"Natasha Caruana’s series of photographs, ‘Married Man’ documents occasions when the artist arranged ‘dates’ through dating websites designed for married men to conduct affairs. She photographed each man, concealing their identity, but also recorded them secretly using a digital recorder hidden in a red purse seen in several of the pictures. Caruana asks why the ‘dates’ are willing to put their legally binding relationships at risk, as well as what an artist’s ethical responsibilities should be.
Like Phil Collins, Caruana’s work also asks what the ethics and politics of a ‘documentary’ mode of working are assumed to be. ‘Married Man’ might be thought of as almost a thematic negative of Cindy Sherman’s work: the desiring male subjects’ expectations and fantasies of womanhood are exposed, rather than the range of roles which women are asked to adopt.
The artist asks us to behave like a detective when looking at each photograph, searching for clues about the situations. In one, a man pays for a meal in cash- so that no evidence is left for his wife to discover, an old battered table in a tired pub suggests the ‘date’ has little concept of romance. In a third, which looks like a domestic setting, 1970’s style pineapple rings adorn the artist’s plate of food. The photographs were taken on a cheap disposable camera rather than professional equipment, so all the images are intentionally grainy and loosely composed, but each has been carefully printed by hand."
Alistair Robinson, Curator. The Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.
(http://natashacaruana.com)
(http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/project/1936264/natasha-caruanas-married#ixzz1hBK1h2dK)
"Caruana went on dates with 80 married men over the course of two years, grabbing clandestine photographs of them with a disposable camera and recording their parting shots with a Dictaphone hidden in her purse. On one level a typology of adulterers, it’s also a complex investigation into the boundaries of trust, deception and betrayal.“The whole thing is ethically questionable – I’m taking pictures of a private moment, but then they’re putting themselves online [to find a mistress], and they’re cheating on their domestic lives,” says Caruana. “But what happens when I put the images on a gallery wall or in a book? That’s when the audience starts to question the morality of the whole thing, and that’s where it becomes interesting.“So much depends on what your assumptions are, and what your experiences of affairs are, but I thought a lot about the ethics of it,” she continues. “I bumped into one of the guys a few months after our date, sitting a couple of rows ahead of me in the theatre with his wife. I had to leave. I couldn’t take it at all.”Caruana found the men via three websites that put men in touch with prospective lovers in return for a fee. After chatting with them online for a while she’d arrange to go for coffee or a meal, spending an hour or so in their company. At some point she’d fake a reason to take a photograph, remarking on the beautiful flower arrangement or cake, then deliberately include them in the frame.She kept their identities a secret, avoiding photographing their faces and keeping the voice recordings muffled but, even so, it’s the details that fascinate. There are bad-taste jumpers, sad bunches of flowers, missing wedding rings, bills paid with cash and ever-present mobile phones, all in the seemingly banal environment of London cafés and restaurants."
( http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/project/1936264/natasha-caruanas-married#ixzz1hBOy2eHq)
MM: I've no idea yet
Me: Okay, fine I just wondered
MM: Who knows yet... but its fun right
Me: Okay good
MM: 'Cause is fun, 'cause it's fun right…. It needs to be fun.
Me: [Laugh]
MM: No, but it just needs to be fun.. its erm…I mean it can't… erm.. there's a finite amount of time I've got… that erm... you've got…and I've probably got more than you at the moment… 'cause I've got, I've got slightly more control over my….. erm….situation. Ok Give me a kiss... Mmmp..
Me: Bye…I'll see you later
MM: Yes very much later by the sound of it… I mean bloody hell!
Over the course of five months I went on thirty one dates, never really being able to take more than a couple of images at a time to ensure my married dinner date did not get suspicious of me. This series is a final edit from around eighty images, representing these encounters.
The imagery is created using a disposable camera. This use of the snapshot connotes a sense of something being recorded that shouldn't be seen, hurried moments of an unfinished meal, an empty seat or an obvious gesture of anticipation. I required the images to represent a poetic realism, not wanting the shots to be too formally constructed; allowing them to be loose and be true to the essence of the captured scene.
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