Amber McNeila/Annotated Bibliography #4

Samuel Fosso, From 1970's self portrait

Observation:

This picture features a dark-skinned man. It is placed almost in the center of the photograph. He is wearing a long light colored shirt with a collar and a pair of seemingly light-colored pants. The man is standing on some sort of box or prop with a circular pattern on it. Curtains are hung from the ceiling and hang to the left and right of the man. They, too, also have a busy pattern like the prop that features circular shapes. There is a lighter colored curtain hanging behind the man. There are (what appears to be) lights featured on the let side of the image for some sort of photograph approach. The man's expression seems either blank or deep in thought. Only half of his body is displayed as if he is peering around the corner, but his entire face is shown. His right arm is grabbing a hold of a part of the curtain on the right side. The photograph is black and white. The curtains provide a nice contrast between the light and darks. 

Inference:

This photograph features photographer, Samuel Fosso in a self-portrait. Despite most of his photographs being well known for their color, this particular one is in black and white. It adds to the drama in which Fosso must have been contemplating in searching for the best way to represent himself through his self-portraits.  Fosso grew up in Nigeria and spent twenty years of his life photographing self-portraits he kept for only himself. At first he kept them as a means of keeping loved ones informed about his life and his growth. He claims that he was creating "a history of myself" (Taylor par. 8). Once his photographs were featured in an exhibit he had a bit more free-will to use make-up artists, costume budget and better equipment. Fosso also photographed other people in fancy clothing with striking backgrounds for passports. He wanted his clients to feel confident as well as feel as though they were traveling to another place that could not actually go to (Taylor par. 5).

 In this particular image of Fosso, he looks like he is almost hiding, which is the opposite of what he preached in his goals when shooting passports as well as exploring himself in his self-portraits. Living a life of where colonization occurred as well as violence, Fosso constantly fought to accurately depict his emotions. He explains that he dresses as a chef in one of his photographs to portray his feelings the change in government and the system. He asserts, "Look, we had our own democracy before you came, we had our own rules, our own presidents, but it was our ruler that you came and got rid of, and in this place, you set up your hierarchies, your systems" (Taylor par. 9). His attempt in this picture may represent his sense of a need to belong as well as his inability to identify with anything because of the changes made within colonization. Fosso was often referred to as beautiful, with "symmetrical features" (Taylor par. 2) Some might even think of him as vain, however, he undoubtedly tried and succeeded at portraying a sense of beauty even if it may have appeared distorted such as in this image. This image does not portray physical beauty because he does not even feature his entire body or a close up shot. He also is not wearing any of the fashions he discusses. Yet, perhaps maybe his inability to transport himself to a place of beauty and represent himself in such a  matter is what Fosso is actually depicting as beautiful, his nice face might just be a bonus to the image. This stripping of identity is a natural beauty because it reflects an identity or lack their of and it's pure. 

Like the article Algerian Unveiled, Fosso is essentially unveiling himself in his self-portraits. He exclaims, "I'm searching first of all to find my beauty. That's how I started" (Taylor par. 15). These women in Algeria suffered changes to the body and sense of morals as well as worth with the constant changes in their veils which stood as a security, especially from French colonists, who ruled over their lives and customs. Taking away the veil meant, "--that every face that offered itself to the bold occupier, was a negative expression of the fact that Algeria was beginning to deny herself and was accepting the rape of the colonizer"(42). Their sense of worth and ideals about purity and what it meant to be beautiful women was being torn away. The concept of beauty according to European women meant, "--no one hides what is beautiful and discern in this strange custom an 'altogether feminine' intention of disguising imperfection" (45). The European concept saw beauty as a physical attribute that features just the face and body. They didn't understand a culture that valued the veil as at one point of symbol for their history, beliefs and liberation. The drapes/curtains could even mirror the veils the Algerian women wore as Fosso hides behind them. Fosso's unveiling is evident in his unique and exotic photographs that feature not only truths about himself and the challenges and triumphs he faces, but also other people's concepts of what it means to be beautiful.