Jo Spence
[Artist, photographer, and writer, b. 1934, London, d. 1992, London.]
The one bright spot in this depression was the arrival of the pictures I had taken of my hospital experience... I was absolutely staggered at what I’d photographed. I couldn’t believe that I had seen so much and already forgotten it. I had already disavowed what had happened to me. But here were the photographs that my guardian self had taken—so much detail. This points up one of the advantages of photographing one’s traumas—before they become sealed over.
I would say all my work has been concerned to subvert dominant images of women; however, the real problem for me has been how to represent the class connotations of this, which is why I am entering the spheres of debates around power.
