Abstract
This paper examines the figure of the Chicano gangster in “gang photography, ” which represents Chicanos affiliated with street gangs in the greater Los Angeles area. Gang photography encompasses documentary photography, self-produced gang photography, as well as police photography. Moving beyond the aesthetic and personal desires by which the practice of photography is typically framed, I insist that we must come to terms with the sociopolitical forces underscoring all representations of Chicano gangs. My title refers to overlapping meanings of the subject. The subject or topic of gang photography requires an understanding of the Chicano gangster as a social subject whose subjectivity is (re)figured within and outside the realm of the photograph. Moreover, my analysis of these particular photographic practices dialogues with ethnographic discourse analysis, media studies, and contemporary cultural studies of race and ethnicity. In conclusion, the paper unsettles any smooth comprehension of photographic representations.
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