Gary Schneider: Portraits

Deborah Martin Kao discusses Schneider’s re-presentation of nineteenth-century studio portraits, his handprint photograms, and his fragmented face portraits—all of which reveal as much about the language of photography as they do about the subjects being depicted. She shows how Schneider portrays the collaboration between artist and subject, seen in his use of a light pen to sculpt or trace his subjects over long exposures, and in his prints that display traces of movement in time. Kao also discusses Schneider’s work with scientists to create negatives from which he makes strikingly beautiful images of blood, DNA, and strands of hair, and how these represent a fascinating evolution in traditional thinking about the nature of photographic portraiture.