Photographer Siân Davey is the subject of what’s promising to be an incredible and magical exhibition coming to the Martin Parr Foundation soon. Her images encapsulate a very modern British feeling while also embracing the idea of warmth in a photo. Mixed into that are elements of man-made nature with gardens and youth. Staring at the images makes us think about the fun times in the summer and those moments with pandemic circles back in 2020. Gardens have a lot of meaning to folks in the UK, as we saw in the work of Chris Hoare in a previous interview. It’s something that I truly wish we had more of here in the US.
The Creative Body: Photographs 2014 – 2024 by Siân Davey will be on display from the 16th of January to the 23rd of March 2025. All images by Siân Davey and used with permission.
Here’s the relevant information from the press release:
The Creative Body: Photographs 2014 – 2024, is the first survey exhibition of work by British artist Siân Davey. The exhibition will bring together Davey’s major series of photographs—’Looking For Alice’ (2013-2018), ‘Martha’ (2015-2016) and ‘The Garden’ (2021-2023)—alongside lesser-known portraits from ‘Communion’ (2017-ongoing) and images, texts and videos documenting behind her ongoing Creative Body Process workshops.
Davey came to photography after a career in psychotherapy, and it is this background which informs her subtly observed work. Her photographs chart the daily rituals and dynamics of family life and friendships with an awareness of both the human struggle for connection and the shifting, complicated bond between artist and subject.
‘Looking For Alice’, Davey’s first series of works focuses on her daughter, Alice, who was born with Downs Syndrome. The series is an illustration of family life as Alice grows—all the tensions, joys and highs and lows—and Davey’s family acts as a microcosm for the dynamics occurring in many other families.
‘As a psychotherapist I have listened to many stories. It is interesting that what has been revealed to me after fifteen years of practice is not how different we are to one another but rather how alike we are. It is what we share that is significant. The stories vary but we all share the same emotions, we are all vulnerable to feelings of anger, grief, depression and so on.’
When Davey’s stepdaughter, Martha, was 16-years old she asked ‘Why don’t you photograph me anymore’ in response to her camera being so often focused on her sister, Alice. As a result, over the next two years, Davey began to photograph Martha more. Her images depict the complex and potentially confusing time when a teenager is both a young woman and a child in the same body. Martha is shown shaping herself as a social being—her group of friends both a safeguard and a source of protection but also a learning ground as she moves into new existential territories of intimacy, love and belonging in the world of adulthood.
‘Inevitably, the work is also about Martha and myself. I am always there as the photographer, as her step-mother, as a mentor and a friend. However, who I am and where I place myself in the story becomes a more questioning issue as she grows and moves further away from her childhood. The exchange of looks between us, that complex reflected gaze, begins to shift as she tries to define her own sense of self.’
The series ‘The Garden’ evolved from a suggestion made by her son Luke—’Why don’t we fill our back garden with wildflowers and bees, and the people we meet over the garden wall – we’ll invite them in to be photographed by you.’ Together they began to clear the long-neglected garden, researching native flowers, soil and biodiversity, and sowed local seeds under the moon cycles, bio-dynamically.
‘And as the flowers opened, they called in the community; the mothers and daughters, grandparents, the lonely, the marginalised, teenagers, new lovers, the heartbroken and those that had concealed a lifetime of shame. They became enfolded into the story of the garden, creating and partaking in the story equally…As the garden evolved it became an expression of joy, interconnectedness, yearning, sexuality, and defiance. The garden became a metaphor for the human heart itself.‘
Also on display in the exhibition are photographs from Davey’s lesser-known series ‘Communion’ taken at summer festivals—Glastonbury, Port Eliot and Wilderness. The title evokes the coming together and sharing of thoughts, feelings and the experience. Davey’s photographs observe the bonds—both familial, longstanding the temporary—between those attending the festivals.
The final part of the exhibition focuses on images, video and texts relating to the workshops Davey facilitates in Devon—The Creative Body Process. These transformative workshops are a culmination of Davey’s work and teachings, encouraging participants to discover or reconnect with their potential, both as individuals and as a whole. The exhibition’s title The Creative Body stems from this—referencing how Davey’s practice has expanded beyond image-making over the last ten years whilst retaining ideas of defiance and connection.
‘Siân Davey has emerged as one of the pioneering female voices in British photography. We are delighted to stage this survey show, enabling the viewer to sample the key images from her three major projects, and more besides.’ – Martin Parr