This project was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs in Black Book. In Reading Racial Fetacism Kobena Mercer dissects the potential issues with Mapplethorpe’s practice in photographing his Black book. Mercer argues that Mapplethorpe sees black men as sexual objects- to be framed, refrained, posed and lit in infinite possibilities. The way he photographs black men claims that the essence of these men isn’t an individual but their sexuality. When taking apart his photographs it is clear to me that Mapplethorpe used black men as an aesthetic object rather than a subject to take portraits of. Mapplethorpe abused his position as a white photographer, using his subjects to fill his own desired fantasy of a man. He did this in the same way white men have been objectifying women through most of art history. 

In my project, “Revision” I am exploring the way artists have been viewing their subjects in an objectified manner and turning it on its head. My photographs are self-portraits that parody famous artworks. The works that I have chosen have inserted an objectifying or stereotypical gaze onto their subject. In the photos I am looking right into the camera, not allowing any viewers to look at me without confronting me. These photographs were taken on a large-format camera and printed on archival pigment paper.