Queer and Straight Photography

Author(s): Christoph Ribbat

Source: Amerikastudien / American Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1, Queering America (2001), pp. 27-39
Published by: Universittsverlag WINTER Gmbh
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Queer and StraightPhotography

Christoph Ribbat

ABSTRACT
discourse:"straight"served
"Straight"and "queer" are key termsin Americanphotographic
as the centralconceptof cameraworkbetweenthe 1920sand the 1960s,whereas"queer" photographyquestionedand challengedstraightstandardsin the late twentieth
century.
Although
theessayarguesthatqueer photography
can be clasqueer theoryclaimsto defycategorization,
sifiedas a unifiedmovement:acceptedby the art world,dependenton certainfixedstandards.
This piece exploresthe earlyyearsof "straight";
it contrasts
therepresentation
of cross-dressers
artists"Weegee,LisetteModel,and Diane Arbus,and by queer photography's
by "straight
repreNan Goldinand MarkMorrisroe.
In closing,thearticlediscussestwoyoungcontemposentatives,
in theirwork.
raryartists-NikkiS. Lee and CollierSchorr-and theusageofqueer and straight

Justlook at this binaryoppositionin my title- as elegant as egg yolk on a tie.

It seemsperfectly
outdatedto workwiththesepairs,sincequeer
Queer and straight?
has
made
us
uncomfortable
withsuchfixednotionsas male/female,
theory
thoroughly
or
homosexual/heterosexual.1
normal/abnormal,
Clearly,"queer" has muchmore curin
as
a
verb
than
as
an
rency
adjective contemporary
usage: "queeringstraightphowouldbe de rigueur.Such a paper would queer,i.e.,deconstruct,
tography"
demystify,
destabilizethe notionof straight
an Americanconceptdevelopedin the
photography,
and criticsto denotephotographic
earlytwentieth
centuryby photographers
practice
that producedpure,unretouchedimages- a label that later came to stand for the
mostpowerfulmodernistphotographictradition,
representedby artistssuch as Paul
Strandand EdwardWeston.
If "queer and straightphotography"
seems muchtoo clear-cut,the most obvious,
in binariesis
thoughnot the mostsophisticated
responsemightbe: "To stop thinking
I wouldliketo be slightly
aboutas easyas to stopbreathing."
moreelaborate:The phoand criticswho have queeredtheconceptof straight
in recent
tographers
photography
yearshave,of course,establishednew binaries.Straightservedas the Other against
whichtheirown,queer,projectswere constructed:
"Queer and sex-radicalphotogradesire,and gender,have become
phy,"2imagesthatundercutfixednotionsof identity,
in
visual
arts.
In
this
and queer photography
omnipresent contemporary
essay,straight
are discussedas twointeracting
schoolsof camerawork.More attentionwillbe paid to
the rhetoricsurrounding
the imagesthanto the imagesthemselves.
This articleexaminestheprogrammatic
dimensions
of "straight"
and "queer"in photographic
discourse.
1 Scott Bravmann,Queer Fictions the Past:
of
History,Culture,and Difference(New York:
CambridgeUP,1997) 20.
2 Thisis how theback coverof a seminalcollectionof criticaland artisticworkslabels itscatalogue of artistsworkingin the contextof queer studies(Deborah Bright,ed., The Passionate
Camera:Photography
and Bodies of Desire [London:Routledge,1998]).

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28

Ribbat
Christoph
StraightPhotography

In the earlytwentieth
criticsand artistsattemptedto purify,
to embellish,
to
century,
masculinizephotography.3
The most prominenttermproducedby the discourseunThe subjectsof
foldingaround the photographicimage was "straightphotography."
have
"to
maintain
a
photographersmight
struggled
pose," movingtheirbodies in
contortions"
Edith
Wharton
it
in
The
House
"queer
(as
puts
of Mirth).4The individual
behindthecamerawas assumedto act straight,
unemotional,
fullyin control.
A resounding"plea for straightphotography"had been made in 1904. Critic
SadakichiHartmann,reviewingthe exhibitionof the Photo Secessionat the Carnegie
Institute,Pittsburgh,
urged photographersto use theireye, theirgood taste,their
or
knowledgeof compositionto produceperfectimagesthatdid not need retouching
In 1901,
doctoring-meanswhichHartmanndefinedas "not naturalto photography."5
CharlesH. Caffin,writingon AlfredStieglitz,
characterizedthe straight
photographer
as an artistworkingmainlyin the open air,"withrapidexposures,leavinghis models
to pose themselves,
and relyingforresultsupon means strictly
Eleven
photographic."
yearslater,in a New YorkTimesreview,"the advocatesof pure or 'straight'photograa printyou lose the puphy"were describedas artistswho feltthatby "manipulating
medium."6
rityof tonewhichbelongsespeciallyto thephotographic
However,even in straightphotography,
retouchingor accentuationof the print
were not consideredcompletelyunacceptable.Applyingdaub, scratching,
and scribblingwere taboo onlyif theywere "used fornothingelse but producingblurredeffects."7A. D. Coleman has pointedout how "straight"stood formuchmore thanfor
technicaldetail."Straight"was about "sharpnessof focusand realism,"qualitiesthat
became not simplymattersof stylebut moralimperatives.8
Coleman pointsout how
also
meant
that
artists
moved
from
"straight"
away
stagingevents.In the late nineteenthcentury,
the pictorialists
had directedscenes,had participatedfullyin the creation of the event that finallyproduced the image.9Orvell has commentedon this
mode of artificial
realism:then,"whatwas offeredas almostnature"had been deemed
sufficient.10
Straightphotographyattackedthis aestheticwitha philosophythat de3 For a recentcritical
see Colin Eisler,"'Going Straight':Camera WorkAs Men's
rereading,
Workin the Genderingof AmericanPhotography,
1900-1923,"Genders30 (1999): online,http://
www.genders.org
(20 January
2001).
4 EdithWharton,TheHouse of Mirth
(New York:Signet,1964) 219.
5 SadakichiHartmann,"A Plea for
Photography:
Essays & Images,ed.
StraightPhotography,"
BeaumontNewhall(New York:Museumof ModernArt,1980) 185-88;187.Originallypublished
16 (March1904):101-109.
in AmericanAmateurPhotographer
6 Qtd. in BeaumontNewhall,The
Historyof Photography(New York: Museum of Modern
Art,1964) 111.
7 Hartmann188.
8 A. D. Coleman,"The DirectorialMode: Notes Towarda Definition,"
in Print,
Photography
ed. VickiGoldberg(Albuquerque:U ofNew MexicoP,1990) 480-91;482.
9 Coleman489.
1UMiles Orvell,"AlmostNature:The
AmericanPhotogTypologyof Late Nineteenth-Century
1983-1989,ed. Daniel P. Younger
raphy,"MultipleViews:Logan GrantEssays on Photography
(Albuquerque:U of New Mexico P, 1991) 139-63.See also Miles Orvell,The Real Thing:ImitainAmericanCulture1880-1940(Chapel Hill: U ofNorthCarolinaP,1989).
tionand Authenticity

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QueerandStraight
Photography

29

finedthe artformas unique,as possessinga capacityforverisimilitude

exceedingthat
of any othermedium."Photographycultivatedthe photographic,"
Andy Grundberg
wouldnotbe questioned."11
"so thatitslegitimacy
writes,
Alan Trachtenberg
has commentedon the centralityof straightphotographyin
Americanvisual culture-Stieglitz,Strand,and Weston,its main practitioners,
representedthehighestpossiblepurityof themedium,BeaumontNewhall'sHistoryof PhoNewhall's historydevotes an entirechapterto
tographythe accepted authority.12
the
presenting developmentof the conceptas a turning
pointin
straight
photography,
as pioneers,describingthe
His workdepictsthe straightphotographers
its narrative.
"force"of Stieglitz'swork,Paul Strand's"discovery"of the "photographic
beautyof
excelEdward
Weston's
Ansel
Adams's
"technical
machines,"
precision
"virtuosity,"
lence."13"Straight"in Newhall's account representsthe classic period of photography-a periodin whichtechnicalexcellenceand masterygo hand in hand withoutvision.
standingartistic

Paul Strand,Blind Woman,New York,1916.

Colin Westerbeck& JoelMeyerowitz,
Bystander: A Historyof StreetPhotography(London:
Thames& Hudson,1994) 95. Copyright:
ApertureFoundation,
New York.

Paul Strand'sBlind Woman,New York,1916 mightbe read as the quintessential

straightphotograph.It representsthe hard,technicallyperfectmethodused by this
The photographer
is doublyinvisible-to theblindsubjectand to
generationof artists.
the viewer.The cold rhetoricof the image does not give his emotionsaway.Justas
withoutmercy,
showsMadame Bovary'sblindnessto realFlaubert,withoutcomment,
11
Andy Grundberg,"The Crisis of the Real: Photographyand Postmodernism,"
Multiple
Views,ed. Younger363-85;378-79.
12Alan
"Introduction,"
Trachtenberg,
MultipleViews,ed. Younger1-14;6.
1JNewhall,
History113,114,124,130.

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30

Ribbat
Christoph

of truththatknowsmore thanthe subity,Strand'scamera servesas an instrument

it
jects depicts.
Flaubert'saestheticand Strand'sphotographare cited as importantinfluencesby
WalkerEvans,14whomNewhall,in 1964,does not includein the pantheonof straight
and onlybrieflyrefersto in a chapteron documentary
photographers,
photography.
Evans's programmatic
statementson photographyclarifyhow "straight"not only
concerned
shaped the work of artistslike Adams and Weston,who were primarily
withlandscapes,nudes,and form.It also informeddocumentaryphotography,
until,
and "documentary"
became synonyms.15
eventually,
"straight"
In 1966,Evans composednotes and suggestionsforyoungphotographers-largely
technicaladvice on shutterspeed and printdrying.
He also commentedon theimportance of camera availability,
recommendedto keep a camera "at the ready like a
gun." Then he moved on to more generaladvice: "Workalone if you can," he sugand you wantto concentrate;
gested."Girls are particularly
distracting,
you have to.
Thisis notanti-feminism;
it is commonsense."16
It does notexactlytake a poststructuralist
wizardto deconstruct
thesepassages.Obis definedas a boy's club here;an aggressive,
masculinist
subtext
viously,
photography
links cameras to weapons. This rhetoricties into Susan Sontag's ground-breaking
and Virilio'swritings
on war and the cinema.17
The equationof
studyof photography
and
violence
seems
almost
natural
and
could
well
be attributed
to
now,
photography
the enormousinfluenceof the "straight"vision.Evans's obviouslychauvinisticattitudehidesbehindthemaskof commonsense.
Thisphotographer's
written
workcan be highlyironic;one mightneed to take these
notes witha grainof salt.Nevertheless,
theycan serve as excellentexamplesof the
notion
of
as a quintessentially
masculinecraft.Evans
pervasive
straightphotography
describesa man standingbeforea hardwarestorewindow,"eyeingthe tools behind
beautiful. . . polished
the glass;his mouthwillwater,"he writes,
gazingat a "perfectly
wrench."In a photographic
seriescalledthe "Beautiesof the CommonTool" (published
in Fortune),he producedthe pornographic
thisspecial kindof lust:
imagessatisfying
"Straight,"in Evans's work,standsformaexquisitelylit wrenchesand hammers.18
chine-likerealismand sobriety:thecamerapossessesthesame eleganthardnessas the
This also surfacesin Evans's notesas he looks back on his Brookobjectsit portrays.
lyn Bridgeproject.In the late 1920s,he had photographedthe structurefromspec14"I thinkI
Evans writes.Flaubert's
incorporatedFlaubert'smethodalmostunconsciously,"
"thenon-appearanceof the author"he definesas themostimportant
realismand his objectivity,
notions,whichseemed "literallyapplicable"to the way he used the camera (Evans 70). Alan
of Evans's photographs,
has commentedon the "literariness"
linkingtheirrestraint
Trachtenberg
and exactnessto Hemingway'sprose and WilliamCarlos Williams'spoetry(Alan Trachtenberg,
Imagesas History.MathewBradyto WalkerEvans [NewYork:
ReadingAmericanPhotographs:
Hill & Wang,1989]241).
15A 1997
withthe lines:
work on photography
explainsstraightphotography
introductory
typicalof the Modernperiodin Americanphotography"
"Emphasisupon directdocumentary
A CriticalIntroduction
[London:Routledge,1997]297).
(Liz Wells,ed.,Photography:
16WalkerEvans,WalkerEvans at Work(New York:
Harperand Row,1982) 222.
17Susan
(Harmondsworth:Penguin,1978) 14; Paul Vinho,Kriegund
Sontag,On Photography
Kino:LogistikderWahrnehmung
Fischer,1998).
(Frankfurt/Main:
18Evans,WalkerEvans at Work208.

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QueerandStraight
Photography

31

In retrospect,
he describesthese
tacularangles,emphasizingits dramaticarchitecture.
photographsas "somethingI now consider romanticand would reject. I hadn't
like masculinity
about things."19
learnedto be morestraight
Straightness,
accordingto
NormanMailer,is not somethinggiven,but somethingone has to fightforto make
his own.20"Artmustriseabove personalemotions,"was Flaubert'sdictumthatguided
Evans's work.Romancehad to be replacedby "pitilessmethod."21
Evans on Evans is not alwaysconsistent.In a 1947 interviewfor Time thatwas
stated:"My workis like makinglove .... It
neverused,the "pitiless"photographer
Edward
has to springfromthe moment,fromwhatI feel at the moment."22
Similarly,
not just in termsof technicalbrilliance.
Westondescribedthe powerof photography
"the firstfreshemotion
In passagesfromhis Daybooks,he stateshow in photography
... is capturedcompleteand forall timeat the verymomentit is seen and felt."The
of feelingand recordingthatWestonnames as the greatvitalityin pure,
simultaneity
makes him sound more like a 1990s Nan Goldin-style
photography23
unmanipulated
A closerlook at therheto"emotionalist"24
thanlike a perfectionist
mastercraftsman.
revealscracksin thesurfaceof "straight."
ricof impersonalobjectivity
as machine-obsessed,
unThus,to classifythe straight
photographers
phallocentric,
compassionatemastersof the darkroomwould mean to ignorea host of inconsistencies in the programmatic
statementsand photographicuvresof the major- male
of the school.Nevertheless,
it is importantto pointout
and female- representatives
the tremendousinfluenceof the objectivistrhetoricof straight
not only
photography
in art or documentaryphotography,
but also- as photo journalism-in American
popularculture.
at least untilthe riseof televisionin the 1950s,was seen as a medium
Photography,
whose authenticrepresentation
of realitycould not be surpassed.Life magazine,the
in
the
United
StatesduringWorldWar II and in the postwarera,
best-selling
weekly
definedphotographsas its most importantcomponents.Life's photographers,
espewereconstructed
as heroic,toughadventurers
ciallyitswarcorrespondents,
portraying
themostatrociouseventswithan unflinching
one of the
eye.MargaretBourke-White,
staff
be
the
most
famous
magazine's
photoreporters,
might
example.Recallingherexafter
the
liberation
of
Bourke-White
relateshow the
Buchenwald,
periencesshortly
camerahad servedas a shieldto protecther fromthe atrocioussights-how,behind
the machine,becomingone withit,she had been able to merelyrecordwithoutreher interestin surfaceand form
flectingwhatshe saw. Her Machine Age aesthetics,
made it possibleforher to endow the senselesschaos of Germandeath camps with
19Evans,WalkerEvans at Work42.
zuQtd. in Peter
Literature
Schwenger,Phallic Critiques:Masculinityand Twentieth-Century
(London:Routledge& Kegan Paul, 1984) 133.
Z1Colin Westerbeckand Joel
Meyerowitz,Bystander:A Historyof StreetPhotography
(London:Thames& Hudson,1994) 282.
22Qtd. in
Remainsin the Shadows,"New YorkTimes18 June
MargarettLoke, "Photographer
1999:E 2, 41,Coll.
23EdwardWeston,The
ed. NancyNewhall(New York:Aperture
Daybooksof EdwardWeston,
1990
/ 156.
24On the
of emotionsin the workof Goldin and David Armstrong,
see Norman
centrality
Bryson,"BostonSchool,"BostonSchool ed. Lia Gangitano(Boston:ICA, 1995) 27-29.

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32

Ribbat
Christoph

order.25
The representation
of atrocityscenes in 1945 took straightphotography
one
of
the
had
further:
the
been
described
as
an
alstep
process producing picture
always
mostathleticritual;now,the veryact of lookingat photographsbecame an exercisein
And more thanever before,photography
was believedto speak nothing
toughness.26
butthetruth.
Even in the televisionera,whenphotojournalismwas graduallylosingits position
as the mostaccurateand fascinating
was stillsurroundedby a
medium,photography
as
a
rhetoricof accuracy,authenticity,
universality.
"Straight"
conceptstillechoes: the
sober,simple,unretouchedimage seems to have retainedits power.And yet somesincethedayswhenStieglitz,
Strand,and
thinghas changedin Americanphotography
Westonwere revered,since Newhallwas the unquestionedauthority.
Alan Trachtenthathas transformed
the American
bergsees the same processactivein photography
an "oppositionalthrust"based on thesame theories,
on social history,
humanities:
psyon activismin the realmsof social identityand genchoanalysis,
ideologicalcriticism,
herecomes "queer photography."
der.27Afterstraight,
Queer Photography?
Again,it seems impossibleto use thislabel. "Queer" as a conceptrunsagainstall
all fixedmeaning,foreverquestioning,redeploying,
definitions,
twistingterms,texts
and itselffromconventionalusage.28Straightphotography
operatedwithfixedconof
and
artistic
excellence.
the
whose
Discussing
cepts truth,accuracy,
photographers
that
deconstruct
these
be
called
we
uvres
concepts,
queer, investigate
practicesmight
hisnot onlytheworldof camerawork,but,whiletheyare at it,identity,
destabilizing
as
well.
and
toriography, epistemology
the queeringof photography
However,a closer look at the discoursesurrounding
the project.Justas straight
revealsthatit is indeedpossibleto departmentalize
photoin
like
and
which
"truth,"
discourse,
"perfection"
expressions
"excellency,"
graphic
relieson certainkey termsto legitimizeartists
abound,queer photographiccriticism
notionsof stableidentity"is one of them.Abigail Soloand theirart."Undercutting
mon-GodeaupraisesPeterHujar's work,as it "undercutsa viewingpositionthatgen25
in PostwarEurope,"ReChristophRibbat,"Polanda la Montana:New Deal Photographers
2000)
gional Images and RegionalRealities,ed. LotharHnnighausen(Tbingen:Stauffenburg,
97-110;103.
26Barbie Zelizer,
to Forget:HolocaustMemorythroughtheCamera'sEye (ChiRemembering
cago: U of ChicagoP,1998) 138.
27
6-7. See also photo-historian
Lindsay Smith'swork on nineteenth-century
Trachtenberg
JuliaMargaretCameron,who,in Smith's
"politicsoffocus."Analyzingtheworkofphotographer
of
to
evade
denies the "phallocentricism
not
fetishism,
focus,"
manages
"sharp
eyes,by
using
of depthas hersubject"(LindsaySmith,
and "rewritesthecontingency
perspective,"
geometrical
Manand Nineteenth-Century
The Politicsof Focus: Women,Children
Photography
[Manchester:
chesterUP, 1998]30-31).Smith'sstudyrevisesthe unifiedhistoryof nineteenth-century
photogof controland surveillance,
callingattentionto areas thathave been
raphyas an instrument
overlookedsuchas thephotographic
practicesofVictorianwomen.
28JudithButler,Bodies ThatMatter:On theDiscursiveLimitsof "Sex" (New York:Routledge,
1993) 228.

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QueerandStraight
Photography

33

the spectator's. . . mastery,"

and moves on to reifyCindy Sherman's
erallyaffirms
her
how
"undercut
the notionof any fixedand stable idenwork,stressing
pictures
Evans
and
Lorraine
Caroline
Gamman
commendDelia Grace's photographs
tity."29
because they"destabilize"subjectpositions,because theyplay with"binaryoppositions,"challenging"essentialcategories."30
And, to quote an example fromoutside
Peter
Home
and
Reina
Lewis
stresshow performance
artistsLawrence
photography:
and
Iris
Moore
the
of
fixed
and
Steger
challenge "ownership
meanings," how theirart
can be read as an "intervention
intohegemonic,oftenmasculinist,
of
representations
list
The
could
be
continued.
gender."31
These passages do not intendto ridiculethe importanceof undercutting
stablenotions,of challengingthe hiddenpower relationsin "normalcy"-as, forinstance,hetin traditional
discourse.In viewof the prevalenceof hoeronormativity
photographic
an epistemomophobia,racism,and sexism,thererestsgreatpromisein queer theory,
"turnsidentityinside
logical and politicalprojectthat,like postmodernarchitecture,
out,and displaysitssupportsexoskeletally."32
has become so influential
However,the projectof queeringstraightphotography
and institutionalized
in art and academia thatit seems necessaryto stop categorizing
each act of questioningfixedmeanings,
bendinggender,attackingbinariesas a revoluinnovativeperformance
in itself!Queer's rebelliousrhetorichas to adapt to
tionary,
the factthat the queer projectis consolidating.
A recentvolume such as Deborah
and Bodies of Desire has a similarfuncBlight'sThe PassionateCamera:Photography
tionas BeaumontNewhalPsHistoryof Photography.
The 1998book also establishesa
a canon.On itsback cover,the volumeis describedas "a
pantheonof photographers:
Preeminent?Was not
preeminentsource on queer and sex-radicalphotography."33
all
about
such
terms?
If
is
forever
foreverredetwisted,
queering
challenging
"queer"
forever
and
in
how
can there
absent,here,there,nowhere,always flux,
ployed,
present
be a preeminent
sourceon queer photography?
There can be, because queer photography
has become an acceptedschool,comparableto straight
in
the
first
half
of
thetwentieth
even iftheterm
photography
century,
is
not
used
as
Just
as
Adams
and
Westonexperi"queer photography"
frequently.
mented with gradationsystemsand darkroomchemicalsto produce the perfect
like Delia Grace or Nan Goldin play withperformance,
straight
print,photographers
gender,and desireto produceperfectqueer images.At the same time,the projectof
thanabout
queeringarthistoryseemsto be less about epistemological
troublemaking
theconstruction
of a usable past.Take Douglas Crimp'sprogrammatic
essay "Getting
theWarholWe Deserve,"and theBerlinerKollektiv'sinterviews
withAmericanartists
sexual subculturesof the 60s and 70s: JulianeRebentischspeaks of a rerepresenting
29
at theDock: Essays on Photographic
InstiAbigailSolomon-Godeau,Photography
History,
tutions
and Practices(Minneapolis:U of MinnesotaP 1991) 265-72;266,272.
30CarolineEvans and LorraineGamman,"The Gaze
Revisited,or ReviewingQueer Viewing,"A QueerRomance:Lesbians,Gav Men and PopularCulture( London:Routledee.199549.
31PeterHome and Reina Lewis,eds.,Outlooks:Lesbian and
Gay Sexualitiesand VisualCultures(London:Routledee,1996) 1-9;8.
32Annamarie
Jagose,"Queer Theory,"AustralianHumanitiesReview4 (1996): online,http://
www.theory.org.uk
(25 May 2000).
33
Brightn.p.

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34

Ribbat
Christoph

construction
of secrethistoriesby exploringthe oral histories,
the innerperspectives
of heretoforemarginalizedsubcultures.34
defines
Crimp
queer art as an act of resistanceagainstthefictionof a coherentand stablesexualidentity.
Thatact of resistance,
could
well
have
become
a
coherent
and
stable
however,
conceptitselIn his article,
he calls fora rediscoveryof forgotten
for
a
of the convenhistories,
reinvestigation
tionalnarrativeof arthistory.
reminds
his
readers
of
the
"entire
historicalrichCrimp
ness"of forefatherslikeWarhol,like underground
filmmaker
JackSmith.35
we shouldgettheWarholwe deserve.A coltheseprojectsare important:
Certainly,
lection like Jennifer
Jonathan
Doyle,
Flatley,and Jos Esteban Muoz's Pop Out:
in Americanarthistory
Queer Warholprovestheimportanceof re-examining
territory
thathas long been desexualized,"degayed."36Fromthe perspectiveof the historian,
statementswhich
however,some of these textssound verymuchlike programmatic
proponentsof social historydeliveredin the 1970s.Duringthattime,new perspectives
and new methodswere broughtto the discipline:urbanhistory,
history,
immigration
and labor history.
Instead of beingblownto pieces,the disciplinewas expanded and
At the
enriched,and a new extensionwas added to the historiographical
enterprise.
moment,a comparableprocessseemsto take place in arthistory.
A brieflook at the discoursesurrounding
queer art seems to yieldthe same result
as RosalindKrauss'strenchantOctoberpiece on visualstudies:the field"maynot be
as radicalas it thinks."37
On the Internet,GenerationQ: The FirstInternational
Queer
YouthArt Expo (1999), presentedten young "queer" artistsand photographers.
StevenJenkinsintroducedthisnew generationas "young,adventurous,
smart,sly ...
and absolutely,
with
no
to
thank
positivelyqueer,
apologies anyone,
you verymuch!"38
At thispoint,queer art,queer photography,
are about to create both:a usable past
and a usable future.
Queer Photography
If "queer" came to gate-crashthe artworld'sparty,pull the carpetfromunderthe
feet of artists,
critics,and historiansalike,withhopes of shattering
conceptsof sex,
It seems
itsown successmayhave weakeneditsthrust.
gender,art,and representation,
as if "queer" had joined the crowd,as if its destabilizationof identityhad become a
culture."Gender surfing"has become an entryin the art
staple of contemporary

34JulianeRebentisch,
InterviewsmitMaryWonorov,Sebastian,Pamela
"Geheimgeschichten:
des BarresundAA Bronson,"Textezur Kunst35.9 (1999): 67-70;70.
35
Douglas Crimp,"GettingtheWarholWe Deserve,"Textezur Kunst35.9 (1999): 44-65;64.
3bJennifer
Doyle, JonathanFlatley,and JoseEsteban Muoz,Pop Out: Queer Warhol(Durham,NC: Duke UP 1996) 2. See also Laura Auricchio,
"Liftingthe Veil:RobertRauschenberg's
Thirty-Four
DrawingsforDante's Infernoand the CommercialHomoeroticImageryof 1950s
Formationsin Queer Studies,ed.
America,"The Gay '90s: Disciplinaryand Interdisciplinary
ThomasFosteret al. (New York:New YorkUP,1997) 119-54.
37RosalindKrauss,"Welcometo theCulturalRevolution,"October11 (1996): 83-96;96.
JStevenJenkins,
"Ine Q. 1. on (generationU, generation{J 19W,online,nttp://www.queer(25 May 2000).
arts.org/archive/9906/gen_q/essay.html

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QueerandStraight
Photography

35

Measured
on one level with"globalization,"and "virtualreality."39
world'sglossary,
"mess up
to
academia
the
intention
was
to
(where
againstqueer theory'schallenge
it is easy to see thatqueer
the desexualizedspaces,"to "reimaginethe publics"40),
not shakenthe foundationsof the artworld.That,however,
art'simpacthas certainly
invalidates
some
of
the high-strung
rhetoricsurrounding
queer,not the artists'
only
and its
work.Nor does thismake it less relevantto challengestraightphotography
camerasof commonsense.
Examplesfromthe workof Weegee,LisetteModel,and Diane Arbusrevealthe lehow,in the 1980s
gitimacyof queeringthe straighteye- and providean illustration
and 1990s,artistshave developedwhatcould be called a "queer gaze." Not thatthe
referred
to wereparticularly
close to themastersof "straight
photographers
photograwas
too
Model
too littleinterestedin technicalperprobably
vulgar,
phy"- Weegee
fection(she had her printsmade by the cornerdrugstore),
Arbustoo introverted.
All
of themwere "straight"
however,whenit came to a favoritesubjectof Americanurban photographers:
cross-dressers.
Weegee,in Naked City(1945),presentscriminalsdressingup as womenluringmen
intodarkalleysto rob them.One of themis caughtby the flashin a police car,waiting to be taken away.Thoughmanystrangethingshappen in Weegee's world,this
seemsto be one of the strangest-and the camerarepresents"commonsense."While
focuseson groups,thusallowingfora certainprotectiveanonymity
Weegeefrequently
of his subjects,thisman dressedas a womanis cornered,ridiculedin his drag,exposed
in hisqueerness.41
Lisette Model portraysmen performing
as women in a Bowery bar.
Similarly,
from
them
the
Shooting
unflattering
angles,caricaturing uglinessbehindtheirmadeModel
lets
the
viewer
look
up faces,
throughthe "scam"thisseemsto be. WhenDiane
former
Model's
student
at
the
New School forSocial Research,portrayscrossArbus,
their
seem
ifnot downright
She calls
dressers,
ridiculous,
poses
similarly
embarrassing.
hersubjects"freaks,"and even thoughwe can sense a certainrespectforthemin her
herphotographs
do notgivemuchof thatrespectaway.Theyframewithenornotes,42
mousprecisionwhatseemsto be theenormously
erraticbehaviorof individualscrossof New Yorkers as transvestites,
ing gender lines. In the representation
'straight'
meansmorethan'technically
honest,simple.'It also makes
perfect,
non-manipulated,
statements
about sexualidentity.
Flaubertcomes to mind,in WalkerEvans's version:the photographerand his art
seem non-judgmental,
neutral,exposingmercilesslythe delusionsof his or her subjects.In theimagesbyModel,Weegee,and Arbus,thecamerabecomestheeye of rea39See the
and Uta Grosenick,
Artat theTurnof theMilglossaryof BurkhardRiemschneider
lennium(Kln:Taschen,1999) 566-69.
40Michael Warner,"Introduction,"
Fear of a Queer Planet:Queer Politicsand Social Theory
and
(Minneapolis:U of MinnesotaP, 1993) xxvi.In academia as well,the institutionalization
commodification
of queer studiescalls for a reconceptualization
of queer theory(see John
Champagneand Elayn Tobin,"'She's RightbehindYou': Gossip,Innuendo,and Rumorin the
Deformation
of Gay and Lesbian Studies,"The Gay '90s,ed. ThomasFosteret al. 51-82).
41
Wegee,Naked City(New York:DaCapo, 1985).
4ZArbus describes freaks as
havingalreadypassed theirtestin life,as "aristocrats"
(Diane
Arbus[Frankfurt/Main:
Zweitausendeins,
1984]3).

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36

Ribbat
Christoph

son and normalcy.

In thiscontext,straightmeans straight.
Photographyis definedas
the heterosexualeye. Lifestylesand sexualitiesthatdifferfromthispositionare perceivedas weird,grotesque,ridiculous.
Straightphotography-queer contortions.
Goldin'sgaze of
of
Nan
Goldin and Mark Morrisroe.43
with
this
the
work
Compare
does
not
weirdness.
and
closeness
Instead, it celebrates
warmth,respect,
expose
insteadof
their
Her
of
cross-dressers
subjects'performances
respect
beauty:
images
and
his
the
mask.
evoke
at
the
truth
behind
to
They
Degas
paintingsof
trying gaze
Goldinis fascinatedby thebackstageperspective,
dancersbehindthescenes.Similarly,
notbecause herpicturesshouldtouch"the truthabout transvestites,"butbecause this
The photographsexplorethe contrast
worldis understoodas an artisticchallenge.44
betweenthe athleticdisciplineof dance and the weak,unrehearsedmomentsof relaxation.Like Degas- and Hopper-, Goldin oftenexploresthe distancebetweenurtheiressentialunrelatedness.45
ban protagonists,
Thus,backstagemomentsof intimacy
seem all themorecharged.

Untitled
MarkMorrisroe,
(Embrace).
Emotions and Relations,ed. F. .
Gundlach(Kln: Taschen,1998) 117.
Pat Hearn Gallery,New
Copyright:
York.

exModel and Arbuscollectedspecimens.Urban flneuses,

theyroamedcitystreets,
crossnot
she
does
insists
that
of
Goldin
the
photograph
margins society.
amining
She claimsto have a deeper relationdressersbecause of theirspectacularidentities.
as an act of touchingsomeone.Photograshipto them.Goldindescribesphotography
phyin the Americancenturyhas made a close alliancewitha cold,hard perspective,
Even beautyhas oftenbeen
and absurdityunflinchingly.
exposingviolence,poverty,
presentedwithmachine-likeprecision.Goldin argues that she photographswith a
does not mean exposingher subjects,but empow"warmeye."To her,representation
43
Thoughfeministcriticshave labeled Goldin's ballad of sexual dependencyas too overtly
II Be
herproject-especiallyherlaterworkdocumentedin the 1997retrospective,
heterosexual,
YourMirror-vehemently
questionsfixedconceptsof sexual identity(cf.Max Kozloff,Lone Visions,CrowdedFrames[Albuquerque:U of New MexicoP,1994]108;Bryson25).
44ErnstGombrich,
derKunst(Frankfurt/Main:
Die Geschichte
1953) 432.
Gutenberg,
43Sam Hunter,AmericanArtof the20thCentury
(New York:Abrams,1II) 133-34.

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QueerandStraight
Photography

37

ering them.46The warm colors of her picturesevoke the feel of familysnapalso use domesticspaces
shots-which,of course,theyare not.Morrisroe'sphotographs
to stagedramasof romance,passion,deception.
The AIDS epidemicframedboth Goldin's and Morrisroe'suvres,shapingthem
in crisis.AIDS also clarifiedtheproblematic
nolensvolensas chroniclesof subcultures
and
NicholasNixon's 1988 MoMA
of
aspects straightphotography photojournalism.
was
exhibition
of
with
AIDS
accompaniedby ACT-UP protestsagainst
people
photo
in
victims.47
The objectivity
of
the
the negativity
implied
straight
picturesof suffering
inwith
the
of
his
seemed
an
contrasted
the straight
passivity
subjects,
photographer,
of artisticexadequate idiomin a crisisthatcalled into questionthe verypossibility
pression.
in her
Much of Goldin'ssuccess,however,stillrestson the promiseof authenticity
work.Often,her photographs,
howeverplayful,artificial,
even abstract,are looked at
witha hungerforthe real thing:we see, we want to see, her lovers,her (suffering)
In contrast,
thepersonaMarkMorrisroepresentsin hisphotographic
herself48
friends,
masked.Morrisroebrokethe ground
uvreis less easilyaccessible,moredeliberately
and rephorule of "straight"photographyby infinitely
meddlingwith,retouching,
the negative,opening"a space of manipulationand self-invention"49
that
tographing
rhetoricof authenticity.
Even in the documentation
contradicts
straight
photography's
of his own death Morrisroechooses blur over focus,makinghis veryown suffering
in 1989.
He died of AIDS at theage of thirty
seem elusive.50
If manyof theirimagescome acrossas blurred,one thingabout Goldin'sand Morrisroe'suvresis clear:these artistscould be identifiedwitha subculture:bohemian
downtownManhattan,the 1980s(or also the late 1970s,in Goldin'scase). Today,in a
new historicalcontext,even the idea of belongingto a "scene" is called into question-as, forinstance,in the firstsolo exhibitionby NikkiS. Lee, a Korean-American
bornin 1970.Dressingup in everso manyguises(as a Latinowoman,a
photographer
club
kid,a lesbian,a yuppie'sdate,a seniorcitizen),Lee joins ever new subJapanese
Of course,we see whatwe are used to seecultures,
posingwiththeirrepresentatives.
since
Sherman
took
center
The humor
Cindy
ing
stage:identitiesas mereconstructs.
that guides Lee's project,though,the insistenceon makingconnectionsin photomake her uvre queer
graphicpractice,and the intendedtechnicalimperfections
as
well
as
straight
queer expectations.
WhileLee, as a "ventriloquist
of everydaylife,"51
is interestedin the multiplicity
of
guises,the recentworkof CollierSchorris concernedwithone guise only:manhood.
Her photographsexplore the faces,bodies,and gesturesof male teenage athletes.
46Nan Goldin,I'll Be YourMirror(Frankfurt/Main:
Zweitausendeins,
1998) 452-53.
47Robert Atkins,"AIDS:
Making Art & Raising Hell," Queer Arts Resource1999,online,
http://www.queer-arts.org/archive/show4/forum/atkins/atkins.html
(25 May 2000).
48Liz Kotz,"Aesthetics
of 'Intimacy,'"
ThePassionateCamera,ed. Bright204-15.
49David Joselit,"Mark Morrisroe's
PhotographicMasquerade,"The PassionateCamera,ed.
Bright195-203;197.
50Joselit202.
51
Take On theWorld,"VillageVoice
Saltz,"Decoy and Daydreamer:GirlPhotographers
Jerry
28 Sept.1999:61.

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38

Ribbat
Christoph

If adolescencewas
Bruce Hainleycalls herworkan "obsessivestudyof masculinity."52
show business,Schorrwrites,"then young guys would be Las Vegas."53Over the
has playedwithand queered identityin varicourse of her career,the photographer
as "I could do morewitha cock thanyou do." What
ous ways,issuingsuchstatements
The youngathletesshe portraysdisplaytheir
makes her pictureslast is theirvitality.
bothaggressiveand exhausted.One thinks
their
seem
as
well
as
wounds;they
strength
of toughguyssleepingwiththe lightson because theyare
of the earlyHemingway,
and gender
Schorrknowsthatidentity,
afraidof thedark.As Hainleywrites,
sexuality,
to
marrow."
are
"felt
the
bone's
she
also
that
are "illusory,"
they
expresses
yet
framesthe body,identifies
Of course,photography
it,and controlsit- Schorr'slook
at male teenagerscan also be read as a symbolicreturnof themale gaze. As in Wharobservationsrepresentsome of theirsubjects'poses as "queer
ton'snovel,herstraight
contortions."Here, too, the camera is an instrumentin the strugglesaround
is the onlythingthat
and desire.But afterall,photography
identity,
power/knowledge,
allowsthesefragileyoungmento be seen at all.54

Collier Schorr, Ice Pack (1998).

303 Gallery,New York.
Copyright:

In spiteof all the powergamesthatremainto be played,it is necessaryto rememThe cold,straightgaze

stillgives us the "delightof illusion."55
ber thatphotography
are one thing:it is anotherthingto be charmedby the
and its queer deconstruction
gracefulgestureof a teenageathletepressingan ice pack to his exasperatedface.
The ice pack coolingthisauthor'sbrowis Sedgwick's"Paranoid Reading and ReparativeReading,"a textthatcould be read as a polemicagainstthe "X-raygaze,"
doable and teachableprotocolsof unveiling"thathave become rituals
the "infinitely
52Bruce
(Nov. 1998):96Hainley,"Like a Man: The Photographsof CollierSchorr,"Artforum
99.
53CollierSchorr,ExcuseMe WhileI Kiss theSky,pressrelease(New York:303 Gallery,1999).
54
Hainley98.
55Dave Hickey,Air Guitar:Essays on Art& Democracy(Los Angeles:ArtIssues Press,1997)
187.

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QueerandStraight
Photography

39

of criticism
in CulturalStudies.Sedgwickissuesa warningagainsttheimpoverishment
when its practitioners
are interestedonlyin "suspiciousarchaeologies"thatunearth
hiddenpatternsof violenceand control.56
the
Especiallyin the fieldof photography,
narrowfocuson such issues as surveillanceand powercould have made criticsblind
to the images'infinitepossibilities,
and ambiguities.
histories,
And, yes,blindto their
beauty.

56Eve
KosofskySedgwick,ed., Novel Gazing:Queer Readingsin Fiction(Durham,NC: Duke
UP,1997) 1-37.

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