By carefully conceptualising the domestic in relation to the self and the photographic, this book offers a unique contribution to both photography theory and criticism, and life-narrative studies. Jane Simon brings together two critical practices into a new conversation, arguing that artists who harness domestic photography can advance a more expansive understanding of the autobiographical.
Exploring the idea that self-representation need not equate to self-portraiture or involve the human form, artists from around the globe are examined, including Rinko Kawauchi, Catherine Opie, Dayanita Singh, Moyra Davey, and Elina Brotherus, who maintain a personal gaze at domestic detail. By treating the representation of interiors, domestic objects, and the very practice of photographic seeing and framing as autobiographical gestures, this book reframes the relationship between interiors and exteriors, public and private, and insists on the importance of domestic interiors to understandings of the self and photography.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in photographic history and theory, art history, and visual studies.
By:
Jane Simon (Macquarie University Australia.)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 174mm,
Weight: 310g
ISBN: 9780367544058
ISBN 10: 0367544059
Series: Routledge History of Photography
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 14 April 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
1. Introduction: photography, domesticity, interiors 2. Domestic things: animating objects and the still life 3. Domestic time: diaries, habits, durations 4. Domestic selves: relationality and slow portraiture 5. Domestic display: proximity and the handheld Conclusion: Windows, doorways, footpaths
Jane Simon is a senior lecturer in photography and film at Macquarie University, Australia.
Reviews for The Domestic Interior and the Self in Contemporary Photography
""Seen in a specific light, domestic interiors have always held a fascination for artists. At once both eerie and familiar the domestic scene challenges us with its quotidian ambiguities, its surprising juxtaposition of scale, and its eruptions and longueurs. Now, for the first time, we have a critical cartographer to guide us through these uncharted lands. And, wonderfully, we have in Jane Simon a writer as sensitive and insightful as the artists she writes about."" -- Ben Highmore, University of Sussex
