The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life by Erving Goffman

Goffman, E. 1990, The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life, London: Penguin Books. ISBN: 978-0-14-013571-8. First published in 1959, this book is a little dated in terms of reference to racial circumstances. However, on the whole this is a useful book to read, particularly for visual artists such as actors, and also playwrites, authors, and

Pablo Picasso & George Braque’s artist’s statements.

I couldn’t find a formal manifesto by Pablo Picasso and George Braque but I found these artist statements: “Cubism is not a reality you can take in your hand. It’s more like a perfume, in front of you, behind you, to the sides, the scent is everywhere but you don’t quite know where it comes

Thomas Ruff

Portrait 1986 (Stoya) Photo by Thomas Ruff, Tate Collection. Reference: P78091 Display Caption – Tate Ruff believes that photography can only capture the surface of things, conveying what he describes as ‘the authenticity of a manipulated and prearranged reality’. In 1981, he began a series of colour portraits of his friends and fellow students at

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