Ferrotype
framed, 32,5 x 29,5 cm
2006/08

“Re-presenting” is a project that deals with the image canon of early bourgeois studio photography and the self-staging of photographers in the 19th century. Pose and gender-specific staging form the center of the discussion. In the early “Carte de Visite” photographs, the decorative-passive representation of women as a convention is striking. Photographs of women at work or with their tools were extremely rare. The question of the lack of representation of female photographers and their self-staging is contrasted with a tradition of images of photographers and scientists posing proudly.

Using the wet plate photography technique common in the 19th century, Katharina Gruzei had a portrait of herself as a photographer made. Using this strategy, she formally integrates the image into the canon of 19th century photographer self-portraits, thus drawing attentionto the lack of images of working women from this period. Due to the technical implementation, the photograph appears historical. However, the contemporary appearance of the artist breaks with this illusion and thus creates a moment of irritation that points to the manipulability of historiography.