Book Review: "Dairy Character" by Odette England
From photographer Odette England, Dairy Character is her third photobook, beautifully published by Saint Lucy Books. In a description direct from the publisher:
"Dairy Character is a loose chronicle of Odette England's experience growing up on a rural dairy farm in southern Australia. Combining recent photographs, family snapshots, archival images, and autobiographical short stories, England examines the male-dominant farming community in which she was raised and the gendered repression that rural females experience. Her images and texts evoke a girl introduced to reproductive labor at an early age. A girl who wanted a pink room. A girl fenced in by interconnecting forms of vulnerability. A girl who had a cow named after her."
What? A young girl has a cow named after her? Who does that, and what does it say?
I grew up in a big city and was fed a steady diet of Green Acres on television (and where the pig was named after a man - look it up) as a youth, so any authentic knowledge of farms or farming came much later but is still mostly a mystery to me. The one thing I do know more than anything is that it has always seemed male-dominated to me, with women filling the supportive role of taking care of children and making meals for men at the end of the day. Now, I'm not saying this is some History of Farming reading, but England does a beautiful job setting the stage with her words and then illustrating it with her photographs. This is a personal journey, critically examined.
The ideas of femininity and masculinity have been based upon unwritten rules where you were told how to act and what the parameters of your role in life should be. Gone is the ability to learn and grow and simply be yourself; however that might turn out. Male-dominated society, and especially that in a rural setting, has most certainly done precisely that - dominate. Finding and identifying yourself in its midst is clearly necessary but not the easiest of tasks. England's story creatively illustrates the issues and struggles experienced during her early years, once the ability to put hindsight into play had become evident. Her love of the place where she grew up is still indisputable, as the nostalgic pull has clearly brought her back to document this land. Sometimes tricky, sometimes amusing, and always heartfelt.
While it is clear that analog film photographs appear throughout the book, I will tell you that the specifics of such pale in comparison to the story being shown - the nuts and bolts of how and what though - not so necessary. Vintage photographs and Polaroids make some appearances, as well as some images punctuated by the heaviest of added dot-grain, for effect. The aesthetic boils down to creative choices through image-making, not to mention sequencing and layout design - all of which build upon one another to great success.
Indeed, I find the imagery intriguing, but the writing from England shares the spotlight in this book. Her descriptive writing style keeps the reader engaged and, more often than not, sparks the memories of my upbringing far from the life she experienced. It's an interesting comparison from such different worlds, but with some universal themes and ideas running rampant throughout. I was also forced to face the facts about how being male in society has often handed me the things that women often struggle to achieve. Gender roles are changing and evolving, but perhaps not as fast or dramatically as they should. Dairy Character wins the day in bringing these emotional truths to the forefront.
One important note about Dairy Character from a design perspective. England, designer Cara Buzzell, and Saint Lucy Books have released a photobook rendered as if it was cut from the earth on the land it illustrates. A heavy fiberboard cover with tactile pages, black and white, and subdued color images are expertly sequenced from beginning to end. An immense amount of thought and experimentation has created a photobook of stunning beauty.
So here's what I find valuable in experiencing this book from a personal perspective. Did I learn anything? Do I know more about the topics covered in this book than I did before, and am I better off for it? The answer is an unequivocal and resounding yes! Exclamation point firmly placed. Dairy Character is a photobook that I will proudly display in my collection and one that I believe I will be pointing to other photographers as a prime example of many of the things that make such a book grand - narrative, sequencing, design, and the marriage of photographs and the written word. Brilliant.
Dairy Character by Odette England
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 188 pages
Edit + sequence: Odette England and Cara Buzzell
Book + cover design: Cara Buzzell
Release Date: Fall 2021
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-578-87587-3
Dimensions: 9 x 6.75 inches
Publisher: Saint Lucy Books
Available for purchase via Odette England’s Website and Saint Lucy Books!
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Michael Kirchoff is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass, and has reviewed portfolios for the Los Angeles Center of Photography’s Exposure Reviews, PhotoNOLA, and CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews, and a Contributing Editor for the column, Traverse, at One Twelve Publishing. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR Magazine.
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