How to Disappear Completely
I will forever be fascinated with the world of documentary photography and the ever-changing power of the camera as a means of recording reality. For one, I love the progressive nature of the medium and how photography at the time of its birth was regarded and consumed as if it were reality. And how, in the present, the photo means very little with the ability of photo editing and even the more recent ability of deep-fakes produced by artificial intelligence.
All of that aside, I thought this week’s lecture was inspiring because of the inclusion of documentation of so many different cultures from the early 19th century to the present day. It’s so interesting to see how different cultures and generations record themselves and the mishappenings in their day, and how similar these means of recording are.
I love these groups of photographs because they render similar situations across many generations. Revealing and recording suppressed peoples in relation to their suppressors, these photographs when grouped together actually show how similar we as a species are. It really does not matter our differences when one realizes that, regardless of the situation, there will always exist the suppressor and the suppressed. I think everyone, unfortunately, exists always in one group or the other- knowingly or not.
Untitled (self-portrait with legs), from How to Disappear Completely, Caleb Theil, 2022
Having chased various ideas and starting many different projects this semester I have continued to fall short of my expectations and struggled to enjoy my practice as a photographer. I am going to focus this week’s edition on a type of exploration and research of the history of attempting to disappear, let go, accept, blend in, and escape.
Caused by the disillusion of satisfaction, the ego, and the identity of the artist and their artwork I stumbled upon the concept of disappearing. Looking to separate myself from expectations, deadlines, critique, and the world of art, I tasked myself to make photographs of the process of trying to disappear, to rejoin the environment by de-structuring my being, and remove myself and the idea of the subject entirely. The above images are my initial studies of the concept and an exploration of a few of the ideas presented in this post.
Hidden Mother
Hidden mother photography was an incredibly interesting practice which began with the advent of photography in the mid 19th century. Everyone wanted to freeze the youth of their children in time at such a young age, however, children can’t comprehend the concept of stillness… Mothers were incorporated into the photographs to keep their children still, however, they wanted the subject of their images to be their children, and thus developed the practice of the mother trying to disappear.
I love the philosophical nature of these images. I think this practice evoked the questions around the idea of wether or not children can exist as a being in and of themselves, or if they are ultimately connected to their origins and parents. The opposite is also valid- do parents exist separate from their children? Can a mother completely disappear from their child’s existence? Is this all absurd to wonder in the first place?
The Self-Portraits of Edvard Munch
The self-portraits of Munch are so captivating because he was so focused on taking advantage of the potential of photographic mistakes. All of these images utilize some form of a photographic mistake and it alters the understanding of the images.
My interpretation of the images becomes most prevalent in the photos that capture Munch near his paintings. This dichotomy of the moving and therefore semi-opaque Munch versus the unmoving and still paintings he creates comments on the legacy of an artist and how they will soon fade but their creations will not. I love how Munch embraces this philosophy and really plays into the ephemerality of existence and creates this disconnection from him and his works of art.
Claude Cahun
Self Portrait as a Young Girl, 1914
Claude Cahun’s images are very etherial and explore the spectrum of gender and self-identity. These images show a constant struggle to label and be identified by society and its perception of us, and I feel a sense of wanting to disappear, to ignore the constant drive towards labeling and understanding, and the struggle to exists simply as a being rather than fit perfectly into a square, star, or circle shape.
Franchesca Woodman
The aforementioned struggles have prompted something interesting and actually developed the foundation for my project in itself- Woodman fostering a basis of inspiration.
I think Woodman provides an incredibly compelling body of work related to these ideas. Not only from the eery, blurred, and low-contrast images of her body morphing into landscapes and rooms but also because of the unfortunate demise of the artist and how the history of the artist herself affects the consumption of her work.
Trent Parke
Australian photographer Trent Parke by himself at midnight. Menindee, the Outback in New South Wales, Australia. 2003.
Trent Parke is an incredible photographer under the Magnum photo society who created these ephemeral and blown-out landscapes with eery and often semi-opaque figures and subjects. His images, to me, mark a type of symbiosis and communication between the subject and their environment. I think this perspective on the idea of blending in and dissipation provides an interesting take on what it means to escape ones-self. Even though the subject above is so contrastingly separate from their environment, the uniform quality of the blown-out subject versus the underexposed backdrop removes identity from anything and everything in the image.
Alec Soth’s Broken Manual
2008_08zl0047
Alec Soth, arguably my all-time favorite photographer, released Broken Manual as a response to the discontentment with ideas surrounding middle age and a sort of discourse he had experienced with the photographic medium. This project is centered around the idea of writing and creating a manual on how to disappear and remove one’s self from society; essentially how to disappear completely. The ironic sense of the idea is that it is ultimately not possible. Wanting to fall off the radar, cut ties with society, and dissipate off into the nothingness of the universe is not a process one can embark upon in the realm of the awake, so Soth decides to explore these ideas in an ironic, nearly surreal, sense.
June Calypso
12 Reasons You’re Tired All The Time, 2013
June Calypso has a very intriguing approach to the ideas I’ve presented and discussed in this entry thus far. Calypso’s practice takes a very unique approach in that she photographs self-portraits under the identity of her alter-ego.
“Calypso captures herself in uncanny staged scenes that are charged with suspense. Frequently assuming the role of her alter ego Joyce, she poses in spaces like honeymoon hotels or mid-century-style suburban homes that suggest bygone eras.”
