Observation:
This photograph features Samuel Fosso dressed up as a
golfer. His gloves and shoes are a piercing white, his pants are stripped, and
his shirt is a light shade of plaid. He is standing on a green tarp that has
various potted plants encircling him. The backdrop features an open field that
is bisected diagonally by a road, and the further the road travels, the greener
the terrain becomes (which may imply some plants are being grown there). The
lower half of the backdrop is blurred, giving it a fictional, painting-esque
quality, while the upper half of the backdrop looks like a more realistic
interpretation of the sky and clouds.
Inference:
The backdrop gives away the photo’s fabrication, especially
when the creases are pointed out, and the tarp below Fosso makes it easy to
distinguish between the reality of the room and the fiction that the backdrop would
normally create. His posture is almost awkward, as if he is not entirely comfortable
taking on this new appearance and does not know how to act while taking on this
new persona. While not exactly the same, Fanon discusses the idea of a new
persona in Algeria Unveiled where he
says “The veiled body seems to escape, to dissolve… The absence of the veil
distorts the Algerian woman’s corporal pattern… She must overcome all timidity,
all awkwardness (for she must pass for a European), and at the same time be
careful not to overdo it, not to attract notice to herself” (59). In a sense,
this is exactly what Fosso is doing by taking his photographs—he takes on new
personas in order to find a new essence of himself, and explores different
approaches to these differing identities each time he prepares for a new photo.
Each time he sheds an appearance he may shed anything that he associates with
that persona, but he cannot shed what he originally had. No matter how many
photographs he takes, Fosso is still Fosso, and no amount of costumes or Photoshopping
can change that.
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