Errol Daniels: Santeria and Transgender
© Errol Daniels
Being There – Almost
The VASA exhibition of two portfolios, “Santeria” and “Transgender” by American photographer Errol Daniel, presents a look into two worlds that many of us would never have the opportunity to experience. "Santeria" is a reportage on an Afro-Cuban religion and “Transgender” presents portraits of members from the transgender community (the LGBQ community). Daniels, as noted on his website, is drawn to people and situations that speak out with tradition, culture, and life. His work ranges from tattoo parlors to boarding homes, with his most recent giving voice and image to those reentering society after incarceration (book title:" Coming Home").
Visiting the VASA exhibition, the viewer cannot be a casual traveler walking their way through his images. As he records his notations, Daniels is giving us a subjective window to his understandings and interests while providing the concerned viewer (reader) with a sense or illusion of being there. Let me explain further.
Photojournalism and reportage requires that the mind behind the camera be present. The genre of “straight photography”, as generally understood, provides images for our consumption that appear to be neutral reports or notations. These images now commonly understood are subjective in nature, not neutral. The documentary image depends upon decisions made by the image-maker, the technology used to make recordings, where they place themselves in respect to their subject and forms of presentation. Presentations may range from art in public places (the word art is used here very broadly), to gallery exhibitions and to books to name a few. Each format draws from its own paradigm impacting the maker and the experience of the image(s). For example, for years CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, New York (USA) hosted photography exhibitions in public transportation (displayed in a metro bus, see left). In Krakow, Poland exhibitions appear in public spaces near and around Wawel Castle, photography exhibitions and books are common forms for the display. In each case the format defines through interaction, the experience of the reader (a decoding of the visual text) and the meanings constructed by a non-neutral viewer. The form it self is not neutral but has meanings in reference to place, time and context. Walking by an outdoor exhibit or standing on a bus will have an impact on the reading of image(s). The social space, the public square frames the experience of the work. Take the same images as presented on the walls of a metro bus and place them in a museum exhibition or a book, not only does the experience change but their potential meanings as well. (Note: Photographs, like other images are seen, read and decoded for meaning by first the maker and lastly the viewer/reader. Images are texts to be decoded and read.)
* CEPA Metro Photo Bus image above shows Ellen Carey and Cindy Sherman in 1976. The metro bus traveld its normal city route with a ridership of over 2000 people per day. Image Buffalo Evening News. Collection: Roberto Muffoletto
Photojournalism and reportage require the reader to believe (if not question) what is seen – the image – to imagine being there in geography and time; being there is an illusion.
© Errol Daniels, Santeria
I am not by any means suggesting that the image holds a 1:1 relationship with reality, for it does not. We know better. There are many factors that influence the construction and consumption of an image. Through image manipulation and presentation to where one stands and decides to record, we see the results of a mind carved by the existing technology, steering paradigms and an ideological frame. It is the results that we experience, the images, not the place, the subject/object itself.
Returning to the Daniels exhibition, in a limited manner we believe “we see” what he saw through the lens (we will never know for sure because of cropping and image manipulation) or do we, better yet, see what he wants us to see through image decisions and editing. I referred earlier to the idea of “being there”. Daniels’ does not take us anywhere but to his images and it is through “the illusion of being there” we can begin to understand not his images but our relationship to them. That is all we have, our understanding of the vision/image he is sharing with us. It does not matter what his intent or purpose was in making the photographs, but it is our interaction with the image. This interaction is what we are experiencing, constructing our own meaning(s).
We project meaning on to the inviting portraits of transgender people as we do any image. We see an image of them, but not them. As viewers and readers of the visual text we can only make sense of images through our own subjective decoding. The image is a moment in their lives, interacting with Daniels and his camera. They present themselves to him and in the end to us. We do not know how many different exposures Daniele made or even if they are transgender (do we trust him). Our reading of the image is framed by the title of the series and his comment: “I try to reveal the dignity, humanity and courage of people who many don’t think about in their daily lives.” Do photographs reveal anything outside of the interaction between the viewer/reader and the perceived image? Upon further investigation they do reveal the photographer and their relationship to the medium and the paradigm steering the making of the image.
The “Santeria” series offers the reader a perspective on the “Santeria” religion in Cuba, a religion that blends aspect of Catholicism and the beliefs of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Depending one one’s knowledge of African and Catholic religion the series may lead the reader to invent various stories about the religion and the people. It is clear that Daniels was given permission to be there and make his images. Similar to a visual sociologist his work brings to his viewing audience a view of the exotic, the uncomfortable and almost the familiar. I say “almost” in light of the broad exposure western culture has had to marginal social and cultural communities.
In a very important manner, Errol Daniels provides us with the opportunity to consider his photographs, not as objects but as subjects for reflection and engagement.
© Roberto Muffoletto, 2019