Headless Fatties

September 14th, 2010

Headless Fatties
Accompany news reports about obesity in America. Dehumanized figures in the media. She is interested in fat/obesity being a fat female issue no longer.
But making portraits of men (abstract black and white images) and their stretched marks.
There is an issue with even showing a full portrait, wouldn’t address the issue – but by isolating the body’s regions – their is an appreciation of the unique curves.
Why the choice of doing it in black and white? It alludes to traditional photography so much. She is also trying to make them just rendered into shapes/landscapes. But now they need more of a contextual reference / reason. The question of why photograph in the studio? For Zerbie, there are practical reasoning, to protect the models and respect them as nudes.

Critique:
Timothy Druckrey: How would anyone know the context manner of these fat issues? These images are very stylized – as opposed to photographing very formally like the older photographers. Taking these images with a digital camera. They just seem like formal subjects without the underlining issues that Zerbie has been speaking about : “media’s interpretation of obesity” what is said about them changes the context about them.

Miranda Lichtenstein: Your activism and a sense of “formal aesthetics” are one in the same, or at least should. Having the formal qualities seem to undermine the sense of activism.

Timothy Druckrey: The danger to try and fulfill all elements of your life. Art, media, politics, poetry. Don’t make it into an omelette because you tend to lose clarity when mixing all those things together.