The Fugitive Gazes Back: The Photographic Performance Work of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth
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26 octobre 2021
- doi: 10.4000/inmedia.2463
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info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2259-4728
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Martha J. Cutter, « The Fugitive Gazes Back: The Photographic Performance Work of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth », InMedia, ID : 10.4000/inmedia.2463
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Résumé
Invisibilization has been theorized as a mode of disempowerment, yet for African Americans who have been hypervisualized it can become a locus of social or visual power. This article examines photographic portraits of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to show how they perform versions of their identities. Via curation of objects, expressions, and slogans within the photographic mise-en-scène, Douglass and Truth create a visual avatar, while the “real” individual is strategically invisibilized by layers of disguise, manipulation, and performance. In so doing, they ask the viewer to question visuality and whether photography captures reality.