I think one thing that is important to discuss is the relation between the caption and artist statement and the image, and how that in turn relates to Jay Prosser's idea of the "real". , Jay Prosser he describes his piece "My Second Skin" as a palinode, a term that means a revisiting. Prosser revisits ideas and arguments about gender and [autobiographical] and the myth of photographic truth. The concept of palinode drives the whole of the piece and will connect us later with other concepts he develops. Prosser believes that in his previous work he had fallen pray to the false notion of the photographic truth and that somehow there is something inherently true and real beyond an actual photograph, beyond what it represents. How exactly is it that he fell pray to this in his own work? Previously he had developed several terms that explained our relation as viewers to the photographs we look at - in particular making references to his own self portraits. He also uses two terms to discuss the nature of photography and relate to its relevance in autobiographical trans photography. First, he talks about the studium which represents how what we are expected to look at/for in an image; the expected reading of the signifiers presented to us in that image. This studium, this reading, does not affect, change or challenge the status quo then, because it is expected. So how does the studium affect or relate to interpretations of autobiographical photos of a trans person? Originally, Prosser had argued - acceptably so - that because of the "myth of photographic truth" we looked for a "tell" in photos of trans folk, something that would give away their "transness". In his palinode, Prosser comes to realize that this very search of the truth beyond the photo, this marker of transness beyond the image given was in fact the studium; it was the expectation, the way society has trained us to read trans [people and images]. This of course, could mean that we are looking for a fake signifier, we are looking for something that does not exist. But what happens when somebody thinks they have found it? What if the image is telling us in a caption that it does exist? Prosser further develops his ideas by arguing that in looking for this mark he created himself. In other words, in searching for this real beyond the image we become so obsessed with "seeing" the real that we ourselves create the signifiers that identify it in the image.
This is were I think that captions come in play and in many ways condition the audience/viewer to reading and understanding cultural productions and photographs in a certain way. Artist statements work in similar ways, and also become very important for the artistic and political work of artists like De la Grace Volcano, Loren Cameron and Jana Marcus. Statements can help contextualize art, but do not have the same effect a a caption has. The work of Jana Marucs, for example, comes to mind. Where she has an art statement that explain the context and concept of the work so that we are aware of her intentions. How we understand the images and stories is for us to do, but she does have considerations she would like us to keep in mind. She created a series containing portraits of trans folk accompanied by their own personal statements about their own identity, the meaning of gender and performance. The images that she presents don't have captions but instead have individual statements. These pieces of writing work in similar ways as the artist statement, some are longer and more detailed than others, some are more theoretical, some are more day to day experiences. In general, none of the statements aim or point out "markers" that can help the viewer find where in their faces it says they are trans. I think that for this kind of work, words and statements are necessary if what the aim of the piece is to convey personal stories that can bring us closer to the marginalized group the art portrays. The focus is on the personal stories as seen through their own eyes, and their own understandings of identity and gender and what it really means/feels to be who they are.
While Jana Marcus does not have captions, she does have portions of quotes as titles which does still give the artist a heavier hand in creating the studium. I look at the title and then expect to see that quote embodied in the individual presented to me. I wonder if the individuals had any hand in deciding which section of their quotes became their titles. I wonder further if the individual choosing their own title/quote and therefore having a had in the studium of their photograph is more or less ethical than what is currently presented. I do agree, however, that personal stories--the very words that these transgendered individuals use to describe their lives are crucial to the general public understanding and treatment of all genders.
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