Pictures of Linda Lunus

Pictures of Linda is a collaborative storytelling project that is ongoing and experimental. The body of work develops in different directions through a process initiated by both subject (primarily Linda) and photographer (usually me). It is central to the project's ethos that photographer and subject change places at times, so that Linda becomes autobiographer as well as biographical subject. The work aims to question the power relationship between subject and photographer in the creation of photographic portraiture.

The project has evolved over a thirty-year period and is still changing today: its continuous experiment in picture making represents a long-term commitment to challenging documentary conventions. The work tracks numerous lifestyle changes over time, as Linda’s life is represented in a variety of ways through her extraordinary range of costumes and guises. The costumes used in the shooting process all belong to her, and are not simply for dressing up: she wears these outfits every day. Besides raising questions about the documentary process itself, the work also aims to challenge myths and conventions concerning representations of women, particularly with reference to the picturing of women in rural locations (in the UK).

The new work in this project, since 2008, includes: photographs by Linda (self-portraits and some photographs of me); texts (emails and excerpts photographed from Linda’s autobiography); photographs by me of Linda; and a video work funded by the Arts Council of England, made earlier but first shown in 2008, in Cockroach Diary and Other Stories. This ACE-supported exhibition (funded under the working title 'Masked Ball') presented a mix of older and new work, and the whole body of work including the video was shown at the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers’ 36th International Art Photography Meeting, Nida, 2013, where I also delivered a paper, 'Fabrication: documentary storytelling in the modern world'.

Item Type:

Art/Design Item

Date:

2008

Funders:

Arts Council England, Goldenshot Lab, Deutsche Borse award, Impressions Gallery, Winchester Gallery, Ffotogallery, Hereford University Gallery, Photographers' Gallery

Locations / Venues:

Location

From Date

To Date

'A Picture of Health: Women Photographers from the Hyman Collection' exhibition, Arnolfini, Bristol

14 November 2020

21 February 2021

Lithuanian Artists Association as part of the Nida Seminars

September 2012

Bonnington Gallery, University of Nottingham

2011

Deutsche Borse Photography Prize (4 finalists) Kunstverein, Frankfurt

May 2010

Deutsche Borse Photography Prize (4 finalists), The Photographers' Gallery, London

February 2010

Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow as part of the Krakau photo month

2010

Ffotogallery, Cardiff

2009

Impressions Gallery, Bradford

2008

Winchester Gallery

2008

Projects or Series:

Pictures of Linda, Cockroach Diary and Other Stories

Additional Information:

This project formed part of the touring exhibition, Cockroach Diary and Other Stories, which opened at the Impressions Gallery, Bradford in 2008.

Reviews for the exhibition can be found in the following journals, newspapers and blogs:
Aperture Issues 190 and 192, 2008
Ag Journal Issue 53, 2008
5B4 Blog 2009
Foto 8, 2009
Guardian
Guardian online August 2009
Wales Lifestyle Arts August 2009
What's on in Wales August 2009
British Journal of Photography 28.10.09
Guardian 13.11.2009
Portfolio 50th edition 2009
Hotshoe Magazine 2010
Foto 8 2010
Telegraphy Magazine 30.01.2010