Author Description

This work brings together a wide range of Jo Spence's photographs and writings. Her work is characterized by its challenging and oppositional stance. This combination is reflected in the images and texts in this book, which tackle complex issues of gender, class, health and the body, and their impact on her understanding of personal history and the construction of identity. The collection includes images from Spence's early work in documentary photography and from her pioneering photo-therapy projects, explored in collaboration with other photographers. It reproduces work from her Return to Nature and Death Mask series, in which she tries to come to terms with the reality of death. Jo Spence's commitment to engaging with personal experience, political understanding and critical theory make her writing and photography a major contribution to our understanding of the politics of representation.