Immund Poses: funk, photography, gender performativity and dance in the construction of the contemporary photographic portrait

Abstract

As a phenomenon, funk is wider than its specificities as a musical genre. The cultural space it occupies highlights issues related to the body, gender, race and social classes as sociopolitical aspects in constant friction with elite culture and the media, which absorb it and attempt to sanitize it. If something needs to be sanitized through the erasure of social and racial traits of funk singers and dancers, it is because this condition is seen as abject – immund. This article makes use of the concept of immund to analyze the black and LGBT body within the funk universe by examining the portraits of six young men in light of theoretical reflections derived from the fields of dance, performance art and politics.

Keywords

• funk
• photography
• performance
• lgbt
• dance