Sian Davey

Looking for Alice is the most accomplished and profound series produced by Sian Davey. Alice is Davey's daughter who was born with down syndrome, she saw her as being "no different to any other little girl or human being". She started photographing Alice when she was a year old. She says in her preface, "photographing her in the context of our family over the last three years has been and still is an extraordinary experience and one I feel deeply passionate about."

"Early on in pregnancy my partner and I were told we had a high probability that were were carrying a baby with Down's Syndrome. Despite this, I was not prepared for how I would respond after Alice was born and diagnosed. Alice did not feel like my other children and part of my response was to pull away from her. I was fraught with anxiety that rippled through to every aspect of my relationship with her. My anxieties penetrated my dreams. On reflection I saw that Alice was feeling my rejection of her, and that caused me further pain. I saw that the responsibility lay with me: I had to dig deep into my own prejudices. The result was that as my fear dissolved, I fell in love with my daughter. We all did."

The figures in 2015 in the UK told us that 92% of Down's syndrome babies were terminated at the pre-natal screening stage of the pregnancy.

She finishes her preface with a brief explanation of how photographic Alice invites us as a society to reflect on our relationship with 'difference' of all kinds. She says:

"Ultimately, this is also a story about love and what gets in the way of that. The process of photographing this work helped me to shine a light on why I struggled to love her, which was essentially fear and uncertainty. Alice has been a huge part of the process, guiding me to what needed to be expressed. I always knew she loved me, it was never about that, it was always about me needing to fall in love with her - which I did. She is in the middle of everything that we all do now as a family and is loved unconditionally, as it should be."

Information can be found at: http://www.siandavey.com/humannature
Images can be found at: http://www.siandavey.com/humannature

Statement of Intent

'This is an Open Brief, what you propose is of course down to you, but note that in preparation for this assignment it it vital that you explore how other photographers have examined similar themes and, where appropriate, acknowledge their work in your own Critical Journal (my blog).'

Uncle Mark
My uncle Mark comes from a family of 6 children in which he was the second to youngest child, they were a loving family, they all grew up together under the same roof and had loving parents. My uncle Mark was the only child out of the 6 to be born with Down Syndrome. 

Down syndrome is a condition where a child is born with an extra chromosome and within DS there are different levels of severity. Some people with down syndrome can communicate freely with the people around them, however, in my uncle Marks case he can only communicate through sign language/makaton and partial speech.

When my uncle was born it was during a time where DS wasn't understood in the way that it is today so my nan was asked if she wanted him to be taken away and put into a home, to which my nan firmly replied "no, he is my son and I will look after him and love him the same as all of my other children." My nan was told that his life expectancy would not exceed 25 years of age, he is now 56 years old. Since day one he grew up being treated exactly the same as his brothers and his sister.

He lived at home with his mum as his carer until she passed away on the 7th of February 2006. My nan had felt unwell and had booked for my uncle Mark to stay at a care centre that he often went to a few times a year for respite. A week after he was booked into the respite, two members of staff, that knew Mark best, took him up to the hospital so that he could be with the rest of his family when they were saying their final farewells to their mum, nan etc. Using illustrations they were able to explain the process leading up to her funeral service and burial, because of this, he responded very well on the day of the funeral.

He remained in the respite centre for a further 2 years whilst we arranged for him to be moved into a more permanent home; he moved into his new home in 2008 but unfortunately it was forced to close after 6 years. He has been at his new home for 5 years this year.

Since the passing of his mum, Marks character has developed and changed more as an individual rather than being in the shadow of his mum. His mum cared for him in her own way and she did what she felt was best to suit his lifestyle. A specific comparative change that we have noticed is that when he was living at home with his mum, the family never went on holidays. Nowadays, my uncle Mark not only goes on holidays abroad but he also has his own independence such as having his own passport, bank account and he is living in his own space where he can grow and develop as a person in an environment that is best suited to his nature.

Project Proposal
Throughout the research section of my project I will be looking into Down Syndrome within the different areas of the media such as Sian Davey's photographic series 'Looking For Alice', Daniel Laurie's character 'Reggie' on the hit TV show Call the Midwife and any other parts of the media that show the acceptance of DS in todays society. 

In my project I will be predominantly using a digital camera but I will also be taking my instax camera with me every time I go to visit him so that he can use the medium of Photography to take photographs of the people that are most important to him and so that he can capture the parts of his life that he wants to record/remember. Throughout the time that I spend with him, I want to explore my uncle Marks life from a personal perspective with the aim to gain a better understanding of the acceptance of Down Syndrome within todays society.