Rosanna Jones
MADISON JAMES
Rosanna Jones’ work takes an alternative stance in terms of faceless photography; she places a significant focus on the intricate details of her subject’s face. Her project ‘Girls’ looks at the individual faces of different female subjects and how this individuality translates into expressing the identity of the subjects. She relies mainly on the subject’s face in order to depict their identity, focusing on even the minor details such as a mole or freckle. She allows the audience to discover the social identity of the subject from their face alone, prompting us to ask questions such as ‘Do they have wrinkles, if so, why?’ or ‘Why do their eyes tell?’ Aside from the glaring distinctiveness of her three-dimensional style (“I’m never truly satisfied with a two-dimensional image [...] So, I like to alter my images, treating them as an object to be moulder or repurposed, and my style has really developed over years of experimenting.” (Rosanna Jones, (n.d)) , Jones’ use of the subject’s face offers a new dynamic to her images. Despite the face being of prime importance in Jones’ work, she also uses colour and its respective symbolism. The image above displays a 3 by 3 grid featuring 5 images (depicting hands, shoes and most predominantly the face) and 4 block colour rectangles. The block colours bring out the tones in the portraits and it prompts the viewer to wonder which are more telling about the identity of the subject. Jones’ uses the colours pink, orange, red and burgundy, which all are warm toned and create a more positive mood. The portraits are also warm toned (seemingly through indoor artificial lighting) and are against a cream walled background.
It is interesting that the images that do not feature the subject’s face and instead hone in on aspects like the foot and shoe of the model, illustrate more about the social identity of the subject. The fashion choice alone is very telling- it is a converse style shoe, typically associated with younger and more active people. The laces of the shoe are loosely tied, implying a playfulness and carefree nature, which compliments the fact the shoes are slightly scuffed and dirty and that in the background the paint is slightly peeling. This alongside, the use of the yellow sock and its respective symbolism (youth, positivity, hope and happiness) depicts a youthful and positively carefree subject, all of which can be deduced from the photographer’s decisions even without seeing the subject’s face. In addition to this, Jones uses the structure of the image to display more about the identity of the subject: the grid collage features harsh, straight lines and shapes, physically boxing the subject in and yet the almost pointing gesture of the model and her footwear choice imply a level of escapism. Jones could perhaps be illustrating that the subject feels boxed in (possibly by society) and craves freedom. She explores a disjointed and fragmented composition, experimenting with both a passive and direct gaze from the subject, in order to actively engage the viewer. At some points the subject’s face has been cropped and zoomed in on and these close up shots give the viewer the opportunity to view the subject’s identity from an wider and narrower perspective, playing around with eyes of femininity as in the cropped image, the subject’s gender is almost unrecognisable. This ability to obscure such a prominent part of someone’s identity in a picture of their face becomes all the more significant when in the faceless aspects of the photograph, we can deduce far more. Although Jones predominantly uses the face of the subject to express their social identity, it is interesting how it isn’t actually necessary and helps to answer the question that faces are not entirely responsible for expressing identities in photography.
Furthermore, Rosanna Jones brings together different mediums to create some of her imagery. This particular image has been printed out, painted over and then re-photographed. Like the previous image I spoke about, this is part of her ‘Girls’ collection and is once again, untitled. Jones purposely uses paint strokes in order to obscure the image but she is careful to steer clear of the subject’s face, in fact the subject’s face is almost framed by the paint strokes. Additionally, Jones uses the symmetry and the rule of thirds to centralise the face of the subject in the image, consequently elevating its role in the photograph. She uses the face as a method of expressing the social identity of the subject but it is not wholly necessary as a lot can be inferred about her identity from the photographer’s other decisions. Colour, line and texture plays a huge role in the structure of the image, with the paint strokes offering all three. The mixture of pink, blue and red tones in the paint are a shade that balances an arty playfulness with sophistication, without appearing childish. This, alongside, the combination of sharp and curved lines found in the subject’s pose as well as the styling decisions in the gloves, beret and haircut, offer a glimpse into the subject’s identity as someone artistically inclined but sleek and mature. The use of artificial lighting and colouring effectively creates a vintage vibe, which compliments the photographer’s styling decisions (particularly with the gloves and berets) and is particularly telling of the identity of the subject.
In addition to the appearance of the photos, Jones’ artistic process plays a significant part in her work (“I really fell in love with the physicality of destroying and reconstructing photographs through ripping, burning, bleaching, painting...It sparked a new passion for experimenting with different ways to alter a printed image by hand” (Rosanna Jones, (n.d)), and Rosanna explains how she uses these ‘destructive’ techniques to express parts of herself and the subject she is photographing: “The act of physically destroying images is a very tactile, tangible way to express myself and as I said, it’s always a totally therapeutic process. Having said that, my work is definitely not all about me, and when I’m shooting another person, I’m trying to capture a piece of their character too.” (Rosanna Jones, (n.d)) Her ‘Skin’ project is particularly successful in this and, interestingly, this is the project in which she nearly obscures her subject’s faces entirely; in turn illustrating that photography does not need to rely on the face to express identity.