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Kirsten Star (1996) Kirsten Star Artist: Inez van Lamsweerde Dating: 1996 Type: Photography Material: C-print on paper Measures: 104 x 80 cm Acces / purchase date: 1997 Inventory number: 0665 Copyright: © Inez & Vinoodh. Courtesy Gagosian -
The Forest. Klaus (1995) The Forest. Klaus Artist: Inez van Lamsweerde Dating: 1995 Type: Photography Material: Chromogenic print mounted on Dibond and Plexiglas Measures: 135 x 180 cm Acces / purchase date: 1996 Inventory number: 0663 Copyright: © Inez & Vinoodh. Courtesy Gagosian -
The Forest. Marcel (1995) The Forest. Marcel Artist: Inez van Lamsweerde Dating: 1995 Type: Photography Material: Chromogenic print mounted on Dibond and Plexiglas Measures: 135 x 180 cm Acces / purchase date: 1996 Inventory number: 0664 Copyright: © Inez & Vinoodh. Courtesy Gagosian
At that time, digital work in fashion was largely confined to retouching in the traditional sense: smoothing away imperfections, emphasizing and delineating features, and eliminating dust. But it was perfectly apparent that the digital was going to have much more profound implications for the understanding of photography, and, by extension, for the understanding of the subject matter that is being photographed.
Part of the realist effect of photography is its capacity to propose itself as a stand-in for an encounter with what or who was in front of the camera. Such realism has its conventions—think of the studio portrait with a plain background shot in even light. The visual rhetoric here is of simplicity and straightforwardness. This is the setting van Lamsweerde used for “The Forest” (1995), a suite of four images each with a figure reclining. The framing is on the face, arms, and upper body, and all four figures wear the same yellow short-sleeved shirt, an item of clothing conventionally worn by both men and women. However, the photographs subtly mix up the standard media codes of “masculinity” and “femininity.” The question soon arises as to whether van Lamsweerde is photographing subjects that identify in a non-binary way, or whether the people have been styled to transgress binary norms, or whether the images have been digitally composed, perhaps combining features and body parts from different people. The emphasis falls slightly differently in each image, but all evoke a feeling of fascinated uncertainty or unease.
Today, such imagery is much more commonplace, in art and fashion, but also in everyday life. Social norms and gender identities have become more open and fluid. Part of what has enabled this fluidity is the Internet, with its capacity to allow images of self-presentation to be uploaded and shared rapidly. Mainstream media outlets no longer have such a tight grip on representational norms. Looking back on these images by van Lamsweerde, with 25 years of hindsight, what is notable is that they were made in that very small window of time between the advent of digital post-production and the advent of the Internet.
David Campany