On her website, I viewed the series ‘If you get married again, will you still love me?’ What a powerful set of images. They take you into the mind of the child – depressing to see.
The caption ‘If you get married again, will you still love me?’ would have been enough for me. It sets the scene and allows my own interpretation. Unfortunately on the website, Boothroyd goes further. She says ‘Rather than alluding to utopian dreams, these photographs portray common relational struggles with disappointment, anger, over-compensation and jealousy.’
Sadly, having read those words I now look at the images searching for disappointment, anger, over-compensation and jealousy.
I feel that the captioning/text needs to give just enough to give me a route into the work. Boothroyd made it a bit too easy for me. That said these are wonderful images that capture the psychology of sad young people.
In contrast, during the OCA interview given by Elina Brotherus she was asked if any of the locations had any particular meaning to her. She refused to answer saying ‘We all read pictures through our own lives. It’s really free for you to feel the way you want about it’. Less is more.
Here are four of the images from Boothroyd’s series with MY captions.
