For the first time in France, a solo exhibition at the associative gallery Treize is celebrating the work of British photographer and activist Jo Spence, who pioneered the revolutionary concept of photo-therapy while battling cancer in the 1980s and 1990s. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with curator Georgia René-Worms, presents Spence's innovative approach to using photography as both a political weapon and therapeutic tool during her fight against breast cancer and later leukemia.
Georgia René-Worms, an author and curator who specializes in artistic practices related to illness, particularly hormone-dependent pathologies, discovered Spence's work through her research into art as a means of processing medical trauma. Born in 1934 into a working-class family, Spence was largely self-taught and began her photographic journey while working as a secretary in a development lab before eventually opening her own studio. In her studio, she photographed families and became acutely aware of how social representations, loaded with stereotypes, were constructed in front of the camera, making the deconstruction of these images a lifelong mission.
Spence was deeply involved in activist photography through collectives such as the Hackney Flashers, Camerawork, and the Photography Workshop, developing a body of work that was both feminist and Marxist in its approach. She envisioned photography as a powerful tool of political emancipation, using her camera to challenge social norms and power structures. Her work consistently questioned class divisions, gender roles, and the ways in which society marginalizes certain groups.
At age 48, a breast cancer diagnosis forced Spence to confront the harsh realities of Britain's healthcare system during the Thatcher era. As a woman navigating the medical establishment, she experienced significant infantilization at the hands of medical professionals, encounters that would profoundly influence her artistic direction. These experiences inspired a groundbreaking series of works exploring the reconstruction of a female body under medical scrutiny and institutional control.
In one of her most striking images, Spence fragments her body into photographic details, writing in bold marker: "How do I begin to take responsibility for my body?" In another powerful self-portrait featuring a breast scheduled for removal, she asserts with fierce pride: "Property of Jo Spence." These works challenged medical authority and reclaimed bodily autonomy through the act of artistic creation.
To process her traumatic medical experience, Spence collaborated with photographer Rosy Martin to develop the practice of photo-therapy. In front of the camera, she reenacted hospital scenes and medical procedures to reclaim her agency as a patient and transform her relationship with her illness. Over time, this therapeutic approach expanded beyond her cancer experience, allowing her to explore her personal history and identity as a woman constrained by gender and class stereotypes.
Spence used family photographs and repressed memories as raw material for carefully staged performances, approaching each session with precision and care. She meticulously documented this entire therapeutic process in her scrapbooks – forty volumes in total – which blend photographs, press clippings, handwritten notes, personal letters, photocopies, and postcards. These intimate composites blur the traditional boundaries between life and art, creating a comprehensive record of her artistic and personal journey.
The Centre Pompidou acquired Spence's complete scrapbook collection in 2019, along with twenty-one individual works, recognizing the historical and artistic significance of her contributions. For the first time, the Treize exhibition presents these precious scrapbooks alongside loans from the Richard Saltoun Gallery and the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive at Birkbeck University in London. Visitors can examine not only traditional prints but also cardboard-mounted images, typed and handwritten texts, press clippings, and numerous laminated pieces.
The exhibition remains faithful to Spence's democratic and amateur approach to photography, showcasing her belief that art should be accessible and that anyone could use photography as a tool for personal and political transformation. Her methodology challenged the elitist art world by embracing non-traditional materials and presentation methods, making her work more relatable and impactful.
Spence's final series, "The Final Project," was created shortly before her death in 1992 and confronts mortality with stark allegorical imagery. Stricken with leukemia, her final images are haunted by the presence of death, yet they retain the incisive humor and unwavering political engagement that defined her entire career. Her voice and vision remain as compelling and relevant today as they were during her lifetime, continuing to inspire artists and activists who seek to use their work as agents of social change.
