“Hope is the Thing with Feathers” ©Shelagh Howard

This week we explore works made by female-identifying lens-based artists who explore issues affecting contemporary women.  I’ve approached the projects this week thinking about these questions: How is this point in time different for female artists?  What issues need to be addressed in our current climate? 

In “The Secret Keepers”, Shelagh Howard’s images are tender, compelling, and hold a sense of chaos, communicating the theme of intimate partner violence in a succinct and original manner.  Howard layers imagery and process seven times for each final image, mirroring the average number of times it takes to leave an abusive relationship.  The blurred lines and shapes from layering the images echo this sense of confusion, while the in-focus gestures or expressions communicate the combative and intimate aspects of this issue.  The project brings into light an issue that is often overlooked or difficult to discuss.  Howard graciously discussed her work and this issue with me.

-Marcy Palmer

“Another Day In Paradise” ©Shelagh Howard

“The Secret Keepers” Statement

“In the hands of a sophisticated abuser, even the most secure and strong-minded woman can be reduced to someone utterly unrecognizable, even to herself” – Jess Hill

The images in The Secret Keepers highlight the experience of intimate partner violence, psychological abuse and coercive control through a series of long exposure photographs, created through seven distinct stages of editing, printing and reprinting.

Each image is crafted through an intentionally arduous process, mirroring the average of seven attempts it takes to permanently leave an abusive partner. Combining historical practices, including wet collodian and silver gelatin printing, with modern digital technology, this process-based project navigates the disorienting experience of intimate partner violence – where the abuser is also the beloved – while referencing the prevalence of this epidemic throughout history, and it’s persistence at epidemic levels to this day

The images are originally created as digital long exposures, which capture what the eye cannot see, revealing the complexities that are the very hallmark of psychological abuse. The seven stages impact and alter each image, permanently obliterating some details and obscuring others. Like finding a charred but still identifiable object in the wreckage of a burned house, the images bear the impact of their journey through each process and revision.  The original form is altered, but the image remains: a testament to those experiencing or having survived intimate partner abuse, and a tribute to those that we have lost. The repeated reworking and re-printing of each image intentionally reflects the cycle of abuse, which repeats until and even after the relationship had ended.

Responding to artifacts and changes created during this process that were beyond my control, I again found myself trying to hold everything together: to navigate through chaos to safety. These images embody not only what is difficult to put into words, but also what it’s not safe for me to say. Holding secrets in their silent embrace, they reveal only what we are brave enough to see, containing answers to questions that we must find the courage to start asking.

-Shelagh Howard

“Truly Madly Deeply” ©Shelagh Howard

MP: You balance the tangible with the abstract in this project so well, allowing the viewer enough clarity and disorientation to understand the image, as well as communicate the epidemic of intimate partner violence. Was this approach something you had in mind when starting the project, or is it something that evolved?

SH: It definitely evolved.  I started with a series of photoshoots when I realized that I needed to try to process what I’d experienced.  Working with the images, I struggled with what I wanted to achieve. Was I brave enough to put the work out into the world, or was trying to heal through making it enough? I had no idea at this point. I wanted to convey the confusion and ambiguity of intimate partner abuse, and the long-term scars they leave. Overt violence is what we expect when thinking about abuse, but that’s often a very small fraction of the experience. So, I felt it was important to stay in that liminal space, where it’s hard know exactly what we are looking at.  Is this loving or uncomfortable? Could it be both?  Because that confusion is at the heart of these relationships, where the person that says they love you is also the person harming you. I wanted to create space for questions:  How does this make you feel? Do you feel safe and comfortable talking about it? Do you know how? When I started workshopping the images, the ambiguous images produced broader conversations.  Some people would just see “erotic”, which was interesting in itself. But a number of women reached out to me and said that the images really impacted them and urged me to continue what they felt was important work.  That’s when I decided that I would share the project when it was finished.

“A Bird In The Hand”©Shelagh Howard

MP: The process for these works is intensive and well-conceived. How did you decide upon using so many techniques for this process? How long did it take to figure this out?

SH: It took almost 2 years to get there. I liked the core images, but I felt they needed more depth and complexity: They felt too clear to reflect the stories they were telling.  I also wanted to bring in a tactile element, as touch is so central to intimate relationships. I did some research and discovered that it was possible to make tintypes using digital files. This added the distressed element I wanted, and the 175-year-old process was a nod to the long history of abuse that continues to this day.  It was only when I decided to print the final images in the darkroom that I realized that it would take me 7 steps from the original digital image to the final silver prints.  The process grew out of a desire to get the images to reflect the difficulty and danger of these relationships, and the way it can permanently impact those that experience it. I didn’t set out to use seven steps, but once I realized that was how many it would take to get to the images I wanted, everything fell into place.  People are surprised (and often shocked) to hear that it takes an average of 7 times to permanently leave an abusive relationship: It’s a harrowing number, and it’s true.  So, I felt like there was a bit of divine intervention at play when the process that felt like it impacted the prints in a way that accurately mirrored the experience also ended up being 7 steps.

“What Kind Of Girl You Are” ©Shelagh Howard

MP: A few of the titles in this project refer to birds. Can you talk about that a bit more?

SH: Birdsong is associated with safety:  Birds typically sing when they are not in danger, so hearing birdsong is calming to our nervous system, and suggests that the environment we are in is safe. And birds are also associated with freedom and being able to fly away. I have a mug with the Cass van Krah quote “It’s not enough to have feathers. You must dare to fly” on it, and it reminds me to keep going.  Freedom and safety are central to leaving an abusive relationship.

“Shadow Dancing” ©Shelagh Howard

MP: What is the final format and materials of these works?

SH: The final format is a series of 21 (7+7+7) selenium toned gelatin silver prints.  The prints are 11×14 or 16×20, and the edition size is 7.

MP: Is there an aspect to this issue that you would like for people to know?

SH: There are so many aspects to this epidemic that need to be brought into the light.  Intimate partner abuse thrives in shame and silence, and the desire to keep it that way is powerful and comes from many sides. It’s woven into all parts of society, although there are absolutely groups that are more at risk and require more support.  We don’t want to think about it or to talk about it, but we have to for things to get better. At no point through my experience did I or my friends or family (or even therapists I worked with), know how to identify or to talk about what was happening. This creates isolation that is painful, self-fulfilling, and dangerous. Raising awareness of psychological abuse and coercive control is a need I would highlight, but there are many others: education at all levels, support and funding for people to leave abusive relationships, and a complete overhaul of how these issues are handled by police and the court system are also on my list.

“Off The Record” ©Shelagh Howard

MP: What’s next?

SH: Next for this project is getting it out into the world, encouraging desperately needed conversations, as well as being a place people can find links to resources and support information, which will be on my website and available wherever the work is shown.

Next for me personally is something far gentler, which signifies a transition from darkness into light:  I’m working with expired film that’s moved with me from place to place for over 20 years, making photograms from plants I can see out of my window, and combing them with images to explore home, solitude, safety and healing.

Shelagh’s work is currently on view in “Topography of Being Human”, curated by Aline Smithson, June 1- July 27 at The Griffin Museum of Photography, Virtual Gallery. 

“Faultlines” ©Shelagh Howard

“A Secret About A Secret” ©Shelagh Howard

“Lucky Me Lucky You” ©Shelagh Howard

“Fairytale Lullabye” ©Shelagh Howard

“Illusory Truth” ©Shelagh Howard

“No Hard Feelings” ©Shelagh Howard

“So Eden Sank To Grief” ©Shelagh Howard

“Such Great Heights” ©Shelagh Howard

Shelagh Howard (Canadian, b. 1971) is an award-winning photo-based visual artist whose work delves into the layered terrain of memory, identity, and embodied experience. Through long exposures and the human figure, she explores the construction of selfhood—interrogating themes of gender, generational trauma, vulnerability, intimacy, and isolation.

With an unflinching gaze, she peels back the surfaces of constructed identity to reveal the tenderness beneath. Her images thread motion and stillness, capturing the ephemeral shadows of the self and offering a fleeting glimpse of what lingers behind our carefully assembled facades.

Born in Toronto, Shelagh studied psychology at The University of Toronto, and photography at Ryerson University, and has created and exhibited works in Canada, the US and Europe. She has been published in Songlines Magazine UK, Opera Canada, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, VICE magazine, on billboards in Times Square, NYC and Dundas Square, Toronto, and in press and digital media internationally. She received an honorable mention at the 14th and 26th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Awards in Barcelona, Spain, and received the 2021 Artist Award from the Cornell Henry Art Gallery in San Diego.

https://www.shelaghhoward.art/

https://griffinmuseum.org/show/as_topography/

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Marcy Palmer is an American artist whose work explores themes of beauty, history, and social justice through the lens of nature and science. Influenced by the earliest practitioners of photography, as well as the Surrealist and Bauhaus movements, Palmer delicately balances contemporary and historical approaches to image-making and materials to communicate her ideas.

Marcy earned her M.F.A. in Photography & Related Media from the School of Visual Arts and a B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College. Her work has been exhibited at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Center for Photographic Art, The Griffin Museum of Photography, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and other spaces. Her work has been written about in The Boston Globe Sunday edition, D Magazine, and other publications. Her sold-out book, “You Are Eternity, You Are the Mirror” was published by Yoffy Press and recognized by Photo-eye, Deep Red Press, and The Luupe as a favorite photobook. Marcy also teaches photography at universities, art centers, and museums.