Art-brut photography: approaches to analysis and classification

Abstract

The study aims to classify photography within art brut and the work of outsider artists. The article examines the specifics of photography in art brut and outsider art of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The narratives, artistic concepts, and technical methods used in the works of Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), Henry Darger (1892-1973), Eugene von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983), Miroslav Tichý (1926-2011), Jorge Alberto Hernandez Cadi (b. 1964), Alexander Lobanov (1924-2003), and Lee Godie (1908-1994) are explored. The novelty of the study lies in identifying the specifics (narratives, artistic concepts, and technical techniques) of photography in art brut and outsider art of the 20th and early 21st centuries; its core characteristics are defined: non-utilitarianism, conceptuality, radical divergence from mainstream art, and singularity. As a result of the study, the following key trends in art-brut and outsider photography were identified: 1) photography as authorial ontology or a tool for creating ideal universes; 2) the practice of photography as a compensation for mental dysfunctions or a means of overcoming trauma through the construction or presentation of the lives of “Others”; 3) the representation of alternative identities in photography.

Research materials

1. Art on the street. Chicago Tribune. 1993. November 21. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/11/21/art-of-the-street/
2. Harvey D. Something Snapped: Outsider Photography. 2021. February 6. https://lessart.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/something-snapped-outsider-photography/
3. Jorge Alberto Hernández Cadi. Christian Berst. Art Brut. https://christianberst.com/en/artists/jorge-alberto-cadi
4. PHOTO | BRUT: Collection Bruno Decharme & Compagnie. 2021. January 24 – June 6. American Folk Art Museum. https://folkartmuseum.org/exhibitions/photo-brut/
5. Photo Brut: Collection Bruno Decharme & Compagnie. N. Y.: Flammarion in collaboration with the American Folk Art Museum and abcd Paris, 2019.

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Author information

About this article

Publication history

• Received: April 6, 2026.
• Published: May 26, 2026.

Keywords

• классификация фотографии
• аутсайдерское искусство
• ар-брют
• маргинальное искусство
• современное искусство
• classification of photography
• outsider art
• art brut
• marginal art
• contemporary art

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