We pay a return visit to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to discuss three of the 20th century’s most influential photographers: Francesca Woodman, Diane Arbus and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection jointly owned by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate, Self-Evidence brings together a selection of work by the these three American photographers to explore the idea of a self-portrait.
Curated by Annie Lyden, international photography curator at the NGS, the photographs date from the 1960s to the 1980s and cover a period of profound societal change and shifting attitudes towards issues such as women’s rights and homosexuality.
Each of the photographers have explored portraiture in different ways; Woodman’s images are experimental and address an inner mental state. Arbus chose not to represent herself but those around her in her portfolio, A Box of Ten Photographs, 1969-1971. And Mapplethorpe portrays himself in varying guises as well as recording the final ten years of his life.
