Revving up for a few laps on another track.

I was pleased and honored to receive an invitation from the German publisher Hatje Cantz to guest-host their “fotoblog” in February.

Here’s the list of others who have had this gig. Some pretty tough acts to follow:

Although they didn’t insist that I do this, I wanted to find a topic I could chew on for a month, with lots of examples to toss around and muse upon. I’ll be looking at some of their new books and backlist, and am free to include whatever references I’d like to cite during the month.

Looking quickly at their list of forthcoming titles and seeing a new monograph on Cindy Sherman, I stumbled on a topic. Sometimes, you think you know and understand a concept fully, only to realize that once you pause and unpack it, questions develop around what you thought you knew. I am curious about identity. What is identity, and how does it relate to photography?

Some photographs open to initial musing.

A quick Google of “photography and identity” plopped me down in fertile ground. A 2011 group exhibition catalogue from the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University - The Truth is Not in the Mirror: Photography and a Constructed Identity - should be a good jumping-off point. Here’s a link to the PDF. I’ll be continuing my explorations in the next day or two, once my German colleagues give me the keys to the car; I hope you will follow my ramblings there.