Aura Rosenberg

Celebrating the kind of childhood play that signals a search for identity, Who Am I, What Am I, Where Am I? is a series of 70 photographs by New York- and Berlin-based artist Aura Rosenberg. For each picture, a child and an artist were paired up to create an idiosyncratic portrait of the child--each of whom was given access to masks and costumes. Among the collaborating artists are John Baldessari, Coco Fusco, Skuta Helgason, Louise Lawler, Allan McCollum, John Miller, Vik Muniz, Tony Oursler, Jim Shaw, James Siena, Laurie Simmons, Kiki Smith and Haim Steinbach. Rosenberg's contribution to the collaboration is her technically playful style--the photographs are often digitally manipulated to create an array of surreal and humorous effects. This volume draws a compelling parallel between childhood play and the work of the adult artists. Also included are texts by artists Dan Graham, Mike Kelley and Nicolās Guagnini.

Aura Rosenberg is concerned with the visible expression of sexual desire. Capturing the moment of orgasm on camera is usually reserved for the voyeur, the hidden witness. What Rosenberg has done is present herself as the public's witness via the camera, inviting a number of men into her studio to reenact the ecstasy of release, the moment when potency and vulnerability coexist. The result is a collection of extraordinary photographs that run the gamut of psychosexual expression. Whether her subjects were really giving their best shot or simply indulging in sublime fakery is just one of the very pertinent questions these pictures throw out. In acting out their most abandoned sexual and emotional moment before her lens, Rosenberg's subjects invite us to step beyond the traditional limits of voyeurism. These beautiful, curious and erotic images reserve the traditional male-on-female gaze and relieve it of some of its associations with misogyny and perversity. Writers Lynn Tillman and Gary Indiana reflect together on the experience of witnessing these photographs.