After
2002 - 10
By Annelise Schübeler
“After is Brandt’s photos of himself immediately after the attack. In the dark bathroom, his orange top contrasts the purple, bruised marks on his face, which is primarily hidden by the camera. The pictures are unfocused, which underpins how violence destroys a sense of self, and it contrasts the photograph’s insistence on a self, which is no longer available to the victim. The traumatic experience in After is formed by the sense of a death of the self, where you lose your humanity and become unrecognizable, even to yourself. The male as victim and traumatized destabilizes the stereotypical representation of masculinity and the idea of a real man as strong and invincible. Dehumanization is thus put into play with a masculinity that appears ‘flawed’ and fragile”. (Annelise Schübeler, extract from Peter Brandt’s gendered dialogues, in the book Post Trauma Documents, page 18, 2016).
After, 21 Lambda prints, variable sizes 2002/10