'Posing' probes beauty, identity

“Posing’’ has two meanings here: the presentation of physical appearance, as in striking a pose; and the presentation of a point of view, as in posing a question. Sometimes the two meanings overlap, as in Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe’s “Nude (Self-Portrait),’’ from 2004. The photograph is printed so darkly as to be almost illegible. Moutoussamy-Ashe, the widow of tennis champion Arthur Ashe, suggests a photographic female variant on Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man,’’ half a century later.

The show consists of three sections: “Constructing a Pose,’’ “Body & Image,’’ and “Modeling Beauty & Beauty Contests.’’ The first two are largely interchangeable. The third remains more or less discrete, if only for the narrowness with which it’s defined. Out of that narrowness can come small marvels of social documentation, though, such as Eve Arnold’s “Black Debutante Ball, Waldorf Hotel, New York.’’ Shot from afar, it relies on the title to tell you the race of the young ladies, a nicely subtle way for the photographer to make her point. Leonard Freed’s two “Harlem Fashion Show’’ photographs from 1963 remind us of another form of equality: Uptown or downtown, people want to look good. They also want — what is not quite the same thing — to be seen looking good.

Sometimes the beauty is pointedly black. There are the superfly males in Anthony Barboza’s “Harlem Series,’’ from the 1970s, or the feminine amplitude on display in Renee Cox’s “Baby Back.’’ As beautiful as the model is in Arnold’s “Arlene Hawkins With Afro Puffs, New York City,’’ and she’s drop-dead gorgeous, what you keep staring at is the cumulus tumble of her hair. Lauren Kelley’s “Pickin’ ’’ takes hair as racial statement a step further, with its witty cross of sculpture, millinery, and hair care. A mighty array of clenched-fist afro picks cover a young black woman’s head.