Challenging Stereotypes 

Labelling people

What leads us to make assumptions about people's identity? Dress? Age? The context is which we see them? Our own baggage (education, class, core values, upbringing)?

The first successful photographic portraits were the Cartes de Visite - small formally posed likenesses which did nothing to demonstrate individuality and everything (due, in some part, to slow exposure times but also in an attempt to portray people as they were 'supposed' to look) to to reinforce stuffy, Victorian stereotypes oozing dignity, decorum and respectability through every pore.

As the new century dawned and Pictorialism gained sway, images of people became less stultifying (again, helped somewhat by increased exposure times, allowing for a more relaxed pose). But still there were stereotypes: the poor sharecropper from Walker Evans, the blind beggarwoman from Paul Strand, and so on. Perhaps the ultimate stereotype of that era is Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother - an image which has become so iconic that we now instantly associate it with poverty and deprivation. It is interesting to compare these images from early 20th century with those depicting modern poverty, such as in the work of Paul Graham:

Paul Graham Blinded Man New York 1988

Paul Strand Blind Beggar Woman 1916

Several photographers have played around with the notion of stereotypes, sometimes reinforcing them, sometimes challenging them through imagery.

Cindy Sherman, for example, is an expert in stereotypes. Her wide-ranging oeuvre is peppered with caricatures from life, given a new twist through self-portraiture-in-role.

In the Studio Portriat series, Sherman portrays herself as someone posing for a professional portrait photographer - a 20th century version of the carte de visite if you like. The difference lies on Sherman's satirical approach to the genre - she is made up to the hilt both cosmetically and sartorially, thus exaggerating the stereotype of 'female posing for the camera'.

Tracey Moffatt's Adventure series of images concentrates on 'types' (handsome guy, rugged outdoor type etc)  as portrayed through the characters in her staged tableau. Again, this photographer deliberately exaggerates the stereotype in order to make her point about the human condition.

Tracey Moffatt Adventure Series 

A classic example of self-imposed stereotypical representation can be seen in Denis Rouvre's 'Broken Faces le XV de France de rugby' series from 2003. Here he asked members of the French Rugby squad to pose for their portraits, but gave them no direction as to how they should present themselves. Rouvre's images show the men striking macho poses in an attempt to live up to the reputation of the sport and its players as a game for tough guys. One of the players said: "I thought the picture would bring out my feminine side but it's going to make my mother burst into tears. If I encountered this bloke in the street I would ask him how his criminal rehabilitation was coming along." So it is clear form this that sometimes it is the subject not the photographer who imposes the stereotype!

Edward Curtis played on the stereotyped Native American Indian quite extensively in order to achieve his aims. By the time the portraits were taken, many Native Indians had become absorbed into white American culture to the point where the wearing of elaborate costume was the exception (for photographers and special occasions) rather than the rule, so Curtis was distorting reality by requiring his models to dress up in 'authentic' costume. Paul Ardenne, in his book Face to Face, The Art of Portrait Photography, refers to this as the 'aesthetics of folklore' (p26)

Edward Curtis Sitting Eagle 1905

References

Ardenne, P. Face to Face, the Art of Portrait Photography. Flammarion 2003.

URLs

All sites accessed and working 10/1/07

Denis Rouvre

(C) Helen Williams 2007