Jo Spence

Self-portraits about her own fight with breast cancer, depicting various stages of her breast cancer to subvert the notion of an idealised female form, inspired projects in 'photo therapy', a means of using the medium to work on psychological health.

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is photography. Work by Jo Spence is recorded in the collections of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Tate, MACBA Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Hessel Museum of Art and J. Paul Getty Museum.

• Name — Jo Spence • Born — 15 June 1934 • Birthplace — London, United Kingdom • Died — 24 June 1992 • Place of death — London, United Kingdom • Field — Photography

Jo Spence was born on 15 June 1934 in London to working-class parents. Both of her parents worked in factories, and she left school at the age of 13. She later attended a secretarial college, and, in the 1950s, she became a secretary in a photographic studio.

Spence started off as a wedding photographer and ran a studio from 1967–1974. Soon afterwards, she began documentary work in the early 1970s, motivated by her political concerns. Both a socialist and feminist, she worked to represent these issues through her practice of photography, first as a founding member of the Hackney Flashers (1974), a collective of broadly feminist and socialist women who produced exhibitions such as 'Women and Work' and 'Who's Holding the Baby'. She was subsequently active in establishing the Photography Workshop (1974), a group focused on education and publishing, including its Camerawork magazine (1976–1985), along with the socialist historian of photography Terry Dennett (1938-2018), with whom she continued to collaborate for the rest of her life. In 1974 Dennett and Spence made a series of documentations in sound and image of Roma people and Travellers whom they befriended in 'illegal' encampments in the London area. Never exhibited or released in book form, it was only posthumously, in 2025 that 280 images from the project were published in Our Studio Was The World. In 1979, Spence studied the theory and practice of photography at the Polytechnic of Central London with photo theorist Victor Burgin. She gained a first class Honours Degree and moved on from her previous notions of photography, taking greater account of visual semiotics manifested in the medium. With fellow students Mary Ann Kennedy, Jane Munro and Charlotte Pembrey, Spence co-founded The Polysnappers. During the late 1970s and into the early 1980s her work became more focused on themes of domesticity and family life. In a companion piece for Beyond the Family Album, Public Images, Private Conventions she wrote on how she wished to "question [...] who represents who in society, how they do it and for what purpose." In 1982, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After her diagnosis, Spence started to focus on identity, subjectivity, mental and physical health. She rejected conventional therapy and explored holistic therapy and the personal and feminist political dimension of living with cancer. It was through experiencing the effectiveness of using photography in confronting and documenting her hospitalisation and illness that Spence, with Rosy Martin, developed 'photo therapy' in which the subject was empowered to control their image to discover and represent unexpressed or repressed feelings and ideas. By working collaboratively the person in front of the camera was both subject and author of the image. Other collaborators/therapists included Ya'acov Kahn, David Roberts and Dr Tim Sheard. Alongside her photography, Spence maintained a career as an educator, writer, and broadcaster.

• 1973–75: Children's Rights Workshop; documentary • 1979: Beyond The Family Album • 1980: Fairy Tales and Photography, BA thesis, republished 2020 • 1980–82: Remodelling Photo History • 1980–82: The Polysnappers • 1982–86: The Picture of Health? • 1982: Cancer Shock, Photonovel

• 1988–89: Narratives of Dis-ease: Ritualised Procedures, produced with psychotherapist, Dr Tim Sheard • 1989: Libido Uprising, photo therapy works produced with Rosy Martin and Spence's partner David Roberts • 1990: Cultural Sniper, produced by Spence and David Roberts • 1990: Jo Spence in collaboration with Terry Dennett: Collaborative works; Australian tour of Melbourne, Victorian Centre for Photography at the George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne Sept. 27-Oct. 11; Sydney, Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, Oct. 17-Nov. 11; Adelaide, Experimental Art Foundation Nov. 22-Dec. 16. • 1991–92: The Crisis Project: Scenes of the Crime. Unfinished collaboration with Terry Dennett • 1991–2: The Final Project • 1991–92: Metamorphosis • 1992: Hospice Diaries

• Jo Spence and Joan Soloman (Ed.), What Can a Woman Do with a Camera?: Photography for Women, (London: Scarlet Press, 1995) • Jo Spence. Beyond the Perfect Image. Photography, Subjectivity, Antagonism, MACBA Exhibition catalogue, (Barcelona: MACBA, 2005) • Jo Spence: The Final Project. Louisa Lee, editor. Ridinghouse. 2013. * *