"You look like a television sitting on a refrigerator."
-John Giorno
If we had to decide upon one major issue for photographic practice of the 1990s, it would be the "self", or perhaps more precisely, the impossibility of defining or categorizing this irresolute, fluid topography. persona exhibited the work of artists experimenting with photographic representation so as to navigate the rocky terrain of identity in the postmodern era. The insightful essays offer perspectives on how gender, race, sexuality and nationality are negotiated within artistic practices and what these artistic representations offer in the larger socio-political sphere. Artists include: Alex Bag, Vanessa Beecroft, Keith Cottingham, Lyle Ashton Harris, Thomas Allen Harris, Gabrielle Jennings, Sharon Lockhart, Joe Mama-Nitzberg, Daniel Marlos, Helen Mirra, Catherine Opie, Anita Pace, Jean Rasenberger, Collier Schorr, Tony Tasset, and T.J. Wilcox.
Published in conjunction with Kunsthalle Basel.
1996, 96 pp., 23 color illus., paperback