Facts about her:
She shoots mainly on film
Did a degree in painting to start with before she moved to photography but she got kicked off the course because she did no work but one thing she did do was visit lots of exhibitions during that year
Did a BA at Plymouth College of Art for 6 months but then found out she was pregnant with her daughter Alice, a year and a half later after giving birth to Alice she finished her MA at Plymouth University.
Before she went to university for the creative subjects she was a psychotherapist for 15 years before realising she wanted to become a photographer
She realised she wanted to become a photographer pretty much overnight after seeing an exhibition but it actually took her 2 years to take photos because she didn't know how to work a camera and has only recently learnt about aperture and shutter speed - so recent that she didn't really know what they were when she was talking because she struggled to say the words shutter speed
In her words 'taking photos isn't about the equipment it's about the relationship between the world and the subject
Uses a Mamiya 7 for everyday use which is a 6x7 camera but also uses a 10x8 camera as well for certain projects
So much material in the world to shoot you just need to be awake to see it
She doesn’t have a family album and she doesn’t take ‘snaps’ but doesn’t regret it as she doesn’t think she needs a picture to remind her how much she loves her family none of these images aren’t her family album either
Shooting in places were all familiar with
Doesn’t take loads of pictures of the same thing - one or two
She buys and paints things that will look good in photos so when the moment comes the space is ready to be shot
Commercial work - allow her to use her film camera
Wilderness Festival
She was commissioned by the people at Wilderness Festival to take pictures during the festival. She says she doesn't feel emotionally connected to the images but it's nice just to go out and take pictures with her camera and of course get paid for them. She took her 10x8 camera with hr to the festival.
Looking for Alice
She made it very clear that the project was not about down syndrome as Alice was born with down syndrome. When Alice was born Sian emotionally rejected her because she wouldn't feed and wasn't like her other children. She's asking for a better conversation around the children with down syndrome.
Making the work:
She made a list over 3 or 4 months before starting the project with a whole list of narratives she wanted to show throughout the project. After the 3-4 months of writing the list she decided to just pick up her camera and start shooting. There is an absence of love in down syndrome children but Alice was loved so she wanted to show how loved she really was. She described the project as 'walking beside her daughter and her life for three years'. Soon enough the list of narratives began to show through in the images.
Up until the 60's children like Alice were put into institutions and the doors were shut on them but now they're only just being accepted. The picture below of Alice looking out of the window with her brother is described by Sian as 'goddamn perfect' but because of the history of down syndrome it isn't. When an unborn baby is suspected to have Down syndrome they have a blood test and when the results come through and they are diagnosed the parents are strongly advised to have the baby aborted.
Alice had a lot of health problems at the beginning so her home became a studio. She wanted to show the exclusivity that Alice has, she doesn't want her to be perceived in any other way than her other children. The image 'Not Invited' was taken the day after her daughters end of summer ball. This shows the exclusivity that Alice has by both the title and the image of Alice standing on the driveway on her own dressed just like a little girl would who was going to a party.
The next challenge that faced the family was the norovirus which was in her house for 2 years. Although the children were sick it meant that she had more opportunities to take photos. She described one picture of one of her daughters lying on the sofa by the window feeling really sick but the lighting was perfect outside so she asked her daughter to stay where she was so she could take the photo and as soon as the shutter had been pressed and the image taken her daughter threw up everywhere, as much as this isn't a nice story it just shows the humour behind something that wouldn't have been funny at the time. It's nice she can have a laugh and a joke about it.
The whole series is about love and what happens when we get distracted by love. Alice looks and sees how good everyone is she only ever sees the good in people. Sian has seen grown men cry because Alice has gone up to them and seen the pain they're going through and just held their face and told them that everything will be okay. This proves how powerful these children are.
The image below of Alice on a cold icy morning is a metaphor for her becoming an alien on this planet after loosing her community. From this image I would never have got that Alice has down syndrome but as soon as Sian mentioned about it being alien like I could see straight away.
When Alice's grandmother first met Alice when she was born she held her at arms length and rejected her because of her being 'different'. As Alice has got older she has become her grandmother's teacher and her grandmother now accepts her.
Alice gazing into the camera is the last image in the book. Sian decided to finish the book off with this image because the gaze is very unusual and hard to capture. Since the project has finished and the book has been published she still continues to take pictures of Alice just because she wants to which I think is probably because it's a mother's instinct to take pictures of their children.
While she was taking the pictures of Alice she was taking images for another project about her daughter Martha...
Martha
How the project came about:
One of her other daughters, Martha didn't like that she wasn't taking pictures of her anymore and she was just taking pictures of Alice. Martha said to her mum, 'Why don't you photograph me anymore'.
Making the work:
The work began in domestic spaces on their holidays in India in a barber shop. The barber was freaked out because he had never cut a ladies hair before and Martha was freaked out because she had never had her hair cut by a barber before.
Sian really wanted to take pictures of Martha because she was at the 15 year old age and from that age to the age of 18 a lot happens, just as much as child birth in a way. By photographing Martha at these ages in her life the real emotions that a teenager turning into a young adult really shows through.
The images above are titled 'Last Family Holiday'. It's titled this because her family was falling apart, her daughter was moving through her older teenage years, she ended her relationship at the end of the holiday because it wasn't working and she documented all of this without realising. After the holiday her and Martha both fell out and couldn't speak to each other but although she could hold the grudge for ages she wanted to take the pictures of her and finish the project.
As Martha grew up Sian followed her daughter and her friends around everywhere they went and would end up becoming the mother and photographer role. She was following Martha's friends around that much, Martha's friends kept asking 'who's that person over there' Martha would reply with 'oh that's just my mum'. She needed Martha's friends to trust her. While she would follow her daughters friends around she would see things that no mother would want to see. I started to think how I would feel if my mum followed me around everywhere documenting both the good and bad parts of my life, for the world to see. If my mum was to do this I wouldn't like it at all, my mum pretty much knows everything about my life so I would't mid what she saw but I wouldn't want the world to see what I was up to. I would get annoyed after time of my mum following me around everywhere. Martha's friends however feel very touched that Sian walked alongside their lives for so long.
In an image Martha and her friends are having a party and there's one of her friends called Chillie that appears in a lot of the images as the series goes on but there's another girl that starts to make more of an appearance but when she makes her first appearance she is standing next to the girls holding an elastic band which implicates a struggle. The girl is probably wondering whether they're actually friends or how long they're going to be friends for. Another image shows Martha's best friend Chillie really hungover. Martha and Chillie were supposed to be away with the rest of the family but early in the morning they both turned up on the doorstep very drunk with Chillie crying asking Sian for help. She didn't want to give help as she was having time on her own for the first time in ages sorting out all her negatives which she still did but when Chillie was in the sofa the light shone through the window and Sian loved the lighting so took a picture of Chillie hungover.
The last few images she showed us were images all with a different story behind them. The first picture was when Martha and Chillie and their friends had broken into the ice rink by the big screen in Plymouth late at night so she put a coat and shoes on over her pyjamas after having an operation and struggled down to the ice rink to shoot.
The next image was in a kebab shop in Torquay during a night out. She had 10 minutes to shoot in the kebab shop as the owner of the kebab shop didn't believe that she was a photographer. All of Martha's friends were all over the place so she had to round them up in 10 minutes. The last two images were from when Martha was leaving home to go travelling for 6 months, The first one was when she was crying her eyes out because she was going to miss her family, this is when Sian realised the boundaries of photography and knew when was the right time to take a photo and when wasn't. The final image was the last image in the book where she is stood against the sink which shows her now turning into a woman leaving home to go travelling.
Joseph Wolf
Ongoing project with her third child
Shot on a 10x8 camera
Images are becoming a little more conceptual
He's made it clear that when his friends come round she's not allowed to take pictures
Still takes her other camera everywhere with her
Hoping she can have one of the buildings that are boarded up in the old school house in Dartington Hall so she can work in there for the next three years of this project
She's making a film photographing Joseph’s face and watching how the light on his face changes over the next three years
Martin Parr collab
She has worked with Martin Parr but they are both different she connects with the people in the images but Martin doesn’t, her colour is a lot softer and his isn’t
Tips she gave to us:
Photograph someone all day and see what happens
Think about when is the right moment to take a picture and when it's not - what situation are people in
I really enjoyed her talk because was so down to earth and showed the real life struggles that people go through with their children and growing up. I also loved how honest she was about not knowing much about photography and that you can have a really successful career not knowing everything.
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