The Subject as Object

Photography and the human body

The body, when photographed as an object, relies on the relationship between photography and reality. It also relies on the extent of which the photograph is understood by the viewer of the image. Photography has the means to convey an individual as a social subject. Different meanings for the body are constructed by the way the photograph represents them, such as the use of props, and how the image is circulated.

Whereas some photographs may represent dominant ideas about what it is like to be human, male or female or even about race and sex, others will challenge the same ideas. However, there is no particular method, technique or style that achieves this. The significance of photographing bodies will alter according to the context. For instance, the muscled male body and the classical aesthetic could be associated with either a coded homoeroticism (in American physique magazines of the 1950s) or the deeply homophobic culture of Facism. (Henning, 2009 : 204)

I felt this chapter could relate to my project as photography historian, John Tagg, discussed photographs of criminals using the work of the French social historian Michel Foucault. He wanted to understand how photography is used to ‘discipline people’ but the disciplinary uses within photography can relate to methods that I shall need to use for my portraits. For example, I shall have to consider the way I want my subject represented and arranged for the camera. I need to make them available to be gazed at and ensure that the photograph conveys the individual as the social subject that I intend him or her to be.

“A repetitive pattern, the body isolated; the narrow space; the subjection to an unreturnable gaze; the scrutiny of gestures, faces and features; the clarity of illumination and sharpness of focus; the names and number boards. These are the traces of power, repeated countless times, whenever the photographer prepared an exposure, in police cell, prison, consultation room, home or school.

                                                                                                            (Tagg 1988: 85)

Although Tagg was focusing on criminals, his observations work for the effect I shall need to achieve.