RESIDENCY: ANTHONY LUVERA
BELFAST EXPOSED PHOTOGRAPHY
Dates: 21 March to 20 March, 2008
Belfast Exposed Photography presents Residency by Anthony Luvera, an exhibition of photographs made over a 16-month period by the artist and people who have experienced homelessness living in Belfast. Residency consists of a new series of large-format Assisted Self-Portraits, landscape images of Belfast and documentation of Luvera’s working practice through photographs, production polaroids and excerpts from the artist’s workbooks. A publication of the work is scheduled for Autumn 2008.
Anthony Luvera is interested in exploring some of the problems of documentary photography and photographic representations of social issues. Since 2002 he has worked on a series of long-term photographic projects with people who have experienced homelessness living in London. Through these projects, and the social relationships upon which they are based, Luvera explores the tension between authorship (and artistic control), and the ethics involved in making photographs about other people’s lives.
As part of Residency, Luvera invited individuals associated with The Welcome Centre and The Simon Community to use single-use cameras to create photographs of the things that interest them and to meet regularly with the artist to discuss their images. Participants were also invited to learn how to use large-format camera equipment, over repeated sessions, in order to work on the production of a self-portrait for the artist’s ongoing series Assisted Self-Portraits. Luvera’s role in this process is to provide technical tuition and support, while the participant/photographer determines when and where the photograph will be taken, and how they, the subject, will be framed. Luvera and each participant then discuss which Assisted Self-Portrait will be available for exhibition.
Belfast Exposed Photography has a long history of facilitating photography workshops with different groups of people and of working with artists engaged in social commentary. We are all-too-aware of how artists, facilitators and participants can feel challenged by the experience of working together to create an articulate and relevant photographic statement. In relation to this, there are a number of aspects of Luvera’s approach that are of particular interest. He develops and sustains long-term relationships with the people that he is working with, establishing trust and building knowledge over time. He emphasises the ‘constructed’ nature of documentary photography; that it is essentially made up; always a record of a selected part of something, selected by someone to say something in particular.
Furthermore, Luvera continually questions his position as photographer in relation to ‘participants as subjects’, and the place or role of the camera within the dynamics of that relationship. His photographic practice is an attempt to:
‘Further develop the methodologies utilised to create and disseminate the documentary photography project: to re-think the possibilities for the roles of the photographer, the subject, and the medium. To conceptualise strategies that include the subjectivity of the subject, alongside that of the photographer in the final presentation. My practice involves an ongoing investigation into the possibilities for the ‘negotiation’ between myself as the photographer, the subject as participant and the actual use of the camera’.
Artist's Biography
Australian artist and writer Anthony Luvera (b.1974) is based in London. He studied for a BA in Photomedia at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia and completed an MA Photography, awarded with Distinction, at London College of Communication (formerly London College of Printing) part of University of the Arts, London in 2005.
Luvera’s photographic visual art and writing on photography has appeared in a variety of publications including Art Monthly Australia, Source, British Journal of Photography, Photofile, PLUK, The Big Issue, Evening Standard, The Australian Newspaper and Continuum Media & Cultural Journal. His work has been exhibited in galleries, festivals and public art programmes such as the London Underground Platform for Art, Australian Centre for Photography, National Portrait Gallery London, The Lowry Manchester, Fotofreo Photography Biennale, Photography Gallery of Western Australia and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art.
Residency is supported by Belfast Exposed Photography, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Lloyds TSB, Department of Social Development, Belfast City Council and Esmée Fairbairn.
Address:
BELFAST EXPOSED PHOTOGRAPHY
The Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
Belfast, BT1 1PG
Tel: +44 02890 230965
Website: www.belfastexposed.org
Image Credits: Residency Documentation, Joe Murray
