The Sweating Subject

The Sweating Subject is a series of group portraits of tribal chiefs in the Northern Territories of Ghana, each one including the (white) photographer. It connects to the present Selfies hype, questions the position of the photographer and parodies elements of colonial photography.

The Sweating Subject is a series of group portraits of tribal chiefs in the Northern Territories of Ghana, each one including the photographer Jan Banning.

It connects to the present Selfies hype, but deviates from it: although the camera position, lighting, exposure etc. were determined by Banning, he was posing passively in these photos.

Thus, The Sweating Subject photos question the position of the photographer. Much has been said about the power of the person behind the camera: often a white man, who travels over the world, photographing “indigenous” people. In this case, it was Banning’s Ghanean driver or translator who decided when the button was pushed.

The series also parodies elements of colonial photography: in many of those older photos, the white man posed as the prevalent person – e.g. with one foot on the tiger he just shot -, with black, brown or yellow people as servants; the white Sweating Subject, however, is out of place, transpiring, unfit for the climate, whereas the chiefs and their subjects are quite comfortable and in their natural spot.