Thinking About Photography
Dedicated to expanding our ideas about photography
Photographers and Identity
March 22nd - June 19th, 2024
If you studied photography in school, at some point you were given a “self-portrait” assignment. Back in my college days, there was even the nude self-portrait - that probably gets a bit dicey these days. It’s interesting to think about this assignment and its relevance today. Before the ease of camera phones, it was fairly rare for the average Joe / Josette to take a self-portrait. You stood in awkward groups for family photos. You sat, draped and posed, for school photos. The most control you got was sitting in a cramped Photo Booth, trying to time the flashes. Otherwise, it was all very official and removed.
Los Alamos ID badge, Creative Commons
Hence the relevance of the self-portrait assignments - and for many of us, that was the first time we had complete control over the process. It was my first time using that exotic beast - the tripod - and figuring out that little spring timer on the camera. I don’t know that I really thought of how to go beyond what I looked like…but it felt like new territory. Then along comes the camera phone with its big screen and front-facing lens - and the world shifted. Now a whole generation has grown up having to brand themselves and their lives for the world to consume. So, the impact of the self-portrait assignment has changed - but the relevance remains. The new task for students is learning to redefine the visual language of how they see themselves through the camera’s eye.
Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life, The Broad, 2016, Kehinde Wiley, The Obama Portraits Tour, LACMA, 2021
Exploring that rebranding of identity has been Cindy Sherman’s life’s work. She is probably one of the most well know contemporary artists working with the theme. Starting with her early work, Untitled Film Stills, she created shorthand versions of the types of women we saw in films of the 1950s and 60s. Painter Kehinde Wiley, working in the historic Old Masters tradition, creates visions of contemporary people of color with his luscious use of pattern and saturated colors. Chuck Close’s work is an interesting bridge between the two mediums - using photo-realism techniques to create massive painted portraits. Expanding our ideas about portraiture, Tom Keifer has staged personal items, seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, from migrants and asylum seekers at the US / Mexico border - allowing us to connect with the stories behind each object.
Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt
© Norman Behrendt, all rights reserved
Brave New Turkey
2015 — 2017
Brave New Turkey is a documentation of newly built and state sponsored mosques in a Neo-Ottoman-Style in the urban landscape of Ankara and Istanbul.
Returning Turkey to the glories and origins of its Ottoman past and ending Atatürk’s secular constitution has been one of the primary goals of Recep Erdoğan throughout his long rule of Turkey since 2003, first as prime minister and now as president with growing executive powers. Thanks to the country’s economic boom, between 2010 to 2017, which was driven by cheap capital following the global financial crisis, the AKP, Erdogan`s party, has improved healthcare, urban infrastructure and prosperity, but on the other hand has made control of religious affairs a priority.
The Diyanet, the Directorate for Religious Affairs fulfills this role and helps to legitimize the religious backswing of Turkey since 2010. Originally created by the Turkish state to exercise oversight over religious affairs, is now firmly under the control of President Erdoğan, and has turned into a supersized government bureaucracy for the promotion of Sunni Islam. It caters only to the Muslim population; but it is indifferent to the diversity of Turkish Islam. There are about 15 million Alevis, perhaps three million Shi’a, and over a million Nusayris. And then, 12-15 million Kurds following the Shafi’i and not the Hanafi school.
The Diyanet has become a political instrument for the government to reshape Turkey. It comments on political affairs, advises citizens on religiously acceptable conduct. It is also the main investor for thousands of the newly built mosques in Turkey and abroad. Most of them built in the imperial Ottoman style with their distinctive domes and minarets, following precisely the architectural tradition of Mimar Sinan (1490 - 1588) the master of classical Ottoman architecture. Given the influence that the Diyanet-controlled mosques have on the conservative masses across Turkey, this development is probably both among the most consequential, and among the most unknown, accomplishments of the AKP.
Brave New Turkey reflects this phenomenon as a symbol of change and power that reaches beyond national borders. It is less about architecture in a classical sense, but rather how architecture reflects power and how ideologies are manifested in it. It reflects a newly tied compound of religious and cultural identity, against the backdrop of a constant exclusion of minorities, a reckless fight against those whose convictions are different and an unresolved question of what is Turkish identity?
Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen
© Barbara Hazen, all rights reserved
Memory Keepers
The autumn of life is often more complex in reality. It is a period of life filled with loss and awareness of growing old with the potential for mental illness. My project examines these elements, as two of my family members are afflicted with dementia. I am not focusing on the painful loss of them, but rather on the fear of my own conceivable cognitive illness, and the inevitable solitude and isolation that coincides.
I collect or have saved items that conjure up memories of the past. I am photographing these personal objects and my home surroundings, to document something of my life before I may no longer know their meaning.
For this series I have used the alternative processes Cyanotype over Platinum Palladium printing to give these items the reverence they hold in my heart. Each handmade photograph mirrors the actual object and its memory.
Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
©Kei Ito
© Kei Ito, all rights reserved
I Am A Mutant
I Am a Mutant is an immersive installation consisting of over 200 sun-fused photograms made only from light sensitive paper, marquee letter plates, and sunlight. These unique hybrids of text and imagery became an inescapable monument that symbolizes the inherited generational trauma and my own experience of nuclear tensions of today. The use of marquee letter plates, which are typically deployed to display and inform people of upcoming movies and plays, is not accidental. The divide between reality and fiction is often wide but thin at the same time, especially when it comes to monuments and the past. My superhero-filled childhood is similar to many, my awakening to the horror of such things is more unique, and many still only imagine the spectacle they have seen on the silver screen, not to the elongated tragedy that stretches such events over a long period of time. For these viewers, nuclear weapons and power only exist in the form of a brief mushroom, a flash, and a powerful period of fire and destruction. Then, they leave the theater, their eyes leaving the screen. The damage only exists for how long they can witness the explosion and not the effects it has on the survivors’ genes and the invisible radiation seeping into the very earth.
*Most of the works are “written” vertically, echoing the layout of the Japanese language and demanding more time to read and decipher them for those unaccustomed to the structure.
Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim
© Jung S Kim, all rights reserved
Circle II
Circle II: Identical illusion is a masquerading self-portrait series in search of flawless raw “I” and core identity that delves into my personal journey, drawing inspiration from the complexities of my upbringing and the cultural tapestry that has woven through my experiences.
In the midst of my childhood marked by my parents' divorce, I navigated through the stormy seas of uncertainty, moving from one relative's home to another. This period became a framework through which I observed the application of power dynamics and the contradictions inherent in Confucian values in Korean society. Among these turbulent times, the most profound experience was living with my aunt, a Korean shaman. During the five years of cohabitation with my shaman aunt, the influence of shamanistic Buddhist art stimulated my artistic sensibility and creativity, later becoming a significant motif in the whole Circle series as well as Circle II series. This interplay of personal experiences and cultural critique has molded the series into an exploration of self and a broader societal commentary. A shocking encounter left a lasting imprint on my soul, compelling me to reconstruct these early experiences through photography. This artistic endeavor became a means to transcend personal trauma and delve into the layers of my identity. Drawing inspiration from Korean folk art and props, my work exposes distorted and layered personas shaped by cultural norms and societal boundaries.
The Circle II series is a journey to meet the unadorned, complete, and pure ‘I.’ This series was motivated from the Korean didactic tales and legends, which is "The wicked fall and the good prosper". I replaced different fictional characters in the folklores with myself. The personalities of the characters are reinterpreted from a subjective point of view. So their personalities are intentionally twisted and exaggerated by unnatural beatification, despising caricaturing, maximization of extreme fear and complete identifying. Through the methodology of my disguised self-portrait, I aim to achieve gender equality within myself through the fluid exchange of male and female characters, embodying my belief in bisexuality for everyone. Traditional barriers that glorify good and punish evil within myself collapse, and the obsessive belief in patience as a virtue becomes obsolete.
In essence, Circle II strives to find a delicate balance between personal narrative and cultural critique. By intertwining the threads of my own experiences with the broader societal challenges, the series leads me with confidence from imagination to reality. Thus, this series is a form of self - meditation to obtain equilibrium of my soul, as well as a personal diary of the process from immaturity to maturity.
Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez
© Annie Lopez, all rights reserved
Artist Statement
My paper garments represent my personal experiences and family history. As an item of clothing, they would surround and protect me. I think of them as my armor. They stand in my place to tell my story. In the series, the stories address childhood, relationships, family, stereotypes, racism and tragedy. They joke about my ethnicity before someone can use it against me. They represent the storyteller I would be, through dress styles and the text or images that appear. I’ve always been the family historian and this is an extension of that. I use the sewing skills I learned at eight years old and combine them with the cyanotype printing process I’ve used for more than thirty years.
I like to relate to the materials I use in my art. I am the subject, and there should be a reason I choose them. Paper has always been my work surface-it’s just the type of paper that’s changed. I began as a photographer, printing on photo paper. The photos were nice, but they never had the feel I wanted from my images. I still print on watercolor paper and experiment with other papers, but I wanted something different from the usual art store paper. In the “Hispanic Foods” section of a grocery store, I found the paper used to wrap tamales. My family made tamales, but never used the paper to wrap them. My curiosity about the product convinced me to try it. I found it held the print and stitching and when the individual prints are stitched together, the paper created a sculptural form. I can make a garment, or frame the pieces stitched together as a single work. The bonus for me is, the paper I use connects my art to my culture.
My curiosity about the stories behind certain photos found in my parents’ photo albums led to my retelling them as part of my print series. The photographs spark memories of family I lived with and family I never met.
Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith
© Heather Evans Smith, all rights reserved
Blue
Some say my dad's death was the spark that ignited my depression, but this feeling has been brewing for a while. I started to notice a sadness creep in a few years into my 40s. I searched “depression in women” and stumbled across articles stating women are the most depressed at age 44. I was at that very moment 44.
Loss during this time in a woman’s life can weigh heavily. Children are getting older and need the comfort of a parent less; the health of one’s own parent(s) is starting to fail, and hormonal shifts begin.
Using the color blue, which for hundreds of years has been associated with melancholy and sadness-these images evoke this period in my life and how it affects those around me. A mid-point, as I am stripping down, taking stock, and finding a new place amongst the loss.
PhotoBook Journal
Many thanks to PhotoBook Journal with selections from Gerhard Clausing, Douglas Stockdale and their team of Contributing Editors on books that explore the theme of Identity.
The reviews are on a separate page, use this link.
