Don't Label Me

摘要

Ari and Ellie, your long-term collaborative photography project, Exactitudes, is an evolving archive of "social uniforms." The project includes more than 150 sets of gridded images of people, categorized according to type. You identify these types by observing people on the street and finding patterns in their styles, their dress codes. I'm wondering whether clothing is still the biggest signifier of one's social group. These days, Instagram seems more important. People no longer define themselves through possessions, but instead through the photos they share, the people they know, or what they "like." Everyone has a fake, curated persona. You started the project in 1994-a totally different time. Does it feel that way? That's a really old-school model: you'd get an e-mail alert, and then queue up outside the store. It's ironic that these big fashion brands with all this money and digital technology are trying to replicate that early model based on the power of the physical space. People line up on the street for hours. It is a kind of pilgrimage. Through Exactitudes, you must have seen the commodification and mainstream adoption of certain things that were once confined to subcultures.