Monstres et images : le médium photographique face au corps anormal

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between photography and monstrosity, focusing on the specific perceptual experience of encountering a "monster" and the way in which this experience was transcribed by the photographic medium. Using both medical and freakshow photography, we'll examine the ways in which the "monster" was represented, and the views these images convey. Through the analysis of several photographs of "monsters", the text will show how photography constructed the visibility of the body, according to a normative framework that conferred a legible character on the monstrous body, a condition of its visibility. If photography became an ally of the dehumanizing practices surrounding the development of the freak figure, can it, after the decline of exhibitions of the "abnormal", reclaim them and propose a different approach to the monstrous body? This question will be explored through the photographs of Diane Arbus and Joel-Peter Witkin, two "photographers of freaks".

Keywords

• monster
• freakshow
• witkin
• arbus
• photography