The Abject Body

From its earliest beginnings photography has presented images of the body in a less than beautiful guise. With the Victorians infatuation for photographing the dead and experiments around the theory of Phrenology, to photojournalism portraying images of war and suffering.

The likes of Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman are artists synonymous with photographing subjects at opposite ends of the spectrum to that which might be deemed eye pleasing. In Cindy Sherman’s series Fashion, 1983, the artist offers herself up as numerous high fashion models that do not typify beauty, conventional or otherwise. I would go as far as to say some are intended to repulse. 

Cindy Sherman, Fashion (1983)

Similarly for his depiction of the lesser known rural provinces of South Africa, Roger Ballen sought out those living on the fringes of society. Only those that made uncomfortable viewing, the grotesque and the disturbing, made it into his images. 

Roger Ballen, Dresie and Casie, Twins, Western Transvaal(1993)

Roger Ballen, Puppy Between Feet, Outland (1999)

Subjects of this nature appear to be pursued for their artistic value. But there are questions surrounding them - questions of morality and motive. Professor of English and American studies, Miles Orvell addresses the delicate nature of ‘bringing ‘’art’’ to the people’ through street photography, in an accurate and fair representation of the subject without the art being at the expense of the people. In some instances, he suggests the photographer is driven by an assertion of power over the subject.  He feels such images can elicit a sense of ‘them and ‘us’ and are an act of voyeurism. In Orvell’s article, THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF THE LENS: ZOE STRAUSS AND THE PROBLEM OF THE STREET PORTRAIT (Afterimage; Sep/Oct2012, Vol. 40 Issue 2, p10-13, 4), he considers the work of Strauss and artists she has been likened to. The bizarre, the stereotyped, the outcasts and those who deviate from what society deems as the norm, have all been their subjects. Orvell compares the ethos of these artists and subsequently the moral perspective from which they stand and shoot. 

In the case of Zoe Strauss: 10 years, on the face of it, a relationship based on trust has been achieved between photographer and the sitter. However, based on the lack of knowledge the sitter has on the portrayal and future use of this very personal image, Orvel suggests (despite numerous critics reviews to the contrary) that is may be naivety on the part of the sitter and exploitation on the part of the photographer. In singling out and drawing attention to the subject’s anomalies across giant billboard posters– scars, 
missing fingers, a bruised face… is Strauss’s cause(intentionally or not) only heightening them as anomalies within society and making them a talking point for our viewing pleasure? 

Zoe Strauss, Daddy Tattoo, Philadelphia (2004)

Zoe Strauss, If you Break the Skin...( 2007)

To further emphasise his point Orvell compares the work of Diane Arbus to Strauss. Norman Mailer, a writer and journalist is quoted as saying of Arbus, ‘Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child. Troubling but always fascinating.’ (Newsweek;10/22/84, Vol. 104 Issue 16, p88). 

But Strauss was it seemed, engaged and interested in her subjects beyond the decisive shot of that particular day. They were more than merely to 'facinate'. The two images above are of the same girl taken two years apart. The first, 'Daddy Tattoo' featured in Elle magazine. The girl's mother wrote to Strauss telling her of her daughters death in 2006, to thank her for taking the photograph and to tell her of her daughter's joy at being in the magazine. There is apparent exploitation but it does not appear to be on the shoulders of the photographer in this case. It is possible that in some cases, exposure and suffering is necessary or the point is lost.

In establishing his position, Orvell described Richard Avedon's In the American West (1985)to have been taken from a position of power. Avedon was 'the man with the camera', 'the master', 'the outsider'. He photographed only his subjects torso leaving the eye drawn to what he wanted the viewer to see. A detachment was made that made the photographer the voyeur.

His opinion differs on the work of Mark Morrisroe who recorded the world of Aids sufferers and prostitutes with himself as the main subject and at his most vulnerable.

Mark Morrisoe, Self Portrait (to Brent) 1982

Mark Morrisoe, Untitled (Self Portrait) c. 1989

Nan Goldin, Nan One Month after being battered (1984)

Nan Goldin, Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC (1982)

Similarly with Nan Goldin who was very close to her subject matter, depicting the world of gays and transexuals. The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981), included photographs of close friends dying of AIDS.

In both examples of Morrisoe and Goldin, Orvell highlights the difference - that as 'insiders'they have the privileged position of seeing the world from the subject's perspective but most significantly that from this side of the fence, the photographer is not the voyeur, we are. 

The Abject Body

The abject body

The human body to some is a beautiful thing, a thing to desire. An abject body is something that is seen as disgusting, death, disease, deformity and even the grotesque.  

                       Gods of Earth & Heaven, LA, 1988,

Joel-Peter Witkins book “Gods of Earth And Heaven” looks at the themes of an abject body. He would use models such as dwarfs, people with lost limbs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and even body parts. These models which the audience might consider to be ‘freaks’ shows the boundaries or what is considered to be ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal.

Jo Spence and Tim Sheard, Exiled, 1989. From Narratives of Dis-ease (1989).

Jo Spence an artist that photographed her challenge through breast cancer challenged the view that a normal appearance is deemed socially desirable. She was against society’s imposed pressure to conform and conceal disfigurement. Through her images she showed us her breast cancer scars with the word ‘Monster’ written on herself to show that she is not socially acceptable and has an abject body. Her book  "Cultural Sniping: The Art of Transgression..1995" transgression meaning the action of going beyond or overstepping some boundary or limit talks about the social boundaries that we as people set up for ourselves for which is to be seen as 'normal' and 'abnormal'(abject).

The Abject Body

The Abject Body

When considering 'the abject body' - what it is; what it means; why it is considered to be abject - it is useful to first remind ourselves of the definition of abject.

According to one source, ‘abject’ describes something as being “Brought low in condition or status”, “Being of the most contemptible kind”, “Being of the most miserable kind, wretched” (Thefreedictionary.com). Other definitions include :-

1.   Utterly wretched or hopeless

2.   Miserable, Forlorn, Dejected

3.   Indicating humiliation, Submissive

4.   Contemptible, Despicable, Servile.

Interestingly, the word abject has Latin roots which translate literally as Cast Away; which gives the sense of rejection or outcast.

In the same way then that someone who does not conform or do what is considered ‘normal’ can be said to be ‘abnormal’; something which is unwanted or appears repulsive to another can be considered abject.

Brought low in condition or status, most contemptible, most miserable, wretched, hopeless, humiliated, submissive, despicable, rejected and cast away – surely this totally encapsulates and describes The Prostitute.

The prostitute has been around for centuries and prostitution is often referred to as “The Oldest Profession”. But what of the body which is being prostituted? What makes that body so miserable, so wretched, so contemptible, so…… abject? (and abject on so many different levels).

The body (and in particular the female body) is thought to be one of the most beautiful forms in nature. Little wonder then that it is so often an object of desire. Usually, this would be considered a good thing yet the body of a prostitute – which is so often the object of desire (even if only briefly) is an abject body. How so?

In a broader sense of things, prostitutes are society’s rejects and are an embarrassment to government and local councils who do not want them on their streets. They do not know what to do with prostitutes and consider them a plague on moral society, they are unwanted, outcasts, abject.

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling humiliated and rejected, they go underground and having been brought low in condition or status they are thus abject.

Dominating the backstreets, prostitutes are exposing themselves to unclean environments. Dirt and disease are more rife. Catching, Carrying and Transmitting infections and diseases, these are abject bodies.

 Often, prostitutes are drug users and their wasting bodies, lined with track marks are an outward sign of their abjectness.

Inwardly and less obvious, many prostitutes are mentally scarred – often the result of abuse from an early age. This results in many becoming dependant not only on drugs but on affection/ attention from any source offering it; they are also often willing to do anything to satisfy this neediness. Unfortunately they form attachments to others who do not truly care for them and they are quickly used and quickly cast aside – rejected – abject.

 

 Insecurities and an inability to make wise decisions, leads the body further underground where there is a lack of self- respect, self-worth and a great moral decline. Sometimes objects of lust, sometimes objects of hate; these bodies serve to satisfy all kinds of fetish. These bodies carry mental and physical scars from such servitude.

Depressed and unable to pull themselves out of this descent into depravity causes some to look for alternative ways out – to take their mind off the pain. Self-harming is evident in scars or burn marks – some look for permanent solutions and attempt suicide – often succeeding.

Or not.

We have only touched on the surface here as the length to which we could research some of these issues is endless. However, the obvious remains – the prostitute is in every sense an abject body.

 

Some quotes about prostitution :

“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things which money can buy.” – Steve Martin.

 

“I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear!” – Freddy Mercury.

Churchill – “Will you sleep with me for 5 million pounds?”

Socialite – “My goodness!, Mr Churchill..... Well, I suppose…. We would have to discuss terms, of course….”

Churchill – “Would you sleep with me for 5 pounds?”

Socialite – “Mr Churchill, What kind of woman do you think I am?”

Churchill – “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price”.

The Body as a Political site.

Using various ‘Source’ journals

Grown up child

            Trish Morrissey’s collection of photographs, The failed realist, of portraits of a woman with childish face paints that make her look like a bad clown shows how society has influenced our feelings, how we look and what we share or show to others. She wanted to reveal what are normally hidden and everyday anxieties; surrounding facial hair anxieties and challenge the conventions and ideals of femininity.

            These photographs show that childhood is a complex negotiation rather than an idyll. She portrays the nightmares and irrational fears through the face paint on the woman by creating oversized black tears and smudged smiles. The colours never drastically change, neither does the hair and the facial emotion stays constant. In the text it rightly says, “We do not meet the child and this is not quite an encounter with her world. The photograph is of the mother. We are removed from the moment and scenography of play.” Whish tells us that as a mother this woman could be taking the pain and troubles away from her child, or that she’s finding it difficult to cope with the fast change of becoming a parent and asks if she is a ‘good enough mother’.

This is because society has created the notions and attached stigmas to being a good or bad parent; due to what they can provide for their children and the cost or make of the items to how they look themselves. These factors have made new parents wary and can made to feel judged by society and so find parent hood harder than some other people that have the material things for their child. Morrissey’s work shows the body but won’t let us access the specific experiences of the mother and child; All the photographs provide evidence that the ‘child’ still has authority by using the face painting game throughout.

Party girl

Robots

Wendy McMurdo concentrated on contemporary children; in her series of photographs named ‘digital play’ most of her images are children sat in places you’d expect them to be but playing with not the toys that surround them but on new gaming devices where they can control rather than being controlled or looking at children’s toys that are trapped in a glass case as if they are in a museum. In an interview featured in ‘source’ she explains that in modern times we communicate digitally rather than to socialize which is different to how we used to; now technology is rising and becoming smarter and stronger the way we talk, learn and act. Like robots. She talks about how our interactivity has changed and that the world of play wouldn’t be pre-determined but a place where anything is possible; however, with technology over ruling imagination the gaming world is creating harmful ideas into children’s minds and bodies. McMurdo said that she has seen a full circle of technology “as work whose subject was engagement with the digital world… ‘The Scanner’ and ‘The anagrammatical body’ focused specifically on the position of the body in the digital world… ‘Unheimlich’ which concentrated on the notions of the uncanny in film and photography.” All of these exhibitions shows the journey at where technology is at that present time and how our bodies look and have changed.

Throughout the interview McMurdo repeats the words ‘play’, ‘crude’ and ‘robots’ this is to show how we now see the words and what they mean to us; play used to be in a park or outside and now more and more children have electronic toys which are and making them into robots; for example she has taken a photograph of a young girl looking at old dolls which are trapped behind a glass case as if they were in a museum which shows that they are seen as old artifacts rather than a new idea, she is stood far away from them so looks more confused and scared than intrigued and interested about the toys. McMurdo wanted to show the relationship between real life with a robot in her work so she did a moving image piece with an ice skater and a girl in her room who were the same age and look but were different girls. This piece had both films showing at the same time side by side with the ice skater executing her tricks and positions perfectly where the other girl was in her room looking past the camera to what can only be thought of this day as a computer where she was copying the moves and dance of the first performer; throughout the exhibition it was said that more people were watching the girl in her room trying to mimic the professional, this could be because we relate to her making mistakes and trying all over again in the privacy of her own space rather than showing off with perfect  balance and grace.

Present themsevles

Alice Hawkins is a fashion photographer and this has caused arguments due to the body and how it is looked upon because of the types of females shown in magazines and the media as having the perfect body or the ideal figure. Laura Mulvey is a feminist who explains the male gaze “the dominant visual representation of the female body and female sexuality is ordered and governed by an implicitly   male gaze; that is to say, by way of looking shaped within a society constructed along patriarchal and hetero-normative lines.” For a woman to create a different reaction from the audience it has been shown eye contact with the camera shows empowerment and strength. Hawkins places her models in their real habitat where they are comfortable; for example, Las Vegas models would wear crocodile skin in a leather couched room, or circus women in animal prints. Her photographs suggest stereotypes and labels given by society and themselves by their body language and how they dress and act; one photo of a Burlesque dancer, Storm, was captured in her retirement and people found it difficult to see past the boob jobs and Botox but to think that an old woman could have been a successful strip tease confused people. A montage of Danni Wells (glamour model) was shown too, and to the disappointment of teenage boys it was of her face and not the rest of her body to show that she is still a real person that has feelings; the reaction from the boys show how they are thinking these days and that women are just objects to be looked at.

Sarah Eyre did a photographic collection called ‘Wigs’ where she had put popular styled wigs on a manikin head but so they looked as though they were looking down or to the side. She concentrated on the theme of Victorian sex traders which created her technique on printing like a newspaper and how sex is packaged for us, she thought wigs were passive objects when in fact they have meaning which is very narrow and for her this related to what’s acceptable within mainstream sexual desire. She named her wig photos, one ‘Rachel’  because it looked like the type of hair Jenifer Aniston would have when she played Rachel in ‘Friends’, others were girly names like ‘Mandy’ or ‘Mindy’ which sound friendly and sweet when actually these were the types of name sex workers would use for themselves. So the wigs they put on or now we see them show how females were seen or how they sold themselves by just the wigs and nothing else, we don’t need to see their body to get an idea of their past.

Rosie

The body as an object of medical research

The work of Nick Veasey, which is featured in the British journal of photography, shows images produced using an x-ray machine. This type of image is usually seen in a medical environment and not used by photographers. Veasey makes large prints of the images by stitching together a number of x-rays to create one large piece. Veasey photographs various objects, from small animals to planes.

His images are produced in the same way as any other x-ray that is produced in a hospital. Short wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are passed through an object onto photographic film. Because the radiation passes through some objects easier than others, the film has to be exposed in different ways. For example time has to be taken into consideration depending on the object and how dense it is. The images are eventually Photoshopped to make sure they have maximum clarity.

The amount of detail on the prints makes them stand out and the harsh white of the detail against the dark black background makes them quite striking as photographs. They are clear and crisp and look like stills rather than x-rays. They also look quite graphic and like illustrations rather than photographs. Shooting humans is quite a difficult challenge as they can’t be exposed to radiation so Veasey got round this by using skeletons in rubber suits or actual corpses. The interesting thing about his images that involve humans is that the viewer wouldn’t know whether the object was living or not. In his images such as the one below they appear to be doing normal everyday things like any other person.

Although his work doesn’t use the body as an object of medical research, the way he produces his images does change the way we look at things and how much the eye can really see. His work also provides an opposite to a world that is obsessed with appearance and the way things look on the outside rather than whats on the inside and underneath an object or a persons exterior.

www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/profile/1940376/penetrating-gaze-ray-photography

The Body as a Political site

The Body as a political site (from web sources)

For many years now the body has always been a political site that's shaped around politics and culture. This is because today's generation is obsessed with the body and anything they say effects the way the media views this topic. . According to 'Elizabeth Ettore' this is because "There is an unspoken and sometime spoken push for us to be normalised. Any kind of bodies  that are seen as not normal are really excluded from society"

The use of advanced technology, particularly has a large influence on body politics as it is where a lot of the people get there source of information from. Things like video games, movies, Tv's, laptops and mobile phones are all different forms of media consumption. If you look around, a lot of teenagers today are slouched over there phones or hovered over there laptops. All different forms of technology have a hold of our body posture, and this is evident in the way that they also have partial control of our minds.

Women today, are especially being criticized by their appearance because of the 'male gaze', which is a man's point of view on how a women should look. A mans perception of what a 'perfect body' should like has always been taken to account and because of this a lot of women in the media and around the world are seen as sexual objects. Every fashion magazine we come across for example, either have models on the front cover or gorgeous looking celebrities. This just goes to show that Fashion photography delivers content about 'body image' like no other, as it not only shapes our society but also shapes our politics. The whole political economy is now all about or mostly about "Capitalism" as the exploitation of women and men's bodies sell products, magazines, photographs etc...

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman was one of the most influential photographers between mid 1970's-1980 as she challenged and raised important questions on how women were represented in society, media and art . Her photographs were inspired by female roles in movies, as she knew that this had a massive impact on the way people in society shaped their identities. At the young age of 23 she chose to photograph herself, experimenting with the idea of shooting 'magazine glimpse  in the life of an "Imaginary blond actress", that she created. The series of photographs were shot, in my opinion to get a visual of what the average women's life at home would be. Because of this, it created a massive stereotypes for women as the message being sent out, was women were "house wives".  Wanting this further,  Sherman then went on to photograph other characters such as, the chic scarlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian and a domesticated sex kittens. Although her photographs were stereotypical in the sense that they portray women as underdogs, they were interesting and eye capturing because they created scenes that are now considered to be cliches.

Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft's work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models (often nude). At her performances, video recordings and photographs are made, to be exhibited as documentation of the performances, but also as separate works of art. The work and her conceptual approach is neither performance nor documentary, but something in between, and closer to Renaissance painting. She sets up a structure for the participants in her live events to create their own ephemeral composition. The performances are existential encounters between models and audience, their shame and their expectations. Each performance is made for a specific location and often references the political, historical, or social associations of the place where it is held. Beecroft’s work is deceptively simple in its execution, provoking questions around identity politics and voyeurism in the complex relationship between viewer, model and context.

Beecroft's performances have been described as art, fashion, brilliant, terrible, evocative, provocative, disturbing, sexist, and empowering. The primary material in her work is the live female figure, which remains ephemeral, and separate. These women, mainly unclothed, similar, unified through details like hair color, or identical shoes, stand motionless, unapproachable and regimented in the space while viewers watch them.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ap2xnMcvpw 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHo3EViZrDY&playnext=1&list=PL7061ED2F44E5DD21&feature=results_video 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Beecroft 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman 

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6016/Body-Politics.html 

http://www.fead.org.uk/video354/Elizabeth-Ettorre-on-the-Body-as-a-Political-Site.html 

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5K_y-8qS5LAC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=the+body+as+a+political+site&source=bl&ots=7TS6ny8YmL&sig=moOmIRdLtivZZOteHy6Jrztit2Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7lMFUY6GB4LU0QWJ3YDAAg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAjgU