Lyndsay Tipton Annotated Bib #4

Observation: This is a self-portrait of Samuel Fosso. He is dressed in a button-down shirt that has a zig-zagged pattern on it. On the shirt, he has a button on the shirt that has the symbol which represents feminism (a combination of the Venus symbol and the "raised fist"). He has large hoop earrings in each ear and large sunglasses on as well. His hair is styled like an afro. He does not smile and he is staring away from the camera. The shot does not include most of his body, being focused on the bust. 

Inference: I chose this photograph for several reasons but I think my initial draw to it was due to the fact that this is a self-portrait of Samuel Fosso as Angela Davis (African American political leader in the 1960s associated with the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party). Upon further research, I discovered that this portrait was one of a series that was shown in 2008 entitled African Spirits. Each photograph was a self portrait of Fosso as one of several black historical figures. I found it incredibly interesting that he was able to embody each of these figures, at times even having to cross gender boundaries to do so. 

This leads into the second reason I had for choosing this photograph which is that this photo supports the idea that I had last week about how studio photography is so much more controlled than documentary photography. As a studio photographer, Fosso was able to dress himself a certain way, create specific backdrops, and hold himself in a specific way that could allow him to become someone else entirely in his photographs. In this photo, for example, Fosso has basically become Angela Davis, which shows just how much control he had over how the photograph turned out. 

Another interesting connection that can be made here is between the idea that Fanon expresses in his book "Black Skin, White Mask" about "what is veiled and what is revealed". Photography gives the photographer and the person being photographed (in this case - the same person) the opportunity to veil or reveal as much as they want about themselves. This is an opportunity that in life, is not often given. 

Works Cited

Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask. Dir. Isaac Julien. Alexander Street. California Newsreel, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.

 "The Self-Portraits of Samuel Fosso." DAILY SERVING RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.

 "The Self-Portraits of Samuel Fosso." Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. N.p., 16 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.