In the 1950 Disney cartoon Hold That Pose, the viewer follows amateur photographer Goofy in an intense struggle with his motif. Not only is the model (a bear) forced into various poses to become an image, but the photographer himself strikes exaggerated, cartoonish poses—playing the photographer so emphatically that, within just under seven minutes, he becomes the motif himself. 

The imperative “Hold That Pose!” refers to:

1. someone who takes the image
2. someone who is being imaged

The asymmetry between subject and object is signaled both by the exclamation mark at the end of the sentence and by the camera in the photographer’s hands. Not only do the photographer and the motif form an unequal pair, but so do reality and its image. Photography as duplication, repetition as doubling: a mirror that catches the light—and with it, a brief moment in time. 

The photographed reflection of (assumed) reality has become so important that it has almost entirely replaced the original motif: reality itself. 

It’s the pose that dominates our image culture—not the snapshot. 

In the exhibition Hold That Pose, Florian Genzken approaches classical photographic questions—such as temporality, reality, and multiplicity—through visual means, and at times plays the Goofy himself.