Niamh Tiernan

Help!

This project began as an exploration of the relationship between a performer and the audience. Initially, the intention was to film a live performance where the focus was entirely on the audience. Due to the restrictions implemented because of the coronavirus pandemic, the filming was not possible. What emerged alternatively, was a montage of audio performances pieced together with still and moving images, and a Zoom recording of a performance with two actors. The narrative of the work made with Zoom examines a performer's relationship with the audience, exposing the performer’s inner dialogue with himself and the crippling self-doubt which engulfs him. There is a tension present, arising from the illusion of what is presented to the audience and the struggle of the performer to produce and maintain it. This invokes Brecht’s ideas on theatre and separation in his theory of Verfremdungseffekt.

My dissertation examines debates surrounding the ethics and politics of documentary photography and photojournalism and the reasons why photographs of violence and suffering are perceived as being problematic. I explore how recent critical writing about photography has broadened the scope of analysis beyond the frame of the photograph to include not only the photographer but also the viewer of the image and the subjects photographed. I also question if a more socially conscious practice of photography is a reasonable and viable route to resolving the ethical dilemmas provoked by traditional documentary photography and photojournalism.