The experience of visuality and socially engaged practice

‘The experience of visuality and socially engaged practice’ by Anthony Luvera is an invited contribution to the special issue of Visual Studies, 'The Visual Studies Questionnaire: What is Visual Studies Today?' Framed around a set of eight questions, the Visual Studies Questionnaire is an exercise in reflexivity and future signalling for the field of Visual Studies and its affiliated disciplines. Luvera’s response takes the form of a critical reflection on the artist’s own practice-led research as a means to consider the intersection of ontological readings of visuality in the fields of visual studies and socially engaged practice

She / Her / Hers / Herself

She / Her / Hers / Herself (SHHHS) is a practice research project employing socially engaged methods to co-create a representation of the lived experience of gender transition. Co-created with a trans-woman living in Northern Ireland, Sarah Wilson, SHHHS was commissioned by Belfast Exposed, premiering at the Belfast Exposed gallery (02/02/23 – 18/03/23), with a preview of the research in the Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings at Stormont (10/10/18 – 19/10/18). The exhibition at Belfast Exposed received the largest audience figures in its 35-year history, and was featured in esteemed publications including Vogue, Source, Visual Artist Ireland Newsheet, Irish News, and British Journal of Photography. Anthony and Sarah first met through the making of Let Us Eat Cake - a collaborative body of work created by Luvera and LGBTQ+ people from across Northern Ireland - exhibited at Belfast Exposed in 2017. During this time, Sarah began to accept her own trans identity. When Let Us Eat Cake culminated with an exhibition (11/11/17 – 20/12/17) and publication, she and Luvera continued to work together to document her experience of gender transition. This collaboration evolved to form the basis of SHHHS, combining several approaches to telling Sarah’s story, including vernacular photographs created by Sarah; portraits co-created by Anthony and Sarah; a three-screen video piece; and a sculpture which serves as a nail bar for audience members to receive manicures by Sarah. SHHHS charts wide-ranging changes in Sarah’s life as she establishes a career as a beautician, passes various personal milestones, and lives day-to-day while learning to express her true self. SHHHS is a portrait not only of Sarah’s experience of gender transition, the work also represents the evolving expression of Sarah’s femininity set against the social construction of what it is to be female in the contemporary world. The research also addresses and highlights key issues faced by transgender people on a daily basis relating to health and community cohesion which are largely under-represented and misunderstood. <br/

Construct

Construct is a practice research socially engaged photography project created by Anthony Luvera between 2018 and 2022, in collaboration with people who have experienced homelessness in Birmingham. Construct was commissioned by GRAIN Projects, in partnership with SIFA Fireside.Over four years, Luvera was embedded within the support services of SIFA Fireside, Birmingham’s main day centre for homeless and vulnerably housed adults. The artist began by working in the kitchen, preparing and serving meals, before inviting participants to explore photography through regular meetings and workshops. Over 50 people took part, using disposable cameras and camera-phones to document their experiences. Throughout the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, Luvera continued working with participants by online platforms, post, telephone, and email.Participants were also invited to make a self-portrait for the artist’s ongoing series, Assisted Self-Portraits. To create an Assisted Self-Portrait, Luvera meets each participant in locations that are important to them, to teach the individual how to use digital medium format camera equipment with a tripod, handheld flash, cable shutter release, and laptop. The final portrait is selected by the participant.From the 14th of September to the 13th of October 2022, Construct was exhibited in the public realm in Snow Hill Square and Snow Hill Train Station in central Birmingham. 21 portraits were displayed on bespoke sculptural structures in Snow Hill Square. Photographs documenting the creation of the assisted self-portraits and images made by the participants were shown in Snow Hill Station. Construct was a keynote exhibition at The Northern Eye International Photography Festival in Colwyn Bay, Wales from the 7th to the 31st of October 2023. In January 2024, the work, Assisted Self-Portrait of Mauvette Reynolds from Construct won the prestigious Portrait of Britain award by the British Journal of Photography in partnership with JCDecaux UK. Anthony's winning image was featured across the United Kingdom throughout January 2024 on digital screens in bus shelters, rail stations, shopping centres, beside roads, and at Heathrow Airport. Additionally, the work was featured in Portrait of Britain Vol. 6 published by Bluecoat Press.A full publication of Construct, featuring contributions by Joseph Anderton (Birmingham City University) and Halima Sacranie (University of Birmingham), is scheduled for release in March 2024, published by GRAIN Projects.<br/

Residency: assisted self-portraits Belfast

The artist over a 16 month period in Belfast, Northern Ireland met with and encouraged those who have experienced homelessness to take photographs of themselves and/or places of interest to them. The result is a series of large-format assisted self-portraits, landscape images of Belfast and documentation of Luvera’s working practice through photographs and production polaroids