Collective Alienation

Warren Family from series Darvell Bruderhof Community, UK © Richard Ansett 2019

Happiness is not a relative concept; we should not rely on a perceived lack of contentment of others to reinforce our own sense of wellbeing. If this is a foundation, we are are not on safe ground.

I am spending time with people who I may not immediately seem to have a natural affinity. On the contrary, firstly I always feel like an outsider and my adopted psychology seeks out anyone who shares my sense of dislocation regardless of any sense of otherness. Here I find an empathy with a need to withdraw to form a safe new universe in microcosm. This community, who has literally attempted to isolate itself, is representative of my view that we create worlds within worlds as a subconscious strategy to manage contemporary, complex reality. Of course the irony is that fear and contempt for Sodom are feelings we all share.

Here the word of God forms the firm boundary within which to explore the human experience. The Bruderhof boundary, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, feels much closer to the lived experience than the limits imposed by the secular state. Rules are an attractive alternative to chaos when we struggle to find our place in, what I define as, 'a relatively free society'. The modern state no longer offers nostalgic cultural norms that we can feel part of (or alienated from). Even punks feel the need to belong to a movement, a collective alienation and we are denied even this right to feel 'other' now. The state has found a way to attempt to manage our rage through a strategy of inclusion. If queer is a welcome section of society it is in its very nature no longer queer.

We are not yet taught in schools to cope with the now inevitable associated existential anxiety that pervades society. Millennials must sometimes crave something less multi-dimensional that will quickly answer the open questions that have led to a 'mental health epidemic'. Cast adrift to form our own unique relationships to society we, instead of embracing the complexity and extraordinary gift of freedom of thought, withdraw to form more controllable worlds. We should however resist the desire for order and instead examine inwardly for solutions to why we aren't coping.

To refer to a biblical allegory I am very much involved with; can we say with certainty that if we fall down we will be helped up again by another member of our society that is so huge in comparison to the 300 members of Bruderhof, we call each other stranger? I believe so actually. 

Prayer seems an ineffective remedy for the suffering of others, I see it as an entirely delusional and self-serving act that subjugates responsibility.  It is at best a placebo defined as 'a measure designed to humour or placate', but there is an element of deceit in convincing the patient that what they are offered has any power to heal. There is huge value in being given some time and genuine care however it must be freely given to be most effective and not linked to a promise of heavenly timeshare.

The Bruderhof community will say I am missing the point and I agree that all my rational, atheistic objections fail in the face of 'faith'. I am doomed to never benefit from the power of God ifI do not believe and continue to stubbornly deny his existence. I am doomed to a life without answers, a constant searching for truth through one painful life experience after another and then the risk of eternal purgatory. How wonderful it would be to subjugate responsibility and be held in the strong and comforting arms of the great patriarch.

The Buderhof community in their isolation and withdrawal are no different to us, they are inescapably part of our community too. None of us can exist in isolation, we are entirely reliant on each other for our existence whether we have realised it or not. Our society allows for those that chose not to recognise that they are part of it.

The Heteronormative State

Grayson Perry - BIRTH MOTHER © Richard Ansett 2018

It might feel comfortable and safe to sit within the confines of a clearly defined existence and judge others but it is not secure ground. Certainly the previously dominant structures that set out our world are now seen increasingly as merely other ways of living and in a free society even bigots are welcome as we recognise the pathetic hubris of their superiority.

The complications of accepting personal responsibility for our lives and the accompanying existential loneliness are prices we pay to break free of oppressive forms of traditional identity. We increasingly exist in parallel to the passive aggressive bully that is the stereotype and 'minority' is an increasingly archaic term.

'Queer' has evolved from the reclamation of an abuse to become an inclusive definition that allows us all to share in the complex relationship to what has been identified as the 'heteronormative state.'

The heteronormative state should be defined as the oppressor not just of those broadly defined by sexuality. It is the fabric within which we all function evolved over centuries, the historic legacy is stitched into the foundations and structures that frame our lives. It cannot be torn down so easily like a statue but we can scratch and nudge at it with tools like the zeitgeist.

In my latest collaboration with Grayson Perry the focus is on the tireless motif of mother and child for the 21st century. Claire is not a natural mother, it is a trans- immaculate conception.

A very limited edition giclée available through SINGULART

Queer Persona

I am supporting the artists of the LGBTQ event 'I am a Camera' this weekend hosted by the great people at FOTOFEST, Houston, Texas.

To communicate queerness non-verbally and within the limitations of a two dimensional medium, we should consider whether sexuality actually has an identity. Exploring sexuality photographically first requires an overt focus on the persona that represents it. To be clear, I am referring here to Persona defined by Jung as the personality that an individual projects to society, as differentiated from a more complete or authentic self.

To be homosexual is different to being defined as a homosexual. I recall the early silence I carried about my own sexuality, feeling like a form of lie when the the predominant expectation of society was (and still is to a large extent) that if you do not declare yourself as 'other' you are therefore inevitably pigeonholed as 'normal' defined as heterosexual. So coming out was and still is essential and with that comes a definition of self that is readable to the world.

The need to define heterosexual at all is an indication that this majority political persona in itself is a sub-group also, all be it in the majority but this does not mean normal when discussing matters of sexuality and gender, it is not a politically democratic issue to be one thing or another; regardless of numbers all people are equal in their definition of self. The heterosexual persona must be recognised as defined and created as much as any other and not some form of 'natural state'.

To work on a photographic project that in some way documents sexuality, the photographer must make a subjective choice as to what stereotypes to include or exclude be it queer or straight. To use an extreme example; if I posed in a spangly pair of hot pants and cowboy hat I might be construed as a homosexual man but if you saw me in my scruffy jeans and teeshirt in the high street, the trigger to recognise and define me as homosexual will not be activated. The photographer's urge to produce an image of value will often be led by the effectiveness of communicating a story or idea easily and this is often driven by stereotype.

The queer community is complicit in this politicisation of LGBTQ persona, which began in the 60's and 70's, to make homosexuality seen as a defined group to help fight visible and invisible prejudice, hatred, intolerance and phobia. Indeed these persona stereotypes still exist today as form of cultural identity and are hugely useful as a support for anyone struggling to come to terms with their sexuality for the first time, including heterosexuals too. Persona's feel essential as we start to engage with society and they help immensely in the interaction with others but they act as mask to hide who we really are, our complex humanity beyond our sexuality. What was once a useful mask may eventually become an identity that defines us but does not fairly represent us.

I speak from experience, my project of gay couples that first registered for the ground breaking London Partnership Register in 2001/2002 has always caused me much consternation in how to present it. I have never known quite where to place it and for many years I have excluded it from my public profile, although it has been the most instrumental project in defining my reputation.

I feel that photography that documents sexuality as a lifestyle is unhelpful and unrepresentative, the focus of the two dimensional moment is on the lazy non-verbal definition of queer. Autobiographical queer work that sits as a series, including my own, is in its existential nature isolationist and self ghettoising. It reinforces stereotypes that seem like a barrier to progress now in society where equality is at least understood even if it is rejected. A more powerful message now is queer as normal, banal, mundane and un-extraordinary and truly equal, perhaps even eventually irrelevant. The couples in my early portraits of marital bliss dared to demand this form of equality which seemed radical at the time.

Photographically this is why my project rarely makes an appearance in its original form. I occasionally enter it for exhibitions and competitions in countries where I consider the message of gay as 'normal' is such an anathema that my images can still have an impact and this was most successful in Moscow last year where the project was awarded 1st prize and shown in a Moscow gallery, flouting the strict anti-gay propaganda laws. This though is more about offering hope of a better world to those trapped in societies that are terrified of the realities of the human condition.

I now show some of my gay images but they are mixed into a broader portfolio of works but not isolated in their own little patronising sub-camp. Gay sits with straight and we are all sharing the emotional complexity of being human, taking responsibility for our own fucked up lives and trying to be happy regardless of gender, sexuality or race. That's where I live anyway, come and join me if you like.

Sexuality is hugely complex and way beyond the narrow political confines of the definitions we use to define ourselves and others. The artists in 'I am a Camera' are mostly well chosen and they are predominantly engaged in this more complex dialectic, I celebrate the artists presenting more ambivalent works. We are all capable of feeling love for each other in surprising ways that can be too complex to be seen easily through a camera.

When I enter 'gay' into a search engine, these are the first two images that come up.

© Getty Images. Photographer Unknown

© Getty Images. Photographer Unknown