Inhabiting the Image: photography, therapay and re-enactment phototherapy
Rosy Martin
European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling
Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2009, 35–49
Inhabiting the image: photography, therapy and re-enactment phototherapy
Rosy Martin*
This is a copyright article – any quotations must cite origin
Photography, this ubiquitous medium that most people use and that has
10 the potential to be democratic, too often ends up as a repetition of
conventional iconic images. However, photographs offer up the possibilities
of a slippery surface of meanings and potential narratives for the
viewer, which are the rich veins that phototherapy explores. Therapeutic
work with found images and alternative visual diaries is discussed. The
15 traditional family album as a repository of partially explored memories
is contrasted with its role in constructing a mythology of an ideal. The
evolution of re-enactment phototherapy, the creation of new photographic
representations through performative re-enactments within the therapeutic
relationship, is described. Since the gaze is fundamental to a photographic
20 exchange, theories of the gaze and identity formation are briefly mapped.
The therapeutic gaze, the performativity within the re-enactment phototherapy
session and the importance of embodiment and transformation
are discussed, and the notion of the process as a form of creative adult play.
A case study is included to illustrate the methodology. Why and how these
25 new photographs can be used within the therapeutic process is explored.
The questions arising when this work moves from process to product are
considered.
Keywords: photography and therapy; re-enactment phototherapy; found
photographs; family album; therapeutic gaze; visual culture
30 Habiter l’image: photographie, the¥rapie et photo therapie de reconstitution
La photographie, ce medium omnipre¥sent utilise¥ par la plupart des gens,
potentiellement de¥mocratique, finit trop souvent par n’eà tre qu’une reproduction
d’ images emble¥matiques et conventionnelles. Cependant, les photographies
offrent a` la fois la possibilite¥ d’une surface ou` le sens glisse et des
35 re¥ cits potentiels a` celui qui les regarde, cette richesse e¥tant ce qu’explore la
Photo The¥rapie. Nous discuterons ici le travail the¥rapeutique a` partir d’images
trouve¥es et de journaux intimes visuels. L’album de famille traditionnel en tant
qu’archive des souvenirs partiellemement explore¥ s est mis en contraste avec
son roà le dans la construction de la mythologie d’un ide¥ al. Nous de¥crirons
40 l’e¥volution de la Photo The¥rapie de reconstitution, cre¥ation de nouvelles
repre¥sentations photographiques a` travers les reconstitutions sce¥niques dans
le cadre d’une relation the¥rapeutique. Dans la mesure ou` le regard est
fondamental dans un e¥change photographique, les the¥ories sur le regard et la
formation de l’identite¥ seront brie`vement pre¥sente¥ es. Le regard the¥rapeutique,
45 le caracte`re sce¥nique de la se¥ance de Photo The¥rapie de reconstitution ainsi que
l’importance de l’incarnation et de la transformation seront discute¥ s; il sera
e¥galement aborde¥ en quoi ce processus est une forme de jeu cre¥ atif adulte.
Une e¥tude de cas est incluse afin d’illustrer la me¥thodologie. Nous verrons
enfin pourquoi et comment ces nouvelles photographies peuvent eà tre utilise¥es
50 a` des fins the¥rapeutiques. Les questions qui emergent lorsque ce travail passe
du processus au produit seront prises en conside¥ration.
Mots-Cle¥ : photographie et therapie; photo therapie de reconstitution;
photographies trouvees; album de famille; regard therapeutique; culture
visuelle
55 Das bild bewohnbar machen: fotografie, therapie und re-inactment
fototherapie
Die Fotografie, jenes allgegenwa® rtige Medium, das von den meisten Menschen
genutzt wird und dem demokratische Potentiale zu Eigen sind, wird allzu oft
genutzt um konventionelle Arten der Abbildung lediglich zu wiederholen.
60 Tatsa® chlich bieten Fotografien fu® r den Betrachter jedoch Mo® glichkeiten
‘‘rutschiger’’ Bedeutungsoberfla® chen und Alternativen von Erza® hlungsoptionen,
die eben gerade die reichhaltigen Pfade bilden, die per Fotografie
erkundet werden ko® nnen. Es werden Mo® glichkeiten der therapeutischen
Arbeit mit vorgefunden Abbildungen und visuellen Tagebu® chern in dem
65 Artikel diskutiert. Das herko® mmliche Familienalbum wird als Speicher
bruchhafter Erinnerungen kontrastiert mit seiner Rolle beim Kreieren von
Idealmythen. Die Entwicklung der Re-Enactmant-Fototherapie, die Erstellung
neuer fotografischer Darstellungen durch performatives Nachspielen innerhalb
der therapeutischen Beziehung, wird zudem beschrieben. Da der Blick
70 grundlegend erscheint fu® r den fotografischen Vorgang, werden Konzepte von
Blick und Identita® tsbildung kurz skizziert. Der therapeutische Blick, die
‘‘Performativita® t’’ innerhalb der Re-enactment Fototherapie und die Wichtigkeit
der Verko® rperung und Verwandlung werden diskutiert; zudem die Fassung
dieses Prozesses als eine Form des kreativen Erwachsenenspiels. Anhand einer
75 Falldarstellung wird das Vorgehen veranschaulicht. Es wird erkundet warum
und wie diese so neu erstellten Fotografien innerhalb des therapeutischen
Prozesses genutzt werden ko® nnen. Zudem wird auf die Frage eingegangen,
an welchem Punkt diese Art der Arbeit sich vom Prozess in ein Kunstprodukt
vera® ndert.
80 Viviendo en la imagen: fotografı¥a, terapia y fototerapia reconstructiva
La fototerapia, este omnipresente medio que la mayorı¥a de gente usa y tiene
el potencial de ser democra¥ tico, a menudo termina como una repeticio¥n de
ima¥ genes ico¥ nicas convencionales. No obstante, las fotografı¥as ofrecen la
posibilidad de tener una gran variedad de significados y de diferentes relatos
85 para el que las ve. Esta variedad de significados y relatos son lo que la
fototerapia explora. Se discute el trabajo terape¥utico de ima¥ genes encontradas
y diarios visuales. El a¥lbum de una familia tradicional como almace¥n de
recuerdos parcialmente explorados es contrastado con su rol en construir una
mitologı¥a de un ideal. Se describe la evolucio¥ n de la fototerapia reconstructiva,
90 la creacio¥ n de nuevas representaciones fotogra¥ ficas a trave¥s de reconstrucciones
conductuales en la relacio¥ n terape¥ utica. Desde que la mirada es
fundamental para un intercambio fotogra¥ fico, han surgido diversas teorı¥as
de la mirada y la formacio¥ n de la identidad. La mirada terape¥utica, la
comunicacio¥ n oral en la sesio¥ n de fototerapia reconstructiva y la importancia
95 de la personificacio¥ n y la transformacio¥ n juntamente con la nocio¥ n del proceso
como forma de obra creativa adulta son discutidas. Se ha incluido un caso
de estudio para explicar la metodologı¥a. Se explica porque¥ y co¥mo estas
fotografı¥as pueden ser usadas en la exploracio¥ n del proceso terape¥utico.
Las preguntas que surgen cuando el trabajo pasa de ser un proceso a un
100 producto se tienen en cuenta.
Palabras clave: fotografı¥a y terapia; fototerapia reconstructiva; fotografı¥as
encontradas; a¥lbum familiar; mirada terape¥utica; cultura visual
Abitare l’immagine: fotografia, terapia e la rappresentazione foto-terapeutica
La fotografia, questo mezzo onnipresente, che quasi tutti utilizzano e che ha il
105 potenziale di essere democratico, finisce troppo spesso per essere per essere una
ripetizione d’immagini iconiche. Nondimeno, le fotografie offrono all’osservatore
una superficie scivolosa di significati e di narrazioni potenziali, che sono i
ricchi filoni esplorati dalla fototerapia. E` discusso il lavoro terapeutico con
immagini ritrovate e alternativi diari visivi. Il tradizionale album fotografico di
110 famiglia come repositorio di memorie parzialmente esplorate e` contrastato con
il suo ruolo nel costruire una mitologia di un’ideale. E` descritta l’evoluzione
della rappresentazione foto-terapeutica, la creazione di nuove rappresentazioni
fotografiche attraverso rappresentazioni performative all’interno della relazione
terapeutica. Poiche¥ lo sguardo e` fondamentale in uno scambio
115 fotografico, sono brevemente percorse le teorie sullo sguardo e sulla
formazione dell’identita`. E` discusso lo sguardo terapeutico, la performativita`
all’interno della sessione di rappresentazione foto terapeutica e l’importanza
della personificazione e della trasformazione, e la nozione di processo come
forma di gioco creativo adulto. E`
incluso un caso clinico per illustrate la
120 metodologia. E` esplorato il perche¥ e il come queste nuove fotografie possano
essere utilizzate all’interno del processo terapeutico. Sono prese in considerazione
le domande che sorgono quando questo lavoro si sposta da processo
a prodotto.
Introduction
125 We live in a culture, in Western Europe, ever more mediated by the visual.
Photographic images surround us on all sides: newspapers, magazines,
advertising hoardings, the Internet and if one includes the moving image:
television, film, video, and computer games. The evolution of digital media
now results in the majority of people in Europe always carrying a camera with
130 them, as an integral part of their mobile phone. Within the computer,
traditional boundaries between media breakdown and merge with the facility
to digitise information and easily combine images and sound, both original
and sampled. Individuals can then post their work on web sites and publish to
the worldwide Internet audience. Social networking sites, such as Facebook,
135 video-sharing sites, for example YouTube and photo-sharing sites, for example
Flickr as well as individual’s personal web sites and blogs offer the opportunity
to share images with family, friends, and audiences previously unimaginable.
Digital technologies have provided the means to communicate easily through
images, text and voice. Is this the longed for democratisation of the image?
140 As a cultural phenomenon, does this then speak to a more fundamental
desire? Is this a manifestation of the need to be seen, to be heard, to have
an audience, and to be noticed? Whilst at one level the culture of the spectacle
(Debord, 1967) encourages a voyeurism that can be parasitic (Big Brother on
Channel 4 could be said to have set the stage for the crowd who gathered and
145 called to a suicidal young man to ‘jump’ BBC News, 3 Oct 2008). However,
there are therapeutic approaches that use these visual languages to powerful
effect.
Photography and therapy
There are a number of different ways in which photographs can be used within
150 the therapeutic relationship. In the 1970s in the United States and Canada
therapists started to use photographs as counseling tools1 (Krauss & Fryrear,
1983). Working from differing theoretical frameworks, the photograph as
metaphor can be used as a route to the unconscious. Photographs offer up
a slippery surface of meanings to reflect and project upon and contain a myriad
155 of latent narratives. A therapist, using a nonjudgmental approach with
skillful listening and open-ended questions, can enable the client to articulate,
make conscious and then reflect upon his/her ways of viewing the world
and value systems using photographs as both a channel and a catalyst for
communication.
160 Found images
Found images can be a useful resource to introduce the use of photographs in
therapy. They have the advantage of being anonymous and decontextualised.
This allows for a much freer reading, since there are then no potential conflicts
regarding personal loyalties, nor self silencing evoked. In my workshops,
165 I use a selection of found old family album photographs, alongside some
documentary images, which share the anecdotal captured moment aesthetic
of domestic photography. I lay these out, and invite the client to choose one
that they are drawn to, quickly, without intellectualising their choice. Clients
are invited to tell a story using their chosen photograph as a starting point,
170 by entering the space of the image, identifying with one of the individuals in the photograph, speaking from the first person, thereby inhabiting the imaginary space offered up.
Participants draw unconsciously upon their own histories in this story
telling. Often this exercise acts as an opening up to key themes, which then
175 reoccur. For example, on the first day of a four day workshop in Swansea one
participant (C) chose a black and white studio photograph, taken about 1910,
of a small boy, probably about three years old, wearing a tunic and shorts,
white tights and buckled black shoes with hair in luxuriant curls. He stands
on a grand staircase, with high baroque decoration, but it is only a segment of
180 a staircase, it’s a studio prop, as the framing makes clear, an incongruous scrap
of carpet and a visible skirting board belie the fantasy. Behind the fourth stair
a painted backdrop shows pillars and an indistinct rural landscape, referencing
the eighteenth century portraiture of artists such as Gainsborough. This was
a photographic studio that sold pretensions of grandeur. He looks dwarfed
185 by his surroundings. What C saw in the image was the isolation of the child,
his vulnerability and how he seemed overwhelmed and abandoned in that huge
alien visual space. She named him ‘Albert’. As the workshop unfolded, her
focus became her distress at having been given up for adoption as a tiny baby.
On the last day, she incorporated this found image within her story, which she
190 had made visible through her re-enactment work. She told the group that her
birth mother had given her the name Victoria. She had never used this name;
her adoptive mother had chosen another. She said she had not intended to do
this deep work, but ‘Albert’ had opened up the door to exploring the pain
of Victoria’s abandonment.
195 Found images can be used to demonstrate the narrative potential of
photographs, and how all photographs are fictions. As chosen moments, edited
out from the continuum of everyday life, or highly constructed presentations
to the camera, framed extracts from the visual field, all photographs are
constructions.
200 Alternative visual diaries
Photographs taken by the client may offer insights into thoughts and feelings
that are of deep personal concern. The practice of loaning out cameras with the
brief to participants to document their ordinary everyday lives has been used
by community photographers for many years (Dewdney & Lister, 1988). This
205 is particularly beneficial in work with young people on their sense of identities
and community2 and in working with marginalised groups3. Digital cameras
have made this easier, and by using image manipulation software, (e.g.
Photoshop) it is possible to combine creating an alternative visual diary to
explore aspects of the self with family album images, self-directed portraits
210 and found images4. In the making, choice and layering of these images
a complex interwoven ‘digital identity’ can be created. This then can be a focus
for therapeutic processing, as one might use images produced in traditional
art therapy.
Family albums
215 Family albums provide a rich resource for autobiographical storytelling and
an exploration of family systems: how it was to be part of this family and how
these early experiences continue to affect the individual.
A family album contains a mini-history of photography as a medium and
a variety of genres, as interpreted by a succession of photographers both
220 amateur and professional (Spence, 1986). Each of us only has the images we
inherited; precious, since they offer each of us images of the self, as we grew up,
and a fragile framework for memories. Precious too, once family members have
died, and their photographic image becomes a means of recall. But the
traditional family album is an ideological construct (Spence & Holland, 1991).
225 Editorial control is held by the archivist, usually the mother, whose preferences
are shaped by an unconscious desire to provide evidence of her own good
mothering. The conflicts and power struggles inherent within family life are
repressed. Like a public relations document, the family album mediates
between the members of the family, providing a united front to the world, in an
230 affirmation of successes, celebrations, high days and holidays, domestic
harmony and togetherness. It is bound within established codes of
commemorative convention, so ubiquitous that they are taken for granted,
even minutely reconstructed and sold back to us in advertising campaigns.
Imaging companies using digital manipulation now promise to ‘enhance’ the
235 family album mythology by offering ‘seamless, permanent, and reassuring
solutions to torn and separated memories,’ ‘Your whole family together at
last,’ ‘cosmetic perfection,’ and even the opportunity to ‘remove any trace of
your ex-husband, ex-wife or ex-lover. An excellent idea’ (Fleet Imaging, 1996).
Although now people are using digital cameras to document a wider range
240 of activities and take many more photographs, the delete button provides
instant editing which facilitates an even more persuasive pursuit of the ‘ideal’.
One of my concerns is that this editing, followed by tidying up using image
manipulation will erase some of the mistakes, aberrations and quirkiness, as if
repressing the unconscious of the photograph, that can be found in old albums.
245 Re-enactment phototherapy
Re-enactment phototherapy is a methodology that I have been evolving since
1983, in collaboration with the late Jo Spence (1985), and continue to develop.
Our innovation was the creation of new photographic representations through
performative re-enactments, within the therapeutic relationship.
250 Jo Spence and I met when we were attending a series of co-counselling
training courses. During an exchange counselling session on the third course,we came up with the idea of dressing up and playing with aspects of our
identities that had been either hidden or denied, and photographing the results.
Within the safety and trust of the therapeutic relationship that we had built
255 during the previous year, we photographed one another, as we inhabited these
roles. In some of our earliest work we used an old family album image as
a starting point. However, this was not simply an act of replication. Crucially,
we used what had been unearthed in the counselling beforehand to structure
a session and explore a range of feelings in the process. We worked together
260 in an experimental and creative way and maintained the therapeutic framework
to work through the emotions that making and viewing these images released.
We soon realised that we had discovered a very powerful technique.
Initially the work was prompted by a lack. In our family albums, either
no images existed, (film was unobtainable in World War Two) or the few that
265 survived only showed the child posed for the parent. The work grew from an
autobiographical engagement with the complexity of the multifaceted aspects
of an individual’s identity. We had started by deconstructing the existing visual
representations of our lives and became acutely aware of the structured
absences, and the paucity of representations within the dominant media that
270 were available to us as middle-aged, working class women.
You are the only one who can never see yourself except as an image . . . even and
especially for your own body, you are condemned to the repertoire of its images
(Barthes, 1977, p. 36).
We used therapeutic techniques to look behind the ‘screen memories,’ the
275 simplifications and myths of others, too long accepted as our histories, as a way
of extending this repertoire, by exploring the self as fictions. We began to tell
and explore ways of making visible the complexity and contradictions of our
own stories, from our points of view, by re-enacting memories and imagining
possible futures. We worked collaboratively, alternating the roles of photo-
280 grapher/therapist and protagonist/client. We were always committed to
examine the personal as political within the practice. We aimed to uncover
the elisions that had silenced or marginalised our experiences, for example
as working class women and in Jo’s case, as someone living with cancer.
We showed the effects of institutional gazes and attitudes upon the individual,
285 rather than seeing these as privatised distress. We highlighted the psychological
and social construction of identities within the drama of the everyday.
Then, after Jo’s death, I went on to develop this modality further. I no
longer worked in the exchange of roles, co-counselling model, but, having
trained as a therapist, concentrated on the therapist role. I formalised the
290 methodology, by carefully analysing the process of my work with clients,
as well as drawing upon my knowledge of what it feels like to occupy both
the positions of therapist and client. I use formal contracts and clear
boundaries so that the client feels adequately held and contained. I have
regular therapeutic supervision and I am much more aware of how I work with
295 the transference and counter-transference that is always present and often
actively played out in the photography session. I developed and ran a range
of experiential workshops to share and teach these methods5.
Re-enactment phototherapy is about making visible process, change and
transformation, by going to the source of an issue or an old trauma, re-enacting
300 it and making a new ending; a new possibility; a new way of being, visible.
This very powerful intensity, which touches deep, dark and difficult material,
is held and contained by counselling at both the beginning and end.
Identity formation and the gaze
As discussed in Martin (1997), the notion of the gaze has been discussed
305 by such differing theoreticians as Winnicott, Lacan and Foucault, in their
explorations of how identities are formed through mirroring. Sometimes
these gazes are loving or benevolent, but often they are more intrusive
and surveillant. Out of the myriad fragments thus mirrored to us, first
unconsciously as babies, then as we grow into language and culture and are
310 subject to the various discourses of society, aspects of our identities are
constructed.
The ‘good enough mother’ offers her face to the baby’s gaze, and mirrors
back the baby’s reflection. ‘When I look I am seen, so I exist. I can now afford
to look and see. I now look creatively and what I apperceive I also perceive’
315 (Winnicott, 1971, p. 134).
But if the mother is caught up in her own projective identification, reflecting
back her own feelings of despair, hopelessness and rage about the inadequate
mothering which she herself had received, the baby finds not itself, but the
mother reflected back. Perhaps then the baby then has to learn to predict and
320 respond to the mother’s moods and feelings, instead of focusing on his/her own (Winnicott, 1971; Ernst, 1987).
Lacan (1977) theorised the ‘mirror phase’, which begins a process in which
the child will acquire a gendered subjectivity and a place in the symbolic order.
The child gazing into a mirror misrecognises itself as the ‘gestalt’, the totalised,
325 complete external image of the subject. The discordance of the visual gestalt
with the subject’s perceived reality means that the image remains both a literal
image of itself and an idealised representation, since it prefigures a unity and
mastery that the child still lacks. The mirror stage initiates the child into
identification with and dependence on representations for its own form
(Martin, 1997).
The therapeutic gaze
Unlike the traditional power relationship in portrait photography, the
photographer/therapist’s gaze does not attempt to control, nor objectify the
other. The client, as sitter/director, determines how s/he wants to be
335 represented. It is the photographer/therapist’s task to enable this to happen.
For clients whose experience of being photographed in the past has felt
invasive, or even abusive, it is particularly important to create a different
quality of experience. For these clients, I have spent a whole photo-session
working on beginning to feel at ease being in front of the camera and
articulating what kind of image they want. Within the photo-session, the client
is offered a therapeutic gaze, which is akin to that of the ‘good enough mother’,
mirroring back the reflection of what is there to be seen to the client. This gaze
is offered within a context of safety, trust and acceptance. The therapist acts
as witness, advocate and nurturer. There is also a sense of encouragement and
345 permission giving, if the client starts to become self-censoring. This then
provides a containing environment, within which clients can explore the full
range of their emotions.
This work was developed before the advent of digital photography. I still
choose to work within the limitations of the analogue i.e. the deferral. The
350 trust, even surrender that asking the other to make images of you, required on
behalf of the client is important. Frequently checking back and reviewing
during the process, as one now can with a digital camera, interrupts the flow,
the happening in the moment.
Performativity
355 Since photographs are mimetic, finding the right clothes and props is an
important part of the process for the client, and will itself evoke feelings.
Setting the staging of the session, in the contained space delineated by the
background paper, creates the physical environment in which the action
happens. There are clear links to psychodrama. But it is a dyadic relationship,
360 not a group activity, and all the focus is on the client. In the photo session the
client ‘acts into’ role, whilst the therapist enables this to flow by taking
the other role in a dynamic relationship. The details of this role, and the
appropriate things to say to enable the client to get more closely in touch with
their feelings, are learnt within the preceding counselling sessions. The client
365 moves between role-playing different power positions within the dynamic,
for example parent/child, teacher/student, powerless/powerful. The therapist
may take the other role, to enable the client to get more closely in touch with
their feelings where appropriate. This may include enacting for example
a surveillant parental gaze, or a judgmental institutional gaze, and
370 photographing from that position. This role-playing dynamic, in which roles
are enacted and shifted is contained by the security and challenge offered by the
therapeutic gaze.
Re-enactment phototherapy makes visible the performative body. The
photography sessions are not about ‘capturing’ the image, they are about
375 seeking to make it happen, to ‘take place.’ It is about a staging of the selves
and knowingly using visual languages, referring to and challenging other
pre-existing visual representations. Thus it makes visible the constructions of
identities rather than revealing any ‘essential’ identity.
Embodiment and transformation
380 This is a very physical way of working, in which the body expresses the
emotions. The chosen role is entered into and the scenario is re-played in the
here and now. The body speaks its knowledge through gesture and movement
as the emotional stories unfold. Its eloquence is recorded. Clients embody the
issues and personal narratives they wish to work on. By re-experiencing a range
385 of frozen and previously repressed emotions in the here and now, and moving
from there into a transformation there is a shift and a cathartic release.
The transformative aspect is needed to create images of the potential
for change, for example finding an inner nurturing part of the self to challenge
a punishing super ego. This is crucial to the process, not merely to represent old
390 pains, which could re-enforce distress, but rather to offer a possibility for
another way of being.
Play
The photo session could be described as a sophisticated and contained
form of adult play. It is neither inner psychic reality, nor the external world,
395 but a kind of interim, experimental, spontaneous, creative space that is held
by the therapist. There are clear parallels to the ways in which children use
fantasy play to re-enact troubling scenarios or to try out roles, gathering
dressing up clothes and a variety of objects as props to give form to their
desires and fears.
400 Playing implies trust, and belongs to the potential space between [what was
at first] baby and mother figure . . . Play is essentially satisfying, even when it
leads to a high degree of anxiety . . . and is inherently exciting and precarious
. . . [because of] the interplay between that which is subjective and that
which is objectively perceived . . . In playing the child, or adult, is free to be
405 creative . . . and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.
(Winnicott, 1971, pp. 60–61, 63)
Case history as example – work with S
This is an edited extract from my case notes, which were made immediately
after each session. Exploring current issues, within the counselling relationship,
410 about authority and the misuse of power by his line-manager at work led S
back to a vivid childhood memory. A sadistic teacher, who used his sarcastic
tongue as a lash, his rod to beat, to embed his authority in the minds and
bodies of his charges, and of himself as a young pupil, held in detention,
terrified, vulnerable, as he failed again and again to recite ‘The Daffodils’
415 (the poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, ’ by William Wordsworth). S said,
‘He stole my love of English literature.’ When S came to a session with the
book of poems, I thought – yes we have the scenario. We then worked on how
he wanted to make it visible. S suggested that he needed to take up the role
of the teacher, which was great, since I knew that was what would make
420 the session come alive, but it is much better if the idea comes from the client.
S said, ‘the daffodils are the symbol of my spirit. I never used to like them,
I bought some for the first time last week’. He learnt the poem for the
phototherapy session, and brought boxes of daffodils and child-like clothes,
and so took the responsibility of providing what he needed for the work.
425 I provided a tailors dummy and an academic gown, to represent the teacher.
He changed into the schoolboy outfit, scrunched up his tie, ruffled his
hair, put on the glasses. He had begun the process of becoming the role.
During the re-enactment, I took many photographs as it happened: nothing
was posed.
430 He sits, head down, then rises and begins his hesitant recitation. As he
falters, I take Mr. H’s role and taunt him, with the words S had told me
in sessions when describing his abuse. He retreats to his chair, defeated, then
tries again, falters again. I continue the barrage, he is clearly distressed.
Then spontaneously, S puts down the book, puts on the academic gown
435 and picks up the stick. In role, as Mr. H he is very abusive ‘stupid boy, fat,
lazy boy’. I then play the schoolboy role, a faltering ‘yes sir’. Spontaneously,
he puts the gown back on the dummy, and returns to the schoolboy role.
He grabs a bunch of daffodils, recites the poem with an angry passion,
confronts Mr. H and beats him with the daffodils ‘I am not stupid, I am not
440 lazy, I am not fat’. He is powerful and formidable as the retaliating schoolboy.
He then takes handfuls of daffodils, sits on the floor and recites again,
with sadness, tears, he removes his glasses, then with such joy and release,
embracing the daffodils, and at the last line throws the daffodils up, letting
them fall with glee. His joy is visible on his face, in his body, relaxed and
445 at ease. I ask him to do it, again and again, this throwing of the daffodils.
I want the image that will encompass the feeling that is in the room, I want the
balance to all the pent-up rage against the abuse S received from Mr. H. He lies
down, and I cover him in daffodils, he takes the book of poems on his chest,
and recites again, playfully, joyously and covers himself more with the flowers.
450 When equilibrium has returned, he sits up, and slowly we rebundle the
flowers that have survived. ‘Marvellously resilient flowers, they bend with
the wind’ S says. This is a gentle task, and slowly he de-roles. He changes back
to his business suit.
We viewed the photos, in the next session. He re-visited the emotions within
455 the session: interestingly, he had forgotten that he had cried.
He was struck by one of the Mr. H images. ‘That’s me. I am arrogant.
I know that I am superior, I am very articulate and I use that and my
intelligence, I put people down’. ‘Sarcastic?’ ‘Very. I am told that I do not
suffer fools gladly – which means I am intolerant’. He speaks slowly and
460 in a considered manner, I ask him ‘what’s the thought?’ ‘I am cruel, verbally’.
I pick up the image that he has identified, and pull it to the front; I hold it as
he describes himself. I aim to be very there for S, as he slowly acknowledges
this part of himself. I am aware this is hard to do.
I take one of the joy images, a playful child, and put it beside Mr. H ‘What
465 does he say to him?’ ‘Control yourself’.
I am more struck by the sad image, I get that and put it beside. ‘I am aware
that he (Mr. H) is very sad. Is that what he cloaks?’ ‘And angry too’. ‘Which
one?’ He chooses the one expressing tense anger.
‘So, the arrogant side cloaks your anger and sadness?’ ‘Oh yes. He is
470 in control. I have to be in control. He covers up my anger and my sadness.
When I am angry or sad, I am vulnerable’. ‘So, you use him? Tell me about
your anger’. . .
So the session continued, as did the therapeutic relationship. There was
so much to work on. As S said ‘the camera makes me look at parts of me I have
475 suppressed for most of my life. I have begun the journey’.
All the clients I have worked with use symbolic and metaphorical thinking
and are interested in working with images. This is a particularly useful method
for those who over intellectualise their psychic distress, since it offers the
potential for a connection with the unconscious. This modality would not
480 be appropriate for any client whose current grasp on reality was small, or who
were lacking any solid sense of identity. The danger is the risk of stirring up
too much material from the unconscious when the personality is incapable
of integrating it.
Why and how the photographs produced in re-enactment phototherapy
485 are useful in the therapeutic relationship
A productive paradox is created between the projected reality and notions
of evidence invested in the photograph, even its very physical existence and the
acts of choice and framing required to make it. So it may be seen either as
reflecting, or constructing a reality. The objectifying eye of the camera, offers
490 a blank screen and the necessary distance to see from a different point of view.
The sheer quantity of photographs offer the client a sense of having been
really fully seen. The photographs produced provide the possibility of an
unfiltered connection with the unconscious, since what takes place within the
photo session is rooted in unconscious processes, the session itself grows out of
495 the therapeutic relationship, flowing in the here and now. The photographs
provide a mapping of the session, and the possibility to reconstruct and recall
it. This is useful since aspects of what happened within the session can so easily
slip back into the unconscious and be repressed again.
A dialogue between individual photographs, which represent different parts
500 of the self, or significant others, can be facilitated by the therapist as an
externalised gestalt. The photographs produced can be re-ordered at will,
giving the possibility of telling many new stories, thereby suggesting new
versions of old realities.
Taking up the role of significant others within the client’s life, especially
505 that of parental figures, can be very personally challenging. Introjections may
be faced up to; projections and projective identifications are suddenly seen for
what they are, in a flash of recognition. The split of disowned parts of the self
may be acknowledged as such and accepted back within the self.
Maintaining life-long patterns of shame, secrecy and denial is contested by
510 these photographs which mirror back and give form, size, weight and colour to
psychic pain and to its history, its source. Out there and made visible, these
aspects can be worked with and reflected upon within the counselling
relationship. The photographs may then be seen as transitional objects
between inner and outer reality. The therapist bears witness to these previously
515 hidden aspects of the selves. By offering a non-judgemental positive regard, and
challenging fixity, the therapist enables the client to work towards integration
of all these parts.
As Assagioli (1975) has said of psychosynthesis, symbols are seen
as ‘accumulators’, in the electrical sense, as containers and preservers of
520 a dynamic psychological charge. This ‘charge’ can be transformed by the use
of the symbol, channelled by it, or integrated by it. The use of symbolic
re-presentations are especially powerful for connecting with and transforming
unconscious belief systems.
Looking at the range of photographs produced and witnessing the
525 mutability of the images enables the client to see how identity is fragmented
across many ‘truths’. This understanding frees up the client from the search
for the ‘ideal’ self and allows acceptance of the self as process and becoming.
‘Getting changed’
More recently, I have incorporated digital video in my practice. I made a series
530 of photographs and videos, as sitter/director in collaboration with Kay
Goodridge. This was an elegy and conclusion to the work I had made
chronicling my parent’s house: ‘Too close to home?’ and ‘The sitting room’
(Martin, 2006). ‘Getting changed’6 is a video piece which arose out of the
process of mourning, hypercathecting and separating from the ‘lost object’,
535 my dead mother. I did the work in her house, surrounded by her things,
before having to dispose of them. I used re-enactment techniques in a series of
acts of forgiveness and acknowledgment of who she had been as imagined
through what I knew about her and my memories, viewed from a gentler
perspective, inflected with loss. I slowly and carefully ‘change’ out of my role,
540 into hers, by dressing in her clothes, and making my hair, and make-up look
like hers. But it is much more than an act of dressing up. Within the process,
a shift happens as the confining corset, the fragile stockings and her elegant
tailored suit, (which was made for her by my father) contain, constrain and
embrace me.
It culminates in the smile in the mirror, as I transform my hair into her
styling, first of recognition, proud in the beautiful suit, looking good, a little
of the narcissist in her . . . then a more tender gaze, a sadder look, encompassing
me looking at her, her looking at me, me longing for her, or me reaching for my
capacity to mother myself?
Since I had been my mother’s carer through her multi-infarct dementia
years, this work was an important part of my process of reparation, and
introjection of the ‘good’ mother.
Confidentiality
All the work is confidential. Because photographs are mimetic, this is of
especial importance. When I run workshops or teach, I always set the limit
that the work produced cannot be shown beyond the group itself.
Process to product
The therapeutic process needs to have been finished before any work based on
it can be shared or put on display; otherwise the protagonist would be placed in
too vulnerable a position and it could be potentially exploitative.
Phototherapy
work always needs to be based on trust. The photographs are only shown with
the expressed permission of the sitter/director, in practice it is nearly always at
their instigation.7 Consequently almost all of the photographs remain private.
Jo Spence and I chose to exhibit some key images from our practice, in an
art context, (Martin & Spence, 1987) because we wanted to share these ideas.
To make this transition, a distancing, an intellectual and objective examination
is required to ensure the work has the power to communicate. The chosen
images speak to the social and cultural formations of subjectivities and can
activate a personal or collective memory for the spectator.
Conclusion
Re-enactment phototherapy offers a methodology that can make visible and
open up aspects of the self to scrutiny. It uses the languages of the body;
gesture, facial expression and movement, in an embodied eloquence, which is
photographically recorded. It can embrace aspects of play and humour, even
575 joy. The images produced become material for articulation and integration
within the therapeutic relationship. There is a profound connection to the
unconscious enabled through the photographic and therapeutic exchange,
and therefore it needs to be used carefully and responsibly. It is a very powerful
modality.
580 Notes
1. Notably David Krauss, Judy Weiser and Joel Walker.
2. PhotoVoice. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://www.photovoice.org/html/
projects/photovoiceprojects/
3. Mandel, G., & Lemus, A.B. (2008). I pray. But not for myself: Historias positivos.
aug/04/mexico.aids?picture1/433620992
4. I developed a digital identities course in an artist’s residency at a girl’s secondary
school in Batley for Photo98. See Shepherd, J. (1998). Controlling images for
a change. in the picture, summer.
6. Shown in ‘Beware, personal!’
7. Beware, personal! Ko® ysiratagalleria at Turku Arts Academy, June 2008. Eravaara,
T. (2008). Art-photography-therapy. Turku, Finland: Photographic Centre Peri
Publications. pp. 11–25. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://perienglish.vii-
595 dakkorumpu.fi/?page1/417&id1/4160
This essay draws upon and develops arguments addressed in:
Martin, R. (1996). You (never) can tell: Phototherapy, memory and subjectivity.
Blackflash, 14.3/Fall, 4–8.
Martin, R. (1997). Looking and reflecting: Returning the gaze, re-enacting memories
600 and imagining the future through phototherapy. In S. Hogan (Ed.), Feminist
approaches to art therapy (pp. 150–176). London & New York: Routledge.
Martin, R. (2001). The performative body: Phototherapy and re-enactment. Afterimage 29(3), 17–20.
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