Lecture notes - Lisa Barnard

Lisa Barnard mainly told us about a project she did in America called 'Blue Star Moms', which involved her taking photos of care packages these mothers send to their children who are fighting in Iraq. She noted the relation to her photos and object fetishism and symbolism, suggesting that the objects she photographs represent the labour force. I found the care packages really interesting. It's fascinating to see what people are sending, and it shows aspects of the soldier's personalities. Below are some examples.

This lecture helped me to further my own ideas, as I began to wonder whether I would take portraiture photos or object photos that relate to child innocence. Her care package photos really interested me, but looking back I realised the main interest lies in the background story of the images. The fact that these items are going to a place of war suggests that these items are going to be treasured, and provide small home comforts, such as tea bags and sweets. 

My notes (the image below) show scribbles of me thinking about taking a photo of a playground, and asking myself whether to take photos of children or objects. 

Whilst researching Barnard, I've found another project she's done on excema. Her subject is a young boy, similar age to my nephew. There isn't much information on the project, but I suppose it's quite self-explanatory. She has photographed this little boy whilst in the midst of his excema, showing the pain of his skin condition.

The boy is clearly in so much pain that wearing clothes irritates his skin. Every photo shows him pressing his skin up against something cold, which reinforces the idea of the pain he feels, as well as the low saturation of the photos. 

These images relate quite well to my project, as I initially had the idea of taking photos of chicken pox, as part of my child innocence project, however unfortunately my nephew has already had chicken pox. He has however always had sensitive skin, so much so that even using a different washing detergent will irritate his skin. Maybe I will be able to take photos of him like that, which would overcome my issue of him not having chicken pox anymore (thank god!).