Details

Name

Jo Spence

Brief Biography

1934 - 1992, British / English

Occupation

Artist

Description

Jo Spence was an artist and phototherapist who encountered photography first in the 1950s and 60s. She opened a commercial studio in 1967 and embarked on a series of radical photographic projects between 1973-1975. In 1974 she formed the Photography Workshop with Terry Dennett and they produced the seminal 'Photography/ Politics One' in 1979. She moved from a traditional, socialist-realist approach to one where she became the subject of each picture. She developed breast cancer in the early 1980s and found herself in conflict with the health industry. In 1984 she invented Photo Therapy with Rosy Martin, combining elements of photography and psychotherapy.
Until her death in 1992, she continued to produce a series of writings, films and photographic projects that confront class, gender and power relationships, through reclaiming her body, her history and her right to disidentify herself from the roles that capitalism created for her.