Aestheticisation and objectification of people and subjects in photography
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the following definitions are valid:
- aestheticize (transitive verb) : to make aesthetic
- objectify (transitive verb) (1) : to treat as an object or cause to have objective reality [They believe that beauty pageants objectify women] (2) : to give expression to (something, such as an abstract notion, feeling, or ideal) in a form that can be experienced by others [It is the essence of the fairy tale to objectify differing facets of the child's emotional experience - John Updike]
Due to the nature of photography, the second meaning of objectify is represented in still photographs in a limited scope and the first is to be the most common.
Allan Teger's "Bodyscapes" fall under objectification
While Lewis Hine's (1874–1940) portraits of the hardworking children are a clear case for aestheticization.
While both approaches could be artistically justified, the objectification in artistic and photographic statements, especially in racial, gender, etc. context drags a long tail of the negative connotations.
Pompeo Posar, a Playboy magazine staff photographer (1960-1970s) was an extremely skilful photographer and yet, looking at his works from today's (ahistorical and therefore untrue) perspective provokes different reflections to the ones in the original context in which they were published.
We are living it the days of so heavy censorship and self-censorship that even finding online the centerfold of Cynthia Myers from 1968 is blocked. This one of the favourite pins among the soldiers in Vietnam and therefore a cultural artefact on its own rights. And yet, modern-day censors retrospectively made it unavailable to the person willing to research.
This influence of censorship and blacklisting in digital media is something I will explore in more detail later. As well as the ahistoric perspective which falsifies the art's reception when applied retrospectively i.e. by AI (artificial intelligence) filters checking uploads online.
