HIDDEN | SAM BUCHANAN MA Photography PHO740
Collaboration & Professional Locations
HIDDEN
In 2019 the World Health Organisation (WHO) defined ‘Burn-out’ as: “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” (World Health Organisation 2022)
A global benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers, burn-out was characterised in the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases by three dimensions:
1. Feelings of exhaustion; 2. Increased mental distance from or feelings of cynacism related to one’s job; and 3. A sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
(World Health Organisation 2022)
Research conducted in early 2022 found over 50% of women had higher stress levels than a year ago and 46% felt burned-out (Deloitte 2022). I was one of those women.
Statement of Intent
“All photographs are an autobiographical document of the maker...most are limited in how much information they disclose”
(Jesse Alexander, cited in Pearson 2021)
I never intended to produce this body of work Yet, as I worked on another series of images, these began to emerge and, with it, a recognition that I had a visceral need to visually capture my ‘burn-out’ experience.
Comprised of three series of autobiographical images, this work employs digital photography exclusively and all images were made in October and November of 2022. Each series can stand alone, but seen together they provide a more complete representation of my physical, mental and emotional experience.
Inspired by the photography of Fay Godwin’s Land (Godwin 1985) and Paul Hart’s Fens trilogy (Hart Undated), the landscape images draw heavily on the notion of melancholy. The monochrome palette and sense of void in the images represent the profound pervasive sadness I felt and searched for in the
landscape. They also speak of the contemplative space I sought during this period (Bowring 2017: 3-8).
A blend of landscape and medical images, the abstract second series represent the unseen physical symptoms I experienced. In using my own personal imagery I seek to reclaim the medical gaze and make visible the invisible (Orton 1985).
Drawing on the concept of Phototherapy (Martin and Spence), the photography of Elina Brotherus in particular inspires the final series (Brotherus Undated). By placing myself as the protagonist in this deliberately playful series of images, I share for the first time the emotional element of my experience.
Untitled, viewers are invited to bring their own narrative to the images.
HIDDEN
“There are at least two kinds of silence that define us. One is the eloquent silence …the silence of light and beauty, the silence that holds a promise. There is also sometimes a dark silence within us…We struggle against it.”
(Robert Adams, cited in Greenough 2021: preface)
FiguresFig.1 BUCHANAN, Sam. 18 October 2022. Untitled landscape 2
Fig.2 BUCHANAN, Sam. 15 November 2022. Untitled abstract 1
Fig.3 BUCHANAN, Sam. 4 November 2022. Untitled self-portrait 2
Fig.4 BUCHANAN, Sam. 30 October 2022. Untitled self-portrait 1
Fig.5 BUCHANAN, Sam. 15 November 2022. Untitled abstract 2
Fig.6 BUCHANAN, Sam. 13 October 2022. Untitled landscape 1
Fig.7 BUCHANAN, Sam. 14 November 2022. Untitled landscape 6
Fig.8 BUCHANAN, Sam. 14 November 2022. Untitled self-portrait 4
Fig.9 BUCHANAN, Sam. 15 November 2022. Untitled abstract 3
Fig.10 BUCHANAN, Sam. 18 October 2022. Untitled landscape 3
Fig.11 BUCHANAN, Sam. 8 November 2022. Untitled landscape 5
Fig.12 BUCHANAN, Sam. 15 November 2022. Untitled abstract 4
Fig.13 BUCHANAN, Sam. 8 November 2022. Untitled self-portrait 3
Fig.14 BUCHANAN, Sam. 18 October 2022. Untiled landscape 4
References
ADAMS, Robert. 1996. Beauty in Photography - Essays in defence of traditional values. 2nd edition. Aperture. New York, New York
ALEXANDER, J.A.P.. 2020. Perspectives on Place: Theory and Practice in Landscape Photography. 2nd edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
BOWRING, Jacky. 2017. Melancholy and the Landscape: locating sadness, memory and reflection in the landscape. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
BROTHERUS, Elina. Undated. Elina Brotherus [online]. Available at: http://www.elinabrotherus.com [accessed 2 November 2022]
DELOITTE. 2022. Women @ Work 2022: A Global Outlook [online]. Available online at: https:// www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/people/social-responsibility/women-at-work-global-outlook. html. [accessed 10 November 2022].
GODWIN, Fay. Undated. Fay Godwin [online]. Available at: http://www.faygodwin.com/landmarks/ index.html [accessed 30 October 2022]
GODWIN, Fay. 1985. Land. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
GREENHALGH, Susan. 2001. Under the Medical Gaze Facts and Fictions of Chronic Pain. Berkeley: University of California Press.
GREENOUGH, Sarah. 2021. American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams. New York, New York: Aperture.
HART, Paul. Undated. Paul Hart [online]. Available at: https://www.paulhartphotography.com [accessed 12 October 2022]
KENNY, Steven. 2015. The Reading Room: A review of ‘Jo Spence, The Final Project’. BMJ Blogs: Medical Humanities [online], 23 January 2015. Available at: https://blogs.bmj.com/medicalhumanities/2015/01/23/the-reading-room-a-review-of-jo-spence-the-final-project/ [accessed 28 November 2022]
MARSH, Laura. 2022. Occulta [online]. Available at: https://lauramarshphoto.wixsite.com/portfolio/ featured-project [accessed 30 October 2022]
MARTIN, Rosy and SPENCE, Jo. 1987. ‘Double Exposure: The Minefield of Memory’. Photographs in Context [online] Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eLwXWhCfXhnFNi1k7VdG5w9 mQlax0YBN/view [accessed 28 November 2022]
ORTON, Liz. Undated. Every Body Is An Archive [online]. Available at: https://www.lizorton.co.uk/ photography/chasing-intensities-figures-for-the-body/ [accessed 16 November 2022]
PANTALL, Colin. 2019. ‘Liz Orton: Humanising the Medical Gaze’. Photomonitor February 2019 [online]. Available at: https://photomonitor.co.uk/essay/liz-orton-humanising-the-medical-gaze-2/ [accessed 14 November 2022]
PEARSON, Mallory. December 2021. ‘Interview: Jesse Alexander on his practice and “The Silent Land”’. Too Tired Project December 2021 [online]. Available at: https://tootiredproject.com/ features/interview-jesse-alexander [accessed 16 November 2022]
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION. 2022. ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (online). Available at: https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fenti ty%2f129180281 [accessed 6 November 2022]
