Subject to Culture

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Subject to Culture

Assumptions are misleading things.

In America, we make subconscious judgments about others through lenses that has been shaped by our society culture. To people living in this progressive moment of history, it becomes clearer every day how these stereotypes are typically very far from who the actual person is. It is easy to fall into the false ideas about others when we are taught to think in terms of “us” versus “them” in our society. We find comfort in segregation. A commonality (even if false and unfair) is the glue that binds our culture together.

This collection of photographs aims to capture the stark, theatrical, fallacy of American stereotypes. The subjects are photographed in the style of portraiture. There is an air of disdain and discomfort in each portrait that asserts itself and says “is this what you want?” As an addition, each photo is named with slang that could be taken in an offensive way. This ties into the complete narrative of labeling and stereotyping differences.

There is great irony held within these photos.

The subjects perform in a way that the American culture deems to be expected, accepted, and taken for granted. It is encouraged to consider the specific decisions made by the collaborative efforts of the artist as well as the subject. These people are far from the single shot taken of them in this controlled, artificial moment as is everyone else you meet.