Broad Horizons, Exhibition
Our class trip to the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh was a wonderful little day out. I’d never been there before, and am looking forward to visiting it again and having more time to take everything in. There were the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus, Francesca Woodman on display amongst others. One portrait that really stood out to me was this:
Self Portrait- Annie Lennox & Allan Martin
Taken in 2003, this self portrait of Annie Lennox stands tall in the portrait gallery, a big print, hanging in a narrow section of the room, was donated to the gallery in 2011 by Lennox herself. I found that you had to get quite up close and personal to Annie to let someone squeeze by you.
Lennox is a cultural icon, she has a classic beauty about her and has never been afraid of bending gender norms and adopting androgynous looks. She has received numerous awards, including Grammys, Brits, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. Alongside her outstanding musical career, Lennox has also been an ardent political and social activist. In 2010 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her humanitarian work. I’ve adored Annie Lennox for years, and came as quite a pleasant surprise to see this portrait, which was taken in the same shoot as the image used in her 2003 album Bare.
The image itself is striking. She is staring right at us, almost past us or through us. She presents herself to us in a stoic, statuesque pose while covered in what looks like chalk, amplifying the ‘statuesque’ feel. This is not a black and white photograph, and yet the distinct lack of colour in the shot almost feels intimidating to me. I find two contrasting elements when I look at this image. Firstly she is exposing herself, laying herself ‘bare’. It’s intimate, the lighting is soft and diffused, there are no shadows- she is hiding nothing from us. Talking about Bare Lennox herself wrote: “The Bare album contains songs that are deeply personal and emotional. In a sense I have ‘exposed’ myself through the work, to reveal aspects of an inner world which are fragile… broken though experience, but not entirely smashed.” On the other hand, while looking at this portrait, I feel slightly intimidated. She exudes a level of calmness and confidence that takes me aback. Her gaze is intense and piercing, and I feel that she is in control of how she is being perceived. To add to this, I feel in this ‘bare’ portrait, she gives us her body, but doesn’t let us into her head. The only item of colour and identification that she allows us to see is the band of tartan around her neck. Showing us her affiliation with her Scottish heritage, Lennox was born in 1954 and raised in Aberdeen. I find this interesting, of all things to show about herself, she chooses her Scottish Identity. It makes me wonder what I would choose to identify myself if I were to emulate this style of portrait.
“A Jewish giant at home with his parents, in the Bronx, N.Y.” - Diane Arbus 1970
In the exhibition, ARTIST ROOMS Self Evidence: there were photographs by Woodman, Arbus and Mapplethorpe. With a particular focus on self-portraiture and representation, the show explores the connections and similarities between these three Americans, each of whom produced bodies of work that were revolutionary, ground-breaking and at times controversial. I’m choosing to look at Diane Arbus- one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Born in New York City, she was working as a fashion photographer before she began to pursue an artistic career. Arbus made portraits of people from across society, but is best known for her powerful images of people whose situation or choices in life kept them on the margins of society – such as circus and freak show performers, transsexuals, nudists or the mentally handicapped. Her photography is marked by her bold, direct style – people appear exposed with a revealing, often unsettling, honesty.
Here we see an image of a man standing with his parents in their familiar home. The man is Eddie Caramel, who was born in what became Israel. The Carmels, who were Orthodox Jews, moved to the Bronx when Eddie was a small child so that his mother, Miriam, and father Yitzhak are pictures here looking up at their son, who is Unkempt and unshaven, Eddie, who by this time was so crippled that he wouldn’t stand up without a cane, bends in the direction of his parents. Yitzhak glares at him coldly. Miriam gazes up at him in wonder. The family dynamic is evident in Arbus’s photograph. She has the ability to become a fly on the wall, and tell these peculiar human’s stories from a photo-journalistic perspective. This image was shot using a medium-format Rolleiflex, which offered higher resolution images in a distinctive square format.
