104:) was a British photographer, a writer, cultural worker, and a photo therapist. She began her career in the field of commercial photography but soon started her own agency which specialised in family portraits, and wedding photos. In the 1970s, she refocused her work towards documentary photography, adopting a politicized approach to her art form, with socialist and feminist themes revisited throughout her career. Self-portraits about her own fight with breast cancer, depicting various stages of her breast cancer to subvert the notion of an idealized female form, inspired projects in 'photo therapy', a means of using the medium to work on psychological health.
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experiencing the effectiveness of using photography in confronting and documenting her hospitalisation and illness that Spence, with Rosy Martin, developed 'photo therapy' in which the subject was empowered to control their image to discover and represent unexpressed or repressed feelings and ideas. By working collaboratively the person in front of the camera was both subject and author of the image. Other collaborators/ therapists included Ya’acov Kahn, David
Roberts and Dr Tim Sheard.
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She started off as a wedding photographer and ran a studio from 1967–1974. Soon afterwards, she began documentary work in the early 1970s, motivated by her political concerns. Both a socialist and feminist, she worked to represent these issues through her practice of photography, first as a founding
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In 1982, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After her diagnosis, Spence started to focus on identity, subjectivity, mental and physical health. She rejected conventional therapy and explored holistic therapy and the personal and feminist political dimension of living with cancer. It was through
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Alongside her photography, Spence maintained a career as an educator, writer, and broadcaster and undertook a three-month tour with her work to
Australia, Canada, and the United States before discovering that she had leukemia from which she later died in London in June 1992, shortly after a civil
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Paul
Pieroni, Joe Scotland, Louise Shelley, George Vasey (eds). 2012. Jo Spence: Work (Part I) SPACE, London 1 June — 15 July 2012 and Jo Spence: Work (Part II) Studio Voltaire, London 12 June — 11 August 2012 (exhibition catalogue), Jo Spence Memorial Archive, London, SPACE, London, and Studio
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manifested in the medium. With fellow students Mary Ann
Kennedy, Jane Munro and Charlotte Pembrey, Spence co-founded The Polysnappers. During the late 1970s and into the early 1980s her work became more focused on themes of domesticity and family life. In a companion piece for
129:(1974), a collective of broadly feminist and socialist women who produced exhibitions such as 'Women and Work' and 'Who's Holding the Baby'. She was subsequently active in establishing the Photography Workshop (1974), a group focused on education and publishing, including its
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Spence, Jo; Dennett, T. B. (Terry B.); Experimental Art
Foundation (Australia), (host institution.); George Paton Gallery, (host institution.); Tin Sheds Art Workshop, (host institution.) (1990),
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marriage in May formalising her partnership with David
Roberts. Terry Dennett, who was a former collaborator and friend of Spence, was the curator of the Jo Spence Memorial Archive.
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1990: Jo Spence in collaboration with Terry
Dennett: Collaborative works; Australian tour of Melbourne, Victorian Centre for Photography at the George Paton Gallery,
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magazine (1976–1985), along with the socialist historian of photography Terry
Dennett (1938-2018), with whom she continued to collaborate for the rest of her life.
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Susan Bell, Photo images: Jo Spence’s narratives of living with illness, Health
Journal Vol 6/No 1, p5–30, (London: Sage, 2002)
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she wrote on how she wished to "question who represents who in society, how they do it and for what purpose."
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Terry
Dennett, 'Jo Spence’s camera therapy: personal therapeutic photography as a response to adversity',
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1989: Libido Uprising, photo therapy works produced with Rosy Martin and Spence’s partner David Roberts
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Jo Stanley (Ed.), Jo Spence: Cultural Sniping: The Art of Transgression, (London: Routledge, 1995)
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Allen, Christopher (27 October 1990). "Sexuality and the ideal of classical human form".
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Terry Dennett, 'The wounded photographer: The genesis of Jo Spence’s ‘camera therapy’',
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Putting Myself in the Picture: a Political, Personal and Photographic Autobiography
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In 1979, Spence studied the theory and practice of photography at the
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Vol 29/No 3, p26–27, (Rochester, NY: Visual Studies Workshop, 2001).
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Terry Dennett, 'Jo Spence’s Auto-therapeutic survival strategies,'
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Class Slippers Jo Spence on Fantasy, Photography & Fairy tales
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Jo Spence : collaborative works ; Australian tour 1990
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Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity, Antagonism
688:"Photo Images: Jo Spence's Narratives of Living with Illness"
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Beyond the Family Album, Public Images, Private Conventions
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Renegotiating the body : feminist art in 1970s London
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What Can a Woman Do with a Camera?: Photography for Women
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Jorge Ribalta, 'The continuing pertinence of Jo Spence,'
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Terry Dennett, David Evans, Sylvia Gohl and Jo Spence,
392:, pp. 91–115. . Cambridge: Harper & Row, 1989
458:, MACBA Exhibition catalogue, (Barcelona: MACBA, 2005)
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European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling
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816:General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume:
908:Jo Spence collection at the Ryerson Image Centre
416:, Vol 11/ No 1, p7–19, (London: Routledge, 2009)
321:. Frances Borzello, editor. Camden Press. 1986.
172:1973–75: Children’s Rights Workshop; documentary
444:, (London: Photography Workshop/Comedia, 1986)
440:Patricia Holland, Jo Spence and Simon Watney,
221:, produced with psychotherapist, Dr Tim Sheard
559:. Seattle: The Real Comet Press. p. 48.
451:, Vol 94/ No 36, (Graz: Camera Austria, 2006)
253:. Unfinished collaboration with Terry Dennett
219:Narratives of Dis-ease: Ritualised Procedures
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675:. Arts Council of Great Britain. p. 60.
388:Gill Saunders, 'Nature Versus Culture,' in
644:Watney, Simon (Spring 1986). "Jo Spence".
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379:Photography View: Turning the Lens Inward
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735:Reckitt, Helena; Phelan, Peggy. (2001).
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300:Spence, Jo; Cambridge Darkroom (1985),
251:The Crisis Project: Scenes of the Crime
100:(15 June 1934, London – 24 June 1992,
435:Jo Spence autobiographical photography
430:, (London: Photography Workshop, 1979)
112:Jo Spence was born on 15 June 1934 in
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953:Deaths from breast cancer in England
865:. Bristol, England: RRB Photobooks.
303:Jo Spence : working photography
231:produced by Spence and David Roberts
212:1984–onwards: Photo therapy projects
938:20th-century English women artists
461:Jo Spence and Joan Soloman (Ed.),
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686:Bell, Susan E. (1 January 2002).
673:Three Perspectives on Photography
437:, (Osaka: Shinsuisha Press, 2005)
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557:Putting Myself in the Picture
140:Polytechnic of Central London
183:Fairy Tales and Photography,
958:English women photographers
913:Hackney Flashers Collective
390:The Nude: A New Perspective
185:BA thesis, republished 2020
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707:10.1177/136345930200600102
535:Jo Spence Official Website
442:Photography/ Politics: Two
238:Sept. 27-Oct. 11; Sydney,
116:to working-class parents.
968:Photographers from London
963:Historians of photography
804:The Sydney Morning Herald
580:Kathy., Battista (2013).
428:Photography/Politics: One
194:1980–82: The Polysnappers
190:Remodelling Photo History
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584:. London: I.B. Tauris.
491:. Retrieved 02.04.2024.
385:, Sept.22, 1991, (Arts)
236:University of Melbourne
177:Beyond The Family Album
617:"Jo Spence Collection"
485:Bibliothèque Kandinsky
285:. Louisa Lee, editor.
199:The Picture of Health?
72:London, United Kingdom
56:London, United Kingdom
782:, Tin Sheds Gallery,
531:"Jo Spence Biography"
367:, McGraw Hill. 1999.
658:10.1093/hwj/21.1.211
306:, Cambridge Darkroom
244:University of Sydney
142:with photo theorist
16:British photographer
973:Socialist feminists
739:. London: Phaidon.
671:Spence, Jo (1979).
555:Spence, Jo (1988).
433:H. Hagiwara (Ed.),
903:Jo Spence's Estate
383:The New York Times
948:British feminists
872:978-1-8382683-0-5
839:www.therai.org.uk
833:Maitland, Colin.
789:978-0-86758-493-6
373:978-0-697-14361-7
365:Seizing the Light
359:978-0-19-284200-8
295:978-1-905464-81-4
283:The Final Project
258:The Final Project
240:Tin Sheds Gallery
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310:24 November
287:Ridinghouse
281:Jo Spence:
90:Photography
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922:Categories
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844:5 December
626:27 January
540:1 February
510:References
407:Afterimage
132:Camerawork
108:Early life
49:1934-06-15
898:Blog/News
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148:semiotics
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628:2014
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