The methodical clicking of the slide projector, as it pushes 80 35mm slides of women photographing themselves across our field of vision, reminds us that Anne Collier’s Women with Cameras (Self-Portrait), on view through December 17 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is rooted in the pre-digital era. Collier scavenged the images, which date from the 1970s to the early 2000s, from online sites, flea markets, and thrift stores, and then re-photographed them into slide format. As we perch on small round stools in a blackout chamber, the drone of the projector confirms that our gaze is complicit in an intimate analog performance. Without distraction, we are looking at women who are looking at themselves.
In our age of selfies and unabated self-promotion, these self-portraits are unfiltered, private snapshots, made for a limited audience, rather than for the digital universe of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The women, who took them with film cameras, were mostly casually dressed and posing in cluttered domestic interiors – bathrooms, bedrooms, or laundry rooms. A poster of Jim Morrison, a hairdo, or a skirt length, provide clues to a particular time. The women range across the spectrums of age, race, and beauty. Nudity is non-existent although we are treated to several midriffs, legs, and backsides.
Most were taken by pointing a camera into a mirror, making the glare of the flash a constant compositional element that often blots out most or all of the women’s faces. The most compelling images are those in which the photographer focuses simply on herself, but one taken in a car’s rearview mirror, which reflects a coastal landscape, is also compelling.
With repeated viewings, (Self-Portrait) evokes a hybrid experience that is fascinating, voyeuristic, and tedious. The constant glare of the flash and the generic quality of many of the images makes quite a few forgettable. Ultimately, (Self-Portrait) makes public, personal photographs that were once private. Although culled from the public domain, (Self-Portrait) raises the uneasy question, which it leaves unanswered, of whether it is entirely ethical to turn found, anonymous self-portrait images into a publicly exhibited work of art.
Yasumasa Morimura's All-Star Cast of Artists across History
For Yasumasa Morimura’s first full-length video, E...
Reframing Portraits for the Black Gaze
In two different exhibitions, Mickalene Thomas explores issues of representation and agency in her own work and that of others.
The Shifting Borders of Photojournalism and Fine Art Photography
Disturbed by the lack of a visual record of Americ...
Louise Lawler: Playing with Pictures
In 2002, the Museum of Modern Art closed its doors...
Image and Object: Erin Shirreff, Sara VanDerBeek, and Catherine Wagner
Three notable shows in Northern California this summer provide examples of how sculpture, and the idea of sculpture, are explored in photo-based work: Erin Shirreff, Sara VanDerBeek, and Catherine Wagner each make photo-based art and objects that are deeply informed by sculptural concerns.
Zanele Muholi and the Women's Mobile Museum
At this point in her career, the barriers faced by South African photographer Zanele Muholi – barriers preventing her from speaking her truth and taking control of her own image – would seem to have been dispatched, conquered by the force of her powerful photographs and stunning, theatrical self-portraits.
Face to Face: Portraits of Artists by Tacita Dean, Brigitte Lacombe and Catherine Opie | International Center of Photography, New York City
All portraiture poses an implicit question: If hum...
Fazal Sheikh: Creating Common Ground
About 15 years ago, I came across Fazal Sheikh’s s...
Laurie Simmons
A putative member of the so-called “Pictures” gene...
Jon Henry
Jon Henry is the recipient of the 2020 Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture for his series Stranger Fruit, portraits of Black mothers holding their sons in poses that suggest the pietà.
Rania Matar
Born and raised in Lebanon and a resident (and cit...
Hank Willis Thomas: Picturing Democracy
Though artist Hank Willis Thomas is often referred...