In his 2010 body of work; “Anonymous”, Aidan Ross Mayne has explored the complex nature of vernacular portraiture; tackling the relationship between the viewer and the subject of the image, once taken out of its original context.
His series of studio portrait photographs, taken from early 1940’s Vichy France, work as a collective portrait, representing an unorthodox society living in turbulence. By focusing on a little known area of history, the artist has been allowed the opportunity to research into the nature of photography itself; the social exchange, creating an almost perfect rendition of reality, yet providing the viewer very little solid fact in the same moment. His images appear to exist on the fringe of reality, the faces of forgotten French citizens looking out at us through a veil in a semi physical state, separated from us by a proscenium of time.

The distance between the subjects and the viewers is what the artist has attempted to explore, questioning its ability to alter our perceptions. This separation dehumanises the subject, allowing them to be objectified by the viewer. With limited knowledge of the time period in which the portraits were created, the subjects almost become psychological constructs, vulnerable to the speculation of the viewers, and the pathos of a shrouded history itself. They become ambiguous, and open to interpretations which lie outside of reality.

The artist aims to force the viewer into questioning their own perception of the photographic medium and the ethical dilemma in which they are put in. By re-appropriating the photographs, he highlights how the photographic medium has the ability to entice the viewer into objectifying the subject, intimate portraits becoming little more than historical artefacts, anonymous faces or constructs. Reality becomes malleable, confused with representation, and the truth becomes lost, replaced by the imagination of the viewer.