Where We Belong

Post 16 resource:

Where We Belong: An exploration of photography, friendship and community with Alejandra Carles-Tolra.

By Jon Nicholls, Thomas Tallis School, and Alejandra Carles-Tolra

This resource is inspired by the project and resulting photobook Where We Belong by Alejandra Carles-Tolra. It builds on an existing resource on the Photoworks site. The activities were designed for a workshop with Alejandra and a group of Year 12 photography students at Thomas Tallis School in February 2024 but could easily be adapted for different age groups. The resource is divided into separate parts that are designed to tackle various photographic concepts and additional resources are linked where relevant. These activities could be used with a class in a single (two hour) lesson or over a series of lessons. They could also be used by an individual student in the context of a personal investigation on similar themes.

Alejandra Carles-Tolra is a visual artist, lecturer and facilitator from Barcelona, based in London. What drives her work are questions about our identities and the role the group plays in our search for belonging.

Her work has been exhibited and published internationally at institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery (UK), Finnish Museum of Photography, Wuhan Art Museum (China), PhotoEspaña and the Jerwood/ Photoworks Awards. Her work is also part of private and public collections such as the Arts Council Collection of England and the Col·lecció Nacional de Fotografía of Catalunya (Spain).

As an educator she designs resources, teaches courses and facilitates creative workshops for a range of institutions. She collaborates regularly with non profit organisations running participatory photography workshops for vulnerable communities from diverse backgrounds and is committed to using photography as a tool of empowerment.

Where do we belong, and how can photography help?

The later teenage years and young adulthood are crucial periods of time in which we begin to experiment more self-consciously with our (multiple) identities, develop deep relationships and imagine our futures as independent people. Carles-Tolra is fascinated by this process and her work attempts to both observe and participate in the way particular groups of people negotiate their sense of belonging in society. Consequently, her practice provides an ideal starting point for a lesson, extended activity or scheme of work with photography students at the beginning of their course of study. Building a sense of community in the photography classroom, creating a shared ethic, is vital if students are to contemplate both the harm that photography has done (and continues to do) in the world and the many ways in which it can help. Students need each other both behind and in front of the camera. Collaboration, trust and empathy are crucial elements of a successful classroom environment. This project offers a way to begin to think about belonging in the context of photography.

About the project

Our individual identities are shaped and informed by the groups of like-minded people or communities that we choose to be part of. Alejandra Carles-Tolra’s series Where We Belong is a sensitive exploration of belonging, femininity and escapism through a community of Jane Austen devotees. Over the course of several years, Alejandra photographed the ‘Janeites’, a group of women who are passionate fans of the author Jane Austen. The women come together to dress in Regency clothing, recreate Regency life and celebrate Austen’s work. They visit stately homes, play classical music, attend balls, read poetry out loud and cook recipes from the period. Alejandra’s work is a collaboration with this group of women and the deep connections that they have. The thread that runs through the work is how our individual identities are shaped, informed and empowered by the groups to which we choose to belong. Her images examine the women's relationships, who she photographed interacting in groups and pairs or with dramatic use of lighting, in settings that mix the past with the present.

Throughout this body of work, I am interested in exploring themes of empowerment, escapism and belonging. Can escaping help us belong?

— Alejandra Carles-Tolra

It may seem, at first glance, that photographs of a Jane Austen fan group might be disconnected from the lives of most teenagers. However, these images explore issues and themes that are universal and the very strangeness and specificity of the group's identity in Where We Belong is what helps us get beyond a surface reading to discover the motivations and desires that connect us all to those we care about.

PART ONE: Themes

Activity #1: Where do you belong?

Discuss the following questions related to your sense of belonging and identity:

If you belong to a special interest group/society/team or community of interest, how did you get involved?
How does belonging to this group make you feel?
What do you share and/or do together?
Do you wear any special clothes when you are part of the group? Do you have rules, guidelines or traditions in the group?
What binds the group together?
If you don't belong to a special interest group/society/team or community of interest, what would be your ideal group to join or create?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of being closely associated with a like-minded group of people?

Activity #2: Reading Images

Take a look at the following images from the photobook Where We Belong:

What do you notice about these images? Note down some words or short phrases that suggest possible ideas or themes e.g. costume, touch, relaxation etc.

Note: For the next task it would be useful for each group to have printed images and words.

Match 3 or 4 words with the images you’ve chosen or been assigned from Where We Belong
Place the words on or near the images and photograph the combinations. Discuss

It's important to stress that there are no right or wrong answers or combinations. The activity is intended to stimulate debate and to remind students that:

photographs are polysemic (have multiple meanings) and that the viewer is a participant in meaning making
photographs and words have a subtle and complex relationship

Activity #3: A closer look

Take a really close look at this image from Where We Belong.

What can you see?
Where is the photographer?
How would you describe the camera viewpoint?
What, in your view, is the genre of this photograph?
To what extent do you think this image has been arranged (staged) by the photographer? How can you tell?
Describe the composition (the arrangement of objects within the picture frame). What do you notice?
What ideas or themes can you detect in this picture?
It's likely that the photographer made several different images of this scene. Why might they have selected this one in particular?
What might this particular photograph suggest about the nature of identity?

Activity #4: Responding through making

Choose one word from the previous list
Make a photograph to go with the word

Place the word on top of (or near) the image on your screen (note: this activity works best with phone screens)

Share and discuss
What happens when words and images are placed next to one another?

Encourage students to be brave and instinctive in their interpretations of each word rather than worrying about getting it 'right'.

Threshold Concept #7

The meanings of photographs are never fixed, are not contained solely within the photographs themselves and rely on a combination of the viewer's sensitivity, knowledge and understanding, and the specific context in which the image is seen. The meanings of photographs are never contained solely within the images themselves. A photograph is not the same as the thing photographed.

photographs are wild, indeterminate, multi-layered and unpredictable things, regardless of intentions.

— David Campany

PART TWO: Fact & Fiction

Activity #1: Staged or unstaged?

Photographs are curious types of image. They can seem to be directly related to the 'real' world. Photographs of things look so much like the thing photographed. And yet, we are all now aware of the ways in which photographic images (or pictures that look like photographs) can deceive us.

How do we ‘read’ photographs?

How do we know when to trust a photograph?

What makes a photograph more or less believable?

Does it matter if a photograph is staged or candid?

Take a look at the images below. Again, it would be useful if students had access to small printed versions for the following activity.

Alejandra Carles-Tolra

Perhaps part of the way we feel about the relative trustworthiness of photographs is related to the extend to which we sense the interfering presence of the photographer. In other words, has the photographer staged (arranged/posed) the scene? Does the interference of the photographer affect our understanding of the reliability or documentary value of the image?

Place the images above on a line with STAGED at one end and UNSTAGED at the other. Photograph your spectrum of images and discuss similarities and differences with other groups.

What criteria did you use to decide whether or not you thought an image had been staged?
Did the amount of interference (staging) by the photographer affect your sense of the photograph's reliability or truthfulness?
Could interference also be called collaboration? What difference does this make?
Can a staged photograph be truthful? Are unstaged photographs always reliable? Explain your thinking.

Activity #2: Painting & Photography

Painting and photography are closely related. One of the reasons why photographs are rectangular or square is because they looked like (more familiar) paintings, drawings and prints. Early photographers created deliberately painterly images partly because they wanted the art of photography to be taken seriously and not dismissed as merely copying from nature.

Andrew Wyeth, 'Christina’s World', 1948

Take a look at this famous image:

What can you see?
What kind of image is this?
How would you describe Christina’s posture?
How believable/naturalistic is this image?
How would you describe the world in which Christina lives?
What can we tell about Christina?
How does the image make you feel?

Now, compare and contrast this image with the one below from Where We Belong:

How are paintings and photographs similar?
How are they different?
Why are photographs usually square or rectangular? Why not circular (since this is how light enters the camera)?
What are the differences between a digital and an analogue photograph?
Why might a photographer choose one or the other?

Which of the two images is more believable? Why?

Alejandra Carles-Tolra, from 'Where We Belong', 2023

Photographers have often been influenced (consciously or otherwise) by paintings. Here is another pair of images to consider:

Alejandra Carles-Tolra, from 'Where We Belong', 2023

John Collier, 'The Sleeping Beauty', 1921

Why might a contemporary photographer wish to reference a painting (or other type of image), directly or indirectly, in their work?
Are photographs more or less reliable/believable than paintings?

Threshold Concept #1

Photography has many genres, some of which are borrowed from painting (e.g. still life, portraiture, landscape). Some are special to photography (e.g. photojournalism). Artists/photographers often play with our expectations about genre for creative purposes.

...in the same way that a [film] poster creates an expectation for the film, so a genre in photography - portraiture, landscape, still life, documentary etc. - creates an expectation for the meanings to be derived from that type of photograph. Each genre creates an expectation for particular types of understanding. Whether the photograph gratifies that expectation is another matter.

— David Bate Photography: The Key Concepts

PART THREE: Responding

Activity #1: Responding through making

In Alejandra’s work, the use of different photographic styles is used to blur the threshold between fiction and nonfiction, between past and present. Working in small groups, make the following photographs (in no particular order):

A close-up double portrait featuring at least one hand
A tableau (group portrait) of at least three people sharing an activity e.g. sleeping, talking, eating...
A still life of an item of clothing or object normally kept close to the body (e.g. phone, make-up, keys etc.)
A close-up portrait of a direct gaze (e.g. subject looking into the camera)
An environmental portrait of at least one person walking or running away from the camera
A landscape (e.g. in nature or an urban setting. A space that gives a sense of place)
A tightly cropped group portrait of legs and feet
A photograph of someone taking a photograph
A portrait of someone sitting alone, viewed side on (in profile)

Activity #2: Editing & Sequencing

Print a contact sheet of your images
Cut into separate pictures and arrange in a sequence so that a story/narrative is implied

Agree within your group how you intend the story to be interpreted

Give your image sequence a title

Find or write a short text to accompany your sequence (e.g. a poem, a quotation, found text, an extract from a letter or text message etc.)

Activity #4: Interpreting

Now, visit another group’s image/text sequence and spend some time discussing what it means to you.

Share your interpretations and discuss any similarities, differences and surprises.

Threshold Concept #4

Photography is an art of selection rather than invention. Photography is unlike other visual arts in that it begins with a world full of things rather than with a blank slate. However, photography is also an art of production, not just reflection. It does things to the subjects it represents.

Photographs are not, as is often assumed, a mechanical record. Every time we look at a photograph, we are aware, however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from an infinity of other possible sights.

— John Berger

Some final thoughts:

How can photographs help us feel better connected to other people and the world around us?
Why is it important to slow down when looking at photographs?

Who is responsible for the meaning of a photograph? The maker, the viewer, the distributor...?

Do we need to plan all photographs? OR is it OK to feel uncertain before and after?

How can photography help us explore how we feel about something?

When is it not OK to take/make a photograph?

There are obviously lots of opportunities for extension activities and independent learning inspired by Alejandra's work. For example, here is one student's response to the idea of pairing words and images, a relatively straightforward exercise but one which poses all sorts of questions about vision and intention:

Hopefully, Carles-Tolra's imaginative, collaborative and empathic practice will encourage students to experiment with new ways to explore themes of identity and belonging, questioning the relationship between photographs and truth, playing with costumes and props, words and pictures, researching local groups with whom to collaborate and carefully considering the editing and sequencing of their work.

A huge thank you to Alejandra for collaborating on the creation of the workshop, for sharing her work and spending time with the Year 12 photographers who took part. If you don't yet have a copy of Where We Belong in your school or classroom library, it comes strongly recommended!

Further study

The following photographic artists are all interested in the relationship between identity, community and belonging. Their work might help to develop students' own responses to these themes. Click on each image to view a related resource: