"Kamika" (2003) by Katy Grannan

Katy Grannan, Kamika, near Route 9, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2003 C-print, 48 x 60 inches (121.9 x 152.4 cm) Courtesy of the artist & Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, NY)

Katy Grannan's striking portraits examine the desire of her subjects to offer themselves up to the camera lens. As critic Jan Avgikos describes in the essay that accompanies the work, "(Grannan's) subjects perform not simply for the artist and for the camera -they play equally to a much larger cultural arena as they strive to fulfill stereotypical expectations about beauty, virility, desirability, and success. Do we unwittingly reveal as much about ourselves as Grannan's subjects do about themselves? ... Her knack is that she manages to catch everybody (them and us) in the act of gearing up to be themselves." (source)