that was her home for seven years and which was destined for wholesale redevelopment. In Byker revisited Konttinen took a collaborative approach and asked the people she photographed to imagine what they would have in a photograph of themselves if they had just one picture to describe themselves to the rest of the world. Getting to know the participants took a lot of time and work but the images themselves would not take too long to make - and this might be an approach to take if you are already well connected to or embedded within a community. The images are highly collaborative - people chose how to present to the world, how to dress, what to wear, etc but all in their flats within the same building.

1. A Neighbourhood Documentary Revisited (PDN) https://pdnonline.com/features/a-neighborhood-documentary-revisited.
2. Byker by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Photo.com) https://www.all-about-photo.com/photo-articles/photo-article/1254/byker-by-sirkka-liisa-konttinen. This article features the original Byker images.
3. Today I'm With You (2010) (Vimeo). https://vimeo.com/ondemand/todayimwithyou20102/179449303?autoplay=1. If you are keen on Konttinen's work, you might rent this documentary film (4 pounds) featuring and following the project in process.

Jim Goldberg

Jim Goldberg’s Rich and Poor is another interesting example and approach. He explicitly doesn't call his work photojournalism - but it certainly lies more closely in the realm than many photographers featured here. Rather than directly collaborating at the moment of image making the collaboration happens after the image is made and involves a process of asking the participants to write a reflective comment. Jim Goldberg took hundreds of portraits of San Franciscans for his series Rich and Poor, then asked his subjects to comment on their photos. Again it would have taken time to gain access to communities but once access is established it's a relatively fast way to involve meaningful collaboration. The reflections could be captured in other forms of text or audio.

1. The photographer who caught the heartbreak on both sides of America's social divide https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/03/jim-goldberg-rich-and-poor-photography.
2. Jim Goldberg’s compassionate lens (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzDbugn4XDw. A short video interview with Jim Goldberg on his general approach to documentary image-making.
3. In my own words: Jim Goldberg, photo storyteller (Huck Magazine). https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/flipping-gaze-photos-jim-goldberg-documentary-storyteller. An insightful article and interview on Goldberg's work.

Ciara Leeming

Ciara Leeming did a residency in a local market in 2022 with a friend - the pair simply set up a camera with a backdrop, tripod, and cable and invited people to create self-portraits. We also had postcards that said “My Levenshulme Is” on them and asked them to write their reflections on our neighborhood/community. Ciara says "It was very simple, people saw us and came to us. Nothing complex" https://www.ciaraleeming.co.uk/personal-work/a-portrait-of-levenshulme/. See more of Ciara's collaborative work on her site at www.ciaraleeming.co.uk

Paul Close

Snakebox Odyssey is another project with a relatively simple approach, the photographer set up a backdrop intived people to be photographed and asked each of them the question: "Is there one thing that could make your life better?" https://www.paul-close.com/snakebox

More

• Chris Johnson and Hank Willis Thomas’s Question Bridge, is a platform enabling African-American men to ask and answer questions posed to each other
• Monica Haller’s extensive work with veterans, facilitates people to create books with their own photographs and texts exploring and sharing their experiences
• Gideon Mendel’s proactive use of photography includes collaborative and participatory approaches - and shows the benefits of antiretroviral drugs for people with HIV in Africa, a strategy that led to funding enabling 8 million people to get treatment. Through Positive Eyes is a collaborative photo-storytelling project by more than 140 people living with HIV and AIDS in cities around the world.
• French artist JR, in one of his “Inside Out” projects, has created photo booths that print oversized portraits of subjects. The self-representation is meant to increase the impact of individuals and their stories on their own societies, with the stipulation that the images are not to be used for publicity for any organization, including NGOs.
• Jan Hoek asked Maasai people living in cities how they would most like to be photographed. The Dutch photographer and teacher Jan Hoek showed their preferences and made the kinds of images requested. Then a group of Maasai voted on the most representative images. This is an interesting, informal experiment in collaboration, involving the subject in the decision-making while rendering the process transparent.