Unadulterated Attention: Collier Schorr’s 8 Women
By:Katelyn Curtis
The artist is
choosing female models to act out her concepts of questioning themes of idenity
through acts of performance, ritual or gestures
of representation. She accomplishes this by
having some of the woman face the camera directly, others look outwards and
away, some are bent or posed in a more feministic pose, or even highlighting a
female quailty about themselves. Some of the woman are trans gender and
showing their transitions of how they are connected more as a woman mentally
and physically except their genitals being converted. Every single photo in the
series has a singular subject in relation to the individual, the photo then
brings the view to connect with the photo on an individual basis.
Schorr is "ultimately is disinterested in anything resembling
closure" and instead "interested in woman whose professions or
vocations require a capacity to perform to an audience". She wants the
people to view these pictures and seee the relationship ties of self idenity
through the use of their physical self and their body language. Some are completely
naked hiding behind nothing. This series is interesting in the fact that some
of the pictures are shown in black and white while some other are shown in
pictures.
Also, the series to me feels incomplete and unorganized with the way it flows
and it makes me wonder why I get this feeling. This series is purposeful
cropped in at different angles, mixture of vertical and horizontal, different
color schemes throughout, and completely inconsistent, which makes me think of
showing different woman from totally different backgrounds and how they
identify as being a woman. I have to assume this is all purposeful and
intentional.
Now this is just me personal opinion, but this series feels like a beginning of
something, but no were near the end. I think putting some
more work into this can bring the viewer further in thought, reflection, and in
connection to the material. I feel as if a lot of other artists has taken this
subject on and I wish Schorr would push it a bit further. I feel the woman in
red is doing something completely different for me than the woman standing completely
naked with their "genitals" area showing. The concept is thought out
through the photos taken but I would personally like to see it continued more in depth. 
I find it interesting that, cis- or trans-gendered, the two women above and the women featured in the post that discusses them are all conventionally pretty, young, and slender. So she may be doing some things with the way she photographs these women to be challenging, but the feeling I get is that underneath a sort of surface challenge she is still accepting very "easy" societal norms. I think the work would be more subversive and interesting if women of different body types, ages, and ethnicities were included - surely all of us must tie our self identity to our physical selves in some way?
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