The Abject Body.

The Abject Body.

Abject photography/art is an unconventional way of showing certain subjects.

In 1945, painter Jean Fautriers exhibition ‘Hostages’ was one of the first examples of a new artistic direction. Faurtrier had produced a series of heads and torsos ‘morbidly inspired by sounds from the surrounding woods where the Occupying forces regularly tortured and executed prisoners.’

 

This work shows informal and formlessness with the body. The most influential informal artist was Jean Dubuffet. His work focused on the abject bodily image - ‘the art of children, the untrained and the insane.’

 

“Who's That Girl?: "Alex Eats," A Case Study in Abjection and Identity in Contemporary Fashion Photography.”

One example of abject photography is the fashion shoot ‘Alex eats’ by Anthony Gordon which was published in an issue of ‘The Face’ magazine. It features the model “in a series of tableaux that graphically portray her fetishistic involvement with food.” Abject images of the female body are graphically portrayed in this series of photographs.

Abject imagery can be shown through real life events/tragedies that happen around the world. After the earthquake in Haiti, on January 12^th 2010, newspapers like the ‘Washington Post’ and the ‘New York Times’ ran ‘gruesome and violent images of the event.’

“the Washington Post ran an image by staff photographer Carol Guzy, showing a man emerging from a thin gap in the rubble. Next to him a schoolgirl is seen from behind, apparently bent over and kneeling. A first, cursory reading of the image suggests that perhaps she is praying. A second glance makes it obvious that the head and upper torso of "Ruth," a student at the Ecole St. Gerard, have been crushed by a slab of falling concrete.”

During the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, images of the wounded and dead were too graphic and ‘politically volatile’ for the media, it’s hard to believe that a mainstream newspaper ran such an image just 3 days after the disaster.