An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts.By turns alarming and awe-inspiring,Faceoffers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z-from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first.
Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes.From vintage advertisements fora "nose adjuster" to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race,Facedelivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity.
An elaborately illustrated A to Z of the face, from historical mugshots to Instagram posts.By turns alarming and awe-inspiring,Faceoffers up an elaborately illustrated A to Z-from the didactic anthropometry of the late-nineteenth century to the selfie-obsessed zeitgeist of the twenty-first.
Jessica Helfand looks at the cultural significance of the face through a critical lens, both as social currency and as palimpsest of history. Investigating everything from historical mugshots to Instagram posts, she examines how the face has been perceived and represented over time; how it has been instrumentalized by others; and how we have reclaimed it for our own purposes.From vintage advertisements fora "nose adjuster" to contemporary artists who reconsider the visual construction of race,Facedelivers an intimate yet kaleidoscopic adventure while posing universal questions about identity.
Jessica Helfand is a designer, artist, and writer. Educated at Yale University, where she has taught for more than twenty years, she is a cofounder of Design Observer and the author of numerous books on visual and cultural criticism. The first Henry Wolf Resident at the American Academy in Rome, Helfand has been a Director's Guest at the Civitella Foundation and a fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation. She will be the artist in residence at the California Institute of Technology in the winter of 2020.
So telling the story of the face, Helfand makes clear, necessarily
means telling the story of both personal and collective identity.
The face—whether we like it or not—is absolutely connected to who
we are and who we believe others to be…The thing about pictures of
the face, as Helfand poignantly illustrates, is that the person
taking them is almost always missing. The person telling the
story—the portrait artist, the director, the member of the family
with the camera who is least likely to cut off heads—is never in
the picture. Helfand is less interested in the mechanisms,
technologies, and infrastructures of facial recognition software
and more interested in the artifacts and narratives they produce.
Helfand's touch is deft and light, allowing readers to draw their
own conclusions about the intertwined anecdotes and theories of the
face.—Public Books
Jessica Helfand's book reminds the reader that their face is a
territory of both power and vulnerability. It is the first port of
call to judge, categorise, diagnose, mock, shame, bully,
legitimise, recognise, monitor. It can be doctored, discriminated
against, adorned, hidden. 'Face' is as profound and complex as the
theme it covers but it is also fun with its plethora of images,
ideas and artworks.—WE MAKE MONEY NOT ART.COM
Helfand's visual odyssey nudges readers to look and look again at
the faces of world leaders, immigrants, popular figures--even at
the face they see in the mirror--to discern what they might
reveal.—Shelf Awareness
Her ambitious history of facial representation delves into often
conflicting aspects of recording, measuring, airbrushing,
categorizing and otherwise judging faces. Considering tintype
photography, digital selfies, mug shots, celebrity photoshoots,
Polaroids and more, Helfand examines why and how humans capture
their own faces and others', and the ways those images are used:
analyzed, judged, manipulated, glorified.—Shelf Awareness
Beautifully designed and smartly written, this book is an unique
view of the visage as image and beyond.—Steven Heller, Print
Helfand's interrogations are topical, thought-provoking, and often
troubling. It is impossible to look away.—Curbed
What does the mug shot have to do with the selfie? With faces
everywhere in our image-obsessed society, self-photographed and
otherwise, Helfand's historical and critical approach helpfully
zooms out.—New York Times Book Review
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