editorial

PRIVACY Picturing our inner selves

A magazine about photography can encompass many of the most interesting aspects of contemporary life. In renewing the design of Source we have sought to make a magazine that is rooted in the history of photographic publishing while also being open to the world. You will find new columns about fashion, the afterlife of photographic objects and conversations with photographers, of all varieties, about their experience of the world. We maintain our commitment to reviewing exhibitions, books and anything else that defines the evolving photographic culture. We will continue to explore themes – like privacy in this issue – that seem particularly relevant to our current moment. Culturally, our attitude to photographs seems to encompass our contradictory feelings about privacy today. We are increasingly intolerant of being photographed in public but ever more willing to expose ourselves in photographs online. This has political, societal and legal consequences that are explored in our interview with Camille Simon, a picture editor of the French news magazine L’Obs, and Laura Cunningham’s article on the evolving law of privacy. We have a new feature on overlooked archives and we start with the photographs of Maurice Hobson. Hobson’s work appeared as a single image in the 1988 issue of Creative Camera, ‘Photo Works from Northern Ireland’ and in the catalogue for the exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery Image and Exploration Some Directions in British Photography 1980/85. Hobson died in 1987 from post-traumatic epilepsy, the long term consequence of being caught in an IRA bomb blast in 1975 on his way to school in Dungannon. Little of his work has been seen since his death but it recently resurfaced in a small exhibition organised by his family which was subsequently shown at the University of Atypical gallery in Belfast. The work presents a disturbing insight into the mental and physical anguish of someone dealing with being badly injured. Declan Long has been to look at the archive of Hobson’s photographs, held by his family, to find out more about the photographer and his work. Rachel Glass’ work explores how impactful touch can be on our inner world. Her work came out of her experience of moving from Northern Ireland to London and not having a close network of family and friends to hand. This led into research on touch with a focus on the increasing sense of physical isolation experienced by many people. One antidote to this, which Glass photographed, are ‘cuddle parties’ which offer participants non-sexual physical intimacy. In our retrospective feature on an established photographer we look back at the work of Gillian Wearing. Catherine Grant interviews Wearing beginning with her famous series from 1992-3, Signs that say what you want them to say and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say which she remarks are ‘a still-startling catalogue of the ways in which what people are thinking very rarely matches our impressions of them’. The interview goes on to look at Wearing’s other work including the Family Album series and her most recent project Spiritual Family in which she has photographed herself as artists who have influenced and inspired her. Central to Wearing’s output is the question of what it means to picture the self and how photographs define who we are.

We’d like to thank Rob and Carel from Studio Rob van Hoesel for their work on the redesign. We hope you enjoy it.

— The Editors contributors

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Jesse Alexander is a photographer, writer and lecturer based in North Somerset.

Christopher Clarke is Senior Curator at the Glucksman in Cork.

Laura Cunningham is a media specialist at Johnsons Solicitors in Belfast.

Colin Darke is a writer and artist based in Belfast.

Simon Denison is a photographer, writer and the leader of the Cultural Studies programme at Hereford College of Arts.

David Evans is a writer based in Berlin.

Orla Fitzpatrick is a writer based in Dublin.

Rachel Glass is a photographer from County Armagh currently based in London.

Jennifer Good is Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Photojournalism at University of the Arts, London.

Catherine Grant is Associate Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths.

Laura Guy is a writer and Early Career Academic Fellow in Art History at Newcastle University.

Maurice Hobson was a photographer from County Tyrone (1957 - 1987). The archive of his work is held by his family.

Daniel Jewesbury is an artist and writer and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the Valand Academy in the University of Gothenburg.

Annabelle Lever is a Lecturer in the Political Science Department at University Sciences Po in Paris.

Owen Logan is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.

Declan Long is a Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art at the National College of Art and Design.

Jonathan Long is Professor of German and Visual Culture at the University of Durham.

Rachel Marsden is a lecturer, curator and writer based in the West Midlands.

Joseph McBrinn is Reader in Design History at Ulster University.

Roberta McGrath is a writer based in Edinburgh.

Rebecca O’Dwyer is a writer based in Dublin and Berlin.

Barry Purves is an Oscar and Bafta nominated animator, writer and director.

Polly Savage is Senior Teaching Fellow, History of Art and Archaeology

Eugenie Shinkle is Reader in Photography at the University of Westminster.

Jelena Stojkovic is Lecturer in the History and Theory of Photography at the Arts University Bournemouth.

Gillian Wearing is an artist based in London.

Richard West is a Source editor.

Sarah White is a photographer and writer based in London.