Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits on the London Underground's
Platform for Art
Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits on the London Underground's
Platform for Art
Statement
Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits - Anthony Luvera
Originally from Western Australia, artist Anthony Luvera (b.1974) is currently based in London. Since 2002 he has collaborated with homeless and ex-homeless people living in London on a number of sustained photographic projects, including the archive Photographs (2002-2005) , and the series Assisted Self-Portraits (2003-2005) . In 2005 a presentation from these two conjoining bodies of work was displayed on the London Underground Platform for Art programme, across 12 central London tube stations.
The archive Photographs was assembled by Luvera through weekly workshops hosted across London attended by over 300 homeless and ex-homeless people. Providing his subject/participants with cameras, Luvera facilitated the building of each individual's contributory portfolio toward the larger bank of images, gathering diverse viewpoints on the experience of homelessness from the inside . Comprised of contributions ranging widely from intimate portraits and images of the experiences and surroundings of the contributor, through to visual explorations of concepts and ideas to do with the notion of homelessness and the experience of the city, the images from the archive Photographs are an insightful presentation of homeless and ex-homeless people portrayed in a way previously unseen, by simply inviting the individuals to speak for themselves.
Devised to provide a representation of the contributors to the archive, each image in the series Assisted Self-Portraits is the trace of a process that blurred distinctions between Luvera and his subject / participants during the photographic sitting, investing in the subject a greater level of control, collusion and power in the creation of their representation than is usually offered in a traditional photographer / subject relationship. Played out in locations of the participant's choosing, over repeated sessions, Luvera taught each participant how to use large format camera equipment using Polaroid and a long cable release. Each subject was an active participant and co-creator of the image, while Luvera, as the photographer, served more as a facilitator, tutor and technical advisor.
In Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits , through reconsidering strategies for the production methodology and modes of dissemination of the documentary project, Luvera shakes up preconceptions of homelessness, at once avoiding a spectacularisation of the abject state of his subjects and the false affirmation of a presentation of the reality of an 'other'.
Prologue to Isha - Anthony Luvera
Prologue to Isha is a six-minute DVD video piece presented on a monitor with headphones. This work envelopes Luvera's interests in the machinations of the exchange between photographer and subject, through a revealing documentation of the preparations for a documentary interview with Isha, a woman living with chronic schizophrenia. The piece also constitutes a representation of a person living with mental health issues by suggesting a different state of existence, but denying an explanation, brute typology or the kind of abject freakshow prevalent in the representations of schizophrenia and other mental health conditions in news media and popular culture entertainment.
Luvera's photographic visual art and freelance magazine photography has appeared in a variety of publications including British Journal of Photography, Photofile, PLUK, The Big Issue, Spoon, The Australian Newspaper and Continuum Media & Cultural Journal. Galleries such as the National Portrait Gallery London, The Lowry Manchester, Institute of Contemporary Art London, Photography Gallery of Western Australia and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art have included his work in group and/or solo exhibitions.