Coming of Age in the Contemporary American Photography: John Kaplan’s 21

Abstract

The present paper situates its concerns at the crossroads of theories of culture, visual culture, and Gender Studies in its attempt at investigating John Kaplan’s photographic essay 21. Primarily grounded on Baudrillard’s description of hyperreality, this study insists on the stereotypical quality of Kaplan’s photographs which turns his Pulitzer winner series into a parodic celebration of American stereotypes of all kinds: gender-related, race-related, age-related, and culture-related. This study also discusses the problematic relationship between reality and representation, which photography is wrongly assumed to conveniently solve. Thus, it debunks photography’s claims to objectively represent reality. It also illustrates the various functions of stereotypical representation in visual art.