Body Language: The Queer Staged Photographs of George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa

Body Language explores the early practices of staged photography in visualizing queer forms of relation, highlighting the work of George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa. It examines how their practices of staging, collaboration, and psychological enactment through the body crossed boundaries between art and life, private and public worlds, and anticipated contemporary social media.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 07 November 2023
Publisher: University of California Press

Examines early practices of staged photography in visualizing queer forms of relation.

Body Language delves into the captivating relationship between George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa (Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret Hoening French), offering a comprehensive exploration of their unique artistic collaboration.

In their practices of staging, collaboration, and psychological enactment through the body, Nick Mauss and Angela Miller provide insightful readings that trace the trajectory of their work across the boundaries of art and life, the private and public spheres, and even anticipate the emergence of contemporary social media.

Rather than using the camera as a mere tool for capturing reality, Mauss and Miller embraced its potential as a dynamic performer, actively shaping and shaping forms of world-making through a novel social framing of the self.

By rejecting the conventional role of photography as a mirror of the real, they energized new modes of artistic expression and challenged the established hierarchies of representation.

Through their innovative approach, Mauss and Miller not only pushed the boundaries of photography but also made a significant contribution to the broader discourse on identity, representation, and the power of the visual medium to shape our understanding of the world.

Weight: 246g
Dimension: 153 x 203 x 12 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520394629