Whiteness vs. Stanford Prison Experiment

Mitra Tabrizian and Andy Golding

Mitra Tabrizian and Andy Golding's The Blues, 1986-1987, is one of the best works I've seen about Whiteness - it incorporates many different components of racial issues, touching on advertising, cinema, and social issues of race. The photographs cleverly comment on African American's role in the media - how they are frequently portrayed as the weaker race, the bad guy, or the odd man out. And the quotes! "He played right into her hands. But her world was still out of his reach." Referencing to the invisible limitations put on African American's in society - how this invisible power, though it appears to be welcoming and for equality, is the reason they are supressed.
The images, if not studied, appear to be no different then anything else we see on TV or in the movies. I think the title "The Blues," is so fitting for a piece about racial issues - it alludes to the subject matter of the photos, and to the blue tint of each image. The work is incredibly powerful, yet not offensive or over the top, and has been very influential in my studies of Whiteness.