Blog #5

In Nikki Lee's photos, the people are always positioned front and center, whether they are posing or candid. They are each also clearly in the middle of doing something that is important in their lives. Either they are hanging out at home protecting their property and way of life, talking on a well-used stoop, having a good time at the beach, taking work seriously, or standing on a street corner (maybe having just successfully crossed the street without a young man’s help). The positions of each individual character also projects stereotypes or roles of the subjects. For example, the “punk” kids are slouched over sitting on a curb while the old ladies are standing frail and proud, close together. The office picture has people looking relaxed in their chairs, while The Ohio Project (7) subjects look relaxed, but ready for action at any second. Each picture’s positioning makes sense for the people in it, and helps the reader project his or her stereotypes onto the group. It also makes the pictures look more “natural” so that it takes the audience a while to notice that the same person is posing in each one. They all in some way gave the audience a sense of judgment towards the “norms” of that social subculture’s stereotypes by highlighting the recognizable themes.

The first picture looked somewhat off with an Asian woman casually in a picture that at first seemed to resemble a white supremacist attitude. Then as the pictures went on, I noticed they were all with the same woman when she posed in The Hispanic Project (27). Nikki Lee then looked like she was trying to assimilate into each subculture but also slightly projecting the stereotypes surrounding them with the settings, positioning, and objects in the pictures. By doing this in each picture she creates a purpose that is self contradictory. She shows how easy it is too change your image and fit different categories and yet how typically we stereotype certain people. Overall, it was definitely a statement about judging and superficial appearances, but what exactly she was trying to say about them I could not decide. That was probably left for the reader or audience to decide individually.