In 2009 American photographer Susan Barnett started taking pictures of people on the street with outspoken T-shirts. In contrast to most photographers, Barnett does not aim het camera at the face, but at the ‚printed back‘ full of illustrations and mottos. This led to a special form of portrait art.
Her fascination with T-shirts began when she photographed a young woman wearing a T-shirt with an African mask print. The sight told Barnett something about the young woman without the camera having to show her face. By now she has taken more than two thousand photos that represent a period full of political, cultural and social issues with slogans like ‘I Will Save the World’, ‘I’m Muslim Don’t Panik’ and ‘Eat the Rich’. The photo exhibition in the Kunsthal Rotterdam presents a selection of more than 65 of Barnett’s photos, in which the typology of the images changes in a fascinating way with the years.
