Transgressions: drag and contemporary self-portrait photography

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This thesis explores three photographic self-portraits produced in the 1990s, in which artists invert, distort or exaggerate culturally defined roles in order to undermine the ontological status of gender and/or racial identities. These artists - Yasumasa Morimura, Catherine Opie and Lyle Ashton Harris - use drag in self-portrait photography in ways that recall, expand on and revise previous postmodern models. Rather than exclusively engaging in deconstructionist play, these artists reveal identity to be a negotiable site constructed through lived community interactions.