Photographing a Perfect Body
“The female body is masculine propaganda, and its existence as equivocal is yet instantly recognizable.” In history, the only body that exists is that which is photographed, and in the 20th century, the photographed body is conditional to its ontological form of existence. The photographed female has not been descriptive but rather a form of repetition of prescribed sizes and colors [1]. The use of Caucasian, skinny, covered females was not only a figure of national sentiment but an example of primitive forms of censorship. If a body type and color are correct, proper, decent, therefore, the others are such opposites. This perception of the female body does not hold against the unique, heavier, unconventional, colored bodies of 20th-century females. Upon this dilemma, feminist photographers appropriated the medium and showed ordinary bodies from which vivid stories and alternative realities can be imagined [2]. This depiction althoguh powerful was sometimes censored or and criticized and did not fully took form until modern times. Nonetheless, to explore the struggle and the photographers’ work is fundamental to understanding the progrss that was acomplished. This section will explore the creation of the body as propaganda and the social burdens that were used to mass-produce it. It will also show the reconstruction of the body in photography through different photographers and their specific approach.
Photographic Bias: Race, Size, and Culture
In the 20th century photography, the creation of the female body as propaganda was primitive as it didn’t extend beyond the 1910s. Photography was used primarily to create a record of an individual for specific purposes (crime). The stigmatization of the body was primarily seen in painting and sculpture but not photography. The reason was that photographs were not only intimate but also quite difficult to create (to modern standards). However, within these limitations, citizens understood the world through photographs and associated the world with the image. In the 1930s the technological advancements in photography radically changed this dynamic [2]. The movie Olympia (1936) was created by the Nazi government as mass propaganda to promote not only the perfect race but also the perfect female. It is within this athletic body that is not only glorified but also elevated beyond measure that the first model arises. The females within this movie will become a blueprint for the standards of beauty across western civilizations for decades to come. Although there were beauty standards in painting, Olympia was a catalyzer for the conception of the western model due to its mass government guided production [3]. Its scope will prove to be fundamental for future beauty contest but also a complete neglection of the real German female, whose features were different from that of Olympia.
See Photographs Related to Olympia (1936)
The creation of the 20th-century model was not only highly influenced by the western adaptation of Olympia as a blueprint of beauty but also other forms of racial bias within photography. In Strange Love, Leisa Meyer addresses the exploitation of the black female as an erotic figure and the problematic dynamic that existed when African Americans were photographed [4]. Historian Saidiya Hartman addresses the same issues in her book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments and presents a series of pictures in which this standard of beauty is applied to between white and black females. Hartman addresses a set of pictures that were taken in the tenements of Brooklyn and addresses the use of black bodies for erotic purposes. The most controversial example of this dynamic was the color calibration that was used by Kodak in their cameras. The camera was capable of detecting 12 shades of white tonality, yet it failed to recognize the tonality of darker skins. Photography was a clear example of the racial dynamic that existed in the U.S.A as there were unintended yet significant hurdles for black individuals. As mentioned before, photography is powerful as it projects the past only from the lens that was utilized. If the lens is limited by a miscalibration of the camera it is creating a blueprint for female beauty standards based upon shape but also color [5].
See Photographs Related to Eroticism and the Black Females
See Photographs Related to Kodak's Racial Bias Study
Alternative Realities: Street Photography and Censorship
The problem with photography was its exclusivity throughout the 20th century. There were different forms of life and different bodies, yet these were not captured by a camera. Individuals will anticipate and prepare for a photo shoot in which the action of posing is mimicked and unrealistic. Nonetheless, there were a handful of photographers that captured unique, unforeseen, and unprepared photographs that are now considered revolutionary from a historic point of view. These photographers were not interested in mass propaganda and perfect, ideal form and lighting but rather a true depiction of society so a true version of history can be preserved [6]. In the context of the female figure, street photography was fundamental to the depiction of, as previously stated, unique, heavier, or unconventional bodies of the 20th century. Among these photographers, Vivian Maier is unprecedented in her fascination with the American female. Vivian Maier’s work was discovered after her death and never profited from it. She was a nanny and never receive any formal training, yet her work is fundamental and critical to realism in American photography. Maier’s females are beautiful in the sense that all portraits or photographs are given the same dedication, skill, and dignity despite the shape, figure, or color of the subject [7]. There are a variety of diverse female figures in her portfolios from which a true sense of equal consideration can be observed.
See More Photographs Related to Vivian Maier
A feature of the Second Wave Feminism that was experienced during the 20th century was the debate over sexual identity and sexual freedom. Photography was an important medium for queer individuals to show and project their movement against heteronormativity. Individuals photographed themselves and publish their self-portraits in subculture magazines that allowed for a new generation of queerness to arise in photography. It is important to highlight that a trans body is an absolute disruption to the prescribed norm that was addressed before. Susan Meiselas is an American photographer, who has worked in a variety of photographic genres. Her initial work Early Years and New York follows the same street dynamic of Vivian Maier, yet the focus is quite different. There is an indented attempt to photograph daily life for young females as an attempt to normalize females as a sexual being. The females in Meiselas photographs are primarily posing in a manner that will seem indecent- taking into account that these are adolescents. Meiselas will take her work even further to photograph strippers and prostitutes with the purpose to establish that such a form of life exits and therefore must be photographed. This nudity is mimicking famous paintings with the attempt to create a debate over female nudity between painting and photography. The important aspect to note in this case is that these female bodies do not fit any standard, yet they are powerful sexual beings in the environment in which they coexist. She is also using the body as a form of self-appropriation and as described in Wayward Lives, there is freedom that can be achieved when an individual has control and possession over their sexuality [8].
See More Photographs Related to Susan Meiselas
the cosntruction of bodies in the U.S can be observed as a gradual change, yet in other countries, these changes can be quite radical. During the Spanish dictatorship, the Catholic church had control of the education system as well as clothing standards to assure that females were dressing appropriately. As the dictatorship ended, Spanish females rapidly adapted to the ideas of feminism that were trending around the globe. Catalan photographer Colita developed her career during that transition, and her work is a satiric representation of the machismo that had prevailed in Spain during the dictatorship. In her photographs, there is satire and critic over the sexual dominance males had over females in the workforce, church, and house. A critique over the church standards of decency and their stigmatization of female sexuality as improper. Colita was focused on the idea that a female must dress without backlash or stigmatization [9]. In her works, there are hidden erotic elements in various settings- office, church, house, park, etc. As a mode of critique that such elements exist because men wish them to exist. There are also her portraits in which there is a tendency to follow the dynamic of street photography that was previously mentioned. Her work is feminist and although deemed indecent (during the 20th century) it shows the forces of machismo that constructed bodies and behavior for a great deal of the Spanish dictatorship and its culture of machismo.
See More Photographs Related to Colita
Bodies Yet to Come: Backlash of the Plus-Size Body
In this past section, there was an exploration of different and revolutionary forms of depicting the female body and its effect on society. However, the photographs from the previously mentioned photographers were not appreciated until the modern era. They were not mass-produced or used as a means of propaganda in the same manner Olympia was. The major magazines and beauty contests stuck to the pre-existing guidelines that were previously discussed in the first section. Nonetheless, there was a magazine that attempted to change standards of modeling and female bodies in the 1980s. Vogue magazine launched the first campaign of plus-size female clothing that was mass-produced during 1986-88. Its backlash, however, proved to be fatal to the campaign as it was discontinued, and no plus-size campaigns will take mass attention until decades further. The reason why it wasn’t received well was more than an argument of health and beauty but the idea that a female had to be confined to a specific body type and color to be beautiful. This campaign is not one of failure but a blueprint for the uncountable campaigns of diverse beauty that will take form in the decades to come. The mere fact that this campaign exist, highlights the crucial moment the diversification of beautiful bodies overcome during the 1980s. This material represented a turning point in mass produced photography and is fundamental for the inclusivity and the dignification of a significant number of females around the globe.
See More Photographs of Vogue's Campaing
Return to Society Shaping Bodies
Footnotes:
[1] Hainge, Greg. “Unfixing the Photographic Image: Photography, Indexicality, Fidelity, and Normativity.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 22, no. 5 (October 2008): 715-30. Doi:10.1080/10304310802311659.
[2] Parsons, Sarah, ed. Photography after Photography: Gender, Genre, History. pg. 9. Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2017. Accessed November 4, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv11cw0v3.
[3] Hainge, Greg. “Unfixing the Photographic Image: Photography, Indexicality, Fidelity, and Normativity.”. 2008
[4] RodrÌguez, MarÌa Graciela. “Behind Lenis Outlook: A Perspective on the Film Olympia (1938).” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 38, no. 1 (March 2003): 109–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902030381007.
[5] Meyer, Leisa D. ""Strange Love": Searching for Sexual Subjectivities in Black Print Popular Culture during the 1950s." Feminist Studies 38, no. 3 (Fall, 2012): 625-657,784. https://search-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/1283329491?accountid=14541.
[6] Roth, Lorna. "Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm: Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity." Canadian Journal of Communication 34, no. 1 (2009): 111-136. doi:http://dx.doi.org.mutex.gmu.edu/10.22230/cjc.2009v34n1a2196.https://searchproquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/219534659?accountid=14541.
[7] Parsons, Sarah. Photography after Photography: Gender, Genre, History. pg. 148-50. Duke University Press, 2017.
[8] Parsons, Sarah. Photography after Photography: Gender, Genre, History. pg. 155. Duke University Press, 2017.
[9] Hartman, S.V. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval. pg. 44-47. W.W. Norton, Incorporated, 2019. https://books.google.com/books?id=AzFEtwEACAAJ
[10] Villena, María Rosón. "Colita in Context: Photography and Feminism during the Spanish Transition." Arte y Políticas De Identidad 16, (06, 2017): 56-74, https://search-proquest-com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/1988462574?accountid=14541 (accessed November 3, 2020).
[11] Peters, Lauren Downing. “‘Fashion Plus’: Pose and the Plus-Size Body in Vogue, 1986-1988.” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 21, no. 2 (2016): 175–99.