Blog Post 3
Art and Society
Daniel F. Ambia

I chose this photograph entitled, "Mom and Dad", by Janine Antoni, 1994 from the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. The style of these portraits is representational and realistic because the natural flaws of the subjects are clearly visible and it is obvious the couple are not professional models. Somehow the artist managed to convince her parents to dress up as one another and pose for her. The layout of the photograph is pretty generic, the first photo could be the sample picture in a picture frame for sale. It caught my eye after my second glance because I noticed the three photographs were of the same two people in drag. John Berger discusses the role of women in art, "the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man". He continues to discuss how women in our society constantly put themselves on display for men whether consciously or unconsciously. These portraits sort of blur the lines because I was unable to distinguish the sex of the models until closer examination. And even now I can't be sure 100% which one is the mother and which the father. I thought Janine Antoni was going for comedic effect but after reading a little about her I think she was going for more of a social statement. All in all I thought it was cool that she convinced her parents to pose essentially as eachother and maybe I can check this piece out when we go as a class.