Vincent Cianni's "Southside Portraits"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how photography can provide a refreshingly accurate window onto the life of a culture alien to that of the observer of the photograph. It looks at how Vincent Cianni's "Southside Portraits" offers an insight into the Latino culture of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Rather than selecting women to gaze at, however, Cianni chooses to make men his central subjects and mediums for making a "statement" about the world and the community he observes. It analyzes how Latino masculinity is often frightening to the Anglo world and how, by showing, his individual subjects in their environment, Cianni reveals the roots of this seemingly strange, aggressive, athletic, sexualized behavior.

From the Paper:

"Not all of Cianni's subjects are quite so touching in their vulnerability. One photograph shows a boxer doing push-ups. But the title, Freddie Floating, suggests that more is going on in the subject's mind than sparring. Freddie wishes to fly in both his dreams as well as across the ring. Athletic prowess, more than in the previous photos discussed, is linked to dreams. The fact that Freddie wears underwear to exercise him makes his masculinity all the more evident, yet also all the more displayed. These portraits suggest that for Latino men to establish their identity, they must "put themselves out there," physically in a sexual sense, to both demonstrate their athletic machismo and to be recognized by society."

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