Affective photographs: Alice Mann’s series Domestic Bliss

ABSTRACT

In 2014, the South African photographer Alice Mann made the series Domestic Bliss which portrays domestic workers in her home country. Only a few years later Mann took these photographs down from her website due to strong criticism leveled at her work. In order to explain the portraits’ canceling, this paper undertakes a close visual reading of the series looking at the ideas of agency and affect. It considers the circumstances that determined the making of the photographs, including the sitters’ living conditions, and highlights the role of uniforms as signifiers of social meaning, juxtaposing the artist’s intentions with the spectators’ responses. Considering the causes and consequences of the series’ disappearance, this paper concludes that a critique of the visual should rather make space for a more substantial critique of the underlying colonial structures, market logic, and politics that create the sitters’ living conditions in the first place.

KEYWORDS:

• Alice Mann
• photography
• affect
• agency
• domestic work
• uniforms

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Alice Mann did not grant permission to reproduce examples of her work with an earlier version of this paper. Nonetheless, all her discussed photographs can be viewed online either on her website https://www.alicemann.co.za (Drummies and other series) or on an archived version of her website http://web.archive.org/web/20181022182050/http://www.alicemann.co.za/domesticBliss (Domestic Bliss).

² Jansen, Like Family, 280, 305.

³ Comment following Hunkin archived in Web Archive on August 9, 2016, “Domestic Bliss.”

⁴ Fikeni, “Dangerous Sentimentality”; and FotoRoom, “Remnants of Apartheid.”

⁵ Mann, “Domestic Bliss”; King, “Photographer Deconstructing White Privilege”; and Catania, “Portraits of Post-Apartheid.”

⁶ Oxford English Dictionary Online, “Agency.”

⁷ The post-classical Latin word “agentia” meaning “action, activity” was found in British sources from the eleventh or twelfth century. Ibid.

⁸ Oxford English Dictionary Online, “Agent.”

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Gell, Art and Agency, 15–9.

¹¹ Ibid., 51.

¹² Winter, “Agency Marked,” 62.

¹³ Gell, Art and Agency, 6.

¹⁴ Edwards, “Objects of Affect,” 221.

¹⁵ Blickstein, “Affects of Racialization,” 153.

¹⁶ Clough, “Introduction,” 1.

¹⁷ In November 2021, Mann’s photobook “Drummies” with an essay by art historian Christine Eyene was published by GOST Books.

¹⁸ Bronner, “Representations of Domestic Workers,” 180.

¹⁹ Mann, archived in Web Archive on 22 October 2018, “Domestic Bliss.”

²⁰ Ally, From Servants to Workers, 148.

²¹ A thorough historical description of the implications of live-in and live-out work of domestic workers in South Africa can be found in Ally, 44–54.

²² Mann and Harter, “The Worldwide Employee Engagement Crisis.”

²³ Catania, “Portraits of Post-Apartheid.”

²⁴ Mann, “Alice Mann Website.”

²⁵ Craik, Uniforms Exposed, 13–4.

²⁶ Republic of South Africa, Department of Labour, Government Gazette 23732, 12.

²⁷ Ibid., 42.

²⁸ Ally, From Servants to Workers, 184.

²⁹ Ibid., 7.

³⁰ Republic of South Africa, Department of Labour, Regulation Gazette No. 43026, 22. All monetary amounts were converted based on the currency value as of 1 March 2020 and rounded to whole numbers. Oanda, “Currency Converter.”

³¹ Republic of South Africa, Department of Labour, Regulation Gazette No. 44136, 4. All monetary amounts were converted based on the currency value as of 1 March 2021 and rounded to whole numbers. Oanda, “Currency Converter.”

³³ Du Preez et al., “Employment Relationship,” 397.

³⁴ Statistics South Africa, “Mid-Year Population Estimates 2017,” 62.

³⁵ Ally, From Servants to Workers, 184.

³⁶ Clarke, Portrait in Photography, 82–3.

³⁷ Ibid., 82 (original italics).

³⁸ Berger, “The Suit and the Photograph,” 31.

³⁹ Mann, archived in Web Archive on October 22, 2018, “Domestic Bliss.”

⁴⁰ Fikeni, “Dangerous Sentimentality”; Hunkin, archived in Web Archive on August 9, 2016, “Domestic Bliss.”

⁴¹ Hall, “Old and New Identities,” 42.

⁴² Ibid., 57.

⁴³ Eve Ng describes that cancel culture mostly involves “a collective of typically marginalized voices ‘calling out’ and emphatically expressing their censure of a powerful figure [thereby] making a real if small dent on the power of those traditionally privileged by gender, race, and so on.” For a brief and pointed discussion of “cancel culture” and digital media, see Ng, “No Grand Pronouncements Here.”

⁴⁴ Comments following Hunkin, archived in Web Archive on August 9, 2016, “Domestic Bliss.”

⁴⁵ Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, 147–9.

⁴⁶ Comment following Hunkin, archived in Web Archive on August 9, 2016, “Domestic Bliss.”

⁴⁷ City Press, “More than Just Meh.”

⁴⁸ Bronner, “Representations of Domestic Workers,” 180.

⁴⁹ Foucault, The Order of Things, 3–18, 335–6.

⁵⁰ Jansen, Like Family, 4.

⁵¹ Ibid., 268.

⁵² Ibid., 81–2, 273–4..

⁵³ Moroz, “Alice Mann’s Magical Photos.”

⁵⁴ Collins English Dictionary, “Drum Majorette Definition.”

⁵⁵ Alswang, Dictionary of Sport, 98.

⁵⁶ Cambridge English Dictionary, “Drum Majorette Meaning.”

⁵⁷ Alswang, Dictionary of Sport, 98.

⁵⁸ Mann, “Drum Majorettes,” and Reddy, “Drum Majorettes and Cheerleading.”

⁵⁹ Antonizzi, “Drum Majorettes at St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls, Boksburg.”

⁶⁰ Maditla, “Alice Mann.”

⁶¹ For the definition of the “photographic event” I refer to Azoulay, Civil Contract of Photography, 81–2, 167–71.

⁶² Maditla, “Alice Mann.”

⁶³ Dwamena, “Drum Majorettes.”

⁶⁴ Hall, “Old and New Identities,” 42.

⁶⁵ National Portrait Gallery, “Taylor Wessing.”

⁶⁶ Moroz, “Alice Mann’s Magical Photos.”

⁶⁷ Mann, “Drum Majorettes.”

⁶⁸ Dwamena, “Drum Majorettes.”

⁶⁹ This model on the relationship of social distinction and economic position is introduced in Bourdieu, Distinction.

⁷⁰ Jayawardane, “David Goldblatt,” 59.

⁷¹ Craik, Uniforms Exposed, 144.

⁷² Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure,” 62.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie Meyerding

Marie Meyerding is a PhD candidate at the Department of African Art History at Freie Universität Berlin. Her research explores the representation of women in photography in South Africa. She holds an MA with Distinction in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.