Another Kind of
Life Story
We look closer at some of the stories behind the photographers and their subjects in our podcast series.
Throughout Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins, with the help of our curators, photographers and a range of speakers, we explored the lives of the individuals and communities operating on the fringes of society.
In a series of three podcasts, we took a closer look at some of the different photographers and their work from the exhibition.
Episode 1:
Casa Susanna
Episode 1: Casa Susanna
In 2003 at a flea market in Manhattan, antique collectors Robert Swope and Michel Hurst discovered an innocuous looking cardboard box containing almost 400 photographic prints taken at a retreat in New Jersey for men who chose to dress as women.
Established in the mid-1950s by male to female cross dresser Susanna Valenti – who features in many of the photographs – and her wife Marie, the resort operated in two locations in upstate New York: Chevalier d’Eon from around 1955 to 1963 and Casa Susanna from 1964 to 1969.
We speak to Another Kind of Life curator, Alona Pardo about the collection of photographs from Casa Susanna. We're also joined by Rhyannon Styles, author of The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is, and Professor Michael 'Miqqi Alicia' Gilbert who share some of their own experiences and responses to the photographs.
'This was the moment at
which the portable camera
becomes part and parcel
of any household. So you know, they are family photos, really.
It's a family album.'
‘She’s almost got that 1950s, Bettie Page look about her…I’m envious that they had this time of their lives, doing this…’
'There's such a strong sense of character in these women and women they are trying to portray and emulate. But we get no sense of what they are beyond Casa Susanna...
What happens when they go
back to their homes?'
Episode 2:
Igor Palmin
and the
Soviet Hippies
Episode 2: Igor Palmin and the Soviet Hippies
We speak to social and cultural historian of the Soviet Union, Juliane Furst and Ilia Rogatchevski, a Russian born, Scotland raised sound artist, as they discuss the subjects of Igor Palmin's photographs documenting the 'Soviet hippy' movement of the 1970s, including interviews with Sergei Bol’shakov, aka Liutik (Buttercup), the focus of Palmin's The Enchanted Wanderer series.
‘You could pretend that you didn’t live in a state that controlled speech and dress code and style of life...’
‘We can liberate ourselves by creating small communities outside of the official structures...’
‘You could be taken from the streets and have your hair cut off just because the police thought that this was the right thing to do’
Episode 3:
Mona's Story
Episode 3: Mona's Story
Dayanita Singh's work operates at the rich intersection of art and documentary photography. Her series of still and moving images of her eunuch friend Mona Ahmed touchingly demonstrate the closeness that can emerge between a photographer and their subject.
Her intimate black-and-white images chart Mona’s life: celebrating her adopted daughter Ayesha’s birthday parties, blessing new born babies, her banishment from the eunuch community and her home in a cemetery in New Delhi.
In this final episode of our 'Another Kind of Life Story' podcast series, we look closer at Mona's story and her relationship with Dayanita Singh. Using extracts from Singh's book, Myself Mona Ahmed, actress Shobu Kapoor brings life to Mona’s email letters to Mr Walter, the book's publisher. These moving readings are accompanied by insight into the life of the hijra from journalist and director, Ila Mehrotra-Jenkins and Another Kind of Life Exhibition Assistant, Charlotte Flint.
Music: Decompress by Lee Rosevere, is licensed under Attribution License; Rasik Balma from Chori Chori (1956), dir. Anant Thakur
In Conversation: Dayanita Singh and David Campany: Join the acclaimed photographer Dayanita Singh as she discusses her practice with writer and curator David Campany on Wednesady 9 May.
'Mona was enormously fiesty.
Whenever they were walking around the streets together, Mona would act as Dayanita's protector.
The pair of them formed a bond.'
'It's the first time I am writing my story, because I know you will write it the way I want it and not add spice to sell...
I am thankful to you, Mr Walter, for telling my truth.
Blessings, Myself Mona Ahmed
'Just look at these images of them dancing - they love it. It's almost like they live out this dream of how it should be...'
Another Kind of Life:
Photography on the Margins
28 Feb—27 May 2018
Touching on themes of countercultures, subcultures and minorities of all kinds, the show features the work of 20 photographers from the 1950s to the present day.
Another Kind of Life follows the lives of individuals and communities operating on the fringes of society from America to India, Chile to Nigeria. The exhibition reflects a more diverse, complex view of the world, as captured and recorded by photographers. Driven by personal and political motivations, many of the photographers sought to provide an authentic representation of the disenfranchised communities with whom they spent months, years or even decades with, often conspiring with them to construct their own identity through the camera lens.
Watch the 'Another Kind of Life' exhibition trailer
Our Another Kind of Life exhibition catalogue is available to purchase from the Barbican Shop.
Credits
Another Kind of Life Story was produced by Tamsin Hughes for Loftus Media
Another Kind of Life is supported by the Sasakawa Foundation, Prohelvetia and our exhibition media partner, AnOther magazine.
Photo: Paz Errazuriz; Evelyn, Santiago, 1983, printed 2017. From the series La manzana de Adán [Adam's Apple], 1983
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