When, where, who, what and why?
9th to the 24th of May, 2020Hug Cafe, Skirving Street, Shawlands, Glasgow
Southside Snappers
photographic exhibition
it's what we do
What (in a bit more depth)
Well, ultimately it is quite simply a photographic exhibition. This is the fifth year we have been involved in a photographic exhibition as part of the Southside Fringe festival. Mostly the exhibitions have had a social or political slant. And they always aim to have a local focus. This year the exhibition theme is mental ill health.This is pushing us to the limit, trying to work out how to portray the subject photographically. And to give ourselves just that little bit more of a challenge, we are also trying to be more proactive and involve members of the local community with a therapeutic photography project.
The actual exhibition in all its parts
At the moment, the exhibition is envisaged as being formed of several discrete parts: portraits, abstractions, signs, images from some "therapeutic photography", and The Little Ones.The portrait section should be the most exciting. We have several, frankly speaking, brilliant ideas. All the portrait shoots will involve input, even direction, by the subjects.
One plan is to pair a photographer from the Southside Snappers with someone suffering from a form of mental ill health and have each photograph the other. One will concentrate on the look of the photograph, the other on how each will be portrayed. Think of it as filming and acting, shooting and directing. The pair of images will be stylistically similar but the subjects' expressions and portrayal could be wildly different (or, indeed, completely identical).Another plan is for the photographer to make a double exposure of the subject who will put on a public face and a private face.
For the more adventurous subject, there is the possibility of trying to recreate some of the more avant-garde portraits and self-portraits of famous photographers, such as Cindy Sherman or Francesca Woodman (but more clothed!).
Abstractions will be abstract images taken by members of the
Southside Snappers that are open to interpretation. I have worried whether or not someone should create abstractions that are meant to represent forms of mental ill health if they claim that their own mental health is in tip-top condition. Would these images be cliches, condescensions, counterfeits? So, rather than have the photographer decide what an image of personality disorder might look like, hopefully words will be provided by those who suffer mental ill health to express their feelings towards the images.Signs are exactly as they sound. Actual worded "signs" that the Southside Snappers have seen that make them think about mental health, good or bad, helpful or hurtful. The very title of this exhibition was spawned this way. And there will be a number of Mind the Gap images in this section.
Therapeutic photography is the topic of this website, so all the information that you're going to get from me on this will be found on other pages here. And, to be blunt, there will only be images in the exhibition from this section if people take us up on the offer of joining us for therapeutic photography!
The Little Ones is the name of our repeated therapeutic photography event which involves the creation of scenes using small figures, mostly from train sets. Inspiration comes from Slinkachu in London and Steven Spiers in Glasgow. But ultimately I was thinking about Billy. My pal Billy was bullied in high school. He coped to some extent by pretending some of the small figures on his gigantic train set were those bullies. They were executed by firing squads, run over by trains and left stranded in quicksand (only us oldsters will remember how common and treacherous quicksand was in the olden days, frequently trapping cowboys, Tarzan's fellow jungle dwellers, even members of the SS Enterprise!). I imagined that those with phobias or those depressed by work or lack of work or by family or lack of family or by bullies could imaginatively create scenes to exorcise some of the pain. However, I forgot how much Billy and I laughed at the ever more fanciful fates that awaited those 1:75 scale bullies! But, you know what? Perhaps that laughter was a better remedy than catharsis.Over the coming three months we will meet every two or three weeks to create dioramas of little plastic people up to all sorts of nonsense. Mostly this will be done indoors with props. Our little people include: climbers, photographers, swimmers, a man with a broken leg, a lady and shopping trolley, a mermaid, several German police, a seated bride, a man fishing from a rowboat, and an important man speaking at a podium. Make of them what you will. One Little One decided to use a finger of bread as a surfboard in a bowl of cullenskink!
The scenes will be created by all who turn up, photographers and mental ill health sufferers alike. Each can work on their own or with others. And all can photograph the results and post them on social media if they like. Southside Snappers will also take photographs of all the work done on these days and employ a little bit of Photoshop (these Little Ones only seem willing to stand up with a dollop of bluetack!) on the images. The best images will be exhibited during the Southside Fringe festival in May.