masquerade ˌmɑːskəˈreɪd.
Noun a false show or pretence: I doubt he could have kept up the masquerade for long. • [mass noun] the wearing of disguise: dressing up, role playing, and masquerade. • chiefly North American a masked ball.
Verb [no object] pretend to be someone one is not: a journalist masquerading as a man in distress. • be disguised or passed off as something else: idle gossip that masquerades as news.
In short, a deception. In photography this can take many forms, and we often think of the deception being an ‘arrangement’ of the subject matter to deceive the viewer, or even a collaboration between subject and photographer. This is often the case with media images.
Exercise
There is a form of masquerading that Nikki S. Lee uses, whereby she is in a way duping the subject matter, but allowing us as the viewer, armed with foreknowledge, to share in her deception. In doing so, allowing us to see, often serious subject matters, with a knowing smile and the sharing of a betrayal, the furtive wink! Lee’s style, is to fully integrate her self with a group of people (often minority or fringe groups), in doing so gaining their confidence under false pretences to then gain the unguarded images she wants. She has completed a number of projects in this way with great success.
Trish Morrissey on the other hand, whilst integrating with a group of people, masquerades not only with their permission, but also with their full co-operation and involvement. She is, in a more lighthearted way deceiving the viewer, not the subjects. Though her work varies insofar as the deception is really only very shallow, and seen more as a trick that allows the viewer to figure it out in their own time.
I find Lee’s approach quite unsettling and disturbing. I can’t help but liken her ‘way’ to that of a comedian picking on the ‘odd person’ in the audience, getting cheap laughs at somebody else’s expense, somebody who is not in a position to defend themselves (for a number of reasons). Back in the seventies & eighties, this was the norm in ‘Stand-up’ comedy, lead by the likes of Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning. Yes, we all laughed at the time, but it was humour/entertainment still in it’s infancy (that said, there was plenty of clever humour which had gone before), and very much a blunt weapon!
I cannot believe that her work is as she tells us it is. By this I mean; Surely the groups that she is ‘infiltrating’ are fully aware of who she is and what she is doing, they must be complicit. The way that she dresses herself up is so clumsy that, in the flesh, she must surely be so transparent as to be in cahoots with the group that she is infiltrating! Is she trying to double bluff? Is the last laugh supposed to be on us? That is the only way, surely, that this work can have any credence whatsoever! Once this fundamental question is answered then all else can be answered categorically. Voyerism, exploitation; I cannot believe that a) she could be so exploitative or callous and that b) her subject matter (assuming it is not her viewing audience) are that naive.
Trish Morrissey’s approach to a not too dissimilar circumstance, is however, very different. Fundamentally, Morrissey is being open with her subject matter(s). They must be aware of exactly what she is trying to present, and on what stage i.e. they must know that she is a photographer, and that what she is collating will be presented in a body of work. I cannot see that at that stage of the proceedings where there could be any deception at all. As to whether I would agree to be part of the collusion; Yes, I probably would if I was approached in the right way. That said, I think I am atypical of most that she may encounter. I am spontaneous and always ready for a dare or something out of the ordinary just to brighten the day. However, this serves to shed no light whatsoever on anything!! As this approach is so extraordinary and unusual, individuals responses to the question ‘Can we exchange places within your family unit (to the extent of swapping clothes), whilst I take a photograph, will vary wildly. I would suggest that it is a little too far beyond the pale for it to get a fair representation.
Learning log. Trish Morrissey
EXERCISE
Recreate a childhood memory in a photograph
Childhood memories are (by and large) a very polarised affair. Maybe as you grow older the lesser experiences/memories become dulled, or less revisited, and what you are left with are perhaps the ones that defined you (these can work both as a negative or positive i.e. You see or experience something really bad, and this either galvanises you and spurs you on, or you succumb to it and accept your fate, and in doing so run the risk of becoming a victim!).
Learning log. And oh how he tried.
I see! 