Marie Smith – Blown out like a candle
Interview by Hannah Geddes
Analogue photographer Marie Smith lives and works in London. Her practice centres around the pairing of text and images to create her own ‘visual language that addresses concerns around identity in relation to memory, death and environment.’ She often features in her projects, not only to explore her own story, but as a ‘case study’ and catalyst to address representation, visibility for Black women, mental health and identity.
Smith’s project Blown out like a candle addresses death and loss. These are personal subjects and ones that are difficult to discuss. Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s memoir, A Very Easy Death about her mother’s death and the friction in their mother/daughter dynamic, Smith created Blown out like a candle to reflect on her own experience of loss. Pairing her own written text that explores the identify, life and loss of her mother, with images that are both personal and expansive, her project is a visual celebration and mourning of her mother’s life and their relationship.
Hannah: Blown out like a candle was inspired by Simone de Beauvoir’s memoir, clearly rooting it within the context of feminism. It also leads to questions around challenging the gaze and representation in photography. Why were you inspired by de Beauvoir’s memoir and how do you deconstruct the gaze in your work?
Marie: A Very Easy Death is essentially a book about De Beauvoir’s mother death, there is also commentary about the palliative care system in post war France but unlike De Beauvoir’s other writings this is autobiographical account of a subject that is usually unspoken: death. I was struck by the honesty of De Beauvoir especially how she wrote about her relationship with her mother and the friction that was a staple part of their dynamic. De Beauvoir’s compassionate, subjective viewpoint of her mother’s death was interesting to me. I hadn’t read about death and the mother/daughter dynamic in such rawness. By the time I came to make the series I was reading the book for the second time so the initial shock I felt had subsided and I was able to objectively dissect the themes that resonated with me that were mother/daughter dynamic and death. I had been thinking about making another series about my mother and this book became a prompt for me. With this series and other works that I have made I am aware of the male gaze but it doesn’t direct or detract from the work that I make. I’m more conscious of how I am represented in my work especially as I am a Black woman I know I have a double barrier to face due to my race and my gender. Historically Black women have been erased or marginalised from their society and even their own narrative and I wanted this series to rectify this and to also start a dialogue.
Hannah: Your images paired with written texts are very powerful, creating your own visual narrative. They connect the project to your mother - her life, her identity as a Black woman of the Windrush generation, her death and your loss. How did you develop the text that accompanies the images?
Marie: I’m responding intuitively to the photos and also reflecting on the ideas that I had written about at the beginning of the process. I try to be concise in what I am writing, not to overload myself with the viewer with too much information. The text must be honest and direct, it is meant to be an aid to the images as I see text as a visual language but also as a way to understand the psychology of what I am thinking at the time of taking that images and also of what my intentions are for the work. Intention is a very important part of the process and my work in general. I have to be sensitive and aware of the permanence of what I am writing so I can’t afford to have the work misconstrued. At the time I was thinking about my mum, her death, her childhood in Jamaica. I was also thinking about the concept of home, thinking about our relationship and was reading A Very Death. The text in this series is an amalgamation of all of these thoughts and influences.
Hannah: This project is about your family history and your identity. You make a lot of work about yourself and often feature in the images. Could you say a bit about how you use photography as a tool to explore your own identity, thoughts and emotions?
Marie: My parents have been a focal point for my work upon until recently, I suppose I had some unspoken issues and thoughts that I wanted to talk about and making work about them has been helpful as it’s allowed me to also given me insight to who I am as a person and to the type of work that I want to make. For example, if I hadn’t done the series White Trainers (as series about my Fathers death by suicide) I wouldn’t have made my most recent work which have been focused on mental health in BAME (Black, Asian and other minority) community. I don’t have a photography background. I studied photography a bit as part of my BA but it wasn’t until I completed my MA History of Art with Photography at Birkbeck that photography became a focal point and a medium that I found that I could work in. In particular looking at the work of 1980’s collective D-Max and in particular the photographer Ingrid Pollard allowed me to see where I could fit within the canon of photography from a Black British perspective. That was pivotal experience for me and I gained confidence and an understanding that I do belong somewhere. At that point photography and my writing have been fused together. I work in analogue mostly because of the restrictions that it places on me, being forced to work slower means that my intentions behind every image that I take has been thoroughly considered. I also have a learning disability, Dyspraxia so cognitively my brain and body don’t usually work in sync together. The process of shooting film means that my brain and body are not in logger heads with each other, they work in sync and it means that I can concentrate better.
Hannah: The project feels both intimate and expansive, with images taken in the private space of your own room and in wild, open landscapes. Can you say a bit about how you chose the locations for the images and what they represent?
Marie: At the time of my visit to Peak District I was reading A Very Easy Death and the images that were taken in my bedroom were taken on the anniversary of my mum’s death. So the images in the bedroom concluded the series. I felt I had to place myself in the series otherwise the series would have been too abstract, especially as there are no physical photos of my mum in the work. Landscape photographs became a metaphor and a way to address the concerns around identity, home and to reflect on what was missing; my mother and a link to Jamaica. It wasn’t my intention to pick Peak District, being there and the conversations I was having with my friends resonated with me as did the location. I had kept some items from the Peak District - Heather plant and black rock which meant that I could create succinct aesthetic. I still have the rock from the walk but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep the Heather alive for very long. The images of me in my bedroom were a way for me to centre what I was feeling on the day, the performative element of my work means that I can create an abstracted version of myself. I never see myself in my images, I see a version of myself as a case study. Portraying an objective position doesn’t take away my agency. In fact I am reinforcing my position as I am in front and behind the camera.
Hannah: Photography projects can serve to answer specific questions – either personal questions about those involved in the project or wider more philosophical questions. What was the aim of this project and what were you seeking to answer?
Marie: I wasn’t trying to seek closure but I was trying to see if I was capable to discussing a subject that is not usually spoken about, such as death. My aspiration was to talk about my mum in a way that reflected her experience. She came to UK as a small child and I don’t think UK ever felt like home. I wanted to pay homage to her and in a way that I probably wouldn’t be able to do if I was to sit down and have a conversation with her. I also think it was a way of me addressing some guilt that I felt, not asking her enough questions or not taking the time to get to know her better, so I was trying to rectify that in some way as well.
Women like my mum are seen as unremarkable; but her story as many women from Windrush generation have contributed a lot to UK not just economically but in many ways that are not tangible. It’s frustrating to see migrant experience purely seen through an economical lens as is always the case, such as the ‘good immigrant.’ I would also like to pose a wider philosophical question to the viewer is how would you like to be remembered? Are you only visible when your narrative is told by someone else? Also, how do you deal with death of a parent, especially if they are your mother? I don’t try to seek answers with my practice but I am constantly posing questions and suggesting to the viewers that they should consider different perspectives and narratives that are usually othered or ignored. I was able to gain some closure with this series that was beneficial for my mental health.
Hannah: As a photographer, what compels you to make-work?
Marie: I enjoy the process of making and I’ve always enjoyed being creative. The challenge to make an object from a concept in your mind is hard. I was initially drawn to literature. I read a lot as a teenager and found solace in going to the library, that’s probably why I wanted to do an MA in History of Art. My dad also used to take me to galleries as a child, I grew upon in London so I was lucky to have access to museums/galleries when I was growing up. After my dad died I kept on going and then developed my own with relationship with art. I remember visiting Nan Golden exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in 2002 and that left a very strong impression on me of the visceral nature of candid photography. The personal is also political with Goldin’s work but she is emphatic photographer. She doesn’t exploit her subjects and there is a negotiation between photographer and subject that feels balanced and personable. When I came across the work of Adrian Piper when I was 16 or 17 years old, I feel her work has remained a constant presence with me. I was lucky enough to see her retrospective exhibition at MoMA in 2018 in New York (also Zoe Leonards retrospective at The Whitney Gallery so I went at a very good time) that was the first time I had seen a comprehensive history of her work. For me, Piper encompasses an intellectual nuanced approach to talking about racism, gender and otherness. Piper’s work is conceptual but she is still able to communicate deep philosophical ideas in a variety of different mediums in her practice; from photography to video and performance. She’s someone who has provoked me to consider my position, to be bold and brave in what I am communicating as a photographer.