Different Girls: performances of adolescence in contemporary photographic portraits Catherine Mary Grant PhD Thesis Courtauld Institute of Art, London June 2006 1 Abstract This study considers five contemporary women artists whose work focuses on the adolescent model. Framed by the trend for large-scale colour photography, the depiction of adolescence was a recurring theme in the mid- to late-1990s. The artists – Sarah Jones, Anna Gaskell, Collier Schorr, Hellen van Meene and Amy Adler – are examined through their engagement with the history of the photographic portrait, with the room-sized space in front of the camera theorised as a performance space in which the identifications of the photographer, model and viewer are staged. Adolescence as a cultural and psychic identity is explored through psychoanalytic concepts of hysteria, sibling relations and narcissism, examining the performances of adolescence as disrupting heteronormative presentations of female identity and sexuality. The ‘queerness’ of adolescence and the potential this allows in the construction of alternative viewing positions and identifications is a concern that runs throughout the study. In each chapter the contemporary work is considered alongside examples from the history of the photographic portrait. The conventions of studio portraiture developed in the mid- to late-nineteenth century through the commercial carte-de-visite photograph, experimental amateur photography and scientific applications of photography form key points of dialogue with these contemporary stagings. The figure of the adolescent girl focuses attention on narratives of anxiety around uncontrollable sexuality, one that can be seen in the work of artists, writers, psychoanalysts and filmmakers, from the favourite hysteric at the Salpêtrière, Augustine, to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Broader issues around the photographic portrait are also considered in relation to these performances: the ambiguous presence of the model as a subject or object; the effect of repetition and ideas of performativity on the portrait’s traditional aim to present an individual subjectivity; and dialogues with postmodern ideas of appropriation and authorship in the quotations from historical sources. By considering this work primarily through a history of the photographic portrait, the depiction of the adolescent model can be contextualised as part of an ongoing critical engagement with the conventions of presenting a performance for the camera. Abstract 2 Table of contents List of illustrations 4 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: Different Girls 11 Chapter one 44 Spatial concerns in the photographic portrait: the work of Sarah Jones Chapter two 86 Fairytales and fantasies: the work of Anna Gaskell Chapter three 134 Baby butches and reluctant Lolitas: nostalgia and desire in the work of Collier Schorr and Hellen van Meene Chapter four 178 Presenting the performance: the work of Amy Adler Conclusion: “the same but different” 224 Bibliography 237 Illustrations 253 3 List of illustrations Chapter one 1.1 Sarah Jones, Consulting Room (Couch) XII, 1997 1.2 David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, At the Greyfriars’ Cemetery in Edinburgh, c 1843-1848 1.3 Francesca Woodman, Polka Dots #5, 1976-1977 1.4 Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-1976 1.5 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Isabella Grace Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1859-1861 1.6 Camille Silvy, Flora Bradford, 15 March 1860 1.7 AAE Disdéri, Princess Gabrielle Bonaparte, c 1862 1.8 Carte-de-visite photographs of working women from Arthur Munby’s collection, 1860s 1.9 Anonymous pornographic photograph, c 1865 1.10 Sarah Jones, The Sitting Room (Francis Place) IV and V, both 1999 1.11 Sarah Jones, Camilla (I), 1998 1.12 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Isabella Grace and Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1861- 1862 1.13 Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Francis Place) III, 1997 1.14 Sarah Jones, Consulting Room (I), 1995 1.15 Francesca Woodman, In My Cousin’s Room Who Is My Same Age, nd Francesca Woodman, double-page spread from her book On Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981 1.16 Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-1978 1.17 Francesca Woodman, New York, 1979 Francesca Woodman, New York, 1979 1.18 Sarah Jones, The Fence (Passion Flower) I and II, both 2002 1.19 Julia Margaret Cameron, Maud – The Passion Flower at the Gate, 1875 1.20 John Everett Millais, A Huguenot, On St Bartholomew’s Day, 1852 1.21 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1862-1863 1.22 Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Francis Place) VII, 1999 1.23 Camille Silvy, Lady at a mirror, c 1865 Camille Silvy, Two small girls at a mirror, c 1865 1.24 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1863-1864 List of illustrations 4 1.25 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Isabella Grace and Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1862- 1863 1.26 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Clementina Maude and Isabella Grace, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1864 1.27 Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Mulberry Lodge) III, 1997 1.28 Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Francis Place) I and II, 1997 1.29 Sarah Jones, The Dining Room (Mulberry Lodge) I and II, 1997 1.30 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Clementina Maude and Isabella Grace, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1863- 1864 1.31 Francesca Woodman, Boulder, Colorado, 1972-1975 1.32 ‘Spirit’ photograph by charwoman Mrs Deane, 20 March 1934 1.33 Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976-1977 1.34 Lady Clementina Hawarden, Clementina Maude, 5 Princes Gardens, c 1862-1863 Chapter two 2.1 Diagrams showing male and female homosocial structures 2.2 Anna Gaskell, examples from The Alice Portraits series, 1996 2.3 Hans Bellmer, The Doll, 1934 Hans Bellmer, Untitled, 1935 2.4 Anna Gaskell, installation view of resemblance; Untitled (resemblance) #76; Untitled (resemblance) #71; Untitled (resemblance) #82; Untitled (resemblance) #84, 2001 2.5 Hans Bellmer, three photographs all entitled The Doll, 1935 2.6 Lewis Carroll, Alice Liddell as “The Beggar Maid”; Alice Liddell Dressed in Her Best Outfit, summer of 1858 2.7 Lewis Carroll, last page of manuscript Alice Underground, 1864 2.8 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #1 (wonder), 1996 2.9 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #2 (wonder), 1996 2.10 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #3 (wonder), 1996 2.11 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #13 (wonder), 1996 2.12 Anna Gaskell, images of Alice doubled: Untitled #8 (wonder), Untitled #15 (wonder), Untitled #17 (wonder), Untitled #18 (wonder), 1996 2.13 Anna Gaskell, Untitled, 1996 2.14 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #10 (wonder), Untitled #12 (wonder), Untitled #15 (wonder), 1996 2.15 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #29 (override), 1997 2.16 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #24 (override), 1997 2.17 Anna Gaskell, Untitled, 1996 List of illustrations 5 2.18 Carrie, dir. Brian DePalma, 1976 2.19 Carrie, dir. Brian DePalma, 1976 2.20 Régnard, photographs of Augustine, reproduced as “Les Attitudes passionnelles en 1878”, La Révolution surréaliste, no. 11, 15 March 1928, p. 21. Originally reproduced in volume II of Iconographie Photographique de la Salpêtrière, 1878 2.21 Régnard, photograph of Augustine in her “Normal State”; retouched photograph of Augustine having an attack (“Tetanism”). Originally reproduced in volume II of Iconographie Photographique de la Salpêtrière, 1878 2.22 Mina ‘Margery’ Crandon photographed during a séance with the materialised hand of her dead brother Walter, c 1926 “Crude teleplasmic hand exuding from navel of Margery, séance, Boston, Mass, 1925” 2.23 Juliette Bisson, “Mme Bisson’s flashlight photograph of 9 Jan, 1913, with enlargement”. Quote is taken from the photograph’s caption in The Phenomena of Materialisation, 1920 2.24 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #90 (half life), 2002 2.25 Anna Gaskell, Untitled, 1996 2.26 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #88 (half life), 2002 2.27 Anna Gaskell, Untitled #97 (half life), 2002 2.28 Installation views of Anna Gaskell’s series wonder, 1997 and half life, 2002 Chapter three 3.1 Collier Schorr, Two Shirts, 1998 3.2 Hellen van Meene, Untitled, 1998 3.3 I-D magazine spread, no. 10, c 1981-1984 3.4 Ellen von Unwerth, fashion story for The Face, no. 66, October 1985, pp. 98-99 3.5 Karlheinz Weinberger, At the Masked Ball, Zurich, 1958 3.6 Karlheinz Weinberger, Romeo (Werner Berger), boss of the Revenger Gang, Zurich, c 1962 Karlheinz Weinberger, Zurich, c 1962 3.7 Karlheinz Weinberger, member of the Tiger Gang, Zurich, c 1962 Karlheinz Weinberger, Zurich, c 1961 3.8 Karlheinz Weinberger, Knabenschiessen, Albisgüetli Zurich, c 1962 Karlheinz Weinberger, Zurich, c 1961 3.9 EJ Bellocq, Storyville Portraits, c 1912 3.10 EJ Bellocq, Storyville Portraits, c 1912 3.11 EJ Bellocq, Storyville Portraits, c 1912 Hellen van Meene, Untitled, 1999 List of illustrations 6 3.12 Installation shot of Overnight to Many Cities, Photographers’ Gallery, London, 2002, including Joel Meyerowitz, Dominique, Soft Late Night, Good Grey Peach Pink Top (Brooklyn Heights), August 4, 1981 Larry Clark, cover photograph from his book Tulsa, 1971 3.13 Double-page spreads from Collier Schorr’s book Conquistadores, 2002 clockwise from top left: A Neighbour’s House, 1996; The Pupil, 1995; Wallpaper (Chairs), 1997; Cadets, 1997 3.14 Hellen van Meene, Untitled, 2000 3.15 Collier Schorr, Horst Condrea, 1995 3.16 Collier Schorr, The Last to Know What it is Like to be a Traitor, 1994 3.17 Collier Schorr, Defensive Tight End, Lindenfeld, 1995-1996 Collier Schorr, In The Garden (Torso), 1995 3.18 Collier Schorr, South of No North, 1995 Collier Schorr, Tremelo Americana, 1998-1999 3.19 Collier Schorr, The Purloined Dick, 1995 Hellen van Meene,