Charlie White

Charlie White

Understanding Joshua

                         

Charlie White photographs vulnerability. Using a humanoid puppet he calls "complete fragility manifest in a body," White presents human frailty through a fictional character, much as a novelist might.

As White tells Jacki Lyden for Weekend All Things Considered on NPR, his puppet, called Joshua, helps him to explore the themes of male self-image and self-loathing. White places Joshua in a series of vulnerable situations -- at a cocktail party or a lover's house -- and photographs the scene.

Charlie White’s photographs suggest how society makes monsters of everyone; a homunculus named Joshua tries to chat up a blonde.

EGG Interview
Charlie White, 6 Questions

Minor Threat: Published in Words Without Pictures, June 2008, LACMA

Summary: A brief overview of the complications and challenges involved in the act of photographing a minor. This text considers the historical and political ramificatios of photographing, looking at, and presenting the image of a minor. Using the life of Brooke Sheilds as example, this text maps the shifting perspectives of youth as both subject and object of cultural interest, and sexual desire.