Helen Westgeest – författare

This study demonstrates the significance of using contemporary art in scholarly debates about cultural aspects of skin, in particular “whiteness” as a phenomenon that is both overly visible and invisible.

There is a need for a study of these artists’ strategies, which consist of drawing attention to whiteness by means of making whiteness “strange” through alternative visibilities. By increasing skin awareness, the selected socio-critical artworks also pertain to fostering visual literacy as another important contemporary concern. Chapters mainly focus on recent artworks that address ongoing skin-related debates in countries in Europe and North America, rooted in histories of ideology of white supremacy. Moreover, these artworks critically reflect on the alleged superiority of the history of Western European painting, including a focus on the representation of pale skin as model of beauty.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, race and ethnicity studies, and cultural studies.

This study demonstrates the significance of using contemporary art in scholarly debates about cultural aspects of skin, in particular “whiteness” as a phenomenon that is both overly visible and invisible.

There is a need for a study of these artists’ strategies, which consist of drawing attention to whiteness by means of making whiteness “strange” through alternative visibilities. By increasing skin awareness, the selected socio-critical artworks also pertain to fostering visual literacy as another important contemporary concern. Chapters mainly focus on recent artworks that address ongoing skin-related debates in countries in Europe and North America, rooted in histories of ideology of white supremacy. Moreover, these artworks critically reflect on the alleged superiority of the history of Western European painting, including a focus on the representation of pale skin as model of beauty.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, race and ethnicity studies, and cultural studies.

This book explores the potential of specific photographic images for reflecting on experiences of mental disorders. Instead of looking at photographs of (people suffering from) mental disorders, this volume aspires to comprehend the complexities of such conditions through photographic lexicons, metaphors, and practices. For this book, a mental disorder is not to be seen as a dysfunction or impairment, but a state in which the sustaining balance of stable and unstable mind is unsettled, which may induce mental/bodily disturbances. The term “psychosomatic” refers to the interaction of the mind (psyche) with the body (soma); it refers to their co-dependence. By the term “Psychosomatic Imagery” this volume refers to a distinctive trope of photographic images that deal with the body-mind interaction during the states of mental disorders. This novel theoretical framework in photography theory instigates critical discussions about the experiences of mentaldisorders visualized as disturbed corporeal and mental perceptions of the world. While the introduction of the volume unpacks and assesses the applications of photography in mental disorder studies from theoretical and historical perspectives, the chapters focus on specific cases of Psychosomatic Imagery in contemporary photography. Those cases include, but are not limited to: PTSD, hysteria, paranoia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and Hikikomori.