The centrality of the human face as a photographic subject dates to the medium’s early history. Facing suggests a forward-oriented projection of agency—of the subject’s active engagement of the camera lens and, by proxy, the viewer of their image—an expectation that may or may not be met. Facing is also superficial, something decorative or protective that covers the internal substance beneath. This contradictory state encompasses photography’s complex history of identity construction and representation. The “democratic medium” (so-called because early photographs were, if not inexpensive, far more affordable than painted portraits), extended visibility to people from almost any social background, enabling them to see themselves pictured. But a more pernicious history runs parallel to this celebrated idea of self-representation; since the same formative years of the medium’s history, photographs have been used to categorize the people they portray, often according to biases and with lasting repercussions. Such misrepresentation is possible, in part, because the camera lens is credited with high degree of objectivity—viewers may accept the apparent “neutrality” of the image at face value, without considering the external forces and motivations that help to shape the interpretation of its subject. What is given to the camera, what is taken by it, and who ultimately determines the representation of selfhood it constructs—the subject, the photographer, or the viewer?

The photographs in this exhibition are drawn from the permanent collection of the David Winton Bell Gallery, which contains strong holdings in photography, with depth in twentieth-century American works. Over the past decade, the Gallery has built upon these holdings, focusing on images created since the turn of the twenty-first century. This is the third in a series of installations mounted over the past year that have highlighted recent gifts and purchases of photography.