Finding and Losing the Punctum

I came across this portrait of actress Merle Oberon by Edward Steichen while searching for a photograph with a clear studium and punctum.

The cleverness of this photograph lies in the juxtaposition of the face of the actress with the carved face of the statue. Both faces are presented with the soft, blank stares of statues, painted portraits, and early portrait photography. But there are other similarities. The carved head is detached from a body and Oberon’s head appears to be so, because of the dark area under her face. Both the statue and Oberon have one eye in complete darkness with partial lighting on the other eye. But, the lighting on the eye of Oberon is minimal giving it a less than life-like appearance; her stare is as vacant as the statue.

The punctum for me is the hand that emerges from the darkness to touch Oberon’s face. The fingers don’t seem to be just lightly resting, but pulling on her skin. The hand, although hers, seems detached from her. It doesn’t seem like a friendly hand; it seems as if it’s forcing Oberon to present her face to the viewer the same way that the statue does – cold, hard, perfect.

Being intrigued as I was by this photograph, I looked up Merle Oberon. Apparently she was an actress of mixed racial descent and spent her career trying to hide it – to appear as white as possible. She lost lovers when they found out about her Indian background and being afraid she would also lose starring roles, she invented a past for herself that would enforce the audience’s belief in her whiteness.

This adds an even deeper meaning to the photograph. Of course, now that I can explain it, my punctum has turned more into studium. I see Oberon’s hand, emerging from the hidden, darker side of her, trying to mold her face into a white face like the one in the statue. She seems to be trying to present as generic a face as possible for the screen. This isn’t unheard of today. How many film stars get plastic surgery to force their features into a generic ideal? I wonder how complicit Steichen was in this process. Was he trying to capture her face in a moment of generic ideality? Did he intentionally capture her fingers pulling on her face to show the futility of Oberon trying to pretend she is someone she is not?