Modern photography places a predominant emphasis on portraiture- viewing ‘the face’ as the single most important factor in expressing one’s identity, in a vulnerable and raw way. Portraiture is continuously praised for its ability to depict the background, lifestyle, challenges and mood of a person, in other words, their social identity. However, with the growing cultural movement towards more eccentric and personalised fashion choices and society’s less restrained approach towards topics that have previously been deemed as taboo; the notion that the face is wholly responsible for expressing identity needs to be re-evaluated. Previously, portrait photography was used differently to now, on a two-dimensional level- rather than expressing the identity in a more revealing and meaningful way, it was used simply for identification purposes; for example, mugshots to identify criminals or staged, formal family portraits. Photography has since grown to be far more expressive. Inventor of the calotype William Henry Fox Talbot believed that the camera was to serve scientific purpose, outlining it as “an aid to the natural sciences or, indeed, for any pursuit requiring careful observation and easy reproduction, as long as it did not have anything to do with people” (Anthony W. Lee, (n.d)) The commoners of the early 1800s, however, had an alternating view and welcomed “photography’s more expansive role in the depiction of identities”(Anthony W. Lee, (n.d)) This was, crucially, the beginning of expressive portrait photography as we know it today. As time has progressed and we, universally, have developed a more fluid view on identity, the way in which portrait photography is used has changed in parallel. Identity and portrait photography have an intrinsically linked relationship. This begins my exploration of the credibility of the idea that photographers need to rely on ‘the face’ in order to depict the social identity of a subject in the context of the rapidly changing world.

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French photographer Elene Usdin obscures her subjects’ faces and instead finds other ways of expressing their identities, some of which we would naturally rely on in social situations. This photo series is called La Rose Des Vents and it was created for an individualist French theatre which shares the same name. It was created in 2010, but Elene, being born in 1971, and growing up in France in the 80s, was greatly influenced through her youth by Parisian Pop Culture and the vibrant, extreme fashion of the era. Her predominant fashion photography background is visible as she places a greater focus on using fashion to present identity in her faceless portraits whilst also making use of backgrounds, props, patterns and colour. However, her past as a set decorator for cinema and an illustrator are also prevalent in her work particularly given that she explains that her inspiration is found in her dreams and nightmares. In her photo series La Rose Des Vents, which shares both the name and playful qualities of the theatre it was created for, Elene strategically places props so that they obscure the subject’s face and yet reveal so much more. It is an interesting concept that we are able to discover so much about her subjects despite their faces being obscured- we are told more than we would be from a simple portrait that prioritises the face. Storytelling is a priority in Elene Usdin’s work and she states that she enjoys to “tell these stories through the use of fashion”.