I have been collaborating with my friend Trudi Jackson, an actor who is developing a character called Julie.
So far, the work she’s doing is tricky and doesn’t always work as she is the first to admit. However, she is using it to interrogate current social mores and trends and using the medium we all have access to in order to do it. So, I think it is valuable work worth following. I have been reminded of Andy Kauffman when looking at some of her online experiments.
This is a draft statement I have written to try and capture what I am aiming to do by photographing her.
Portrait of Trudi Jackson, an actor in the guise of her developing character #Julie, whose mission in life is to become a famous social media influencer. Jackson explores the cultural impulse to share everything online, and the medium used to do it, in order to interrogate the phenomenon. In a continuation of Brechtian tradition she reveals what is going on behind the scenes, rehearsing and formulating her work in front of the world on social media to try out motifs and ideas before incorporating some of her ideas into a live show which she then experiments with further, during a partially improvised show – where she also responds to what she sees online.
The other day I drove down to photograph Trudi for a couple of hours. I had few plans but wanted to simply photograph her in various rooms where she makes her work. I did not want to do documentary images, rather formal portraits – although I am probably more versed in the former. Over the last few days, I have thought about these pics and felt I did not really capture anything worth keeping, although gathered a few ideas which may be worth working on further. Certainly, the light wasn’t ideal for ‘beautiful pics’ (except for when I first got there but it sadly quickly cleared away). But maybe beautiful photographs are not what I am after. I am not sure what I am after yet, but after the last few days of feeling doubtful about it all, I have taken another look and think it is worth pursuing. Just not sure yet where or how. I am planning to see some of her live stuff soon and will photograph it. I have also thought about photographing some of the IG recordings which she has posted. I think she is pushing way beyond her comfort zone and ‘daring to fail’ – it can be excruciating to watch her at times. But this feels far more experimental than anything she has done before.
In the image above (not mine) Julie had been looking at her nemesis online, a real-life ‘social media influencer’ who #Julie references and who had posted a picture of herself in her underwear. #Julie wondered if she too should take her clothes off and in an improvised moment took them off on stage (as Trudi is really accessing her clown in this work there was some typical slapstick stuff going on by all accounts). My dad was a comedian and I know very well how many times someone who is refining this kind of work must fail and fail and fail as they do. However, he did not put his steps on social media. He ‘died’ in clubs on the circuit until he got it right. Nowadays, people are compelled to put it all out there as they go. (As I am doing here… too!)
Here are some snaps which at this point may simply be sketches from the other day. (I’m not particularly happy with them and need to think about what it is that I find not so great. There was another I was interested in where #Julie sits on a chaise-longue but I’d need to look at the time of day or using lights (I’d rather not) to counter the window in the background which is blown. (I did ask a couple of people for comments but either they are too busy to reply or just so acutely embarrassed by them they can’t bring themselves to talk to me!!) (c)SJField 2019
