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Bodies, Desires, Identities. The Photography of Jan Saudek

Flagge, Sara LU (2005)
Abstract
Jan Saudek is an internationally renowned, yet academically unexplored photographer who makes staged, black and white (but often hand-coloured) photographs: obviously arranged, and erotically charged, images of the naked, semi-naked or dramatically costumed body. In this paper I present the work of Saudek, especially his performative self-portraits, and discuss the question of desire and subjectivity in relation to these images. I propose that there is an ambivalent desire at play here: Saudek’s "theatre of the body" indicates a need to be visually confirmed as an Ego, but also a need to be visually confirmed as a continually changing Other. His staged photography does in this way show a narcissistic and exhibitionistic desire to be... (More)
Jan Saudek is an internationally renowned, yet academically unexplored photographer who makes staged, black and white (but often hand-coloured) photographs: obviously arranged, and erotically charged, images of the naked, semi-naked or dramatically costumed body. In this paper I present the work of Saudek, especially his performative self-portraits, and discuss the question of desire and subjectivity in relation to these images. I propose that there is an ambivalent desire at play here: Saudek’s "theatre of the body" indicates a need to be visually confirmed as an Ego, but also a need to be visually confirmed as a continually changing Other. His staged photography does in this way show a narcissistic and exhibitionistic desire to be Someone without being entirely trapped as this Someone. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
performace, body, Jan Saudek, desire, identity, Self, photography, Other
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3401e372-92c7-4f49-b440-735e91eba2a8 (old id 536381)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:09:57
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:18:39
@misc{3401e372-92c7-4f49-b440-735e91eba2a8,
  abstract     = {{Jan Saudek is an internationally renowned, yet academically unexplored photographer who makes staged, black and white (but often hand-coloured) photographs: obviously arranged, and erotically charged, images of the naked, semi-naked or dramatically costumed body. In this paper I present the work of Saudek, especially his performative self-portraits, and discuss the question of desire and subjectivity in relation to these images. I propose that there is an ambivalent desire at play here: Saudek’s "theatre of the body" indicates a need to be visually confirmed as an Ego, but also a need to be visually confirmed as a continually changing Other. His staged photography does in this way show a narcissistic and exhibitionistic desire to be Someone without being entirely trapped as this Someone.}},
  author       = {{Flagge, Sara}},
  keywords     = {{performace; body; Jan Saudek; desire; identity; Self; photography; Other}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Bodies, Desires, Identities. The Photography of Jan Saudek}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}