Occupation

Kate, Summer, Jo, Chloe, Jonny and Zainab

So, for this phase of Creative Collaborators, we were asked to engage with the Open Eye collection. Looking through the collection, our attention was drawn to photographs that dealt with the idea of 'occupation' - we found a photograph of a punk and later one of a member of the church. We took this to mean many different things - an activity you do to earn a livelihood, an activity you engage in to pass time, something that occupies your mind, holding or possessing a place or being held or possessed by a place, invasion, conquest and control - so the theme isn't a simple one. When asked what you do, people reply in many different ways depending on the context. For example, Kate, Summer, Chloe and Jonny are photographers, but they're also students, waitresses, shop assistants, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, boys, girls, musicians, art lovers etc.

Due to time constraints, we decided that it would be best for the practitioners in our group to look through their own portfolios and see if they can extrapolate work that resonates with the theme. Our next stage will be to examine the images each of them has chosen and see if we can bring it back to the Open Eye collection. We aim to find work in the archive that at least corresponds and interpret our theme afresh. Hopefully, we'll be able to mount an exhibition or event based on the product of our interpretations.