“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” It鈥檚 an adage that dates back to 1666, and today, is used in households across the world. It means that if you鈥檙e trying to win someone over, being kind and pleasant is more effective than being harsh or aggressive. The phrase is also the inspiration beind a new exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey听is a landmark show that brings together 250 works encompassing photography, film, installation and textiles. The title encapsulates Gregory’s approach to art as 鈥減olitical with a small p鈥: her intimate, visually pleasurable and poetic works encourage nuanced, rather than polemical, discussions. The artist is one of the UK鈥檚 most innovative creatives, and since the early 1980s, she has pioneered new techniques and approaches in contemporary photography. Her work explores identity, race, history, gender and societal ideals of beauty, often challenging expectations of how Black or feminist art “should” look. Whitechapel鈥檚 show is the first major survey of Gregory’s artwork, presenting audiences with a unique chance to traverse her forty-year career. Aesthetica caught up with the artist ahead of the show鈥檚 opening, to chat about her practice, how her creative approach has progressed over time and how she hopes to engage with audiences.听
A: This is the first major survey of your work to date. What was it like to look back at your career?听
闯骋:听I鈥檓 one of those artists that never really looks back, I鈥檓 always moving onto the next project. One of the great things about curating this show was being able to see how different creative threads have come together. There are things that you鈥檇 think were completely disconnected that actually have a lot in common. For example,听you may not see听Memory and Skin听as having much to do with听Girl Thing,听but then you realise that the empty clothes or objects that are documented in听Girl Thing听are actually about the body and how it鈥檚 used as a cipher for political thought, like I explore in听Memory and Skin.听When I was making them, I wasn鈥檛 thinking about reflecting everything that was going on around me, but looking back, you realise that you can鈥檛 help but be influenced by the things you hear and how you feel in response to them.听听
A: You鈥檝e been a driving force in photography since the 1980s. Has your approach changed over time?
闯骋:听It鈥檚 become more confident. Technology has changed in so many ways but I still primarily work in analogue, although I do use digital occasionally. One real shift has been in the fact that I have access to so many materials without having to leave my home. Now, I can do my fact-checking from the studio rather than having to fly back to Johannesburg or Yale. In the early days, I couldn鈥檛 do that. When I was making听Memory and Skin,听which was one of my first installations, the premise was to look at the connections between Europe and the Caribbean. I remember I had plans to go off to Cuba and travel about the Caribbean on my own with just a rucksack and my Hasselblad and a sound recorder 鈥 I was met with absolute horror by everyone I told. You didn鈥檛 know anyone and couldn鈥檛 get in touch with people in advance via the Internet. It was essentially like you鈥檇 jumped off a cliff, and nobody would hear from you for months, and then you鈥檇 come back. There was also the assumption that people wouldn’t speak your language, and you鈥檇 move around and meet different people and interview them, without really knowing what the outcome would be. Today, you鈥檇 be able to call someone up on Zoom and have these conversations without having to travel to be with them physically.听
A: The exhibition鈥檚 title comes from the saying 鈥測ou catch more flies with honey than vinegar.鈥 Tell us about what this phrase means to you, and why you chose to it as the name of the show?
闯骋:听My mother used to say that a lot, meaning that if you wanted to get something done, rather than going in gung-ho and putting people off by saying 鈥渢his is the way it should be,鈥 you make it more appealing. My work is quite beautiful and I鈥檓 not ashamed of that. At first, I was a bit worried that I鈥檇 be perceived in a certain way because of it. Now, I think that if you want people to listen to you and take an interest in what you have to say, you need to make it palatable. That way, they鈥檙e far more likely to be curious. They might not want to engage with it, or take the idea on at all, but at least they鈥檒l look at it. Whereas if you create something that鈥檚 more confronting, not only will people not agree with it, but they won鈥檛 consider it at all. It鈥檚 about having a more appealing way to bring people to the table.听
A: Your work often examines power, representation, identity and cultural memory, and you鈥檝e collaborated with communities worldwide 鈥 including in the Caribbean and with the San People in South Africa鈥檚 Kalahari Desert 鈥 to do so. How have these experiences informed your practice?
闯骋:听Trust is the most important part of a collaboration. For many of those I鈥檝e worked with, trust has been abused over many years. It takes a long time to build. We did this through going back to the same location time and again. We also went into archives at different universities to look at the history of how groups like the San People have been misrepresented. Projects become 10 times richer when you join forces.听
A: Can you yell us about your investigation into language 鈥 or, more specifically, the loss of language?
闯骋:听I initially started looking into language as part of my Nestor fellowship. The first project I did was about the endangered language of Silbo Gomero, which is from the island of La Gomera. It was once almost lost, but it鈥檚 been protected and revived, and now it鈥檚 taught in schools. Later, when I was exploring the same concept in the Caribbean, one of the places I went to was Panama. There鈥檚 a community in Panama City who speak English. This was really curious to me because they identify themselves as being different from the people of African descent who moved to Panama after emancipation in the Caribbean islands. They鈥檝e held onto this very Victorian English, and talking to them, they鈥檙e very proud of the fact that they speak the language, even though it鈥檚 completely frozen and very different to how it sounds in other parts of the world. The conversations I had just really stuck with me because there were a community who ended up in Panama because of the canal, which was being built by English-speaking Americans, so they saw no benefit in learning Spanish. Language is completely wrapped up in history and politics.听
A: Let鈥檚 talk about beauty. It鈥檚 a topic that comes up a lot in your work, in series like听Autoportrait, Objects of Beauty听and听The Blonde.听Why do you return to this concept?
闯骋:听Objects of Beauty听was about the fact that women were taking up so little space. I documented items that were associated with being beautiful and the equipment or products people use to make themselves more attractive. These things become curiosities when you put them in isolation. One that sticks out is the corset, which is something that physically restrains you, makes you take up less space in the pursuit of beauty. The whole idea becomes absurd once you look at it from another angle. In terms of听Autoportrait,听that was really about the absence of people who looked like me, or the way these people were presented back when I was growing up. It鈥檚 about erasure and highlighting who has been erased.听
A: In听Girl Thing, silk bras, corsets and handkerchiefs are presented as cyanotypes. Why this technique?听
闯骋:听I studied at the University of Manchester and at that time, there were only three or four photography courses at a degree level. I chose that one because they had a photo science component. I鈥檝e always found it very difficult to choose things, and at the time I was torn between art, social sciences and science, and this felt like it combined all of those things together. I was interested in knowing how the material worked. I took everything out of the library and tried every technique I could 鈥 from potato prints to making my own colours. I was just really curious and that inquisitiveness is something that still drives my work. There was something about seeing the scientific practice of people like Anna Atkins or John Herschel and then putting it into practice that I really liked. I don鈥檛 like to use materials properly, I like to try and abuse things and push them to make them do things that shouldn鈥檛 really do.听
A: Do you have a particular work or series that stands out to you as a favourite?听
闯骋:听I almost feel like all of it is one big work, in a sense, because with each one builds on the previous. It鈥檚 like I鈥檝e been working on the same thing over and over again. There鈥檚 been a lot of failures and things that haven鈥檛 worked, which are just as important because they鈥檙e a lesson.
A: What do you hope visitors take away from visiting the Whitechapel show?
闯骋:听I鈥檓 always surprised when people engage with my work in the way that they often do. I remember when I showed听Memory and Skin听in Bath at the Royal Photographic Society. It was around that time that I had a got in touch with an agent, and I really thought that I wouldn鈥檛 even see me, but they invited me in. At the meeting, the agent said he鈥檇 seen my work and thought it was really beautiful and he pointed out that it didn鈥檛 make him feel like he was to blame for anything. It was interesting to hear because I try and make it so that my work isn鈥檛 about finger pointing, it鈥檚 about bringing issues to light. I think that鈥檚 important. I don鈥檛 want to make you take on my point of view, but I鈥檇 like you to engage with it.听
Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey is at Whitechapel Gallery, London until 1 March 2026:
Words: Emma Jacob & Joy Gregory
Image Credits:
1. Joy Gregory, Kalahari (Magdalena Runs) 2005鈥2010 C-type print 漏 Joy Gregory.
2. Joy Gregory, Autoportrait 1989鈥1990. Silver Gelatin Lith Print 漏 Joy Gregory / Courtesy the artist & DACS.
3. Joy Gregory, Cadiz from the series 鈥楥inderella Tours Europe鈥 1997鈥2001. Fuji Crystal Archive Print 漏 Joy Gregory.
4. Joy Gregory, Autoportrait, 1989鈥1990. Silver Gelatin Lith Prin t漏 Joy Gregory / Courtesy the artist & DACS.
5. Joy Gregory, Manuel Pina (Portraits – from 鈥楳emory and Skin鈥) 1998 C-Type Print 漏 Joy Gregory.
