Red Moon Portraits
These photographs were shot during the making of the film Red Moon Diaries by Liz Banks.
A series of portraits made as part of a collaborative project looking at some of the thoughts and feelings of women ageing through their menopause. They reflect how this change can create feelings of confusion, fragmentation, and frustration and often, especially in the western world, of increasing invisibility.
Red Moon
Liz Banks is a filmmaker and senior lecturer in photography and moving image at UWE (University of the West of England). Her practice merges documentary and fiction and explores themes of identity and memory within the personal and public space. The film Red Moon Diaries draws on the personal diaries and performances of 10 women across Bristol to explore their inner thoughts and feelings during the menopausal years.
Deborah Weinreb is an artist and photographer. This series of portraits, shot during the making of the film, portrays the unsettling effects of passing through the menopause. They reflect how this change can often create feelings of confusion, fragmentation, frustration and invisibility. www.dwphotoart.co.uk
Valerie Bowes is a Bristol based fine artist with work in many private and public collections. This series of sketches was created during the filming of the readings of Red Moon Diaries. They were drawn with the use of Valerie’s left hand as her right wrist was broken and in a sling.
Dob Dob Dob is the artistic umbrella of Sarah-Jane Dobner, a Bristol-based musician and writer. Projects range from articles to albums to poetry and plays, commonly on the themes of women, love and landscape. A New Currency: is a sound piece on the theme of Older Single Women. www.dobdobdob.co.uk
Many thanks to all the women, and men, that have given their time and energy to the making of the works.
The event is launched with talks by Estella Tincknell and Mwenza Blell
Estella Tincknell is Associate Professor in Film and Culture at UWE. She has published widely on gender in popular media and is the co-editor (with Dr Josephine Dolan) of the collection, Ageing Femininities, Troubling
Representations (2012). Most recently she has written about Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey, and two star studies on Hattie Jacques and Goldie Hawn. Presentation : Women Ageing and the Media.
Mwenza Blell is a Teaching Fellow in Anthropology at Bristol University with interests in Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Medical
Anthropology. Presentation : What changes when you go through 'The Change'? Cross-cultural experiences of menopause.
CMIR UWE