TY - JOUR
T1 - Keith Kennedy’s group photography and the therapeutic gaze of Jo Spence and Rosy Martin
AU - Vasey, George
PY - 2019/10/9
Y1 - 2019/10/9
N2 - The Wellcome Collection, London, has recently acquired the archive of Keith Kennedy (b.1934), which paints a complex picture of his experimental work across educational and healthcare contexts from the 1960s to the 1980s. The collection encompasses Kennedy’s ideas for workshops, correspondence, photographs and scrapbooks, and it captures many of the unique qualities of his work: much of the material is undated and there are many duplicated images and texts, often used in different contexts with alternative and sometimes contradictory notes attached to them. This essay focuses on Kennedy’s time at Henderson Hospital, a residential psychiatric hospital in Sutton, Surrey, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It traces his use of improvisatory theatre and photography in group workshops and his influence on the later photographic work of Jo Spence (1934–92) and Rosy Martin (b.1946). Their development of what is here termed the ‘therapeutic gaze’ is then explored as an important precursor to contemporary photographic practices.
AB - The Wellcome Collection, London, has recently acquired the archive of Keith Kennedy (b.1934), which paints a complex picture of his experimental work across educational and healthcare contexts from the 1960s to the 1980s. The collection encompasses Kennedy’s ideas for workshops, correspondence, photographs and scrapbooks, and it captures many of the unique qualities of his work: much of the material is undated and there are many duplicated images and texts, often used in different contexts with alternative and sometimes contradictory notes attached to them. This essay focuses on Kennedy’s time at Henderson Hospital, a residential psychiatric hospital in Sutton, Surrey, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It traces his use of improvisatory theatre and photography in group workshops and his influence on the later photographic work of Jo Spence (1934–92) and Rosy Martin (b.1946). Their development of what is here termed the ‘therapeutic gaze’ is then explored as an important precursor to contemporary photographic practices.
U2 - 10.31452/bcj2.kennedy.vasey
DO - 10.31452/bcj2.kennedy.vasey
M3 - Article
VL - 2
JO - Burlington Contemporary Journal
JF - Burlington Contemporary Journal
ER -