I came across Laney as I was attending a talk held by the Royal Photographic Society based largely on her project ‘belle’ (RPS,2020).  Her project interested me because in many of her images, and outside of the image itself, she makes strong use of text.

Laney describes herself in the following way “an American documentary photographer currently based between the Southern US and the UK. Born and raised in Alabama, her work focuses primarily on issues related to gender and identity.”(Laney, n.d.).

Belle

Laney’s belle project focuses in on her place of upbringing, Alabama, and the issues of gender and identity that she hadn’t felt able to address in her childhood (RPS, 2020).

I have chosen four images from Laney’s project that represent the four main points that were made in her talk.  All images are taken from her website where, on the website at least, the images are not captioned (Laney, 2019).  All of Laney’s quotes and descriptions of her approach come from what Laney covered in her talk (RPS, 2020).

In Fig. 1. the image shows an industrial building with the sign saying ‘Its Nice’.  On the scene in general, there are a number of environment or landscape orientated images within her project which is stark as her project is about people.  In the talk, Laney said that she has included them to provide context, to give some understanding of where the subjects live.  On the inclusion of the sign, Laney said that she enjoys including text for added interest but went on to say that when the text and the image are at odds with each other, then a “space” is created for the viewer to create their own interpretations.  In this instance, the scene is far from being ‘nice’ and so this achieves her aim.

In Fig. 2. we can see another example of Laney’s use of contrasting image and text but this time with a person in the image.  The image shows a woman looking down at the ground, reflecting on something in a way that might make the viewer think they are reflecting on something sad, although it is possible that there is a slight trace of a smile on the subject’s face.  The text on the subject’s t-shirt ‘Still Undefeated” implies a strong, resilient response to adversity, very much in contrast to the pose of the woman leaving the viewer to speculate even further about how the subject is feeling and what they are thinking about. 

In Fig. 3. we see another example of the way in which Laney has used text.  Before engaging with her subjects, Laney asked them to write out how they felt about the issues of race, or gender, or religion that they have struggled with growing up in Alabama.  In the figure we see an example of what her subject wrote alongside the image.  The image itself does not show the subject, it shows the bed that Laney stayed in whilst visiting the subject.  She chose to take this approach to display a degree of intimacy, it is much more than a shot captured in the street for example.  Laney described how some of her subjects were found simply by searching blogs created by people writing about the topics that Laney was covering.  Knowing this, it is all the more remarkable that she was able to progress to this level of intimacy with no previous relationship with the subject. 

Fig. 4. does not contain text but does illustrate how Laney tells a story without it.  Laney in her talk described how being a young female growing up in Alabama created a degree of expectation, how one has to confirm to society in a way that is very much aligned to the stereotypical Southern Belle, the trigger for the title of her project.  In this image we see everything that does not conform to that stereotype.  Just some of the key symbols against the stereotype are short hair, tatoo, rainbow heart logo on the t-shirt, nose piercing, and eyebrow piercing.  The woman herself also possibly has a slightly rebellious expression on her face although it is possible that the symbols already mentioned affect one’s interpretation of the expression as cropping everything except her face changes the view of the expression entirely.   

My Learning

• A set of images about people can, maybe even should, include images that do not have any people in them.  Images need to be in a set for a reason, but providing context for the people in other images adds value to the set as a whole.
• Laney refers to “space” when talking about an image and its text being different.  I think this aligns to Barthe’s notion of relay text (Barthes, 1964) in that it causes the viewer to think of the image in a different way to what they would have done had the text not been there.  I think is Fig. 2 that illustrates this best in terms of an image that is all about identity.  Text on a piece of clothing seems an obvious approach but it isn’t one that I had thought of in this context before.
• Laney’s herself stated that she was aware that she grew up in Alabama but was white and privileged.  As such she saw this project as a window onto other people’s lives from her home area.  I personally think that somebody not from the area would not have produced the same project, even with the same brief.  I feel she was strongly influenced by her own upbringing and therefore that this project is just as much mirror onto the issues that concern her, and they come from that upbringing.  The leaning here is to be clear about the perspective one wants to portray but also to be self-aware on how one’s own character may affect the images captured.

 Bibliography

RPS (2020), In conversation with Cocoa Laney. [videoconference on zoom, 19 May 2020]

Laney, C., n.d. About — Cocoa Laney. [online] Cocoa Laney. Available at: <http://cocoalaney.com/about> [Accessed 19 May 2020].

Laney, C., 2019. Belle — Cocoa Laney. [online] Cocoa Laney. Available at: <http://cocoalaney.com/belle-project> [Accessed 19 May 2020].

Barthes, R., 1964. Rhetoric Of The Image. [online] Theory.theasintheas.org. Available at: http://theory.theasintheas.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Barthes_Rhetoric_image_Image_Music_Text.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2020]

Figures

Figure 1. Laney, C., 2019. Industrial Buildings, Untitled taken from collection ‘Belle’. [image] Available at: <https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/570ef2404c2f85fa4100b78b/1572631915937-BMEH5Z3COASTB5WXNJGR/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kGwkHbToE3jTqr1D4ZzuUjx7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0tb-hnCqoepq4X8c1traqO-loZ0Dt9PONmTAe2Fq64eXIyWwAILv5rKRIIhl4iBdrQ/SEQUENCE+%2817%29.jpg?format=2500w> [Accessed 19 May 2020].

Figure 2. Laney, C., 2019. Woman wearing undefeated t-shirt, Untitled taken from collection ‘Belle’. [image] Available at: <https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/570ef2404c2f85fa4100b78b/1577551742232-AUB8NL8O762M2B31LGMQ/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kL7YyroydjFAoBtQer1Hl957gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UeWoBqiDR564SuuMDjBvREglDUQ8UW-oIweuSxV2AQSzjgXmDQ2guelmciNwIXo8Rg/laney-7-24-2019-251.jpg?format=2500w> [Accessed 19 May 2020].

Figure 3. Laney, C., 2019. Bedroom and letter, Untitled taken from collection ‘Belle’.. [image] Available at: <https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/570ef2404c2f85fa4100b78b/1572686773526-ARE87WEI6JJONYDCZUAY/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kLkXF2pIyv_F2eUT9F60jBl7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0iyqMbMesKd95J-X4EagrgU9L3Sa3U8cogeb0tjXbfawd0urKshkc5MgdBeJmALQKw/5+copia.jpg?format=2500w> [Accessed 19 May 2020].

Figure 4. Laney, C., 2019. Woman In Alabama, Untitled taken from collection ‘Belle’. [image] Available at: <https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/570ef2404c2f85fa4100b78b/1572632697922-HOOVNYUUO53ZDXHHCNQV/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kGwkHbToE3jTqr1D4ZzuUjx7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0tb-hnCqoepq4X8c1traqO-loZ0Dt9PONmTAe2Fq64eXIyWwAILv5rKRIIhl4iBdrQ/SEQUENCE+%2838%29.jpg?format=2500w> [Accessed 19 May 2020].