Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives

In 1972, the West German artist Marianne Wex began a visual survey of gendered body language. She picked up her camera and covertly photographed people in her hometown of Hamburg, observing how men and women were socialized to inhabit space differently. She also rephotographed pictures from advertisements, newspapers, magazines, film, television, and art catalogues, pasting the images onto boards organized into categories like “standing arms,” “sitting legs,” “lying down,” and “possessive holds.” For Wex, “these mostly unconscious actions” were “essential parts of our communication.