“What Color Is Normal?” A Conversation with Marge Monko and Linda Kaljundi

A conversation about color, power and photography

On Thursday, November 19, at 18:00, artist Marge Monko and historian and curator Linda Kaljundi meet at Fotomuuseum to discuss the hidden—and overt—power relations connected with color in photography. Who decides which skin tone is “right”? How have photographic color standards affected the depiction of people? And when does color become more than a technical property, turning into a means of imposing social hierarchies? Drawing on the history of photography, the conversation will explore how historical ways of depicting people persist and continue to affect different marginalized groups today.

At first glance, color seems to be one of the basic properties of vision. Yet reproducing color in photography has never been merely a technical matter. Behind every color standard lie choices, and often assumptions about what kind of person, skin tone or appearance is considered the norm. As a result, choices that have shaped the development of photographic technology have had effects far beyond the image itself. For decades, for example, color photographs were calibrated using so-called Kodak Shirley cards, which used the skin tone of a light-skinned woman as the benchmark. A technical standard thus also became an implicit idea of what a person’s natural and correct photographic image should look like.

Artist Marge Monko has explored these questions in her installation Blond (2021), which intervenes in Kumu’s permanent exhibition of Estonian art, “Landscapes of Identity.” The work connects historical photographic standards for depicting skin color with beauty ideals of the 1930s, particularly the image of a blonde, blue-eyed woman. It draws attention to photography’s role in creating beauty standards, national stereotypes and normative images of the body.

In dialogue, Monko and Kaljundi will explore the meanings of color from the perspectives of artistic practice, the history of photography and the colonial gaze. Topics will include the classification of skin color, ethnographic photography, racial hierarchies, and how seemingly objective and scientific imaging technologies have helped entrench social prejudices. The discussion will also address Estonian artist Anna-Stina Treumund’s work Nahk / Skin (2015), which raises the question of how naming and categorizing skin color affects our understanding of identity, belonging and difference. How much of color is what the eye sees, and how much is what we have learned to see?

Marge Monko is an artist whose work brings together photography, video and installation. She explores how advertising, photography and other visual images shape our ideas about gender roles, beauty, love and desire. She has also been interested in the connections between skin color and beauty ideals, and in how photography has helped define what appearance is considered the norm.

Linda Kaljundi is a historian and curator whose work highlights the interweaving of history and visual culture, exploring how images have shaped our understanding of the past, national identity, colonialism and power relations.

The conversation is part of the public programme accompanying Fotomuuseum’s color-photography-themed annual exhibition “Värvikõdi.” From this season, a ticket is required to attend Fotomuuseum events; a museum card does not grant entry.