INTERROGATING IDENTITY
The close-knit relationship between identity politics and photography was born with the invention of the camera. Even though the early developers of the camera aspired to create a device that aids scientific observation and easy reproduction, its use for reinventing the art of portraiture was what made photography a widespread practice.
Zanele Muholi, Bester I, Mayotte, 2015, Courtesy of Stevenson Gallery
Portraits and self-portraits had their share of fiction, as people from all walks of life could portray themselves in any way they wanted. Migrants posed next to books and high décor, wearing fine suits, while orphans were captured with props such as dolls and dainty hair ribbons. One would never guess their lowly status and daily hardships. Identity was quickly recognized as something that could be reconstructed and re-discovered.
The 1960s and 1970s were marked with the legacy of major artistic movements, which used the concept of identity to contest the systematic oppression of people based on race, gender, and sexuality. Artists such as Adrian Piper, David Hammons, Eleanor Antin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jimmie Durham, Cindy Sherman and Coco Fusco, interrogated the visual representation of identity and its sociopolitical connotations.
St. Vincent Orphan Asylum , Chicago, Illinois, 1909
Zanele Muholi, Senzekile I, Cincinnati, 2016_ Courtesy of Stevenson Gallery
Following a different approach, Paul Mpagi Sepuya is interested in the act of seeing and being seen, a concept which is widely known by art historians as “the gaze”. Sepuya’s work has its foundations in the art of portraiture, homoerotic visual culture, and the role of the studio. Sepuya’s photographs are staged and highly performative. The camera and the artist are not always visible but are always implied, while the subjects often appear in fragments. The practice of portrait photography is a performance in itself, and the main role is cast to the photographer. Emphasis is taken away from the sitter and is given to the photographic process, the artificiality of the composition and the relationship with the viewer. As the act of looking is crucial to Sepuya’s practice, the viewers become part of the works. Sepuya’s photographs are displayed in various public collections, including but not limited to the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; JP Morgan Collection, New York, NY; Centre for Photography at Woodstock Collection at SUNY New Paltz, NY; International Centre for Photography, New York, NY; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland.
Today’s artists are following the path paved by their forerunners, and are shedding new light on the relationship between identity and portrait photography. Zanele Muholi, one of the most acclaimed living photographers and visual activists, have devoted their career to the celebration of South Africa’s community. Muholi’s photographs shudder stereotypical narratives and capture the reality of being queer in Southern Africa and beyond. Currently, Tate Modern is exhibiting the first major UK survey of Muholi’s work. The show features photographs from Muholi’s early career, to their latest self-portraits. While exploring Muholi’s work, one should pay attention to the series, Only Half the Picture, 2003 – 2006. In this series, Muholi documents South Africa’s black queer community by portraying individual challenges. The series includes a photograph that captures a person in the act of breast binding, while another photograph shows a person’s hairy chest behind a white lace bra. The subjects’ dignity is preserved; their privacy remains untarnished. Tate’s exhibition is open to the public until June 6th, 2021.
Thank you for reading,
Cluster Team & Nefeli Stylianou