Bibliography #4

The model is well-dressed up in this picture. He is wearing some accessories. I see a fashionable leather hat, glasses, and a nice watch and a ring. This photo is taken from the side. He is not looking at the camera. The picture is taken closed up to the model. The model is not standing straight but he has his one hand on his neck. He is wearing a suit with jacket on. The photo is taken in black and white. The angle of his head is best looking. He is not looking up or putting his head down. The background is plain white. 

Looking at the model well dressed up in the photo, I can say that he has a sense of fashion, and he is ready for the photo shooting. The background shows that the photo was not taken without the model's knowing. It was not taken on the street or anywhere, but somewhere like a studio where it is set up for photo shooting. The choice of his accessories are good looking even for a person from 2015 to see. The photo is not funny, joking type of portray, but a serious but not too dark or heavy photograph of a person. The model dressed up formal, wearing a suit and a jacket in black with leather hat. The model is good at posing that his head is at the best looking angle for this kind of portray, sentimental and artistic of quiet mood. He also not just standing dull but has one hand on his neck showing his watch and ring as well. The photographer must have been very popular taking this good looking, artistic photo. In fact, Samnuel Fosso is very popular. According to Jessica Taylor, Fosso "has become a cult figure in Europe and the US because of his remarkable self-portraits" (TheGuardian). Then Jessica informs that Fosso's work has staged a solo exhibition in New York for the Walther Collection and travelled to London and New York. And his profiles were written in the French press. The reason he is famous must be the sense of his art and skill in photographing. 

Fosso's type of studio photography is powerful because it is known even in western culture, takes portraits of natives in Bangui, has a stack of his self-portraits, and well-taken, looking good even for a person from decades later. Above all, the reason his work is powerful is that it speaks. He speaks with his photograph. For example, his self-portrait as an African chief proves and make the westerners are aware of that his country has its own political system before westerners came. 

Fuss's work is revolutionary like unveil women in Frantz Fanon's article. It was tradition that women covering up all their bodies and faces in Arabic country. However, in colonization, women started speaking up nonverbally by unveiling. By this action, women started to get back their personalities and responsibilities. Fanon says, "This woman who, in the avenues of Algier or of Constantine, would carry the grenades or the submachine-gun chargers, this woman who tomorrow would be outraged, violated, tortured, could not put herself back into her former state of mind and relive her behaviour of the past" It is brave of Fosso to speak up at this time about his race to dominating western culture. It was dangerous and life threatening for Algerian women to do such revolutionary action, but both Fosso and women in Arab took their stand and did what they had to do. I like the idea how Fosso took a picture of himself naked to render the fear that black people went through. 

Taylor, Jessica. "Here's Looking At Me." TheGuardian. 26 June 2002. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.