Deadpan Photography: Enjoying the Pretence

Juliette wrote last week about Deadpan photography. I was intrigued because it’s a term I had seen start appearing all over the place lately and I wasn’t sure what it was. So I did a deep dive to understand for myself (unpublished on Substack as it’s not an opinion piece). But in turn it got me thinking about what Deadpan was doing and how. Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent (1999), image found on Flikr Look at Andreas Gursky’s 99 Cent. Let your eye travel along those shelves. Notice the grid, the symmetry, the way the ceiling tiles mirror the floor tiles and the whole frame vibrates with the same repetitive energy. Now notice that you are being watched. The image is watching you look at it. It knows what it is doing. Certain photographs give you a feeling of truth. Some pictures feel true because they caught something that was happening. Famous photojournalism photographs fall in that category (Phan Thi Kim Phuc’s photo for example). Others feel true because they noticed something ordinary and…