For this project, I examined the work of Vancouver documentary and portrait photographer Jackie Dives ( jdives.ca / jackiedives.com / jackiedivesphoto.com ).
Article 01
Berman, Sarah. FADED SNAPSHOTS FROM TEEN YEARS SPENT LOST AND DEPRESSED. Vice, 19 Feb 2017.
Sarah Berman’s 2017 article, FADED SNAPSHOTS FROM TEEN YEARS SPENT LOST AND DEPRESSED, discusses the opening of an art show by Vancouver photographer Jackie Davies. Specifically, the article starts with a quote by Dives, one which deeply resonated with me: “So much of my experience has been pretending not to be depressed, instead of figuring out how to live with it.” This quote beautifully describes how much of Dives’s youth involved her struggle of wearing a mask to hide her own experience of living with depression as opposed to dealing with it in a meaningful way.
Berman then asks if it’s even possible for photographic imagery to authentically capture the experiences and subtle moments in life that can lead to someone battling mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression. Berman notes how it’s easy to capture breaking point moments where tears are flowing, but more difficult to pinpoint, capture, and convey what happens in the moments before a breaking point is reached.
As a teenager, Dives shot a lot of photographs on film but didn’t end up developing a lot of those rolls until after a few decades had passed. It took a lot of strength for her to develop the rolls as she knew they were taken during a period in her life when she lived with anxiety and depression. But she also considered them as representing a major gap in her artistic development, one that she was curious about.
Berman also describes how the photos Dives took served “…as a metaphor for mental illness itself - something that by nature remains unseen and difficult to share.” The idea of unseen emotions really ties into the notion that society is still critical of emotions such as depression, hurt, grief, regret, resentment, and sadness. They’re emotions that often lie behind the surface of people’s lives, “…unseen and difficult to share,” where many practice ways of hiding their depression.
Dives also discusses her reactions to the photos that existed on the rolls she had developed. Some of the images revealed a disconnect that ties into the idea of how people hide depression. For example, Dives describes how one photo illustrated her out with friends at night, just a day after she had cut her own wrists, noting how: “When I look at it, I know that, but it has to be explained.”
Berman ends her piece discussing how Dives, through the process of having developed, lived with, and curated images for placement in an art show (the March 30, 2017 show called Slow like a bruise, quick like hunger) has served as a therapeutic release where Dives was able to process some of the emotional difficulties of her life.
Article 01 Photo Examination
Artifact 01 - Dives, Jackie. Untitled Self-Portrait. ~1990s.
Formally, this image is an untitled colour photographic self-portrait shot on film and the content it contains seems to inform the contextual ideas swirling around a teenager hiding her struggles with anxiety and depression from the world. According to art historian Cinzia Franceschini, writing for the Artlex website, self-portraiture can be defined as:
…a sub-category of the artistic genre of portraiture. A self-portrait is a portrait of an artist realized by the artist himself or herself, mainly through the medium of painting, drawing, sculpture or photography. A self-portrait is hardly a mere form of recording one’s appearance: it involves very often the qualities, status, psychology, aesthetic taste of the protagonist. It is a form of analysis, self-definition and self-affirmation, and communication to the public. By extension, this genre in literature deals with the description that writers make of themselves and their vicissitudes and characteristics.
And although Dives as a teenager was exploring photography as a tool for communication, connection, and expression, a disconnect existed between the time Dives shot this self-portrait, one that wouldn’t be resolved until she saw it printed, as an adult, over twenty years later.
Artifact 02 - Foden, Jennifer. Jackie Dives’s Photo Show. 30 Mar 2017.
This 1990s image was digitally scanned from its film’s negative for inclusion in the VICE article. It was also printed for display at a one night only, four-hour long exhibition held on March 30, 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The size of the print is like the size of photo one would get from a one-hour photo lab, ~5”x7”, complete with a thin white border [a photo posted by event attendee Jennifer Foden shows the image printed and pasted to the gallery wall salon style (where images are hung to fill the space of a gallery wall, sometimes from the floor to the ceiling, so as many as possible can be shown)].
Shades of white fill a huge portion of the image, almost 2/3rds of the upper half of the frame and helps inform the photo’s overall psychological essence. Mabel Weaver, in her book, COLOUR SYMBOLISM: A DETAILED STUDY OF COLOURS AND THEIR MEANING notes how: “White is a very complicated color as it has both negative and positive qualities to it…” and that it can play “…an important role in medical field if you want to represent a good health care system that is both clean and safe for all patients.” It’s an interesting consideration given what Dives expresses about her state of mind as a teenager, one that grapples with anxiety and depression.
The white colour of the closed blinds on the upper left-hand corner of the frame appears to be hiding the dark blackness of night. Weaver describes black as representing:
…mystery as it provides protection from the outside world creating secretiveness. It is the only color that helps in hiding all our insecurities and weakness whether physical or emotional.
In that respect, the idea feels representative of the idea about a kind of mask people wear to hide their inner emotional state from others. Part of the blinds on the lower right-hand side also appear broken, which might not be surprising if this is the bedroom of a teenager. The story behind why the blinds are possibly broken would likely only be known to Dives, her immediate family, and any other friends who she allows into this space.
There is a clothed figure, likely a young Jackie Dives, with her head and upper torso prominently positioned in the centre of the photograph, her body leaning up against a wall. While the figure is prominently centred in the image, Dives’s camera is positioned further away from her. She’s not physically holding it, and it’s likely sitting on a dresser or bookshelf, or maybe even attached to a tripod, with the shutter being controlled by a timer (although maybe the right hand that appears clenched is holding a remote?). Having said that however, it is possible that a friend of Dives took this selfie, as Dives described in a March 2017 interview with Brittany Tiplady for Loose Lips Magazine, called Jackie Dives Releases Film Collection Slow Like a Bruise, Quick Like Hunger how:
There’s a lot of self-portraits and there’s a lot of photos of me taken by friends. I [loved to] hand my camera over to whoever was in the room and seeing me as a young girl, makes me remember how much I was dealing with at the time, and I’m still dealing with some of that to a lesser degree.
Irregardless of how the photo was taken, the placement of the camera further away from Dives creates distance in the photograph, between the viewer and the figure, which helps to emphasize the idea that there can be distance between a person suffering from anxiety and depression and those who are around them. This photo also has a snapshot aesthetic, which is a style of photography where photographs either are, or appear to be uncomposed, loose, and impulsive.
Dives is wearing a red top with dark blue pants, and she’s sitting on what appears to be a bed. The red is also similar to the pillow her clenched fist rests on, a colour that Weaver describes as being:
…a very popular color in various cultures represent happiness, power and passion. It has to do a lot more with feelings and emotions as compared to one's thoughts. It grabs the attention of its viewers depending on how much of it used and how it’s used. It can represent both love and hatred.
There is a black and white cow styled pillow on the lower left side of the frame, behind the aforementioned red one that is further back, which Dives’s right hand is resting on, perhaps slightly clenched. A clenched fist can exist behind feelings of raw emotion such as frustration or even anger. But there doesn’t appear to be anger in Dives at this moment, at least none that is discernible from her facial expression. This is undoubtedly because Dives has discussed how good she was at hiding her emotions from others as a teenager, especially ones tied to her anxiety and depression. Here, in this photo, it feels like Dives is asking the viewer a question like, “…what do you want?”
There are green bedsheets on the bed, and a soft violet mauve blanket laying unkempt to the left of Dives, which her lower left arm and hand are resting on. There also appears to be either a light brown stuffed animal, or even a pet, next to Dives’s left leg, although it’s difficult to know what it is because it has been severely cropped. Her upper legs extend out, parallel to the pillows that lay on Dives’s right. Her legs end up resting together at her knees, before splitting to jet out in different directions, creating a kind of triangle within the image. Her entire body also forms a kind of triangle within the image itself. Karen Lamont, in her article, “The Strength of a Triangle,” written for the Crafted by Citrus website, describes how:
Triangles are the strongest shape there is. Any weight placed on them is evenly distributed on all 3 sides. They represent geometric sturdiness; no matter how much weight you put on any side, it will not break. It’s resilient and we really admire that.
And this resilience is something that many people who struggle with anxiety and depression have. It seems safe to suggest that Dives had it, as she survived her teenage years, and even though she didn’t feel total closure with her everything that happened then, she’s come closer to it by developing those rolls and working with the imagery that was contained within, sharing it with the world - which also requires an admirable resilience.
Finally, in the upper right-hand corner of the photo, the bottom part of an unframed poster, possibly an album poster, or a movie poster, or even a poster featuring an artwork, juts into the frame.
Article 02
Siebert, Amanda. PHOTOGRAPHER JACKIE DIVES’S IMAGES CREATE PERSONAL STORY ABOUT ANXIETY. The Georgia Straight, 22 Mar 2017.
Amanda Siebert’s 2017 article for The Georgia Straight, “Photographer Jackie Dives’s images create personal story about anxiety” opens describing the tensions that existed during the era of film photography, as there www always a lot that could possibly go wrong in the days before the extremely accessible digital technologies that many of us know and use today. In many ways though, this tension was ten fold for Dives, who kept for over twenty years, twenty-eight undeveloped rolls of film she shot as a teenager. Dives’s experiences and experiments with photography as a teenager would develop into a passion that also became a part of her career as Siebert notes how Dives “…can’t recall a time when the camera hasn’t felt like an extension of herself.”
Specifically, Dives’s lens based work has focused on creating portraiture and documentary photographs. But Siebert explains how those twenty-eight rolls of film haunted Dives over the years, just sitting there, until she bit the bullet and got them all developed. Siebert describes the moment when Dives sat down with the developed photographs: some she didn’t remember taking at all; some, she didn’t find captivating; and some, caught her eye as Dives felt they held an emotional authenticity. She found her memories about those shots (and in particular, about her many self portraits) to be particularly vivid, as she found she was still able to empathize with the girl she used to be, with all of the depression and anxiety she lived with growing up. And that was something that would move with her across her career, as the process of photographing her experiences proved to be a way for her to understand them. Finally, by sharing her imagery Dives hopes they might help others who connect with them to not only understand what she has gone through, but to also recognize similar feelings within themselves.
Article 02 Photo Examination
Artifact 03 - Photograph - Dives, Jackie. Self-Portrait. ~1990s.
Formally, this image is another untitled colour photographic self-portrait shot on film and the content it contains also informs the ideas about a teenager hiding her struggles with anxiety and depression. And even though she was exploring the use of photography as a tool for communication, connection, and expression — a disconnect existed between the time Dives shot these self-portraits and when she saw them as an adult twenty years later. This 1990s image was digitally scanned from its film’s negative for inclusion in the Georgia Straight article. It was also printed for display at a one night only, four-hour long exhibition held on March 30, 2017, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The size of the print is like the size of photo one would get from a one-hour photo lab, ~5”x7.
As opposed to the first photograph examined above (Artifact 01), this photo feels as though it was clearly shot by Dives, as her right hand extends out further as if to hold some kind of simple point and shoot automatic camera, or possibly a single lens reflex (SLR) camera. I say point and shoot though, because the figure is in focus. It’s also possible the camera had an automatic flash, as her face feels slightly blown out (overexposed, where it’s too bright, and details are lost). There’s also a sharp shadow line along Dives’s left hand side in her hair and behind her left arm that would have been created by a flash, or by standing fairly close to some kind of unknown light source. To that end, this photo shares a snapshot aesthetic style with Artifact 01 above.
Unlike the first photo examined for this project above (Artifact 01), this photo has an off-white monochromatic colour palette that serves to informs its overall tone. It helps to secure the image in a kind of dreamlike state – a moment captured in time and held there for viewers to see. David Kastan and Stephen Farthing, speaking in their book ON COLOUR, described how monochromatic black and white, as well as sepia images, can exist simply as the colour of memories (201). Specifically, Kastan and Farthing explain how monochromatic greys can become a representation of, “Not of what we remember but the color of memory itself, which is always, at least in part, a kind of amnesia” (201). They further note how the greyness of black and white monochromatic photographs “…works to sequester their images securely in the past.” Here, Dives is wearing a simple, plain sweater that is either light tan, or even white in colour.
The background of this photo is also very sparse, and contextually, this self-portrait of Dives is much more minimalistic [an art movement that began in the 1960s as a rebellion against abstract expressionism and modernism. Minimalist art (whether it was in music, literature, or the visual arts), was characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity] in its feel than some of her other self-portraits. Ultimately, it’s safe to suggest that both the monochromatic tone and minimalist feel of this photograph lends to the emptiness one can feel when lost in the haze of despair. This photo also has a slight vignetting, which Adobe describes as: “…a darker border - sometimes as a blur or a shadow - at the periphery of photos. It can be an intentional effect to highlight certain aspects of the image or as a result of using the wrong settings, equipment or lens when taking a photo.” The vignette here enhances the overall ghostly feel to the image, and it removes it from being grounded in any one specific place and lends to the idea that the subject of the photo, whose facial expression conveys the emotion of someone barely surviving, exists in a kind of fog, both existentially and physically.
SADCAST: a podcast featuring stories, art and design from "No Fun City."
“Hosted by Becca Clarkson, a Vancouver-based journalist with a penchant for amplifying the voices of creatives and change makers in the city. Brought to you by SAD Magazine.”
The following SADCAST podcast episode was from March 16, 2017 and featured an interview with Jackie Davis about her March 30, 2017 show, SLOW LIKE A BRUISE, QUICK LIKE HUNGER at THE PLAYGROUND.
Article 03
Dives, Jackie. “Behind the Lens with Jackie Dives.” Catchlight, 24 Apr 2020.
This article was found on a website called CatchLight, whose mission statement says that they work on “…leveraging the power of visuals to inform, connect, and transform communities.” On their About Us page, CatchLight further elaborates, explaining how they believe:
“…in the power of visual storytelling to foster a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of the world. It serves as a transformational force, urgently bringing resources and organizations together to help grow a thriving visual ecosystem. Our goal is to help support, fund, amplify, create and grow visual storytellers at all levels.”
Jackie Dives opens this question-and-answer piece describing herself as a photographer who explores issues related to identity. For Dives, photography helps her to explore and understand what’s happening in her life and to discover how it impacts her emotionally. In terms of her portraiture, Dives describes how her photographs have, what is known in the world of photography, a snapshot aesthetic - “I try to be as non-invasive as possible, when I’m photographing people, and just encourage them to be themselves.” Specifically, Dives describes how she works to be the kind of photographer that makes people feel seen.
In terms of her photographic self-portraits, Dives notes how she aims for an authenticity that makes room for an honest vulnerability. To this end, Dives notes how her photography has also helped her to work through her own issues surrounding anxiety and depression, saying how, “I really believe that taking photographs keeps me alive.”
Photo 03 Examination
Dives’s 2010 experiment with self portraiture marks a shift from the work she did as a teenager. Formally, this is another untitled colour photographic self-portrait, and the content it contains appears to further explore ideas of depression, as related to loneliness and connection. This image was included alongside the text of the Catchlight article, but information about its size, and whether this was shot with a digital or film camera was not provided. Dives does not that the photo was shot at a photography retreat, where Dives notes:
This is a self portrait I made of myself when I was 25 or 26, which was about a decade ago. I was doing a residency at an art program on Vancouver Island. I was very new to self portraiture at the time, but it is a photograph that I still love a lot. I think it captures the essence of that time in my life.
Contextually, this self-portrait feels much more constructed (or conceptual) when compared to Dives’s teenage self portraits. Conceptual photography is a type of photography that illustrates an idea, symbol, or theme. More specifically, this photograph does not share the snapshot aesthetic found in Artifacts 01 and 02 discussed above (and that’s not to say that snapshots don’t explore ideas, they’re just shot more randomly, without as much forethought into what the result will be).
The central figure in the photograph, Jackie Dives, is draped over a large, thick branch of a fallen, moss covered tree which fills the entire picture frame. Dives is wearing an earth toned dress, that acts as a kind of camouflage, almost making her an extension of the log her body is laying on. The figure is not facing her camera or by extension the viewers of the photograph. Her head is obstructed by the trunk she’s resting on, and only her brown curly locks can be seen being gently pulled by gravity towards the ground. Also, the figure is not stationary. She’s not just laying there, as her left arm looks as if it’s about to either push her upper body up off of the log or it’s possible that it’s supporting the weight of her upper body from falling forward off of the log. Her lower left leg too is being held up, bent at a ninety degree angle. Her right leg is extended straight from her waist and part of her outstretched barefoot is hidden by the green grass.
While Dives is seated against a lifeless tree, she is surrounded by the lush greens of other trees, shrubs and grasses that surround her. The photo has a bit of depth in that there is the layer of grass closest to the front of the picture frame, followed by a second layer containing her and the log she is on. Another layer of living foliage exists behind her, followed by the dark green ripples of a body of water behind that and finally by a rocky shoreline off in the distance, with evergreens forming a solid wall of nature in the back. It’s as if Dives is trying to become a part of the environment around her, struggling a bit to completely let go and be grounded in the present moment. It feels telling that to her right stands an Arbutus Tree, it’s strong satin trunk reaching out towards the sun. The Coast Salish tribes of the Pacific Northwest often use the leaves and bark of the Arbutus to make teas which are said to be able to soothe upset stomachs and sore throats. The tree itself is known to be hardy in the dry, drought like conditions of summer, as well as resilient during the wet, windy conditions of the fall. The skin of the Arbutus is not that dissimilar to the colour of Dives’s hair, and the nude skin of her arm and legs serve as a reminder of how similar she is to the strength of the Arbutus - both are capable of handling any storm.
Article 04
Okoyomon, Adesuwa. Meet the Artist: Jackie Dives. Science World, 31 Aug 2021.
Okoyomon, in her 2021 interview, Meet the Artist: Jackie Dives, conducted for Science World, opens by describing how Dives has been taking photographs since she was eight years old, after her younger brother was born and she “…took photos of him constantly.” But Okoyomon then notes that Dives began her professional practice by offering photography as a part of her work as a birthing doula (which, according to The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, is “…a trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional, and informational support to a mother before, during, and shortly after childbirth, to help her achieve the healthiest, most satisfying experience possible.” And Pampers.ca notes how the term “…doula comes from the Greek word doulē, the meaning of which translates to female helper or maidservant.”). Okoyomon describes how being a doula brought Dives a kind of present minded groundedness to her practice of being a photographer, where Dives describes how “…when someone’s giving birth, you can’t do anything, but just be there. That’s where my sensibilities were honed.”
Okoyomon notes that Dives’s photography has explored the themes of childhood, motherhood, depression, and loss - all of which are touched upon in the show Grief Point, which was on display at Science World in 2021, featuring work Dives created in response to losing her father an accidental drug overdose. In the interview, Dives reveals a lot about how she uses photography as a means of exploring issues and events that impact her life, noting how “I’m the kind of person who heals through taking pictures.” She also notes how she works hard to create photographs that shifts the focus from a sensationalized approach to storytelling to one that focuses more on the emotions, thoughts, and impacts that a dramatic event can have on people. This means moving from capturing very vulnerable moments to moments where people are just free to be who they are and can be authentically seen by Dives and her lens.
Near the conclusion of the interview, Dives describes her photographic process which seems as if it is a kind of empathic listening. Specifically, she notes how: “…my interest is in people: I think that the reason I take pictures is to find common ground. And the way that I find that is through people — people’s experiences, people’s emotions, people’s physicality. For me it’s about connection and being seen. If you can see yourself in imagery that’s out there in the world, then you can feel accepted… When I see photos I can connect to, then I feel okay in the world a little bit.”
Photo 04 Exploration
This photo is a colour conceptual portrait shot by Jackie Dives as a part of her photographic series called Grief Point. It appeared as a digital artifact on the Science World website’s meet the artist profile about Dives and her show. There is no written information about this particular photograph (it’s size, where it was shot, or who specifically is in featured in the photo) on the Science World website or on Dives’s own websites that I could find, but from the meet the artist profile, we know that the subjects appearing in this series of photographs are individuals who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses.
This photo is also significant in that it’s the first photo being examined here that isn’t a self portrait. It’s location feels as if it might be a dyke in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, although it could be located at any single part of the Metro Vancouver region.
There are five distinct layers in this photo which create both physical and emotional depth. The main figure is holding a child, and stands closest to the camera. Her eyes are closed and she has a slight smile of comfort on her face. The child is looking directly at the camera, and by extension the viewers of the photograph. Their positioning makes one wonder who they lost. Was it the woman’s partner? Is the woman and the person she lost the guardians of the child? A gravel path winds it’s way towards the left of the picture frame, to a tree with a trunk that splits in two, leading up into luscious foliage. The two trunks stand parallel to the two figures, they mirror each other and the female figure mirrors the peace and strength of the solitary tree. Behind that, a third layer, consisting of an unknown body of water which meets a body of land that lies along the horizon which meets a slightly overcast sky, which could be representative of the hazy fog that has hung over the female figure since the passing of her loved one due to an accidental overdose.
Article 05
Godlevskis, Rita. Blurred Lines: Art, journalism, documentation, and undeniable subjectivity: a conversation between photographers Jackie Dives and Kate Schneider . PhotoEd Magazine, Fall 2022.
Rita Godlevskis, in her article Blurred Lines: Art, journalism, documentation, and undeniable subjectivity, interviewed Jackie Dives alongside Kate Schneider. Within the conversation, Dives describes how a lot of her work explores events and situations that happen directly to her in her life. Ultimately, the stories she tells in her photography have to make sense to her.
In working on her conceptual photographic portrait series, Grief Point, featuring people who have lost loved ones to overdoses, Dives describes how she developed a process that leverages social media to let the world know about the topic she’s exploring through portraiture. She then waits until people approach her to be a part of the series, which helps turn the process into more of a collaborative effort as opposed to when she would directly ask someone if they wanted to be photographed, as Dives says, “When you ask someone for their portrait, you’re automatically changing the power dynamic.”
Dives also discusses how she has a clear definition about what she will and will not do as a photographer today. Dives has no interest in capturing the sensational. An addict shooting up, for example, is the kind of sensationalized image that she’s not interested in capturing. Dives is firmly against the kind of “…if it bleeds, it leads” mentality that often pervades the world of journalism today. She explains how she works hard to cultivate empathy and understanding with the subjects she works with, be they with other people or herself. Ultimately, Dives reveals that her primary goal with any photographic project is to create images that reveal the stories behind her subjects. Finally, Dives challenges the notion that journalism has to be objective. Dives feels that it’s impossible for their to be boundaries between journalism, advocacy, and activism as the primary goal for her is to remain truthful to the story being told.
This last photo is another conceptual colour photographic portrait by Dives as taken for inclusion with her Grief Point photography series. A photo series is a collection of images that are linked by a concept, idea, or theme. They are also shot and edited in a similar style with the intention that the photographs be shown together.
This particular photo appeared as a part of the PhotoEd magazine interview with Dives and Kate Schneider. There is no written information about this particular photograph (it’s size, where it was shot, or who specifically is in featured in the photo) in the PhotoEd article, or on Dives’s own websites that I could find, but from the PhotoEd article, we do know that the subjects appearing in this series of photographs are individuals who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses.
