Family snaps — The meaning of domestic photography

XVI Forum

Family Snaps - The Meaning of Domestic Photography, edited by Jo Spence and Patricia Holland, Virago Press, London, 1991. LJKcl4.95 pb, pp 250. Memories are made of this - the family'album, the most personal and popular of photographic collections. Parents posed for a formal portrait, children lined up on the beach: snapshots and professional portraits adhere to the accepted rules, and yet they hold secret meanings shared only by an intimate circle. To the outsider, the album may be a social document; to those pictured on its pages, the images may reverberate with complex memories and emotions. In this illuminating and original collection of writings and photographs, as well as photographic essays, twenty-five contributors - among them Wendy Ewald, Rosy Mantin, Annette Kuhn, Valerie Walkerdine, Adeola Solar&e and Val Williams - look at the many and shifting meanings of domestic photography . Among their concerns are the transformation of the family album into narra- tives of community, religion, ethnicity and nation; the consequence of a changing technology on changing images; questions of identity; and photo- therapy as a way of exploring the self. This is a fascinating reading of images, between the lines and against the grain.

Engendering Democracy by Anne Phillips, Polity Press, London, 1991. ~~OPP, md:<b hb UKE9 95 b . . D . _ _. . Democracy is the central political issue of our age, yet debates over its nature and goals rarely engage with feminist concerns. This book reconsiders dominant strands in democratic thinking - focussing on liberal democracy, participatory democracy, and twentieth-century versions of civic republicanism, and approaches these from a feminist perspective. Anne Phillips explores the under-representation of women in politics, the crucial relationship between public and private spheres, and the lessons of the contemporary women's movement as an experience in participatory democracy.

Meantime: Looking Forward to the Millennium: An Anthology of Women's Writing introduced by Janice Galloway. Polygon, Edinburgh, in association with Women 2000, 1991, pp 155, pb UKE6.95. This anthology of prose, poetry, fiction and non-fiction by Scottish women includes selected peices from a writing competition organized by Ann Karkalas for Women 2000 (a voluntary organization of women interested in creating a higher profile and encouragement for women in the Arts in Scotland in the nineties) and essays from wellknown women in the public eye. Contemporary struggles for social, racial and sexual equality are highlighted along with the future of women in education and business. Authors include Rowena Arshad, Kay Carmichael, Anne Smith, Joan Ure, Naomi Mitchison, Liz Lockhead, Alison Cameron, Kathleen Jamie and Elizabeth Burns. A highly readable, informative and entertaining collection.