Summary for Part 3, “Look at Me!” – The Representation of Self.

In section 3, “Look at Me!”, I studied the subject of ‘self’ and how it has and is used and interpreted in the portrait. I learned that the idea of the ‘selfie’ goes back beyond photography. Originally the early selfies where exclusively for the rich and powerful to express wealth and more importantly, power, examples

Definition of ‘Other’

Stephen Bull in his book Photography (2010) Abingdon: Routledge. Bull discusses how in the 18th and 19th century anthropology linked to colonialism recorded and catalogued native people around the world allowing comparison across races and with the intention of comparing who and what they considered superior and who and what was in their opinion inferior.

Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus By Gerry Badger (1988)

Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus by Gerry Badger (1988). The above link will take you to the essay, Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus By Gerry Badger Published in Phototexts (1988) Topless dancer in her dressing room, San Francisco, California.

Susan Sontag’s criticism of Diane Arbus

From On Photography, (1977) Susan Sontag, London: Penguin, pages 32-48. Untitled – 1, 1970-1971. Diane Arbus Notes & passages of interest. Sontag begins her essay comparing an exhibition of 112 photographs by Diane Arbus that was exhibited in 1972 in at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York city that drew large crowds