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Aesthetic priorities and sociopolitical concerns: the fat female body in the photography of
Patricia Schwarz and Jennette Williams
A review of Women of Substance and The Bathers
Patricia Schwarz. Women of Substance. Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (K*MOPA)
1996, 48 pp. (hardcover). ISBN: 4-89615-927-6
Jennette Williams. The Bathers. Duke University Press and the Center for Documentary
Studies 2009, 72 pp. (hardcover). ISBN: 978-0-8223-4623-4
Cindy Baker
Patricia Schwarz’s Women of Substance: Portrait and Nude Studies of Large Women, A
Photographic Work-in-Progress is a body of work published in the catalogue Patricia Schwarz
Women of Substance accompanying the exhibition of the same title at Kiyosato Museum of
Photographic Arts. The images in the catalogue span twelve years, from 1984 to 1995, and
represent the artist’s ongoing project of empowerment; not only empowering the subjects of the
photographs, but herself and viewers as well. The body of work depicts (mostly) lone women
posing in domestic, natural and urban settings either nude, draped, clothed, or partially clothed.
The more recent book The Bathers by Jennette Williams, published in 2009, features
images created between 2000 and 2006. It was published by the Duke University Press and the
Center for Documentary Studies as part of the Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, and
depicts the artist’s desire to present a new way of looking at the female body. The Bathers
comprises images taken in women’s bathhouses in Budapest and Istanbul. Most of the images
are black and white, printed using a platinum process that, in the artist’s words, evokes
“timelessness,”1 and owe their distinctly painterly quality as much to the steamy setting as the
printing process itself. The images depict groups of women relaxing together, at ease in their own
bodies and among each other.
The most striking similarities between these two books are the consistent visual
references to art historical imagery of sensuous women in repose. It is a familiar technique in
contemporary photography of fat women to hearken back to periods when the more “voluptuous”
body was the ideal of beauty (see Women en Large and The Full Body Project, reviewed by
Stefanie Snider in volume 1(1) of Fat Studies).2 Schwarz’s “The Sirens + One… La Tempesta”
beautifully evokes Alexandre Cabanel’s “Birth of Venus,”3 for example, and the image on page 56
of The Bathers4 references the contrapposto of so many modest Venuses, most specifically
Titian’s “Venus with a Mirror” (circa 1550) or Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus.” Her group photos could
have been plucked from any of Renoir or Cezanne’s bathing scenes. However, even while evoking
remarkably comparable imagery, these books take vastly different approaches to representing the
fat female nude.
Both photographic projects span several years; while Williams’ work reflects a consistent
artistic vision and a deepening relationship with the women she photographed over seven years
despite her articulated desire to maintain an objective distance,5 Schwarz’s project reveals an
evolving and maturing aesthetic and a consistent warmth and empathy towards her models
consistent with her commitment to her overarching project of encouraging people of all sizes to
“live life fully, self-righteously, and self-lovingly”.6
Significantly, while Williams’ primary focus is on aesthetic values and formal elements of
her imagery, the photographs reflect a candidness and comfort that would seem to come from
trust in the photographer. Beyond that comfort, however, spending time with Williams’ images
tends not to promote reflection on the women that are the subjects of the highly posed
photographs, but instead on the art historical references they evoke, leaving the viewer with the
impression that these women do not exist in the here and now. Certainly they do not exist “here,”
as the artist traveled halfway around the world to find women untouched by modern (North
American) contemporary beauty artifice, and not “now,” as the ancient setting, painterly style, and
stylized platinum printing process/presentation mimic age, remove the images from a grounding
in time.
The documentarian approach to photographic portraiture is fraught with trouble, as it
attempts to present truth – in portraiture, that means identity - while denying the identity and bias
of the author. Williams specifically sought detachment as a documentary photographer,
positioning herself as “artist” (genius/creator) even while she tried to position herself as “one of
them” by being naked in the baths. Though the women in Williams’ images generally seem
confident and self-aware, several artistic approaches taken by the artist tend to "other" the
subjects. The platinum printing process she uses to give the images what she describes as a
"timeless" look,7 I would argue, instead gives them an antique look that allows the viewer to see
the images as historical objects and not as images of real women. Further, her meticulous posing
of the subjects in ways that reference or directly mimic orientalist work such as Titian’s, and
primitivist work such as Picasso’s, reinforces this objectification while further exoticizing and
sexualizing the women, disempowering them and placing the artist in the position of authority.
The artist talks about seeking out Eastern European baths, looking for more “natural” women,
dodging bath matrons, negotiating the language barrier, and bartering for trust with prints in ways
that smack of colonialism.8 Even the very artworks the artist says were influential - renderings of
Venus by Giorgione and Titian, Dominique Ingres’ Odalisque and Slave, and Picasso’s Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon, which specifically modeled women after African artifacts – are some of
the most criticized in feminist and postcolonial analyses for the brutal othering of their subject
matter.9, 10, 11, 12, 13
One can hardly view contemporary orientalist works created by North American artists
without imposing some measure of postcolonial critique,14 and that critique of “othering” the
subject can and should be translated to a feminist and fat critique as well.
Conversely, Schwarz’s foremost responsibility throughout her project is to the subject and
her empowerment, and the images embody that empowerment while maintaining strong aesthetic
values. Though the images evoke many of the same art historical references and strong formal
elements - in posing, use of light, shadow, and composition - they rely more on lush color for their
painterly effect than on the misty atmosphere and rich tones of Williams’ photographs. While the
documentary priority of Williams’ work comes to the fore, with its inherent artist/subject
problematics, the agency of the women shines in Schwarz’s images, their joy and playfulness
encouraged by the artist’s desire to see them blossom as self-confident, beautiful fat women.
Schwarz’s images reflect her interest in the subject as a person, the viewer as an active
participant in responsible viewership, and her own growth. She empathizes with her models,
having selected the subject matter of fat acceptance because it is close to home, and treats her
models carefully and compassionately because of it.
Women of Substance is very similar to a project by Substantia Jones entitled The
Adipositivity Project,15 begun in 2007, not just aesthetically but in mandate and approach.
Schwarz’s project is clearly the progenitor of Jones’, starting more than 20 years earlier and
making its international debut eleven years before the Adipositivity Project began. Though
Schwarz found little success for her work in North America at the time it was created and Jones
may well have been completely unaware of its existence, Schwarz’s photography helped lay the
groundwork for a new movement in fat-acceptance art.
Schwarz aims to love her own large body, and photographs others in a way that
encourages them to love theirs. As a documentarian, Williams wants to understand the female
body, capture it, record it, and through that recording reflect something back about our society
and ourselves.
Both bodies of work are undeniably beautiful. They are accomplished technically,
evocative and stirring. Both bodies of work are consistently redolent of art historical references
and while Williams chases artistic perfection and the problematic definition of beauty, Schwarz
maintains her desire to improve the lives of her subjects and her audience.
NOTES
1: The Bathers p. 67 photographer’s note
2: Stefanie Snider (2012): Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes, by Laurie Toby Edison and Debbie Notkin
The Full Body Project, by Leonard Nimoy, Natalie Angier, and Anne Wilkes Tucker, Fat Studies, 1:1, 130-133
3: Women of Substance p. 39
4: The Bathers p. 56
5: The Bathers p. 66 photographer’s note
6: Women of Substance p. 9 personal statement
7: The Bathers p. 67 photographer’s note
8: The Bathers p. 7 foreword Mary Ellen Mark
9. Cheng, Meiling. In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art. Berkeley: University of California
Press, c2002 2002, 257-258 http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt2c60190v/
10. Anna C. Chave, "New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of
Cubism (a Feminist Critique)," The Art Bulletin, December 1994, Vol. 76, pp. 596-611, N1.A39
11. Du Plessis, Hester. Oriental Africa: TYDSKRIF VIR LETTERKUNDE vol 45 pp. 87-100, 2008
12. Sardar, Z. 1998. Postmodernism and the Other. London: Pluto Press.
13. Thompson, D. 2001. Radical Feminism Today. London: Sage Publications.
14: Said, Edward W. Orientalism Pantheon Books, 1978. University of Michigan, ISBN 0394428145,
9780394428147
15: The Adipositivity Project. http://adipositivity.my-expressions.com/index.html
CINDY BAKER BIO:
Canadian interdisciplinary and performance artist Cindy Baker is passionate about gender culture,
queer theory, fat activism and art theory, and has a 15-year history working and volunteering with
artist-run centers and non-profit organizations.
Based out of Lethbridge, Alberta, Baker has exhibited, performed, and lectured across Canada
and in St Louis, Minneapolis, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Kuopio, Finland.
