Finding Her Place | Brie Castell

Books and literature have always played a role in my work, but never so much as this. In Finding Her Place: Sixteen Chapters, the camera is a book, and so are the photographs. It all begins with an actual book, Finding Her Place, written by Howe Benning in the late 19th century. The publisher, the Religious Tract Society (founded in 1799), was a major British publisher of Christian evangelical literature. This literature, in the form of tracts, periodicals, and books was most of the time aimed at children, women, and the poor.

The first step in this body of work was to transform the original book into a pinhole camera. This idea of actually using the book as camera is essential to the overall concept. Each image is made one at a time on black and white 4x5 sheet film, and exposures range roughly from two to four minutes. Images are shot in a vertical format, making reference to a book page. All sixteen chapters are represented: the first and last chapters with a single silver gelatin image, and the middle chapters as fourteen silver gelatin diptychs which are hand-sewn. This sequencing creates the illusion of a visual “book” on the wall.

Inspiration was predominantly found in the book title and the major titles within. Allowing these titles to influence the imagery, I use personal experience, emotion, and memory as an intuitive element, as well as the idea of place in a social and religious context.As a woman, an artist, and a business owner, I often wonder and reflect on the idea my own “place.” Should a person accept one’s “place,” or is it acceptable to strive for more? Who creates this “place”? Does God? Benning suggests that we should be “content just as and where we are,” and writes, “Your ‘place,’ my dear, is where God leads you. That is His choosing, His appointing...”

Process also plays an enormous role in the concept. The camera is inefficient, faulty, and restrictive. Sheets of film must be loaded into the book/camera one at a time using a darkbox, and the exposures are lengthy. This process is reflective of the flaws of being human, and the failures which are a part of life, and the restrictions relating directly to the restrictions of human existence, and being female.

FindingHerPlace_1 Books and literature have always played a role in my work, but never so much as this. In Finding Her Place: Sixteen Chapters, the camera is a book, and so are the photographs. It all begins with an actual book, Finding Her Place, written by Howe Benning in the late 19th century. The publisher, the Religious Tract Society (founded in 1799), was a major British publisher of Christian evangelical literature. This literature, in the form of tracts, periodicals, and books was most of the time aimed at children, women, and the poor. The first step in this body of work was to transform the original book into a pinhole camera. This idea of actually using the book as camera is essential to the overall concept. Each image is made one at a time on black and white 4x5 sheet film, and exposures range roughly from two to four minutes. Images are shot in a vertical format, making reference to a book page. All sixteen chapters are represented: the first and last chapters with a single silver gelatin image, and the middle chapters as fourteen silver gelatin diptychs which are hand-sewn. This sequencing creates the illusion of a visual “book” on the wall. Inspiration was predominantly found in the book title and the major titles within. Allowing these titles to influence the imagery, I use personal experience, emotion, and memory as an intuitive element, as well as the idea of place in a social and religious context.As a woman, an artist, and a business owner, I often wonder and reflect on the idea my own “place.” Should a person accept one’s “place,” or is it acceptable to strive for more? Who creates this “place”? Does God? Benning suggests that we should be “content just as and where we are,” and writes, “Your ‘place,’ my dear, is where God leads you. That is His choosing, His appointing...” Process also plays an enormous role in the concept. The camera is inefficient, faulty, and restrictive. Sheets of film must be loaded into the book/camera one at a time using a darkbox, and the exposures are lengthy. This process is reflective of the flaws of being human, and the failures which are a part of life, and the restrictions relating directly to the restrictions of human existence, and being female.