So What!

Susanne Junker was a successful model in the 1990s. Her critical perspective on the fashion industry s obsession with beauty and the dominance of the male gaze ultimately led her to explore, as an artist, the various forms of representation of femininity and the ways in which they are staged in the media. This monograph, which is being published in conjunction with the exhibition SO WHAT!, highlights 30 years of her artistic work. From her beginnings in the early 1990s to the present day, the photographic self-portrait has always been at the centre of her work, providing a means of reflecting on beauty, gender roles and social hierarchies. Junker exposes stereotypes, breaks taboos and dismantles the normative concepts of femininity that have been and continued to be shaped by advertising, film, and pop culture. Text in English and German.