Siân Davey | Together

Siân Davey’s photography illuminates pockets of experience from which photographers are often excluded. Her pictures feel at once intensely familiar, occurring in a domestic landscape of tangible intimacy, whilst carrying us into the situations and lives of others which are often hidden from view.

Davey began taking photographs almost ten years ago, when she was drawing her 15-year psychotherapeutic practise to a close. Whilst Davey acknowledges that her background in psychotherapy and social policy is foundational to the way that she builds relationships and engages with people, she made the decision to look at the world from a new perspective – this time behind the lens.

Davey’s transition from psychotherapy to photography took place just before the birth of her last child, Alice. Davey began photographing Alice when she was about a year old, and describes the resultant series, Looking for Alice (2015), as ‘a story of love and what gets in the way.’ Alice was born with Down’s Syndrome, and Davey felt compelled to communicate her story, guided intuitively by her daughter toward the themes that needed to be understood. Davey received the Hood Medal from the Photographic Society and PDN’s Arnold Newman Prize in recognition of this project. Two photographs from Looking for Alice were displayed at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the 2014 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition.

Davey has also worked closely with her stepdaughter, Martha, who is the subject of her 2018 book. Davey’s photographs of Martha form a complex, extended portrait which goes beyond empathy on the part of the photographer for her subject; These photographs are the product of a close and reciprocal relationship in which both participants explore their desire for self-understanding and mutual recognition. When Davey began photographing her stepdaughter, Martha was 16 – a moment that Davey describes as one of transitional ambiguity and freedom.

Davey was introduced to many of Martha’s friends, and found herself in the unusual position of being invited along to photograph teenagers –in swimming spots, parties, festivals and bedrooms. Beyond this community, Davey has also photographed her own friends, strangers and children at gatherings as part of her ongoing projects River and Communion. She deploys her understanding of interpersonal dynamics to engage with disparate individuals, exploring issues of identity and belonging through her pictures of their groupings and activity. Whilst these photographs have been exhibited as separate projects, there is an essential sensitivity and awareness which unites this far-reaching body of work.

‘Digital cannot replicate the skin tones as analogue can, but importantly for me analogue is such a ‘quiet’ process, a kind of meditation. I’m not constantly referring to what I’ve just shot, so that means that all my senses are entirely engaged with whatever I am photographing.’

Davey’s visual acuity is complemented by a strong technical facility, honed during the studies she undertook at the University of Plymouth where she received her MFA in 2016. Davey has recently been the subject of a major commission by the Wellcome Trust, and her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery twice as part of the official selection of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. Davey has received the Eugene Smith Fellowship Grant (2019), the Creative Review Zeitgeist Award (2018), the Prix Virginia (2016), Lens Culture’s International Emerging Photographer Award (2014) and New York Photo Award (2014).

Photographing adolescence is sensitive territory, with access being the primary concern, particularly as a parent. […] The process had this quality of me cultivating the skill of oscillating between invisibility and visibility, letting my intuition guide me in judging when it was ok to be there or not. It was important that I got a handle on the groups’ boundaries and that I didn’t overstep them – notwithstanding the fact that these boundaries were often unspoken.