In his previous work, Simon Fujiwara has presented versions of his own public persona and autobiography in a manner that is disconcerting and amusing. The subject of his latest film, Joanne (2016), is the artist’s former art teacher, and the resulting video and large advertising-styled photographs are as disconcerting as the mistreatment of the female subject, which is the starting point of the exhibition. While a pupil at the elite Harrow public school, Fujiwara formed a bond with Joanne Salley, a young Irish woman who was viewed as an outsider amongst the staff in the same way Fujiwara was measured by his fellow pupils. This friendship influenced his decision to focus on art, but the two lost touch until Salley became the subject of media attention when her topless pictures circulated via email between the students at Harrow, costing the teacher her career. Attempting to rebuild her life, Salley found support in Fujiwara, who began documenting her efforts to regain control of her own image.

The historic actions of women artists to reclaim control of their narratives has long been a major theme of feminist art, as documented in the excellent exhibition of work from the Verbund collection Feminist Avant–Garde of the 1970s, showing alongside Joanne at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. However, there is a discomfort present at both shows, a sense that nudges us to ponder the consequences and current state of that period of activism. Instinctively, one feels sympathy for Salley’s predicament. As a victim of exposure that would challenge anyone’s capacity for trust, she makes a final attempt to deploy the same strategies of image manipulation that cost her so much. Fujiwara observes that Salley, as a woman in her late 30s, is part of the last generation to come to adulthood before the expansion of web and digital media. In the film, Salley outlines her personal qualities and prosaic achievements, such as her marathon running and charity work, in hopes of negating the smear on her reputation, but is frustrated that she cannot shake off the label of “Topless Teacher.” The video reveals that a teenage Salley was a beauty queen, which also carried some negative connotations, but that was something she managed to set aside. (In fact, on her Instagram profile, her first self-assigned label—if the account is indeed managed by Salley—is “Beauty Queen.”)

Simon Fujiwara’s “Joanne” is on view at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, until January 29, 2017.

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