Clegg and Guttmann 1986

This gelatin silver print, 'Clegg and Guttmann', comes from the camera of David Robbins. The composition strikes you with its directness: two figures, closely framed, symmetrically positioned against a neutral backdrop. The tonal range of the black and white medium creates a subtle interplay of light and shadow, softening the features and lending a timeless quality to the image. Robbins plays with our understanding of artistic persona, presenting these figures—the conceptual artists Michael Clegg and Martin Guttmann—in a style more akin to commercial portraiture. This choice isn't arbitrary; it challenges the established codes of artistic representation. By mimicking the aesthetics of mainstream media, Robbins interrogates the very notion of artistic genius and celebrity, destabilizing the conventional boundaries between high art and popular culture. The photograph becomes a semiotic game, where the familiar codes of portraiture are used to question the authenticity and constructed nature of artistic identity itself. As such, the work compels us to consider how meaning is generated and perceived.