Posteriors: Sitters’ Backs in 19th-Century Photography

The variety of posterior imagery in the late Victorian era is astonishing. Women showcase luxurious long locks and fashionable dresses, while men in briefs flaunt extensive tattoos and muscles. Pairs and trios of homosocial friends, as well as heterosexual couples, link elbows or wrap arms around each other’s waists. Toddlers hug draped studio chairs, get weighed, and wear matching gingham clothing. Double exposures reveal babies’ faces and backs of heads in the same image. Paired prints and double-sided cabinet cards present frontal portraits with matching back portraits. Pictures within pictures depict sitters gazing at photos or in mirrors. A woman bent over on a bicycle offers a racy view of her derrière for cigarette customers.

While some of these photographs are visual jokes, others are sentimental, documenting fleeting youth, beauty, and intimate relationships. Some are nostalgic, as when sitters pose with photos of loved ones, while others, like that of actor Sarah Bernhardt, are promotional and reminiscent of today’s celebrity selfies. The exhibition includes cabinet cards, stereographs, ambrotypes, and tintypes from private collections. Included are works by famous photographers Eadweard Muybridge and Napoleon Sarony, as well as notable female image-makers, such as Mrs. Laura Gaites (Macomb, IL), Mrs. W. Streetman (Abilene, TX), and Susan Spence (Blanchester, OH). By analyzing imagery in terms of what is revealed and concealed, the exhibition seeks to explain why posterior views became so popular and what they express about visual culture in the United States.

Artists: B.M. Baumwort, A.J. Breitwish, Brosee, Brown, John C. Browne, Elmer Chickering, Eller, Theo Endean, Benjamin J. Falk, Fredericks, Mrs. Laura Gaites, Arthur Glines, W. Howie, Hubbell and Sherer, Kabley, Frank Lawrence, Linstrom and Andresen, J.M. Mead, Eadweard Muybridge, Noble, Obermüller and Son, H.M. Rice, S.T. Ring, George G. Rockwood, Napoleon Sarony, Walter A. Smith, Susan Spence, Mrs. W. Streetman, van Slyke, Merritt van Wagner, J.S. Wooley

Curator: Theresa Leininger-Miller, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, University of Cincinnati