That silent, invisible, porcelain monument, Glossy and sculpted and made in our curious form. Shaped to fit its one particular function. Closeted away behind its own door, it exists on a social divide, on its own turf unlike anything else in the world. From across the room, it is furniture, necessary and ungainly. But from upon, the dynamic changes. Its awkward and humorous surface is broken, its urgent service availed, and what is revealed!?


Welcome to the blog of Sitters. The project is a study through portraiture of the most unifying of all themes human, the toilet. This project is all about revealing the hidden. There could scarcely be a ritual so ancient or emblem of civilisation so indelible, that is less acknowledged. Its function is the function of the human body, an age old marriage.

Yet it is difficult to visualise. We can hardly recall the where and when of our life's visitations let alone the events that surround them (except for the unspeakably extreme). For something so common, so universal, it is unmatched in its unfamiliarity. It is private, closed and altogether invisible. The aim of Sitters is to show the toilet and its inevitable role as who we are. The project flushes out the taboo and restraint that surrounds the subject and plumbs the small entitlements we take for granted. That's all the toilet jokes i promise.























Thursday 27 January 2011

Thinking ahead

For a project of this kind, there is a lot to be said for planning. 

 Elliot Erwitt

The main planning is pretty broad and requires a lot of leg work. So far i have needed to find toilets and approach their owners. This has taken me all over the city, to bars and cafes, into museums and universities as well as the public toilets of the city. Asking for permission is a whole other mission, and a simple no means going right back to the drawing board. The second leg of the planning is finding my lovely sitters. Here i have decided to ask those i know personally so there is already a link of trust.

However, I could have everything organised and still mess it all up. There is a third type of planning to be mentioned. This is visual planning. Finding and taking inspiration from images from all kinds of sources. You can imagine the difficulty in finding images that show exactly the kind of photos i want to take. For research it is a big ask to discover images of toilets blended equally with portraiture. In fact, you really dont want to be getting your hopes up too much from a Google search.

But that is really exciting, knowing there is nothing else out there like what you are trying to do. And inspiration can be taken from anywhere, especially for portraiture. Magazines and books are a start. Films are an overwhelming motivation. Photographers and photography is so embedded online there is such an infinite source of imagery to absorb. Images from all purposes and all eras can give great leverage to idea's of format, colour, framing, lighting and stylisation. It just so happens, i've been pretty lucky on the toilet front too...


 Jo Metson Scott

 Alias Johnny Stiletto

 Venitia Scott

 Elliot Erwitt

 Nick Waplington

 Jeremy Cowart

 Gary Salter
 
 Richard Billingham

 Sarah Lucas

 Sarah Lucas
Mario Testino

Yulia Gorodinski

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