CONSENT Complicating Agency in Photography A SPACE for DIALOGUE 92 HOOD MUSEUM OF ART, DARTMOUTH 283341 Hood.indd 1 12/18/18 5:04 PM The 2017–18 Hood senior interns laying out their A Space for Dialogue exhibition in the expanded and renovated Hood Museum of Art galleries. Photo by Rob Strong. 283341 Hood.indd 2 12/4/18 4:24 PM CONTENTS Introduction Amelia Kahl, Associate Curator of Academic Programming 4 Macilau versus Lee: Who Owns an Identity? 6 Ashley Dotson, Class of 2018, Conroy Intern Intimacy, Brotherhood, and Hazing: Tim Hetherington’s Pink Belly 10 Gina Campanelli, Class of 2018, Class of 1954 Intern Nobuyoshi Araki at the Hood: The Ethics of Viewing at the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nationality 14 Kimberly Yu, Class of 2018, Homma Family Intern “Yes, I am rich, and so what?” 18 Marie-Therese Cummings, Class of 2018, Levinson Intern Photography in the Age of the Smartphone: Amateur versus Artist 22 Tess McGuinness, Class of 2018, Conroy Intern Exhibition Checklist 25 283341 Hood.indd 3 12/4/18 3:40 PM INTRODUCTION Amelia Kahl, Associate Curator of Academic Programming The 2017–18 senior Hood interns, from left to right: Ashley Dotson ’18, Kimberly Yu ’18, Tess McGuiness ’18, Gina Campanelli ’18, and Marie-Therese Cummings ’18. Photo by Rob Strong. 283341 Hood.indd 4 12/4/18 3:40 PM Hood Museum of Art interns curated reality in Daniela Rossell’s photograph Consent: Complicating Agency in Pho- depicting a member of the Mexican tography over the 2017–2018 academic elite, Untitled (Janita Harem Room, Villa year. They began with a disparate group Arabesque, Acapulco, Mexico). And of thirty photographs that Dartmouth Tess McGuiness explores the ubiquity of students had selected for purchase digital images through Doug Rickard’s through the Hood’s Museum Collecting #40.805716, Bronx, NY (2007). 101 program.1 From these, the interns Consent: Complicating Agency in chose thirteen works to include in their Photography is the first Space for Di- exhibition, which they centered on the alogue exhibition to be shown in the theme of consent. In their introductory newly expanded and renovated Hood wall text they wrote: Museum. This program, which began in 2002, has allowed Dartmouth students In light of our current political climate and the to gain hands-on curatorial experience issues around privacy, climate change, poverty, identity, and social media, this exhibition hopes while enriching the exhibition program to start critical conversations. We hope these of the museum at large. photographs—often intimate, sometimes per- The Hood staff gratefully acknowl- verse, but all thoughtful and intentional— edges the generous support of the Class reflect the diverse challenges presented by our increasingly globalized world. of 1967, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Jr. ’66, and Pamela J. Joyner ’70, which This essay collection expands upon makes A Space for Dialogue possible. 5 the themes of the exhibition, presenting We also thank Marina and Andrew Lewin focused texts on six photographs that ’81 for supporting an annual trip to New represent each of the four thematic cat- York City for students enrolled in Museum egories of the show: Self-Reflections, In- Collecting 101 to visit museums, galler- dividuals and Identities, Public Spheres, ies, and collections while making their and Global Ethics. selection for the Hood’s collection. Our Ashley Dotson writes about issues of work benefits immeasurably from their identity and ownership in Nikki S. Lee’s understanding that experiential learning The Ohio Project (8) and Mário Macilau’s is essential to our mission. Untitled (4). Kimberly Yu looks at issues of race and sexuality in the nude female NOTE subject of Nobuyoshi Araki’s Untitled “Bondage (Kinbaku).” Gina Campanelli 1. Through the Museum Collecting 101 program, held annually since 2002, Dartmouth students considers masculinity and brotherhood from many of classes and majors meet to learn through the lens of Tim Hetherington’s about the Hood’s collection and its acquisitions Specialist Tad Donoho, Korengal policy. Toward the end of each year’s session, Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. participants choose a work—typically a photograph—to be purchased for the museum’s Marie-Therese Cummings describes collection. Each object’s credit line includes the the gap between representation and names of the students who selected it. 283341 Hood.indd 5 11/20/18 11:56 AM MACILAU VERSUS LEE Who Owns an Identity? Ashley Dotson, Class of 2018, Conroy Intern Mário Macilau, Untitled (4), from the series Living on the Edge, 2014, pigment Inkjet print on cotton rag paper. © Mário Macilau 283341 Hood.indd 6 12/17/18 1:59 PM In light of the larger global debate sur- Nikki S. Lee was born in Kye-Chang, rounding ownership and appropriation, South Korea, in 1970, and moved to documenting another person’s story in the United States in 1994. Growing up photography can be controversial. This exposed to different cultures through idea is explored through two photo- the media, she developed her ability to graphs on view in Consent: Complicat- empathize. After coming to the United ing Agency in Photography: The Ohio States, Lee took time to study different Project (8) by Nikki S. Lee and Untitled American subcultures (yuppies, skate- (4) by Mário Macilau. In both cases, it boarders, hip hop culture, lesbians, could be claimed that the lifestyle and etc.), and then lived among members of culture portrayed are the photogra- each group for several weeks.1 In an at- pher’s. I argue, however, that these art- tempt to have a truly immersive experi- ists depict lifestyles that could also be ence, Lee would not immediately reveal considered foreign to them. The act of herself to be an artist. She spent time representing another person’s story as at social events and casual gatherings, a means for a photographer’s personal where she asked other group members gain is often considered exploitive, to take her photo. The artist claims that especially when the artist is of a greater the resulting photographs depict her social or economic status than the sub- true lifestyle at the time, showing how 7 jects of his or her work. This practice has other “societies affect [her] identity,” a long history in the discipline of pho- because she is a different person de- tography. I would, therefore, like to con- pending on her surroundings.2 sider Lee and Macilau’s images in the Rather than photograph the culture context of ownership: Does the culture she grew up in, Lee portrays her ac- Mário Macilau, Untitled (4), from the series Living on the Edge, 2014, and lifestyle that each of these photog- quired culture in a given moment. How- pigment Inkjet print on cotton rag paper. © Mário Macilau raphers represent belong to them? A ever, when looking at her work, such as person’s cultural identity can be defined the Hood’s photograph from the Ohio as a combination of race, socioeconomic Project, it appears that Lee’s immersion status, sexuality, and environment, in these cultures is only superficial. In among other components. Both Lee capturing an isolated moment, the me- and Macilau’s photographs highlight dium of photography limits the portray- environment as the determining factor, al of her life in an Ohio trailer park to though the two approach this topic with clothing choice and location. One could directly opposing methods. This essay arguably describe her as merely an will present the different contexts sur- actor in a costume on set, and her sup- rounding each of their photographs and posed cultural immersion as pure per- discuss the complex ideas of identity formance. Culture consists of more than and ownership. clothing and environment; it is a web of 283341 Hood.indd 7 11/20/18 11:56 AM history and identity passed down and By a certain logic, one might con- transformed through generations. At its clude that Macilau creates images of his core, a person’s culture affects the way own culture whereas Lee does not. How- he or she sees—and is seen by—the ever, the artists’ own perception of their world, but Lee’s self-portraits stop short work confounds this assumption. Macilau of portraying this essential feature. In- admits that his work is not autobiography, stead, she dawns a mask of imitation. but instead captures a lifestyle that is now Mário Macilau was born in Maputo, foreign to him. Lee, on the other hand, Mozambique. As a child, he received a views her projects as a real exploration of camera from a friend and started taking personal identity, where her transforma- photos of his surroundings: the people tions become her true self.5 Therefore, he passed by and the places he went. despite the fact that Lee appears to be a Through a series of barters and trades, he cultural outsider and Macilau an insider, acquired a digital camera that he used to by their own assertions, Lee owns her post photos on the Internet at the local narrative and Macilau does not. Whom library. This first step eventually led to do you choose to believe? the launch of Macilau’s global career as a photographer. He went on to have NOTES 8 independent shows in the United States 1. “About the Photographer: Nikki S. Lee,” and Canada, achieving both critical and Museum of Contemporary Photography, financial success. The artist subsequently Chicago, accessed January 25, 2018, http://www.mocp.org/detail.php?t=objects returned to Mozambique to start his &type=all&f=&s=Nikki+s+lee&record=2. series Growing in Darkness, in which he documents street children in his home- 2. Nikki Lee, “Parts and Projects,” University of Michigan School of Art and Design, town of Maputo.