Slow exposure and the surfacing of the mask

Abstract

The so-called “bulb mode” is the possibility a photographer has to slow down the shutter speed when in need of a very long exposure. Starting from this technical element typical of the photographic language, the paper compares two experiences linked to the long exposure times, relating to a shared poetics based on a strong performative and relational focus between photographer and subject on the one hand, and on the other hand on a process where the identity-based mask of the portrayed subject would emerge. The two experiences taken as examples are the first photo sessions staged in the insane asylum of the Salpêtrière in the 19th century, under the supervision of Jean-Martin Charcot, and the freak series by Diane Arbus in New York in the 1960s. These are experiences in portraiture which can hardly fit into classic categories, and are rather placed in a sort of borderline territory lying between these categories. These are also two stories which, although in a different fashion, are linked to special, non conventional (B-series, so to speak) worlds apart, capable of deploying a queer femininity, both in front and behind the camera, and for this have raised controversies and curiosity, attraction and revulsion, distancing and empathy, identification and alienation.