The Steve Project is a collaboration of two photographers studying the importance of family photography and the traditional display methods within the family home. The work will be an indepth study of the psychological reasoning behind the notion to curate and exhibit family photography. Over two years our research and data collection will result in a series of exhibitions and a photobook alongside an academic research paper aiming to inform and educate students and artists on the significance and relevance of traditional family photography in a digital age.

Myself Karl Child and my partner Claire Angel (the two artists involved) have recently graduated from university with upper second BA (hons) degrees in Photography. Our interests and projects are based around the ideas and concepts which deal with issues on photography within domestic life including identity, relationships and cognition. We have recently exhibited relevent projects at the University of Central Lancashire, The Old Truman Brewery exhibition space in London and at the Imitate Modern Gallery also in London where our work was auctioned to raise money for an alcohol and drug awareness charity. We also have individual Photobooks which explore the concepts previously mentioned. Claire has a foundation degree in Art Therapy in which she focused her practice around the use of family photography as a therapeutic tool. Recent research has involved entering the homes of others under a professional house sitting agreement to understand and document home curation and display methods, this gives us an 'outsiders' perspective and allows observation on relationships of which we are not involved. I was recently commissioned to travel to Guangzhou to carry out a series of photography assignments working with local journalism students after completing a smaller project documenting chinese heritage in the north west of engalnd which involved observing and photographing their family life on a day to day basis. We have both recently written a thesis on relevent subjects including photography, memory and therapy.

A little more about the project:

Through a series of professionally organised house sitting assignments we plan to travel around England documenting the inevitable exhibitions curated by the family members and home owners. By doing this we will gain knowledge and understanding which will allow us to identify and analyse certain concepts such as patterns and trends, dynamics and power alignments within relationships, subconscious decisions made by all participants and the interactions between the physical prints and each family member including the curator and observer. During our time spent at each house we will be photographing every room which displays a single or a series of images. This process will allow us to further analyse each household and question the psychological reasoning behind curation. Having the photographic documentation will give us the opportunity to reflect on what we have been observing by removing them from their original context. This will raise questions such as design and placement of each photograph, size, age, narrative etc. Once we have gathered material from each house including Photographs of their display methods, notes and interview transcripts, we will compile the answers to these questions into a spreadsheet database which will inform our research paper and allow us to further analyse the use of photography in the family home. Our data will include areas such as the number of images displayed (in certain circumstances we will take into account the number of photographs displayed on digital photo frames in comparison to prints). We will also observe image sizes, positions and locations and the age of the image/age of sitter. For example a 'new photograph' of a new born baby would suggest that child is still young, however an old photograph of a new born baby would suggest that child is now older. This simple observation would then allow us to explore the remaining images on display to discover that subjects relationship with the curator. This will determine their positioning within the family unit also enabling us to analyse power alignments and dynamics. We will also create data surrounding the content of each displayed photograph for example key events including Birthdays, Graduations, Family Holidays and Professional Family Portrait Sessions. When editing a collection of printed family photographs, the curator is restricted to the amount of space within their "gallery". This makes the editing process much more specific. Given a digital photo frame, the curator is able to display an almost unlimited amount of images in place of one single print, only restricted by the capacity of their purchased memory card. This often results in a less focused curation. Having a series of images pass by every 15 seconds in the formation of a slideshow, may mean that their importance is overlooked. Although the use of digital display may not necessarily be as refined as traditional display methods, our research will allow us to analyse the interaction between both methods of display, with an overall aim to provide coherent and informed knowledge of the importance of the printed image within the family home.